Special Education and Student Services Facebook

The Medford Area Public School District Special Education and Student Services Facebook page has been completed. You are encouraged to view and provide me any feedback.

Connection of WMELS and the Wisconsin Common Core State Standards

The WMELS address expectations for young children between birth to first grade. The Wisconsin Common Core State Standards address what students should know and be able to do from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Since the WMELS and the Wisconsin Common Core State Standards both address the kindergarten level, it is suggested that local school districts use both documents to guide curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions.

For more information about the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards:

http://www.collaboratingpartners.com/wmels-documents.php

For more information regarding the Wisconsin Common Core State Standards:

http://dpi.wi.gov/standards/index.html

Free Technology Resources

1. School Tube: online video hosting and sharing resource exclusively for K12.  Videos are produced by students and approved for appropriateness. Students can explore topics such as academic subjects, sports, news, and current events.  http://www.schooltube.com/
2. Thinkfinity: Free curriculum resources, thousands of K12 lesson plans, video, audio, worksheets, and links to websites. http://www.thinkfinity.org/
3. Discovery Education Streaming: online resource featuring 9,000 full length videos and 71,000 content specific clips tied directly to state and national standards as well as thousands of images, audio clips, and encyclopedia articles. We have a subscription at MAMS http://www.discoveryeducation.com/

Medical Billing Parent Permission – IEP M-5 Form

At each annual IEP meeting we will be asking parents to sign permission to bill Medicaid for billable services if their child becomes Medicaid eligible.  We need permission each year to bill Medicaid.  Medicaid funding helps support our local special education programming and staffing.  Medicaid eligible services include OT, PT, Speech, Transportation, School Health, Evaluations, School Psychological Services, and Attendant Care. This will not take away Medicaid funding for children when out of school.  A child may become eligible for Medicaid billing at anytime during the duration of the IEP.

Medford Adult Diploma Academy

Medford and NTC have agreed to a partnership to run our Adult Diploma Academy.  This will allow any adult students between the ages of 18 to 21 who are Medford residents to participate in the program.  Any adult who resides in Taylor County over the age of 21 can also participate in this program.  We offer two options for adults to earn their traditional high school diploma.

Read Write and Gold Training

Read Write and Gold is an assistive technology literacy software option that we learned about at the SLATE conference.  I will be scheduling a 60 minute webinar of this product looking at January 20 at 3:30 or later that week.  Our staff feels this has more options than what Kurzweil currently provides.  The website is http://www.texthelp.com/ for more information.

Music Therapy

Music Therapy

Music therapy is a well-established health profession that uses music to assist
with rehabilitative, adaptive, and developmental goal areas.  A trained music
therapist uses musical elements such as rhythm, melody, and harmony to
achieve functional, nonmusical goals.  Music therapy is not simply listening to
or playing music.  Specific treatment techniques are chosen based on clinical
and scientific evidence.  Music therapy can be used to address the following
goals and objectives:

•        To increase expressive language and communication
•        To improve fine and gross motor skills
•        To improve timing and symmetry in gait and other motor movements
•        To improve retention of academics
•        To increase attention and on-task behavior
•        To provide structure to organize information (mnemonic device)
•        To improve executive functioning (problem solving,
        organization, decision making, reasoning, and comprehension)
•        To assist with activities of daily living and compensatory training

I would like your feedback if these services would be needed for our students with significant disabilities.  These would be written into the IEP as a related service.  This would not replace regular music class for students but be a supplement.  For more information on Music Therapy Services from a local provider you can go to: http://www.mtscw.com/index.html. I have used Music Therapy in our severe programs in my prior school district.