Training Dates

Hey there...

Just a quick note to let you know to save the following dates as we will be meeting as one large team to do some training at CREC.

January 15-all day
February 6-8:30-11:00
March 1-8:30-11:00

We will make sure you are out on the half days in enough time to get back to relieve your half day subs.

On these days we will be learning about the Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses (Cross Battery Assessment) method of diagnosing Specific Learning Disability so all special education teachers need to be there. On the afternoon of the January 15 date we will be previewing the Sped Track due process management system (alternative to SEAS). I want EVERYONE there to provide input.

Have a fantastic week.

Vocabulary

Hi everyone!

I hope your week is successful so far! Thanks for everyone who filled out the Happy Happy survey! Those of you who haven't, please get that to me asap.

Couple of things:

1-Many people have had SEAS questions for Phyllis lately, so I just wanted to clear it up for you guys: APSCN and SEAS aren't related in any way, so if your Alpha and your SEAS roster don't match, don't be alarmed. APSCN we handle, but we need you to manage your SEAS account.

2-Upon review of Requests to Evaluate I am noticing there are some documents that you guys aren't sending. These documents should be available to send to us when you send consent, as you should be reviewing them in your referral or reeval conferences. The information on these documents is vital to any decision you are making in the conferences.

Most notably, these documents are:
Hearing and Vision
Social History
Current Grades
CBA
Group Achievement Scores

All of these documents should be weighty in any decision making process. My big worry is not that you aren't sending them to us right away, but that perhaps they aren't available for review in the conference.

Please make sure you are reviewing ALL information when analyzing what data we need to collect in order to properly serve each child. These documents are not just needed for the report, they are needed in order to make thoughtful decisions.

Today I wanted to bring to your attention an intervention clearinghouse http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ Check this site out for tons of ideas on how to adapt our teaching style, curriculum and interventions to best match each kiddo's learning style.

I hope you have a wonderful end of the week and weekend. Please post questions, comments or ideas here for us all to share!

Behavior (ugh)

Hey guys

Several of you have been asking about behavior interventions...this is a great site for all types of behavioral and reward systems...

Hope it helps! Have a great weekend!

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions

SLD--Hold on to your seats!

Hey guys

Lori, Nichole and I spent 2 days last week learning the very latest on how to best determine eligibility for Specific Learning Disability. We learned so much about Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses and Cross Battery Assessment, I think it will take me a long long time to process it all. We will be having several trainings in the spring to get you guys accustomed to this new way of thinking. It's really exciting and I feel you will be much more comfortable with it than the current model.

I would like for you guys to talk with your principals and determine a time for building level special education teams to meet with me on a monthly basis. Each month I'd like for you to bring one or two Student Profile (PLOP) pages in preparation for full implementation of Standards Based IEP's. This will give you some time to practice using the new system and when we reach April, you will just need minor editing and you'll be ready to roll. :) Let me know what the available times/days are and I will pencil you in my schedule!

I wanted to share with you guys an interesting fact I heard recently "The 30 Million Word Gap"-Betty Hart and Tod R. Risley (1995).

• Given a 100 hour week (14 hour working day)
• Average child in professional families: 215,000 words of language experience
• Average child in working class families: 125,000
• Average child in welfare families: 62,000
• Given a 5,200 hour year
• Professional families: 11.2 million words
• working class families: 6.5 million words
• Welfare families 3.2 million words
• In 4 years of such experience, an average child in a professional family would have accumulated experience with almost 45 million words
• Working Class: 26 million
• Welfare: 13 million
• Children in professional families are exposed to over 30 million more words/language experience than children in welfare families.

What can we do? Plan activities for these children that enrich their vocabulary, teach morphology, develop activities to build listening skills and explicitly teach listening strategies. Give these kiddos opportunities to be exposed EARLY ON to rich text and conversation. Use everything at your disposal to shrink the gap!!! Just knowing it exists is half the battle!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!