This year Prior Lake High School announced it would be creating Unified classes in FACS and Phy Ed for the next school year. Prior Lake High School joins many other schools that offer Unified classes.
Unified classes are meant to be more inclusive for those with special needs, providing them with not only school credit and life skills but also a designated buddy.
“The buddy system ideally has one or two general ed students paired up with special ed students,” said Ms. Kohlbeck, a Prior Lake High School teacher closely involved in creating the FACS class portion of the Unified program.
While the Unified program team has a vision for these classes, the exact outline, format, and curriculum for how the Unified classes will function is still under development.
“We are working closely with Mrs. Ring, the FACS department, the Phy Ed department, and the Special Education department,” Kohlbeck said.
However, before the Unified classes even became a discussion, there was a club. The Unified Club was a great starter for getting students interested in buddying up with special needs students.
With the classes still in the early stages of development, one of the biggest challenges is growing the roster of general education students from outside of the Unified Club program who would be interested in learning more. Once Prior Lake High School announced that the Unified classes would be added, it was the club that helped promote the program during lunch hours to build interest.
Another top priority is making sure the class is interesting and exciting to both the special ed and general ed students taking them.
The PLHS Unified Phy Ed class, would allow all students can participate and also look at “what we can also do to modify,” said Mrs. Ring, a speech pathologist who is involved in the development of the Unified classes and advisor to the Unified Club. “We will be running [the class] with a general ed teacher and a service provider or DAPE [Developmental Adapted Physical Education] teacher.”
Josef Schmidt, a current 12th grade student said, “In our cooking class we learned seven different recipes, how to use different cooking utensils, and different tools used to cook foods.”
The discussion among the FACS department suggests that the cooking class will be more of a beginner-type class.
“The types of cooking would be tools and cooking methods to be successful in the kitchen, identifying tools, and the food that will be made specifically, ” said Kohlbeck. All of this is still in discussion.
For Unified FACS, “I want to make sure I’m prepared in my kitchen space. I want to make sure that my kitchen is available to all of my students,” said Kohlbeck.
The careful thought and planning going into these classes is heartwarming to see, heightening the excitement for the upcoming year. The impact of the buddy system can already be seen in the school.
Kohlbeck said, “It’s created a much better bond throughout the school. Walking in the halls and students knowing each other, in those little areas where we don’t always notice everyone interacting with everyone.”
Overall, the Unified courses will focus on creating a bond between students with special needs and their general education buddies. The hope is enriching and exciting classes for all. It will take a lot of planning by the teachers involved, but they’re excited about the challenge.
