I received a very nice email from a Grade 2 General Education Teacher
this week. She wanted to tell me how wonderful the iPad has been for
her student with a disability socially. The other students in the
class love to watch what he is doing on it. The student has been
trying to trick her with the gears game app. They have become great
buddies over that app. He has started to share it with the other
students and teaching them about the game. He offers them hints and
asks them if it is too tricky for them. She finished the email by
thanking me for bringing this tool into our district for our special
needs students. She loves seeing the other students realize how
special and smart that particular student with a disability is.
Thank you to all of our staff for learning about this technology and
implementing it with your individual and groups of students. Thank
you for giving the students time to play and learn with it. iPads are
being used across the district for social skills purposes, critical
thinking, writing, incentives, creativity, reading remediation, math
skills building, speech and language, communication, social media, and
more.
2. Winter Celebration and Appreciation for Special Education and
Student Services Staff and Friends
Thursday February 9 starting at 4:00 pm at Florenas. Appreciation for
our staff and guests in recognition for all of your hard work and
efforts on behalf of our students with disabilities, families, and
each other. I hope that you will be able to join us. Pizza and light
appetizers will be provided.
3. Medford Area Public School District Special Education and Student
Services Facebook Page
Reminder to follow our facebook page if you have not have already. We
are up to 86 followers! Here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
We feature updates, information, photos, and more of the great
happenings in our programs.
4. Program Highlights
If you have programs that are going on in your classroom or with your
students, please let me know. The information or photos can be put in
our special education and student services newsletter, facebook page,
twitter, or blog for parents and other staff to see.
5. Students with Special Needs and Drivers License Handbook:
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/
6. MASH Building Special Education meeting
Don Everhard will present his Safety Training to help Staff and
Students as part of this I.C.D.D. model. Don has conducted safety and
crisis plan trainings in almost every county in the State of
Wisconsin. He has done annual safety and crisis trainings of staff
here in Medford Schools. Don is a licensed principal, guidance
counselor, police officer, and social worker. He is founder and main
speaker for Elite Management LLC. http://www.doneverhard.com/ is his
website for more information.
The training will take place on Tuesday January 17 from 3:20 to 4:15.
Due to the number of people in attendance - we will meet in the READ
180 room instead of the MASH conference room. The training focus will
be on high school students. Special education certified, support, and
student response team members are invited to attend.
We will also handout materials on the Appropriate Use of Seclusion and
Physical Restraint of students in special education.
Thank you for making arrangements to attend and to Don Everhard for
his presentation.
7. Families Being Involved Workshop
Friday January 20 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at SES - Movie on the Big
Screen
8. Pre-Kindergarten Planning Meeting
Friday January 13 starting at 9:00 am at MAES
9. Reading Class for Adults
Designed to improve the reading remedial skills for adults. Starting
Monday January 16 until Thursday March 22 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and
Thursdays. 5:30 to 7:00 pm at NTC campus in Medford. Instructors are
Chuck Prihoda and Beth van der Berg. Register with Cindy Gibson at
715-748-1520. Sponsored by the Taylor County Literacy Council and
Medford Adult Diploma Academy.
10. Weapons at School - Students with Disabilities
We recently had a special education student bring what is considered a
serious weapon to school. Thank you to Shari Gajewski and Jessica
Martin for their work on the Manifestation Determination, Functional
Behavioral Assessment, and Behavioral Intervention Plan in this
situation. Here is the DPI guidance on LEA's authority if the
behavior involves weapons, illegal drugs, controlled substances or
serious bodily injury.
LEA personnel may order a change of placement to an appropriate
interim alternative educational setting without regard to whether the
behavior is determined to be a manifestation of the child's
disability, if the child carries a weapon to school or possesses a
weapon at school, knowingly possesses or uses illegal drugs or sells
or solicits the sale of a controlled substance at school or has
inflicted serious bodily injury upon another person while at school.
"School" includes any school function under the jurisdiction of an LEA
or the Department of Public Instruction. The placement may be for the
same amount of time a child without a disability would be disciplined,
not to exceed 45 school days. The interim alternative educational
setting must be determined by an IEP team.
For the purpose of the discipline requirements of special education
law:
"Weapon" means a weapon, device, instrument, material, or substance,
animate or inanimate, that is used for, or is readily capable of,
causing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not
include a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2 ½ inches in length.
"Controlled substance" means a drug or other substance identified
under schedules I, II, III, IV, or V in section 202(c) of the
Controlled Substances Act [subsection (c) of section 812 of Title 21,
United States Code]. Revised schedules are published in the Code of
Federal Regulations, Part 1308 of Title 21, Food and Drugs.
"Illegal drug" means a controlled substance. The term "illegal drug"
does not include a substance that is legally possessed or used under
the supervision of a licensed health-care professional or that is
legally possessed or used under any other authority under the
Controlled Substances Act. Generally speaking, controlled substances
include what we commonly think of as illegal "street drugs" such as
marijuana, cocaine, LSD, etc., as well as prescription drugs. Drugs
purchased legally over-the-counter are not "controlled substances."
"Illegal drugs" are controlled substances unless possessed or used
lawfully, e.g., with a prescription. For example, Ritalin is a
"controlled substance," but is not an illegal drug if it is possessed
or used pursuant to a prescription. Ritalin is an illegal drug if
possessed or used without a prescription. For the purposes of the
discipline requirements of special education law, alcohol and tobacco
are not illegal drugs or controlled substances.
"Serious bodily injury" means bodily injury that involves: A
substantial risk of death; extreme physical pain; protracted and
obvious disfigurement; or protracted loss or impairment of the
function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
11. Taylor County Transition Advisory Council Summary Minutes
I would like to thank everyone for coming to our Taylor County
Transition Advisory Council. It was a great turnout of
representatives and great information learned today.
The anticipation is that we will do our first Transition Night for
Students with Special Needs here in Taylor County in Fall 2012. We
will plan to visit the Lincoln County and Bloomer Transition Nights
this Spring and Marshfield in the Fall.
Spring Reality Fair is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday April 4,
2012 from 8:00 to 12:00 pm.
Here are the Transition Services websites which were reviewed today:
http://www.posthighsurvey.org/
http://www.tr4y.org/index.php
http://www.cesa2.k12.wi.us/
Way of Thinking Curriculum for High School Students)
http://www.autismspeaks.org/
(Transition for Autism Students from Autism Speaks)
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/
(Drivers Education for Students with Special Needs including audio
files of the manual)
http://www.wsti.org/wsti.php (Wisconsin Statewide Transition
Initiative)
http://www.
Wildness Recreation Therapy in Perkinstown)
12. Welcome back for the whole Reading Team!
A welcome back officially for all of our Reading Team. Glad to have
Joyce Woletz, Mary Fliehs, Judy Mader, Karen Dallas, and Kim Fechelm
all back together again starting on Monday.
13. Staff Assessments
Staff are busy with AIMS Web, NWEA Map, and ACCESS for ELL testing
during the month of January. Thank you to students and staff for all
your extra hard work during this month.
14. Thank you to Oralee Dittrich
Thank you to Oralee Dittrich for her long term substituting for Beth
van der Berg and Joyce Woletz this year. Much appreciated and always
glad to have her back.
15. Freshman Orientation Day
Thank you to our student services and special education staff for
their participation in the Freshman Orientation Day presentation as
part of the January Board of Education meeting. Jina Lange, Louann
Stanton, Terry Lybert, Jill Koenig, Brenda Ann McNary, and Kris
Gingras all did the presentation with Jill Lybert and Laura Lundy.
16. Parent Resource Center Board of Directors
PRC Board of Directors meeting will be held on Wednesday January 18 at
noon.
17. iPad/Educational Technology meeting
Tuesday January 31 at 4:00 pm at the D.O. All our invited to attend.
Gilman School District recently contacted us on best practices for
implementation. They recently obtained iPads for their special
education staff. Information was forwarded and they were very
grateful for this information.
18. Autism Resource Team meeting
Thursday February 2 at 4:00 pm at MAES in computer lab
19. Wilson Reading Level II Certification Online Training
Wednesday January 25 from 3:30 to 5:30 at MAES in the computer lab.
20. Taylor County Early Childhood Sub-Committee
Friday February 3 at 1:30 pm at the D.O.
21. PBIS update:
Administration representative will need to attend the AA696 Tier 2/3
administrative overview on Feb. 3rd in Pewaukee. We will then send a
team to attend official Tier 2 trainings in EauClaire on Feb. 27th-
S100 and Feb. 28th- S200.
21. Wilson Reading Level II Certification
Staff have been busy completing the video taping requirements as part
of the Step 7-12 individual student and Group of Students Practicums.
This includes a 200 point checklist for implementation fidelity. Level
II trainers review the video tape and use the checklist for the
grading and passing of that practicum requirements.
Thank you and recognition to Kris Brander, Misty Galli, Ann Jochimsen,
Kathy Schumacher, and Joyce Woletz for taking initiative to complete
their Level II Certification and being leaders in this area in our
school district. These staff will have the opportunity to apply for an
internship to become official Wilson Trainers upon completion of the
Level II Certification.
Other Wilson teachers in the district that are interested in seeing
the checklist to monitor their own fidelity of teaching the program
can contact me or one of those teachers for more information.
22. School Psychologist LTS update
We have a candidate that has asked for more information about our long
term substitute school psychologist position. CESA 10 forwarded that
name to us. I have contacted her by email and am waiting to speak
with her.
23. Speech Language Pathologist LTS update
I have not heard back from Memorial Health Center on their interest in
collaborating with the school district for contracting for speech
language pathologist time. I have posted our LTS position for February
on the Wisconsin SLP list serve. Mark Arndt is scheduled to be the
January LTS for Eliza. Best wishes and a healthy delivery for Eliza
and the baby coming soon.
24. CESA 10 Audiology Services
I have notified CESA 10 that we would like to contract with them for
audiology services in 12-13. I have asked for Shelly Elkin to be our
audiologist like she has in the past.
25. Early Childhood Special Education Leadership Meeting
Amber Fettes and Sheryl Balciar will be attending the Early Childhood
Leadership meeting on February 10 in Stevens Point.
26. Classroom sound amplification systems can make a difference in
academic performance as well as the number of referrals to special
education programs.
http://thejournal.com/
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