GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. There are so many teachers across the county, and right here in Eastern North Carolina, who do great things in the classroom every day.
Some might even call them heroes.
Down the busy hallways of ECU Health Medical Center, among hospital rooms and nurses stations, there is a classroom tucked away. This is where you will find teacher Katie Houmard and her nine students. But they don’t stay still in the classroom for long.
“Most of their day is actually in different departments,” said Houmard.
Those departments are spread out throughout the hospital.
“Clean the bed, take the trash out, clean the tables and take the dirty linens out and make sure everybody stocked is up,” said Reggie Jenkins, Project Search student.
Reggie and his classmates are part of Project Search, a Pitt County Schools program. Students with developmental disabilities can apply to be in it after they have graduated high school and before their last year of eligibility in the school system.
Katie Houmard knew that this was where her passion was.
“I was in my second year teaching at Ayden-Grifton when this came available and I knew that I wanted to continue working with people with disabilities, but I kind of wanted to help with the preparation for what comes after high school looked like,” said Houmard.
She works day in and day out preparing her students for life after school.
“The transition from school to the working world is obviously a very scary one, not only for our students but for their parents as well, because, you know, forever since they can remember, they’ve been in school, they’ve had that structure, they’ve had that routine. So we want to help make it as seamless as possible,” said Houmard.
“Not only are they learning like these hands-on job skills, but the social skills that come with it. You can really see a lot of our students come in and are nervous and unsure of what to expect. And then by the end of the school year, they’re walking throughout these halls, they know everybody and they become really confident.”
Houmard’s hard work is paying off.
“All of our students are capable,Houmard said. “They might just learn in a different way or need more support. I think it’s been really cool that they’re not just in the classroom learning their skills, but they’re out in the hospital kind of proving what they can do. I think it’s really changed the way that they view people with disabilities, which is ultimately my main goal, inclusion and acceptance.”
For teachers like Houmard, her work can be described as heroic. For the work she’s doing to break barriers, and especially in shaping the lives of her students.
“This classroom is like family. So all these are like my family,” said one student.
“This is not just a job to me. This is literally my passion. I think it’s really important to have to have teachers who are passionate about what they do. I feel like, you know, without teachers, we don’t have anything else. So it’s a pretty big, pretty big responsibility and something I don’t take lightly,” Houmard said.
