At Knob Hill Elementary in San Marcos, Christina Renolds (Education Specialist) and Kayla Richardson (General Education teacher) work together to help level the playing field for their students. This co-teaching duo has done an amazing job to make sure all students in the classroom can learn without "barriers" getting in the way. One example of this can be found during math instruction. Kayla provides thoughtfully prepared scaffolds to help students (that need them) with note-taking.
Check out the video below to learn more
Ms. Renolds shared that math was never an area of comfort for her, but because of Ms. Richardson's organization and teaching style, it is now her favorite subject to teach.
Christina Renolds (left) and Kayla Richardson (right) strike a pose in the Learning Center. Behind them are the same visual representations used in the general education classroom. Consistency is key!
The Vista Adult Transition Center Team has recently made a huge shift in perspective that is greatly impacting how they teach the Unique Learning Systems (ULS) curriculum and use communication with their non-verbal, medically fragile students:
Aided Language Stimulation
Core Vocabulary
After attending a few workshops on Unique for Level One Learners, Dylan Valenzuela- Medically Fragile Education Specialist for the VATC program, has worked with his team to shift the status quo methods of teaching ULS and implement the techniques of modeling communication targeting a set of core-based, highly frequently used words to increase exposure and comprehension for their students with complex communication needs. Take a look at Dylan and the team in action:
Many of our teachers encounter this similar challenge of using ULS curriculum with students who are non-verbal, limited verbal, and/or use augmentative alternative communication (AAC). As Dylan explains so perfectly:
"I can say that working on the core vocabulary and Aided
Language Stimulation has definitely been a game changer in the class. Not only
are we working on the biggest hurdle in our class (communication) with the core
vocabulary, but I have seen a huge jump in student and staff interactions. Now that
my staff understands what ALS looks and sounds like, every moment they are
around a student it becomes a learning opportunity by the demonstration of ALS. The best example I could give was how people interact with babies and how they
explain every little thing that is going on when they interact with them- I think
that was their "ah-ha" moment. I push on my staff that ALS should be done with or
without an AAC device. I want the exposure of vocabulary towards the student
increased significantly (and it has). I would say that the two mantras of our
class are:
"Exposure, not comprehension"- speaking about exposing
our students to AGE appropriate material/curriculum with cognitively/physically
appropriate activities.
"Talk the Talk"- Concentrating on the exposure
of Core Vocab via ULS using ALS every interaction with the students."
This shift in perspective in teaching and communicating with students can be applied to any curriculum teachers might be using, as the focus is still on a core set of words with repeated exposure so that student's can be empowered to use language for a variety of communicative purposes. We ALL have more to say than "I want..."
WAY TO GO DYLAN AND YOUR TEAM AT VISTA ADULT TRANSITION CENTER!!
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
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 Zūmand 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!
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."
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.
Calavera Hills Middle School (Carlsbad) has a Design and Modeling class, lead by Mr. Aaron Sottile. The class emphasizes the design process using principles of project-based learning. They recently completed their first project. They had to design an Ankle Foot Orthotic (AFO) brace for a child with cerebral palsy. They were not allowed to see what a real AFO brace looked like. The students stepped up to the challenge and they got creative. They made one out of pool noodles, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, elastic bands, glue guns
Etc.
Melissa Haider, MPT with Haider Pediatric
Physical Therapy, spoke to the class about what Cerebral Palsy is and why people with it may need a brace. Part of the emphasis of this class is to design and create with empathy
in mind. To help students with this, Melissa Haider collaborated with their teacher Mr. Sottile and held an Ability Awareness which included participation from OT, PT, AT, and APE.
There have been several updates in the world of accessibility since the beginning of the 2017/2018 school year! Below is a summary of a few of them. For more information in these areas, check out the respective pages by clicking on the tabs above.
AT TIPS
The Read&Write for Google toolbar looks a little different...
You may have noticed that there is a new icon at the end of the toolbar now instead of the "settings" gear. Don't worry, it does the same thing and so much more! Now there are options to change preferences for the word prediction tool. Also, don't forget you can turn features the toolbar on and off too. This is a great one to keep in mind for those students who are easily distracted.
Bookshare works with iBooks on iOS devices... Now that Bookshare offers books in EPUB format, Apple users can read EPUB books on their computers and mobile devices using iBooks. It has a few accessibility options for readability (including the ones built into your device under settings) and it's free to use!. Click here for more info.
AAC TIPS
Many of the AAC apps were recently updated
Check the AAC tips tab for more details
Cardiff School District held an Ability Awareness Fair on March, 24 2017. The fair was held simultaneously on both campuses. Classrooms came in at designated times, but students were allowed to come back a second time during their recess and lunch if they didn't get to see everything. Ashley Smithey, Director of Special Education in Cardiff, along with the Cardiff team, did a wonderful job planning and organizing this event. Check out the video below to see how they did it!
The ultimate goal of the 2016/2017 Classroom Collaboration project was to help create model classrooms, utilizing a UDL model for academic and language enriched classroom environments, that could potentially be replicated in the local district and/or SELPA wide. This year we were able to work with 3 phenomenal teachers, related service providers and paraeducators. We learned a great deal from them!
JoAnna Rodriguez, San Elijo Elementary School, SMUSD
The amazing crew of Robin Hooper's Mod-Severe 3rd-5th grade class at Hannalei Elementary really know how to use technology and Tier 1 tools to increase accessibility for academic instruction and provide a truly language enriched environment to their students with various disabilities and complex communication needs.
Welcome Mrs. Hooper's class!
(from left photo to right) Robert Campbell, Lindsay Raasch, Robin Hooper (Education Specialist/Teacher), Annalee Gil, Donald Carl, Maria Aguilar, Stacie Kass (SLP).
See the video below to understand what makes this classroom staff a model example of how to truly integrate technology and tools for teaching to achieve success for their students:
Robin's class utilizes a mobile video HDtv with Elmo projector, video, and DVD player to interactively conduct whole class lessons to increase student engagement and understanding. Her classroom word walls use core vocabulary words from the current month's Unique Learning System's themes. The school SLP, Stacie, has even provided the staff visual supports for prompting reminders! On a non-tech note, Robin ensures that at the end of each day, all her students and staff provide at least one compliment to a peer or colleague before they head out the door. ICING ON THE CAKE! This positive spirit is evident upon walking through the door, as all staff collaborate and are constantly supporting each other to be the very best they can be for their students.
Click the slides below for more great ideas from Robin's classroom to support students within a mod-severe classroom:
As part of Mission Estancia's celebration of Ability Awareness month, the NCCSE AT crew gave a presentation and hands-on learning experiences to students kinder-5th grade. To help achieve the goal of bringing true awareness of what it feels like to have a disability, the AT group showed videos of students who have learning challenges in the areas of reading, writing, and organization, conducted an activity demonstrating the difficulty in knowing what you want to say and not being able to express it, as well as demonstrated what it's like to not be able to use your voice. The powerful videos and activities brought about thoughtful discussion of ways in which students can help students who might have difficulties at school. The AT group also shared technology tools and strategies that can help kids overcome these various challenges. Take a closer look at the slides below:
THANK YOU MISSION ESTANCIA FOR SUPPORTING AND EDUCATING STUDENTS DURING ABILITY AWARENESS MONTH!
JoAnna Rodriguez is Special Education teacher at San Elijo Elementary School in the San Marcos Unified School District. Her classroom consists of Kindergarten to 2nd grade students who have moderate to severe disabilities. She has been a moderate/severe teacher for 12 years. One thing that you will notice right away when you enter her classroom, is that it looks just like any other elementary school classroom and she sets high expectations for her students. It is a literacy rich environment, with lots of visual supports and has various accessibility options to meet the needs of her students.
Check out the slideshow below to see how JoAnna creates access using Tier 1 and 2 accessibility solutions for all!
Check out the video below to see how JoAnna provides low tech to high tech
solutions for a student that requires Tier 3 accessibility supports.
We hope you all had a wonderful summer! Our department kicked off the school year with our Totally Terrific Teaching Techniques & Tools (T6) summer institute. It was awesome! A special thanks to the teachers who shared their time, energy...and part of their summer to present at T6. If you were not able to attend, you can access the handouts/presentations online.
Here are a few highlights from T6!
We look forward to another year of showing off the amazing work being done in our SELPA to ensure access for ALL students!
Beth and Olivia Co-teach together for part of the morning in a 3rd grade classroom. Beth has been teaching for 2 years and is currently in pursuit of a Master's Degree in Bilingual Education. She has a Bilingual CLAD Authorization in Spanish and is also an authorized International Baccalaureate Teacher. Oliva is an Education Specialist for students in grades 2-3. She has a Masters Degree in Special Education and has a Education Specialist Instruction credential and a multiple Subject Teaching Credential.
They were both a part of the UDL cadre in San Marcos. There are 7 students in the classroom with IEPs. They started the year with maximum support of paraeducators in the classroom most of the day. Over time, they were able to reduce the amount of adult support as they realized the students were doing well with natural supports and Universal Design for Learning.
Lauri Carpenter and her awesome Paraeducators. They work tremendously well as a team!
Lauri Carpenter is a Moderate/Severe Education Specialist at Del Mar Heights Elementary School. Lauri uses the Unique Learning System (ULS), which aligns
with the Common Core. She uses Adobe Acrobat Pro to adapt ULS materials to provide additional differentiation for students. Instead of
highlighting specific, topic-based nouns during the ULS lesson, Lauri emphasizes and focuses on "core/power" words such as:
different, said, story, because, temporal words: morning, night, and core
question vocabulary words such as: When, Who, How, and What.In doing so, she
facilitates a higher degree of generalization of learned vocabulary and
comprehension across environments and activities. This empowers her less verbal students with access to more vocabulary for expressive output across a range of communicative functions.
Realizing that watching videos is highly motivating to many of her
students, she presents the ULS story of the week on a flat screen monitor. She prefers to use this method over SMART boards or projectors because she found that her students were more engaged when focusing on something that they are used to (TV). Students are engaged from the start and, therefore,
more willing to participate.
Watch how Lauri incorporates the ULS theme in a math lesson.
Lauri learned how to use QR codes in the classroom at one of NCCSE'S Technology Summer Institutes. She uses them as an interactive part of her circle time to create a deeper understanding of the concepts presented (days of the week, months of the year, and weather). By using these various forms of AT during circle time, Lauri increases her student's level of engagement and peer discussion of the topics
See how Lauri uses QR codes during circle time
You can find light/low-tech to high-tech options being used in Lauri's classroom!
Capri held it's first Ability Awareness Week January 25-29, 2016. It was organized by Jen Simons. She's a parent and the Special Education Liaison for Capri. She asked if we could host a table during lunchtime at both the main area (grades 1-5) and the kindergarten area. Students were able cycle through and learn about/experience various technology used by students with varied abilities (including text-to-speech, speech-to-text, Alternative Augmentative Communication and switches). We were happy to be a part of it!
Jen Simons (Special Education Liason for Capri) & her boys
Jen Inaba, School Psychologist and Debbie Burke, Ed-Specialist (pictured above-left) were both crucial to this event along with Nancy Jois, Kindergarten teacher (pictured above-right). Nancy organized the "Kindness Challenge"
Shannon Dudley (Special Education teacher- Mod/Severe) and Allen Brooks (General Education teacher-Technology ) San Elijo Middle School
At any given moment, you can be sure to see technology in action in Shannon Dudley's classroom supporting students with moderate-severe disabilities! Students are immersed in technology from everything from augmentative & alternative communication for students who are non-verbal to SMART board technology for lessons.
VIDEO: Sierra (student in Mrs. Dudley's classroom) and Advanced Technology students work with the SMART table
One of the many highlights in the class is the peer collaboration between 8th grade general education students in the Advanced Technology class headed by teacher Allen Brooks. For the past 4 years, Mr. Brooks and Mrs. Dudley have cultivated a collaborative working environment that brings students from a mod-severe environment together with their gen ed peers via technology.
Students in the Advanced Technology class creating programs for the Smart board and Smart table
The general education 8th graders in Advanced Technology class have been working with Shannon's class since September. They first came in to observe, meet kids, talk with them, make connections. Following that, Shannon came and talked to the technology class about the needs and individual strengths of the students.
Last year, Shannon and Allen received a SMART Table for Shannon's class to create and use activities that were motivating and more individualized to the needs of Shannon's students.Their semester assignment is to create, trial (beta phase), and implement programs and activities for Shannon's SMART board & table using SMART software to create programs. Their design was based off particular subjects, then slowly catered to individual student's interests: such as a love for french fries, text size specific to student's fine motor, placement of material on the screen, color/background for vision differences, and even large, hard hitting selections for student's with higher degree of sensory needs.
Heather Love-Fleck (5th grade teacher), Alyssa Prouty (Paraeducator) and Penny Stephenson (Education Specialist) worked as a team this week to discuss ways to make the curriculum more accessible for a student!
Mrs. Love-Fleck uses technology regularly in her classroom. The students have access to iPads and can retrieve and submit assignments via Google Drive. The team met to discuss additional ways to give more access to a student that has difficulty with fine motor skills. He is capable of producing written language, but his fine motor skills present a barrier. Some of the ideas that the team came up with include:
Access to worksheets (including district assessments) using an app called Notability. This app was purchased by the district for all students. The app allows the student to annotate on the document and then submit it to his teacher using a shared folder in Google Drive. He will also do this to create math journals!
Mrs. Prouty learned how to use the "Scan to PDF" feature on the school copier in order to get the worksheets into the student's Google Drive account.
The team plans to have collaborative meetings like this on a regular basis to discuss how to create access on upcoming projects/assignments. Way to go team!!!
Alyssa Prouty scanning worksheets to send to the student's
Google Drive.
Lydia shares how and why students use
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Jeff shows how speech-to-text can support students with fine motor
difficulties.
Richland Elementary School had their 2nd annual Ability Awareness week Sept 28th - Oct. 2nd. On September 30, 2015 we were invited to participate. Members of our AT team shared how we support students by providing access and tools for communication. The students got a chance to use some of the devices and programs. It was a wonderful event. Way to go Richland team!
Students accessing a reading passage via text-to-speech.. Denise helps students understand
what it's like to have fine motor difficulties. The goggles help them understand what has more barriers.
