Presented by: Anne-Eliese Raya Special Education Teacher at JHHS Food with Friends Presented by: Anne-Eliese Raya Special Education Teacher at JHHS

Objective of “Food with Friends” The purpose of this project is to integrate students with a social disability, as well as new students to our high school, with students from Student Leadership & Ready, Set, Teach The students from Student Leadership & Ready, Set, Teach would serve as student mentors

What to know about students with a social disability, commonly known as Autism Spectrum Disorders 1. Social Difficulties Initiating and reciprocating 2. Language Difficulties *Semantic and/or Pragmatic 3. Repetitive Behaviors/desire for sameness and repetition

Social Blindness: Problems with the Social Sense Trouble knowing what to do and say in social situations * Starting conversations *Asking to play a game * Off the topic Trouble with body language *Little eye contact 3. Hard to make friends 4. Trouble with sports (this is not the case with all students who are Autistic)

Strengths & Talents Students are intelligent even though new work may upset them They are great artist Excellent memory for facts Good at video games Caring

“Meet & Greet” Within the first two weeks of school we’d have a “Get to know you” activity during 3B Getting to Know Someone New Activity (Student mentors will be paired with the student & lead by the student mentors.) 3 minutes to find out what you have in common. NAME What’s your name? Mine is ____. SCHOOL Where did you attend middle school? What grade are you in? What are your favorite subjects? NEIGHBORHOOD Where do you live? What’s it like there? INTERESTS What do you do for fun? What games do you like? What TV shows do you watch? What kind of music do you like? FAMILY Do you have a big family? Do you have brothers and sisters? Do you have any pets?

How it works? For new incoming students, the registrar from JHHS would email the sponsor of Student Leadership & Ready, Set, Teach Student Leadership sponsor would assign a student mentor to the incoming student Student mentor will walk the new student to each of their classes to help them adjust to their class schedule for one week For a student with a social disability, such as Autism, the registrar or Special Education ARD Chair would email myself and I would then collaborate with the Student Leadership teacher on having one of her students go meet the student at their class and eat lunch with these students for six weeks

Student Leadership & RST Role Students from Student Leadership & RST will sign up on a first come first serve basis for which student they’d like to take and eat lunch with every day for six weeks This will take place during 3B This will serve as a community service project for those students enrolled in Student Leadership & RST

Works Cited Jed Baker, Ph.D of Social Skills Training Project www.socialskillstrainingproject.com