Grace Amato
What do you like best about working as a special education aide?
“I’m a former teacher so I’ve always liked working with students. I like to think that I’m helping them have a better life when they leave school and to prepare them for life. Classroom teachers can’t always give extra attention to students who are in need of extra help, and that is where the ESP comes in. ESP’s provide the student with one on one support.”
What do you do over the course of a day as an aide?
“I work one on one usually so I’m with one student all day, except for lunch, and I just kind of help with one on one attention to help them learn whatever it is that they are teaching. Sometimes they have a little trouble and need a little more help, so one on one is really very helpful for them. I go to every class with them and try to help them better understand what’s being taught or what they are supposed to be learning.”
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your job this year?
“It takes a lot of patience because they do need a lot of extra help and sometimes you think it’s easy for you to learn but after you have to stop and realize that they have difficulty learning. Sometimes you have to be patient and that can be difficult. I have to remind myself that I’m here to help them.”
What do you think about working at ARHS?
“It’s a wonderful school. No food fights in the cafeteria and everyone is so accepting of special needs students and students who need the extra help. They go through the halls and say hi to them and then there is Best Buddies and inclusiveness. I haven’t seen anyone who is mean, certainly not the faculty, but the students have also been very accepting and want to help. I was really taken in that you don’t see meanness, you don’t see fights, admittedly I don’t go to every class, but in the hall people are friendly.”
What do you like to do in your free time?
“I have tons of hobbies, I restore dollhouses, I refurbish furniture, I like to paint pictures and walls, I like to do needlework, I like to read, I like to crotchet, I love gardening, I love to cook. I have so many cookbooks, it’s like an obsession. I have eleven rocking chairs. My husband and I collect rocking chairs, we have a little house, but we have one for a doll, one for a child, and the rest are for adults, so they aren’t all huge. They take up room though, but we have some on the porch so that helps.”
What would your students be surprised to learn about you?
“I think all of those things, especially the rocking chairs. I refurbish and decorate old sleds. Pre-COVID I sold them at a holiday craft fair. I also have nine grandkids.”