Capstone Journals  
10.27.2019-01.19.2020 
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Brianalee Perez  

 
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Overview 
As my senior project volunteer service, I choice to attend my local church and give lessons 
on what are disabilities. I also help the teachers give sunday school classes.  

Goals 
1. To help my local church ro care children who have special needs  
2. To teach children about different disabilities and how to make people with 
disabilities feel welcomed.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
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Journal #1 Date 10/27/19 

Before I started my first day with the children, I spoke with the lady in charge of 
Bible Study, which is Ana. I went over the lesson plan that I would be given to the 
children. After the children were done with their bible study, I grabbed about 8 
students: Ruby, Jeremy, Christian, Cruz, Margarita, Sara, Abraham, and Nyla. I began 
by asking them to introduce themselves and I explained to them that they would be 
learning something a little different than what they are used to. My first day was 
“Intro to Disability.” I asked them if they knew what a disability is? And it was no 
surprise that they were unsure. Jeremy as the oldest in my class said it was when 
you were slow. With that statement that Jeremy made I began to explain to them 
what a disability was, the correct terms to use when speaking of a person who has a 
disability. I also began to speak on Autism and the symptoms.  

Journal #2 Date 11/03 /19 

I greeted the kids after their bible study class in the morning. We had a small snack 
which was vanilla cookies. I was hoping to have all the kids there today but two 
couldn’t make it so we were down to six. I began by writing the word communication 
on the board and I went around to each of the children and asked them what they 
think Communications means ? Many students were intimidated by the word 
because it was so big. I began to explain to them that just like you are intimidated by 
the word, there are many students who are afraid or unable to speak/communicate 
with others. The kids went around and told me if they know someone who has a 
communication disorder. One story that stood out to me today was Cruz’s story, he 
explained that there was this little boy in this class that had trouble saying words, so 
he made a lot of noises instead and people made fun of him. In order to get the 
students to understand what it feels like to have a communication disorder I played 
a song in a different language and had them write down what they heard, and talk 
about how it felt to be unable to understand.  

 
 
 
 
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Journal #3 Date 11/10/19 

The lesson for today was about vision and hearing impairments. This was one of the 
easier ones that the kids knew. Some quickly said deaf and blind. I quickly explained 
to them what it means to have a vision and hearing impairment, and how it doesn’t 
always mean that you can not fully see or fully hear. The activity for today was to put 
headphones on one of the students and then have another read while the other 
listens to music and then ask questions. For this activity Cruz and Ruby volunteered. 
Cruz sat in a chair facing ruby and ruby began to read the story then after she 
finished she asked Cruz five questions about the story, but Cruz was confused and 
unsure because he didn’t hear the story at all. For the vision impairment activity I 
split the kids into two groups, I gave the groups 6 words and phrases and they said 
them as the other tried to write what they heard, but could not see. The activity 
frustrated the students because each time they would get it incorrect.  

Journal #4 Date 11/17/19 

The students were quite happy to learn about today's topic, which was Mental 
disorders and learning disability. This topic was also very important and exciting to 
teach because students often refer to this disability in a negative manner by using 
the words mentally retarded or mentally stupid. For the mental disorder I had two 
students (Margarita & Jeremy) sit back to back and I gave Margarita a picture of a 
weird shape and she had to describe it to Jeremy, so that he could draw it. I 
explained the purpose of this assignment was to demonstrate how difficult it may 
be for someone with a disability to understand what people are saying or directions. 
For the activity relating to learning disability I made flash cards and wrote words in 
different colors and had the students try to tell me the color of each word instead of 
the word itself. None of the students were successful in telling me. During our 
closing discussion students expressed that they didn’t know it felt like that to have a 
mental or learning disability.  

Journal #5 Date 11/24/19 

Today I only had five students, but It was a great class, the topic was about physical 
disability. I began by asking students what they know about physical disabilities and 
a lot of students referred to a disability as someone who is in a wheelchair. Most of 
my students didn’t know that their were different types of physical disabilities and 
not all require a wheelchair. The activity the students did today required using a 
wheelchair to do basic things, and the lesson behind this activity is for students to 
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be able to experience how it feels to be limited or restricted to doing certain things. 

One of the tasks the students had to complete was wheeling the chair while 
bouncing the ball and the students became mad because it was hard and for some 
students it took a few tries to get it correct. I took a few students who had sneakers 
on and I made them try to tie their shoes using their non dominant hand. Only 
Christian and Cruz could do it.  

Journal #6 Date 12/01/19 

Today would be a little different because the students were assigned a famous 
person who has a disability and then they had to tell me about them. I allowed them 
to look up the person on the computer for about 35 minutes then they briefly spoke 
about their person. They told me who the person was, what was their disability and 
how they overcame it. Some people they spoke about were Frida Kahlo, John Nash, 
Stephen Hawking, Nick Vujicic, and Andrea Boccelli. After the presentations each 
student went around and spoke about what was their favorite part of the project. A 
lot of them said their favorite was drawing and decorating their mini board. After 
that we all ate cheese puffs.  

 
 
 
 
Journal #7. Date 12/08/19 
Today was my last session with the kids. Their final assignment was to create 
another poster board, but this time they had to choose whichever disability they 
liked the most and tell me all about it and why they chose it. Some students drew 
pictures and made it colorful, while others chose to make it more factual. Each 
presentation lasted about 5 minutes and the students were very interested and 
proud of their work. Since it was the last day I brought in some cupcakes and juice 
and we all ate while they gave me feedback on what they liked about the activities 
and sessions and what they didn’t like. Sara said she would’ve liked it a bit more if I 
would’ve gave out more hands on work for them to do in groups.  
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Journal #8 Date 12/15/19 

I chose to help one of the teachers named India today with her students. Her 
students are ages 3-6 years old. She had only 4 students, but it is hard to watch 
them alone. I sat by the door and made sure no children left the room without an 
adult, while she gave the lesson. I then took turns taking the kids to the bathroom 
before they did their hands on activity. Their lesson was on the 12 disciples. The kids 
chose their favorite disciple and they colored him in. After their activity they all 
gather around and tell the teacher what they have learned. I took them all to the 
bathroom to wash their hands and prepare for a snack. For snack they had cheese 
doodles and squeezy juices.  
 

Journal #9 Date 12/22/19 

It was a very busy day today because it was close to Christmas, so they gave out 
gifts. There was no classes, students just practiced their songs in their groups. There 
were three groups and each group sang one song all together and two songs in 
their groups. Today is the busiest day of the year. There were about 90 people alone 
which is a whole lot for a church who has an average of 30 people on a Sunday. 
They sang “Mary Did You Know,” Angels We Have Heard On High,” and “Emmanuel..” 
etc. The students then gathered together and ate Happy meals from McDonald’s, 
which was donated by the people who adopt the children and bring them gifts each 
year. We tried to get the kids to finish early so they could get upstairs on time to 
sing, but they wanted to continue to play with happy meal toys, which was the Star 
Wars characters.  

Journal #10 Date 12/29/19 

Today’s lesson ended early so that the kids can eat. I. Helped them take the 
students to the bathroom and then walk them upstairs to their parents. It was 
cleaning day. I helped the teachers take down all the Christmas decorations that 
were still lingering around. We cleaned up because there was a bit of a mess from 
last week. Since the basement is big we each took a room to clean, then we shared 
the hall and bathrooms. I cleaned the third room which had a bit of crumbs and toys 
all over. I put everything back, I swept, and mopped. Since my room was the least 
messiest I began cleaning the hall and wiping down the tables.  
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Journal #11 Date 12/30/19 

Personal Interview- Professor Daniella Vivas  

Journal #12 Date 12/30/19 

Personal Interview- Anonymous  

Journal #13 Date 1/05/20 

Today the students help change one of the bulletin boards in the hallway. Since it 
was a new year we wanted to make it more about 2020. We made each student 
from the higher age group write what was their goal on a little cross while the lower 
age group colored in praying hands. Then we stapled them to the board and made 
big 2020 numbers in the middle. We wanted to have a small celebration for the 
children so we bought a New Years cake and had chips. I cut the cake while one of 
the teachers named Vianca handed out the slices. Ms.India gave out chips and juice.  
 

Journal #14 Date 01/12/20 

Today I didn’t spend time with the students in the classrooms because both 
teachers were out, so instead the kids just played in the first room. Since it gets 
pretty loud and crazy on days where the teachers are absent I monitored the 
hallways and bathrooms, until the adults finished bible study. I wanted to be more 
active with the kids, so I decided to play a game which involves guessing the Bible 
character. The game was very intense, but in the end a boy named Jeremy won. It 
was a very large group of students. During the lunch break, I helped some of the 
students who has money, purchase pastelios from the food sale upstairs. I sat with 
the students as they ate their food and even helped some kids unpack the lunches 
they prepared. It was a hassle to get them to finish their food fast in order to make it 
back upstairs on time.  
 
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Journal #15 Date 01/19/20 

 
Today I helped Vianca with the older kids which are in their Preteens. It’s always fun 
working with them because they talk more than the older ones. Their class runs a 
little different than the younger ones. I different have to walk them to the bathroom 
like the younger ones, instead I had to deal with more behavioral issues. Christian 
and Cruz decided it would be a good idea to fight over a wrestling toy, so I had to 
take them up to their grandmother and help explain the situation in Spanish. After 
dealing with the situation I helped the teacher settle down the class because they 
got distracted by the situation and very rowdy. The teacher explained to her 
students why it was bad to fight and encouraging that behavior is worse, while I 
collected the supplies and put them away. The class ended with a prayer and the 
whole class was sent up early to their parents because of the incident. 
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