September 2009

Confused about Obtaining the Endorsements for Teaching Students with Autism Or Severe and Profound Disabilities?

From BEESS Weekly Memo 

Update on the Endorsement in Severe or Profound Disabilities – DPS Memo 2009-149, Exceptional Student Education Endorsement:  Severe/Profound Disabilities, has been posted to the Florida Department of Education Web site at http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-5474/dps-2009-149.pdf.  Please note that although the requirement that teachers with more than 50 percent of their students identified as having a severe or profound disability earn the endorsement in severe or profound disabilities by July 1, 2011, has been suspended, this endorsement is still a viable option for teachers of students identified with autism spectrum disorder, or for teachers of students with significant cognitive or dual sensory impairments.  Please contact:  Sheryl Sandvoss, at Sheryl.Sandvoss@fldoe.org or (850) 245-0478 with questions. REMEMBER

Tuition Support for Endorsement Coursework available from the Personnel Development Partnership.

CHADD Meeting “Response to Intervention for Academics and Behavior”

The topic for discussion in the next CHADD Meeting will be “Response to Intervention for Academics and Behavior”.  Our presenter will be Jason W. Kurtz, BA, MA, Learning Resource/Behavior Specialist of the Exceptional Student Education Department for the School District of Lee County.  The discussion will focus on raising academic and behavioral expectations resulting in decreased academic and behavioral problems.

2009 Autism Conference: The Power & Potential of Communication

The conference seeks to provide comprehensive, evidence-based information to assist educators, providers and families in developing effective and therapeutic programming for all individuals with autism spectrum disorders. This event has two parts, a conference on Friday, November 6^th and workshops on Saturday November 7^th.  CE Credits are available for BCBA/BCaBA, Psychologists, Mental Health Professionals, and Speech Language Professionals.  For more information such as topics and registration fees please refer to http://411.fit.edu/autismconference.

Introducing Bookshare

Bookshare is a searchable online library that offers more than 50,000 digital books, textbooks, teacher-recommended reading, periodicals and assistive technology tools. Bookshare dramatically increases the accessibility of books and believes that people with disabilities deserve the same ease of access to books and periodicals that people without disabilities enjoy. Bookshare is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities. Student memberships are currently funded by an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).  Learn more at http://bookshare.org/.

Services Available for Military Families through Charlotte Behavioral Health Care

Charlotte Behavioral Health Care is available for services uniquely geared to assist military personnel who are serving or who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq and their spouses and children.  Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice awarded CBHC a $200,000 grant to help provide necessary services for our community’s troops and their family members over the next 18 months. Services are free and are available now.  All active duty or veterans of Iraq of Afghanistan and their spouses and children are eligible.  Eligibility will be confirmed by CBHC staff prior to admission.  For more information please contact Glenda Steffenhagen, (941) 639-8300 ext.270 or Jessica Martell, US Army Veteran, (941) 639-8300 ext. 335.

Edutopia: How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class

When students let their minds drift off, they’re losing valuable learning time. Here are ten smart ways to increase classroom participation. Getting all your students focused, eager, and on task at the beginning of class is challenging enough. Equally problematic, once you have them locked in to the lesson, is watching them zone out. There’s nothing unusual about that. After all, anyone who has to sit through a long routine — including a teacher’s presentation — is bound to drift off at some point. Merrill Harmon and Melanie Toth authors of Inspiring Active Learning, present a ladder that describes levels of student motivation and tips for promoting active learning and active listening, in which students are thoroughly and thoughtfully engaged with each other or the teacher.  Read more of this Edutopia article at  http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips.

Teachers Crucial to Creating ‘Meaningful Education for Kids’

In an interview in Teacher Magazine, Gregory Michie, teacher-educator and author of the well-received Holler if You Hear Me, reflects on social perceptions of urban students since the book’s publication in 1999, and on the challenges of teaching students with backgrounds different from one’s own. In the introduction to the second edition of his book, Michie relates he was disconcerted to find the Library of Congress had classified his book about nine years in a Chicago classroom under the rubric of “socially handicapped children.” While it would be disingenuous to think of all students as the same regardless of background, urban students are, he says, still “thought about in terms of what they don’t have, aren’t capable of, and lack, rather than the promise and possibility they have.” The book was brought out in a series entitled Teaching for Social Justice, which Michie describes thus: “Teaching for social justice is teaching with an eye on the bigger picture. Teaching with an eye on issues of equity and justice means in part, bringing those issues into the classroom. On the other hand, it means as a teacher, seeing yourself as part of this bigger picture.” Being in the classroom with kids, Michie says, is “where it’s at,” and he often contemplates returning: “Classroom teachers are the most important piece in trying to create meaningful education for all kids.”
Read more at http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2009/09/09/gregorymichie.html.

A High-Quality Teaching Tide Lifts All Boats

In a study to be released in October in American Economics Journal: Applied Economics, researchers found that high-quality teachers had a “spillover effect,” raising the caliber of their colleagues around them, according to Education Week. The study, based on an analysis of 11 years of data on North Carolina school children, has broad implications for school staffing practices and for the current debate over merit-pay plans for teachers. “If it’s true that teachers are learning from their peers, and the effects are not small, then we want to make sure that any incentive system we put in place is going to be fostering that and not preventing it,” said C. Kirabo Jackson, an assistant professor of labor economics at Cornell University and co-author of the report. “If you give the reward at the individual level, all of a sudden my peers are no longer my colleagues-they’re my competitors. If you give it at the school level, then you’re going to foster feelings of team membership, and that increases the incentive to work together and help each other out.” Observers now wonder: Does the new teacher’s arrival motivate peers to do better, or does that teacher help other teachers by doing some of the teaching? Or are teachers themselves learning? Read more of this article at http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/01/03peer.html?tkn=[ZRC4i2frTDjZLzjOTpidcFhBs1ki6mQaCEF.  View the abstract of the report at http://www.nber.org/papers/w15202.pdf.

Edutopia: Knowing How You Learn

At San Francisco’s Gateway High School, a diverse group of students learn how their brains work and how to accommodate their learning styles. Most important, they discover that there is no one “right” way to learn.  In Gateway’s first year, Learning Center director Ashley Hager worked with school board members to bring the Schools Attuned emphasis on brain function into Gateway’s curriculum. One of the results is a series of required foundation classes designated as “Learning Center classes,” which help students examine how they learn.Read more of this Edutopia article at http://www.edutopia.org/students-who-know-their-own-minds.

The Humanitarian Foundation Grottoes of North America

The Humanitarian Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to help bring “Special Smiles” to children with special needs by providing much-needed dental care for them. The Humanitarian Foundation is committed to helping alleviate the suffering and improving children’s quality of life by providing dental care for those who otherwise might go without, through the “Special Smiles” program. For a child under 18 with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, organ transplant, and mental retardation. For more information please refer to http://www.hfgrotto.org/.

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