Ability Awareness Fair in CUSD and VUSD

Ability Awareness was in the air this October in Carlsbad Unified School District and Vista Unified. Classrooms came by grade to the multipurpose room for a presentation, and hands on experiences. Sara Christian and Principal Tubbs in Carlsbad, along with the CUSD team, did a wonderful job planning and organizing this event. Cassie Ratigan and team at Temple Heights, VUSD, dedicated a week to promoting the culture of acceptance for all students, with activities and experiences. Check out the video to see how they did it!
Thanks for inviting us along- NCCSE AT

Kicking Off the 2018/2019 School Year with Tech&Tools!

We hope you all had a wonderful start to the new school year!  

Our department kicked off the school year with our Tech&Tools summer conference.  A special thanks to Devin Vodicka, Eric Chagala, Kimberly Kriedman, Laurie Anastasio, Katie Larew, Hinda Nadif, and Jason Schmidt. They shared their time, energy and part of their summer to present for us.  We would also like to thank Maiko Yoshida with UCP San Diego and David McNutt with Smartphone Literacy for being a part of our Resource Fair.

We had tons of raffle prizes thanks to various businesses.  We received two $100 Nordstrom gift cards from Zūm and tote bags for everyone from DonJohnston!

Here are a few highlights from Tech&Tools!

We look forward to another year of showing off the amazing work being done in our SELPA to ensure access for ALL students!

Ability Awareness Teaches the First Step in the Design Process: Empathy

Meet Mr. Aaron Sottile

Students in the Calavera Hills Middle School Design and Modeling class began the creative design process through the lens of empathy using hands-on exploration of assistive technology devices and tools currently used in the field of AT. 

As Mr. Sottile explains, "Students are working in this unit to develop a therapeutic toy to be used in physical therapy sessions for patients with cerebral palsy.  After learning about the physiology of the condition, students work in teams to design a therapeutic toy to help develop the gross and/or fine motor skills of a preschool aged or early school aged child with cerebral palsy.  Student solutions are developed using the knowledge developed throughout the course, including engineering, biomedical and computer aided drafting skills.   Our design and modeling students engage in the design process to develop a prototype therapeutic device.  The team at the North County Special Education Consortium helps students develop an awareness for, and understanding of the patients for whom the design and modeling students are developing solutions for.  The design process starts with empathy, and the visit from NCCSE helps develop that empathy in our students, helping them better understand the needs of their patients and the types of design solutions that exist to help increase access for all." 

Check out the students in action here:

Students Supporting Students at Double Peak K8 School in San Marcos

Janine Gale, School Counselor (left) and Rikki Kukendall, Ed-Specialist (right)

Rikki Kuykendall is the 6-8th grade Educational Specialist at Double Peak School (DPS). She currently co-teaches in 6th and 7th grade English Language Arts and Math classes. This is her 13th year servicing students in the San Marcos Unified School District.   Part of of Rikki's role on campus is to support Janine Gale, the School Counselor, with a year long elective called Students Supporting Students. In this program, peer mentors/tutors focus on aiding younger students in conflict management as well as making academic gains.   Janine, who has worked with the K-8 population for over 14 years, implemented this program at her former school and then brought it to DPS with the help of Rikki.

When Rikki heard about this program, she immediately asked if she could support Janine in making this class come to fruition.  As they were planning, a student named Emily happened to come into the room.  Emily  shared that her passion project was to help students at DPS and after listening to her vision, a team was born.

Emily's S³ recruiting video

S³ or Students Supporting Students is a program where middle school students apply (7th and 8th graders), interview, and undergo a 4 day training to become mentors and tutors for younger students.

They were trained how to empathize and develop rapport with students with various needs.  Since technology is used daily at DPS,  students were also trained as to how to use the Google Read and Write accessibility toolbar by the NCCSE AT team. Even though the peer mentors don't use it themselves, they are familiar with it so that they can support those that do.  Often times they refer back to their manuals in order to help the students.

The Students Supporting Students Team

Janine finds that the program really helps to build community and cohesion amongst the different grade levels. At her previous school, she saw how it allowed students to learn the language necessary to manage their own conflicts and really take the time to look at different perspectives. It has reduced the number of referrals to the office for behavior and also helped with academic concerns. It truly is a win-win for schools.

Keep up the awesome work DPS team!