Oct 14 2024

Special Education Parents Provide School Support and Leadership

Parents of students with special needs know the importance of having a solid plan in place to support their child for success. All students have varied needs, and students with disabilities need specific supports to help them reach the rigor of the academic standards taught in their classes. Resource teachers work with the Individual Education Plan (IEP) team to develop a plan for supports, then share this plan with general education teachers and other support providers. The goal is to ensure accommodations are supports are regularly in place so all of the students can find success. In inclusive classroom settings, general education and special education teams work together to support these needs. But, as many classroom teachers will tell you, even this amount of support is sometimes note enough. [Read more…]

Kevin Myers

Dr. Kevin Myers is an Executive Administrator for YPI Charter Schools and the Principal at Bert Corona Charter School. He has served the Los Angeles community as a teacher, administrator, and grant director for over 20 years. He has a passion for developing teachers and educational leaders to engage in the challenging work of bringing equity to our schools and our communities. Dr. Myers has developed an expertise in supporting underserved communities, building effective and cohesive school leadership teams, and engaging parents to uplift their communities through engagement at their children’s schools. He wrote his dissertation on teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction and is a strong advocate for supporting and working with teachers to build a strong and successful school community. In addition to his work at YPI Charter Schools, Dr. Myers is also a faculty member at Cal State Fresno and works with student teacher candidates to earn their credentials as they work through the CalState TEACH program.

www.GenParenting.com

Sep 17 2024

Parent Volunteers At Your Child’s School

Parent engagement is vital to the culture of a school. Too often, parent engagement is thought of in terms of getting parents to the school for a presentation, or engaging in a fundraiser to fund new classroom technologies. As we all know, parents are our students’ first teachers, and it is the role of the school to provide opportunities for parents to engage in meaningful ways. Just like our students, all of the parents at a school bring their own set of skills and their own, varied needs. Therefore, parent engagement cannot just be a “one-size-fits-all” approach where parents are invited to campus but never asked to participate in the work of educating our children. A parent engagement program needs to be varied, stimulating, and useful to both school programming and initiatives and also for the parents showing up to support. [Read more…]

Kevin Myers

www.GenParenting.com

Jun 11 2024

Least Restrictive Environments Promote Success

Least Restructive Learning Environments Promote Success

One of the hardest pieces of an IEP to understand is the LRE or Least Restrictive Environment. It is a fundamental principle in special education. The LRE emphasizes the importance of placing students with disabilities in educational settings that allow for the maximum possible interaction with their non-disabled peers while meeting their unique needs. The primary goal is to provide an inclusive and supportive environment that fosters academic and social development while meeting a child’s individual needs. [Read more…]

Alison Whiteley

Alison Whiteley has been a special education teacher for over 15 years, spending most of her time working with elementary students and families. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts in Special Education and Psychology, she continued her education with a Masters in Reading from Walden University. In addition, she has achieved endorsements supporting Early Childhood Special Education and Diverse Learners which she uses to help identify needs across all learners.

Ms. Whiteley is trained in Wilson Reading System and Yoshimoto Orton-Gillingham. She believes all students can learn to read and be successful. She has served as a Special Education Coach and Mentor to fellow specialists and teachers, facilitated the creation of her elementary school’s Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (RTI/MTSS) process and helped parents through the Special Education process as IEP Coach for parents. In 2013 she completed the National Boards of Professional Teaching in Exceptional Needs with recertification in 2022. Her areas of expertise involve working with students with learning disabilities, supporting stakeholders moving through the special education process, and helping parents and teachers understand what they can do to support struggling learners in the public school settings.

She is a founding member of the Colorado Reading League and a member of the International Dyslexia Association in Colorado. Alison has two greyhounds and two nephews who keep her busy outside of school. She is the CEO of Toad-ally Exceptional Learners at http://www.toad-allyexceptionallearners.com. Alison is a valuable source of information to support teachers and parents, although she is not a lawyer and does not give legal advice. Her services support families through the IEP process and how they can be an equal member of the team through positive interactions. She focuses on collaboration and using tools to take IEPs to the new level of helping students achieve.

www.GenParenting.com

May 14 2024

Behavior Assessments Support Children’s Learning Successes

A Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is a process used in special education (and sometimes in general education) to understand and analyze the reasons behind a child’s challenging behavior. It’s a systematic and individualized approach that helps educators and other professionals identify the underlying factors contributing to a student’s behavior while at school and provide tailored support for their behaviors. An FBA is NOT completed for all students. [Read more…]

Alison Whiteley

www.GenParenting.com

Apr 23 2024

Mud Play Learning for Kids

Kids of all ages love mud! Our class read the Magnificent Magical Mud story posted on this blog site. Then we planted flowers in flower pots as gifts for seniors and homeless residents. Students learned how to make mud while watering the plants in flower pots. We studied different types of potting soil to determine how much water it took to make mud in the flower pot. We also studied the ingredients of various mud solutions. Some mud samples had a sandy composition while others contained small rocks. The students were fully engaged while playing with their magnificent mucky mud. They were excited about learning. They were also curious and eager to learn about the composition and the many uses of mud throughout the ages. [Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

Mary Ann Burke, Ed.D., Digital Education Expert, is a substitute distance learning teacher for Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California and the author of STUDENT-ENGAGED ASSESSMENT: Strategies to Empower All Learners (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Dr. Burke creates digital language arts and substitute teaching K – 12 activities for teachers and parents. She is the Cofounder of the Genparenting.com blog. Burke is the former Director II of Categorical & Special Projects for the Santa Clara County Office of Education that supports 31 school districts serving 272,321 students in Santa Clara County. She is also a previous Director – State & Federal Compliance for Oakland Unified School District, the former Director – Grantwriter for the Compton Unified School District, and was the initial VISTA Director for the Community Partnership Coalition in southern California. Much of her work focuses on creating innovative digital trainings and partnership programs for teachers and families to support students’ learning. These programs were featured as a best practice at a National Title I Conference, California’s Title I Conferences, AERA Conferences, an ASCD Conference, the NASSP Conference, and statewide educator conferences.