1. Child Development Day
Child Development Day will now be held on Thursday March 8. It was originally scheduled for Thursday February 23rd. It was changed due to a conflict in the MAES gym.
2. Mike Johnson Presentation on December 8
You are invited to join us for this special presentation on Thursday December 8 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm at Medford Area Elementary School:
Mike Johnson is the President of The Autism Society of Central WI and also The Vice President of Camp Awesum. He is also the parent of two children, including a 17 year old daughter with Aspergers. Mike's presentation will focus on the struggles that many individuals face everyday with the challenges that Autism can present. The presentation is a compilation of material from the book "Ten things every kid with Autism wishes you knew" and the work of Dr. Glenis Benson who has worked with individuals on the Autism spectrum for over 30 years. Mike presents this information as a father, not an "expert", and hopes that everyone will learn something from this "real world" information from a parents perspective.
3. End of Quarter Appreciation for Special Education and Student Services
I hope everyone that attended our end of quarter appreciation had a nice time on Thursday. Everyone seemed to enjoy getting together and having a few treats. We had a great turnout of staff in attendance. Thanks again for all of your efforts and hard work this past quarter for the students, parents, and each other.
4. State Superintendent Conference on Special Education and Pupil Services Leadership Issues
I will be out of district on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Here is a copy of the agenda and sectionals that will be featured: http://dpi.wi.gov/sped/pdf/ldrcon-agenda.pdf
5. Guidance for Specific Learning Disabilities
Updated materials: http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/sped/ld.html. We will be having more indepth discussion of adoption of RTI for LD model at each building level. We have until December 2013 to adopt this model. I would like to work on the process for potential adoption starting with beginning of 12-13 school year. One day trainings will be held six times in Wisconsin over next two months. If you are interested, let me know. December 1 will be in Rice Lake and December 7 in Wausau are closest.
6. Special Education Family Day at the Movies
This will be held on Saturday December 3rd at 1:00 pm at Broadway Theatre in Medford. A one page flyer will be sent to each special education staff. Please make a copy to send home to each of your parents of students with disabilities. This can be sent home along with the child's progress report and report card. Special Education Family Day is presented by the Special Education Advisory Council. All students with disabilities will receive a free ticket. They must be accompanied by a parent. Special education staff who attend will also receive 1 free child admission with their paid admission. Happy Feet 2 and Jack/Jill will be shown.
7. SLATE Conference
Jill Chasteen, Carol Wieman, and I will be special education representatives at the School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education Conference December 6-7.
8. iPads update
We have been approved for the Volume Educator Purchasing Program through Apple. Dennis Hinderliter and I are in the process of setting up individual grade level or program iTunes accounts so staff and building programs can budget accordingly for applications on their devices. We will then have district wide applications and grade level/program applications.
9. Attendant Care Services Update
We can not bill medicaid for when a student is receiving a related service (Speech Language, OT, PT, School Health for example) while billing the same time for Attendant Care Services. For example a student may receive 7 1/2 hours of Attendant Care Services, you should subtract the 60 minutes per day they are in a related service as part of their schedule. Contact Luanne or I with questions.
10. Progress Reports
Reminder to update your student's progress reports on a quarterly basis and send home along with child's report card.
11. Quizlet
We have upgraded to the Quizlet Plus program for our active use with this program at MASH. Our username and password for staff use is:
login: sawdesu
password: medfordsf10
12. Club DART
Club DART is our homeroom club for students with disabilities. Due to the popularity of this club, some regular education students have also chosen to participate. Thanks to Nicole Gripentrog, Oralee Dittrich, Beth Van der Berg and others for all their help. We held a pre-halloween party dance last month. Students are now talking about a day trip to Eau Claire for shopping for Christmas presents for their family. This also provides them an opportunity to apply their in class real life functional math and daily living skills.
13. Long Term Substitute Updates
We have contacted Therapies Plus out of Wisconsin Rapids and they have staff available to cover our LTS positions for Speech Language and COTA positions. We are discussing the cost estimates provided for contracting with Therapies Plus.
I have contacted CESA 10, CESA 9, UW LaCrosse, UW Eau Claire, UW Stout, Wausau Schools, Marshfield Schools, and Wisconsin Rapids Schools for any list of potential names for our LTS for School Psychologist position. There have been no candidates which have officially applied. One candidate has withdrawn her name from consideration. One other candidate is not interested unless it is a full time position.
14. Families Being Involved Workshop
Thanks to the pre-kindergarten staff for their organizing our Families Being Involved Workshop at Sports Page Bowling this past Friday. Great turnout of children and their parents bowling together. FBI Workshops are held on a monthly basis. This provides opportunities for children and parents to interact. We count these as Parental Outreach Activities hours as we must do 87.5 hours per year. This helps the district count pre-k students as .6 FTE instead of .5 FTE gaining more revenue.
15. Adaptive PE for students at SES
I have had a request for students with significant needs at SES going up to MAES for Adaptive PE. Adaptive PE is held 2-3 times per week starting at 2:30.
16. Sign Language for Educators
We continue with our Sign Language for Educators class tonight at MAES. Our last class will be held Monday November 21. We have had over 30 parents, grandparents, and staff attend these six week trainings. There has been a wide range of representative programs in attendance - Speech Language, Special Education Teachers from each building, Kindergarten teachers, Grade 1 teachers, Grade 2 teachers, Paraprofessionals from each building, Sign Language Interpreter, Gifted and Talented, Private Schools, MASH PE, and more. Thanks to everyone for their attendance and participation.
17. Non Violent CPI training
Select high school special education and regular education staff will be attending the Non Violent CPI training in Wausau on November 17.
18. TEACCH Training for Autism
The Tasks Galore curriculum materials from the TEACCH Training for Autism held this past August have been order for the teachers which requested them.
19. High School Special Education Meeting
MASH Sped meeting will be held on Tuesday November 22nd at 3:20 in the conference room.
20. MADA Graduate
We have had our second graduate from our Medford Adult Diploma Academy program. The presentation of the diploma will be held on Thursday November 17 at 4:00 pm at NTC in Medford. This adult student has been working for the past year on a nightly basis to earn her HS diploma. Thanks to the Medford BOE, NTC, CLC Adult Education, and Taylor County Education Committee for their support of this program. MADA is designed for adults over the age of 18 who wish to come back to school to earn their HS diploma.
21. Rural Literacy Grant
NTC has approached me about helping write a grant application through the Rural Literacy Grant. This grant would help fund literacy initiatives through our Medford Adult Diploma Academy, Taylor County Literacy Council, and other community and school reading initiatives. I have a meeting this afternoon for more information.
22. Taylor County Education Committee
Taylor County Education Committee has given a grant to support our Medford Adult Diploma Academy. They have asked us to present to them at their next meeting about our Taylor County Literacy Council.
23. School Health Advisory Council
This will be held on Monday November 28 at 4:00 pm at the D.O.
24. iPad/Educational Technology Training
This will be held on Tuesday November 29 at 4:00 pm at the D.O.
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