LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Stephanie Collins was nominated by her friend, Jason Woodard.

"They say it takes a special person to teach special children, I have never considered myself to be of any great significance just someone who has been blessed with the most rewarding and fulfilling job," said Collins. "I wake up and cannot wait to get to school to see my students. I go home and think about them all evening. All of my conversations are mainly about events that occurred during school. My heart is passionately in love with teaching special needs students."

A word to describe the day in the life of Ms. Collins would be "ever changing." Every day is different. She currently teaches about 20 students on the autism spectrum.This means she has 20 individual student who have completely different, individual needs that need to be met. She has created 20 different Learning Goals, 20 different Behavior Goals, and 20 different objectives.

All of her students are developmentally challenged, and they learn, act and react differently. Some are non-verbal, self-harming, emotionally, behaviorally, or socially impaired. Some of them cannot write, some of them cannot write, and some of them self-stimulate all class by rocking back and forth, repeating the same phrase, or making the same sound. Some have to walk back and forth in the room, throw their hands or arms in the same stemming motion, tap their desk, or use fidget spinners or other similar gadgets. 

These students can be triggered by anything - certain sounds or colors, Ms. Collins' clothing and hair, the sound of the AC unit, or something outside. Sometimes, they'll have an awesome day full of smiles and laughter. Other times, Ms. Collins will evacuate her students out of the room because another student is having a meltdown. Sometimes, students even trigger one another and have to be kept apart. Every day is different, but every day is worth it. 

In Ms. Collins' role, she completes a lot of paperwork and documentation that comes with being a special needs teacher. She documents each of her students' behaviors, and she keeps daily and weekly logs on their behavior, academic performance and social and emotional performance. Then, she creates and writes their IEP’s, which is a long, legal document.

"I love my job because I have a heart for special students. I love to encourage them when they don’t believe in themselves," said Collins. "Often times, a student will give up, and I love to sit next to them and show patience and love until they complete their task. When they push themselves beyond what they think they can do and they get excited, I get even more excited!  I love watching their face when we are doing something hands-on and they are enjoying learning. I love comforting them or trying to calm them down during a meltdown, and I love showing them life skills like cooking or doing mock job interviews."

In her life skills class, Ms. Collins teaches her students how to cook and bake cakes, which they get to eat once they're ready.

"Helping them learn how to read the directions and following them while working collaboratively as a team is AWESOME," said Collins. "I love to watch how excited they are when they eat what they made."

Her students have also been learning how to do mock interviews, so when they graduate, they can get a job and achieve independence. Her students do live interviews with one another, which is a big accomplishment, as most of them do not like to talk out loud or with strangers. This is helping them be more comfortable with the interview process and answering questions. They are all passionate about getting jobs and making money, and they will be looking for employment at Publix, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Chick-F-la, and McDonalds.

"I have one student who is currently working at McDonalds now. I visited him at work and cried in my car when I left because I was so overwhelmed with pride for him and thankfulness for McDonalds for hiring my 'kid,'" said Collins. 

"I cry when a special needs student is involved with the General Education in an extracurricular activity," Collins continued. "Some students participate on the dance team, wrestling team, and even the football team. I cry like a baby watching them out there, because I love them so much."

Ms. Collins' students love working with their hands and being able to move. Naturally, science is one of their favorite classes. She and her students go for walks in the woods, measure trees, and practice plant reproduction with plants we find on campus. Recently, they have been introduced to aquaponics and agriculture. They have be learning how to live a self-sustained life.

"Aquaponics is a unique way of agriculture," Collins explained. "In simple terms, you have a pool of fish whose waste is transported through pipes that lead to soilless plant roots. The plants get their nutrients from the fish waste to grow. As it gets filtered through the plants, the plants purify and oxygenate the water, then the water gets passed back down to the fish pool and provides the fish with the oxygen they need to live."

A long term goal of Ms. Collins is to provide students with a greenhouse so they can do this during class. Students will take part in the whole process and will each have a job, including seedling, sprouting, checking the water levels and PH, feeding fish, cleaning, and harvesting the crop.

Also, she and her students have been discussing ways for the students to make money on campus to use towards the classroom. They have come up with the idea to have a small chicken coop holding four laying hens. Students will feed, clean and care for the hens. Each class period will be assigned a job for that week, such as egg gathering, feeding, or cleaning. They will rotate the following week, so everyone gets a different job. Students will sell the eggs to teachers and staff, as well as family. The money earned from the Eggs and the vegetables from the aquaponics system will go towards her classroom. She'll be able to purchase such as iPads, headphones, any and all sensory room items; balls, textiles, fidget items, stemming toys, as well as fund field trips.

"Given the curriculum classes I teach, Integrated Science and Unique Skills, I am able to incorporate both of these ideas into my classroom instruction. I have called it Autistic Agriculture," said Collins. "We have been approved by the principle for clearance for a small Green House for the Aquaponics System and a free-range chicken coop. A local farmer has donated $1000 of aquaponics material, including all the wiring, hosing, pools, food, and touch screen water testing system for us to use. The only problem is we do not have a greenhouse to put it in. We also do not have a chicken coop."

The Autistic Agriculture class is a unique way for students with autism to learn life science, unique skills, agriculture and a self-sustaining lifestyle. They will work with their hands and watch with the eyes the beauty of life. This allows them to have class outside the classroom. They are learning a trade in agriculture that they can bring with them after graduation. The skills they learn from working hard and making a profit to benefit their needs in the classroom will help them appreciate work when they leave high school. 

"I love my job and I love my students. I know this will be a wonderful thing for ASD students emotionally, behaviorally, and academically. It is my passion to help them make it in life, and I want nothing else then for them to graduate and be successful citizens showing the world how capable they are in society. This program will encourage and prepare them for that," said Collins.