Hello, I am Victoria Sparks, the Life Skills teacher at Driftwood Elementary School in Port Orford.

This program is a collaboration between South Coast ESD, Port Orford School District, and Bandon School District.

In life skills, we are given the opportunity to teach amazing students many skills. A few of the most important skills are self-determination, problem-solving, and resilience. My favorite way to teach these skills is a celebration week in our classroom called Spring Fling.

Spring Fling is a week we step away from traditional academics and work solely on life skills. As you can imagine, this week takes a lot of preparation. The students work with staff to choose projects for the week and list the items they will need for the class to complete these projects. My students work hard to independently prepare as much as possible for the week. During the week, the students make all their snacks, ocean jars, dino sensory bins, giant bubbles, and beautiful watercolor pictures and create their own Spring Fling shirts. The students had a scavenger hunt, glow party, and a park day to round out the week.