Thursday, July 12, 2012
College Success Workshop for Senior students
Information has come in regarding the following:
(Georgetown SEPAC does not endorse this workshop, we are simply passing information along)
College Success Boot Camp Coming to NESCA August 13 – 14th
Co-Sponsored by Thinking Outside the Classroom and College Solutions, in Cooperation with NESCA (Neuropsychology & Education Services for Children & Adolescents)
Thinking Outside the Classroom offers in-home coaching for students with particular academic challenges, broader executive function issues or who simply want to reach their full potential both in the classroom and beyond. They are the group to which we and others on our staff have turned when our own children needed help with executive functioning.
College Solutions assists students with their college searches, applications, essays, determination of eligibility for financial aid and preparation of all forms. Their objective is to make the experience as positive, stress-free and successful as possible. They have many years of experience in personally matching students to colleges that are perfect fits for them.
Together, they are bringing their highly-regarded College Success Bootcamp to NESCA in a new, two-session format, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, August 13 -14th.
When: 1st Session: 6:30 - 9:30pm Monday, August 13
2nd Session: 6:30 - 9:30pm Tuesday, August 14
Where: NESCA, 55 Chapel Street, 2nd Floor, Newton, MA
Cost: $400 per person; enrollment limited to 12!
This 6-hour, highly-interactive course is suitable for anyone eager to succeed at the college level, whether going for the first time or returning to campus in September.
The program's principal instructor will be Michele Hearn, M.Ed., CAS, senior coach and director of adult and college coaching for Thinking Outside the Classroom. A veteran administrator at College of the Holy Cross, counselor and career consultant, she is also a guidance counselor licensed by the State of Massachusetts and participant in the New England Association for College Admission Counseling's Summer Institute.
Her co-facilitator will be Stella Habib, a graduate of the program currently enrolled in McGill University in Montreal. A rising senior, she is majoring in General Management with a concentration in International Business and a minor in Communication Studies. Due to her passion for languages and intercultural communication, Stella chose to attend school in Montreal for its diverse culture and bilingual atmosphere. Stella's current languages are English, Greek, French, and Spanish. Her experience and academic skills fall across a broad spectrum.
Questions? mhearn@thinkingoutsidetheclassroom.com.
For additional information and to register, please call NESCA at 617-658-9800, or email nesca@nesca-newton.com.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Shining Star Winners
The Georgetown SEPAC Congratulates Our
Shining Star Award Winners
June 11th, 2012 –
The Georgetown Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) was pleased this year to offer the Shining Star Award for Georgetown School District employees who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in teaching, reaching out to, and inspiring our children with special needs over this last school year. In short, this award is for those who are making an outstanding difference.
The 2012 Shining Star Award winners were announced at the Georgetown SEPAC’s last meeting for this school year, on Monday evening, June 11th, 2012.
The award winners were selected by the special education parents of Georgetown, who were all invited to submit a description of how particular Georgetown School employees have helped their children. Nominations were then reviewed by SEPAC officers.
With this award, parents had an opportunity to show their sincere appreciation of the Georgetown school staff’s excellence in teaching, hard work, and caring that helps build solid relationships with our children every day.
How do our stellar teachers in Georgetown shine? How do they make such an impact in our children’s lives? These were some of the comments were made by grateful parents this year about different outstanding teachers in the Georgetown Schools.
• She is my hero. I absolutely adore her, and will be forever grateful. She has been able to build a rapport with my son who has trust issues and gets him excited about school. Last year she got him an internship which led to a job, which he loves. This year he was struggling, not wanting to stay in school and she is the one that got him up, got him going, got him back. Now he has caught up to his peers academically. She is not just a teacher, she is an excellent mentor, confidant, friend, and champion to him.
• Without his help and encouragement my son would have had another lost year. Now he is doing much better.
• She has been extremely helpful this year with our family. She knows exactly how to phrase situations, her documentation is right on target, and as a family of an IEP child, I feel she really rallies for us. My son really loves to practice his math with her. She keeps me well informed about how my son is doing on a regular basis.
• He goes above and beyond for the kids and he truly cares.
• She has made a huge difference in my son’s education. Every day, my son looks forward to working with her; and I believe he works harder because of her. She is kind, considerate, understands my son while keeping him on track and taking no nonsense from him; and she keeps an open line of communication with me (and that makes me feel that she really does care so much about my son and our family - she is also proud of all of his accomplishments, whether they are big or small).
• She has a wonderful way of inspiring creativity in all children and provides a wonderful outlet for my son. It is the part of his week he takes the most pride in and loves to talk about. She is an amazing teacher and we are blessed to have her teaching our children in Georgetown.
• He takes a real interest, offers practical advice and help.
• She has been extraordinary with my son, transitioning him to the general Ed class 100 percent of the time. She has a wonderful way with the kids- she is structured yet flexible. She has quite a few special ed kids this year, but you would never know it. The class is always under control yet the kids have fun.
Current SEPAC Chairperson Pam Lundquist extended a sincere congratulations to this year's Shining Star Award recipients, who are:
- Ms. Lisa Mosquera, Middle School Compass Teacher
- Ms. Dawn Rezendes, Penn Brook Art Teacher
“The efforts of Ms. Mosquera and Ms. Rezendes have stood out to special education parents as extraordinary and noteworthy. They have both been extremely helpful to many students this year.” Lundquist said.
“We want to thank all of our teachers for understanding how important it is at school to reach out, notice children's strengths, build strong personal relationships with kids so that they can feel comfortable asking for help, sharing their thoughts, feeling valued for who they are, as well as for their hard work.”
“We want to always remember to support, recognize and appreciate those special teachers who, seeing our precious diamonds in the rough, are able to help our children to realize their dignity, their strengths, their abilities, their gifts. Because every child has them.”
“We hope that all of our dedicated teachers know that we appreciate everything that they do, and the Georgetown SEPAC looks forward to being able to offer Shining Star Awards to other deserving teachers in the future.”
After the award ceremony, the Georgetown SEPAC parents present all approved a new parent to assume the Chairperson position beginning in the fall, Ms. Shelby Walker. Ms. Walker has four children in the Georgetown Public Schools, and she enthusiastically accepted the position.
Superintendent Carol Jacobs was on hand to extend congratulations to the winners. She also addressed the parents on the state and direction of special education programs for the year. "We look forward to welcoming our new Director of Special Education, Donna Straight, who will be starting her new position on July 1st," Ms. Jacobs affirmed.
The Georgetown SEPAC serves as a resource and advisor to parents of children with special needs in Georgetown. The group is dedicated to helping parents to take actions that will effectively benefit their children. It reaches that goal by holding regular educational meetings or workshops on a variety of topics and by helping parents network with each other. The SEPAC also works closely with the Georgetown School District to identify areas of need and advise on how to improve the special education programs and services that children with special needs rely on. It acts in an advisory role through the SEPAC Chairperson to the School Committee regarding Special Education issues.
By Pam Lundquist, Georgetown SEPAC, Chairperson
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
SEPAC Meeting-Shining Star Awards
June 11, 2012 The Shining Star Awards & Our Final Meeting, 7-8:30pm, Penn Brook Library – 68 Elm St. Georgetown 01833
We are fortunate to have so many talented and caring staff members in our schools working hard every day to help our children! The Shining Star Award is a special award for Georgetown School District employees who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in teaching, serving, supporting, helping, reaching out to, and inspiring our children with special needs over this last school year. The winners have been selected by the special education parents of Georgetown submitting a description of how these people have helped their children. We hope you will honor our winners by attending our evening award ceremony. Also, Superintendent Carol Jacobs will speak to us about the Georgetown Special Education Department and growth in program development over the course of this year. We would like to discuss, as a school, as a parent community, and with regards to the experience of our children, where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. We also would like to discuss any ideas parents may have about how the GeorgetownSEPAC could serve their needs in the year to come, and what areas they would be interested in learning more about. Hope to see you there!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Best Practices Stress & Anxiety Meeting Notes
A Georgetown Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC)
& GeorgetownCARES Meeting
https://sites.google.com/site/georgetownsepac/home (access from district website)
https://georgetownsepac.blogspot.com
Meeting Minutes & Notes, May 16, 2012 – 7:00 pm, PB Library
May 16th, 2012 – Wednesday, 7-8:30pm - Penn Brook Library, 68 Elm St., Georgetown 01833 - A Joint Georgetown SEPAC & GeorgetownCARES Meeting: Best Practices to Help Children Manage School-Related Stress and Anxiety – Come join us for an interactive discussion led by Dr. Troy Carr, Georgetown School Psychologist – This workshop will follow up on themes of our post-film Race to Nowhere community discussion and highlight particular sources of stress for our youth in school along with helpful strategies to support our children and build their resiliency.
The popular film RACE TO NOWHERE, shown in Georgetown in October 2011, was a call to families, educators, and policy makers to investigate how we support student learning in a culture prone to over-testing, performance pressure, and over-scheduling. This film clearly documented the suffering that many youth remain silent about, the educators stressed and worried about how to build resilience and a love of learning when curriculum itself is so overwhelming. Overly burdensome and meaningless homework, pressure to get into the “right” college, and pressure to achieve “A’s” all contribute to one of our students’ greatest sources of stress – school! How can we help our children turn “high expectations” from pressures driving them onto a convention path into the key to their very own journey to success?
How is life for our children in school changing these days? Very fast, with technology leading the way. Social media sites evolve constantly, allowing for anonymous posts and put-downs that authors do not need to own up to. Texting draws students into social interactions that they are not sure how to get out of. Online grading, either Edline, PowerSchool or ParentConnect, is a new fact of life for millions of students in thousands of schools across the country. How do we speak to our children about using these potentially powerful technologies? How do we see them ourselves, and how do they alter parent-child interactions?
Bullying, or the social triangles that develop between aggressors, targets, and bystanders are nothing new, but we are now realizing the long-term emotional damage and stress it causes. Can we teach our children and our students to take a more thoughtful, empathetic approach to these social interactions, both in cyberspace and the school hallways? Interpersonal and social media skills taught at a young age can provide a foundation for our children for the rest of their lives.
This Georgetown SEPAC/GeorgetownCARES meeting is free and open to the public. Please RSVP or direct questions to Pam Lundquist at 978-352-5407 or tenhawkway@comcast.net
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Anxiety and stress in school is on the rise for many of our students, as the documentary, Race to Nowhere clearly shows. Why is this? How can we help our kids?
The basic structure and nature of public schools today is based largely on the needs of society in the 1800’s. At that time factories and businesses wanted a public school system that would train good workers for them. So schools created factory-like conditions from which students would easily transition to work. Schools instituted rigid schedules, bells to mark the end of periods, desks, indoor classes always in the same place, skills & drills.
Now that our world has transitioned, our schools are in need of new ways. America, lagging behind other countries in math and science needs to develop a more experiential way of teaching. We need to use multimodal methods to allow all students to access the curriculum material in a practical, relevant and useful way. Because success in the global workplace now demands creativity, innovation, and a deeper level of comprehension than skills & drills can provide, our whole approach to education must fundamentally change.
Amidst all of this change, homeschooling has understandably become a more popular alternative.
Many of the curriculums we now rely on teach students vast amounts of material at a faster rate and earlier age than ever before. First and second grades today can be equated to the third and fourth grades of 30 years ago. Pressures to achieve are stronger than ever, creating stress and anxiety particularly when we push children prematurely beyond their cognitive skills. Every child develops at a different rate, thus occasionally this can happen.
In Norway, where students consistently score highly on tests that demonstrate their ability to conceptualize, generalize and creatively use information, both in reading and in math, teachers are highly valued. Teacher pay is high, teacher development is extensive, teachers develop their own curriculum to meet the needs of the students. The emphasis is shifted from rote learning to focused classroom activities on problem solving.
The KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) school model, used in over 100 KIPP schools around the country, focuses on an experiential teaching model. Kids go up to the board in groups and solve problems together. All students are expected to learn, expectations are specific, clear and high; all student effort is highly valued. The teachers give the students time to get concepts, and will teach in different modalities until all students have learned the curriculum.
200+ years ago, long before the public school models we have in place today, experiential learning by doing was common practice. Teaching styles were more interactive and followed the learning style of individual students more closely. Of course, class sizes were much smaller than they are today!
Most teachers today feel strong pressure to get through lessons, and it’s easier when everyone sits. The normal adult attention span is 15 minutes. It’s much less for kids.
One audience member suggested project-based learning as being highly motivational to her daughter. The in-depth, practical, multisensory learning that takes place can lead to real pride in achievement and newly acquired knowledge.
Dr. Carr said that he finds that most teachers are highly motivated to help their students, they want everyone to achieve their goals. They usually embrace teacher development, instructional strategy training, and group problem-solving very well.
Homework stress is very common. It helps when teachers integrate homework, both before students go home and when they return to school with it complete, into class discussions. Then homework can become an active learning experience that helps the teacher and student gage and build comprehension. Homework should not be overly burdensome, if it is, students, parents and teachers all need to discuss how and why as a team dedicated to helping the student. Students tend to feel the homework is meaningful when their efforts are recognized and rewarded. A student-directed element to homework, where the student has some choice in the nature of the assignment, also engages students. The expectations and particulars of a homework assignment needs to be clearly communicated to students in a multi-modal way to ensure no misunderstandings.
Sometimes the physical set up of the school environment can be disabling. Classrooms with poor sound quality, so that the students cannot hear the teacher or each other create stress for students. Classrooms with no comfortable area or table space for different activities or group work create stress for students. Classrooms that are too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter are hard to focus in. Cheerful colors, orderly classrooms can calm anxious students.
Online grading systems for students in middle and high schools are new technology to many across the country. Students, parents, and teachers all need to set consistent posting and checking policies. Naturally there will be misunderstandings that will cause stress for all of us “early adopters.” The information communicated about student achievements, assignments, expectations, calendars can be of enormous help to students, families and teachers. However, the dialog around what is posted needs to stay constructive and focused on how the information can be helpful.
Today’s technology – video games, Facebook, texting – all promise instant, quick gratification. New versions are always faster and quicker. Social interactions via technology can be easily misinterpreted, they do not provide the whole experience that face to face interaction does, but people are reached quickly. The habitual use of technology that many tweens and teens fall into definitely creates stress and anxiety. Put it all off as long as you can, we want kids to learn how to be social person to person as much as possible.
One parent said that studies show that playing video games creates pathways and ruts in children’s brains. “We’re training kids to expect that level of stimulation from everything that they do. The kind of passive response that works for them in video games won’t work for them in life.”
Use of technology in the classroom does get the attention and engagement of many students. Classroom technology can be an opportunity for teachers to share with students constructive ways to learn about current events, do research, and explore topics in depth. It is vital that we teach students to use technology effectively, as it certainly is here to stay. Some video games are educational, and can be valuable tools to teach kids who love them, such as Fastmath to learn math facts. See http://teacher.scholastic.com/math-fact-fluency/fastt-math-next-generation/
Cyberbullying causes huge stress and anxiety. When it occurs, the damage is enormous because there is no escape from it, not at school, not at home for the targets. Impulsive aggressors with regrets can’t take back their actions, either. Ultimately, kids need to learn how to police themselves. We can help them with that. They need to understand that every electronic conversation they engage in is both public and permanent. That impulsive hurtful comments cause damage beyond what they can imagine. When emotions are running high, all people should stay away from electronic communications until they calm down. These are hard concepts for tweens and teens to get, but the message needs to be taught over and over.
Texting can hijack our kids’ adolescence. Texting can be addictive; Dr. Carr knows a 23-year old who is about to lose their job because she can’t stop texting. 11 year olds can be totally addicted to texting. And the pressure to response to 500 texts a day can be enormous. The message kids get is that they are not cool if they don’t. It’s hard to do homework and keep up with texting at the same time. A good time to take away all ipods and phones is 7-8pm at night. Then the focus can be on finishing up homework and getting ready for bed. Children want to be able to tell their friends, “my parents won’t let me text any more tonight.” It takes the pressure off of them.
With technology/screen time, put a structure around it, develop routines, use timers to minimize conflict and set limits. Talk about an end-time. Children appreciate boundaries, they want you to set limits.
Consistent behavior plans help put everything into proper perspective. Kids will take between 1 day and 3 weeks to feel comfortable with new routines. They will protest at first, but the battle is important to win. Clear expectations, meaningful rewards and consequences may all be a part of the plan. When trying to minimize a behavior or replace it with a new one, the extinction curve will apply. That means that initially, the resistance will be high, kids will test you to see if you are serious. But eventually, they will fall into line.
Most anxious children, particularly boys, are drawn to video games, and it can be argued that children drawn to video games become anxious because they isolate themselves in their video world.
A parent said that she has disabled the photo function in her child’s cellphone. Inappropriate pictures have caused much angst in the cyberworld.
Anxiety has gone through the roof with students in school, as reported by both teachers and administrators nationwide. Students most effected by anxiety often begin to show signs in 2nd and 3rd grades, when the pace of curriculum content taught begins to challenge them.
What many people define as the “right college” is questionable. Expensive private colleges may have small classes, but students will graduate with substantial debt. Massachusetts State colleges are amazing, a true value. If you want to invest in education, graduate school may be the best time to do that. The name of your graduate school will trump your undergraduate college, and you want to be sure to get the best quality program. One parent said the pressure to apply to big name colleges is high, sometimes coming from the well meaning friends and family, sometimes from guidance counselors.
Anxiety is based on a fight or flight response. When we experience chronic stress, your adrenaline levels and cortisol levels rise, which increases blood sugar. When you or your children experience anxiety often, you want to monitor it to determine triggers and learn how to stop the negative thoughts early. Once someone is in a full-blown panic attack, you cannot help them.
Be conscious all day long, am I uncomfortable? Am I thinking positive thoughts, or not? Then when you do get a little anxious, you can start in with strategies to turn it around, such as distracting yourself or considering the facts you know, rather than scary possibilities. Distraction is an excellent technique for dealing with anxiety. We need to teach people who feel anxious a different way of thinking.
Our emotional brains will always dominate our cognitive sides; your experience of life is primarily emotional. It is much easier to recall how you felt with someone rather than what exactly they said. So finding ways to feel safer, secure, valued with others is worth the effort.
Most of the time, the worst thing you can do with an anxious, upset teenage boy is to keep talking with them. As parents, we need to learn to manage our own stress levels, so that we can figure out how to soothe our children and ourselves in a healthy, effective way. Break it down. Rageful behavior is often linked to and caused by underlying anxiety. Your job is to talk to kids about it, but find the right time for them, a time when they can hear you. A time when they will feel safe to speak. A time when you can listen. That will help them manage it.
Get anxious kids up and moving every 15 minutes. Check out http://www.sparkpe.org/
Find out more about Dr. Troy Carr, Georgetown School Psychologist, at http://www.troycarr.com/
Friday, April 13, 2012
Upcoming Meetings: May 9th & May 16th, 2012 (Weds)
May 9th, 2012 - Wednesday, 7-9pm – An IEP For My Child - an Amesbury/Georgetown/Groveland SEPAC meeting at the Amesbury Middle School Library (2nd floor), at 220 Main St., Amesbury, MA 01913– The Georgetown SEPAC is pleased to co-sponsor this Federation for Children with Special Needs (FCSN) Workshop at the Amesbury Middle School, 2nd floor library, 220 Main Street, Amesbury 01913. An IEP for My Child – an FCSN Workshop: Every child with a disability who receives special education services must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). This workshop takes parents step-by-step through IEP development, including how to articulate a vision, using evaluations to write measurable goals, and measuring their child’s progress, will be presenting.
Wondering about how to write the best possible IEP for your child? This workshop takes parents step-by-step through the development of the IEP. Learn ways to write and express your vision for your child and what your concerns are. Be sure your IEP services will build on your child’s strengths and individual learning style, while also specifying the instructional modifications and accommodations your child needs to make academic progress. Clarify measurable goals, objectives, benchmarks, and assessments. Bring your child’s IEP and ask your specific questions! The agenda for the evening includes the IEP & the General Curriculum, Filling out each section of the IEP, Accountability for progress, Progress reporting.
For more information or to register for this workshop call Kara Keleher at (978) 388-9950. This event is free and open to the public.
May 16th, 2012 – Wednesday, 7-8:30pm - Penn Brook Library, 68 Elm St., Georgetown, MA 01833 - A Joint Georgetown SEPAC & GeorgetownCARES Meeting: Best Practices to Help Children Manage School-Related Stress and Anxiety – Come join us for an interactive discussion led by Dr. Troy Carr, Georgetown School Psychologist – This workshop will follow up on themes of our post-film Race to Nowhere community discussion and highlight particular sources of stress for our youth in school along with helpful strategies to support our children and build their resiliency.
The popular film RACE TO NOWHERE, shown in Georgetown in October 2011, was a call to families, educators, and policy makers to investigate how we support student learning in a culture prone to over-testing, performance pressure, and over-scheduling. This film clearly documented the suffering that many youth remain silent about, the educators stressed and worried about how to build resilience and a love of learning when curriculum itself is so overwhelming. Overly burdensome and meaningless homework, pressure to get into the “right” college, and pressure to achieve “A’s” all contribute to one of our students’ greatest sources of stress – school! How can we help our children turn “high expectations” from pressures driving them onto a convention path into the key to their very own journey to success?
How is life for our children in school changing these days? Very fast, with technology leading the way. Social media sites evolve constantly, allowing for anonymous posts and put-downs that authors do not need to own up to. Texting draws students into social interactions that they are not sure how to get out of. Online grading, either Edline, PowerSchool or ParentConnect, is a new fact of life for millions of students in thousands of schools across the country. How do we speak to our children about using these potentially powerful technologies? How do we see them ourselves, and how do they alter parent-child interactions?
Bullying, or the social triangles that develop between aggressors, targets, and bystanders are nothing new, but we are now realizing the long-term emotional damage and stress it causes. Can we teach our children and our students to take a more thoughtful, empathetic approach to these social interactions, both in cyberspace and the school hallways? Interpersonal and social media skills taught at a young age can provide a foundation for our children for the rest of their lives.
This Georgetown SEPAC/GeorgetownCARES meeting is free and open to the public. Please RSVP or direct questions to Pam Lundquist at tenhawkway@comcast.net
Wondering about how to write the best possible IEP for your child? This workshop takes parents step-by-step through the development of the IEP. Learn ways to write and express your vision for your child and what your concerns are. Be sure your IEP services will build on your child’s strengths and individual learning style, while also specifying the instructional modifications and accommodations your child needs to make academic progress. Clarify measurable goals, objectives, benchmarks, and assessments. Bring your child’s IEP and ask your specific questions! The agenda for the evening includes the IEP & the General Curriculum, Filling out each section of the IEP, Accountability for progress, Progress reporting.
For more information or to register for this workshop call Kara Keleher at (978) 388-9950. This event is free and open to the public.
May 16th, 2012 – Wednesday, 7-8:30pm - Penn Brook Library, 68 Elm St., Georgetown, MA 01833 - A Joint Georgetown SEPAC & GeorgetownCARES Meeting: Best Practices to Help Children Manage School-Related Stress and Anxiety – Come join us for an interactive discussion led by Dr. Troy Carr, Georgetown School Psychologist – This workshop will follow up on themes of our post-film Race to Nowhere community discussion and highlight particular sources of stress for our youth in school along with helpful strategies to support our children and build their resiliency.
The popular film RACE TO NOWHERE, shown in Georgetown in October 2011, was a call to families, educators, and policy makers to investigate how we support student learning in a culture prone to over-testing, performance pressure, and over-scheduling. This film clearly documented the suffering that many youth remain silent about, the educators stressed and worried about how to build resilience and a love of learning when curriculum itself is so overwhelming. Overly burdensome and meaningless homework, pressure to get into the “right” college, and pressure to achieve “A’s” all contribute to one of our students’ greatest sources of stress – school! How can we help our children turn “high expectations” from pressures driving them onto a convention path into the key to their very own journey to success?
How is life for our children in school changing these days? Very fast, with technology leading the way. Social media sites evolve constantly, allowing for anonymous posts and put-downs that authors do not need to own up to. Texting draws students into social interactions that they are not sure how to get out of. Online grading, either Edline, PowerSchool or ParentConnect, is a new fact of life for millions of students in thousands of schools across the country. How do we speak to our children about using these potentially powerful technologies? How do we see them ourselves, and how do they alter parent-child interactions?
Bullying, or the social triangles that develop between aggressors, targets, and bystanders are nothing new, but we are now realizing the long-term emotional damage and stress it causes. Can we teach our children and our students to take a more thoughtful, empathetic approach to these social interactions, both in cyberspace and the school hallways? Interpersonal and social media skills taught at a young age can provide a foundation for our children for the rest of their lives.
This Georgetown SEPAC/GeorgetownCARES meeting is free and open to the public. Please RSVP or direct questions to Pam Lundquist at tenhawkway@comcast.net
What The Silenced Say, an Evening with Jonathan Mooney
A summary – Georgetown SEPAC
Think about this big industry that we call special education. There are drug companies waiting to make profits, and academics waiting to build careers out of this process. But guess who has no voice here? The kids who live it day to day. So I want to be their voice. All those kids who are silenced by their education.
I am sick and tired of the horror stories about kids like me, kids with diagnoses like LD/ADHD. I'm sick of the fact that our prisons are 60% kids like me. I'm sick of the fact that our mental institutions are 80% filled with kids like me. I got sick of people telling me that I would be lucky to flip burgers. I spell at a 3rd grade level. I read in the 8th percentile, which means that I read at a 7th grade level. My digit span tells you that I have the attention span of a gnat. And yet, I graduated from Brown University with a 4.0 average, was a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, have written books etc (permit me to brag…).
When I am forced to sit there at a desk, my attention wanders. But what happens when I am allowed to get up? What happens the moment that I can move around, the moment I decide what I want to study? The moment I am truly engaged? How disabled am I then? Not at all.
Can you imagine a kid rolling into class saying, yes, I'm ready to learn, and I'm defective. Deal with that.
I want to try to isolate how a kid who everybody thought would end up flipping burgers ends up at the top of his class. It has to do with surviving an institution that was obsessed with the idea that there is only one best way to learn. What we lose in the school of all kids is that we lose cognitive diversity, and the gifts that come out of that. Most schools tell you, you are broken. Fix yourself, or get out.
The place of common ground, the place that will revolutionize the way we do school, is the place that we all have been, and it starts in first grade. That is when kids' war stories start. That is when kids begin to think of themselves as stupid and crazy and lazy.
If you want to call for change, to call for reform, we need to talk about what is going wrong. So let's start with crazy. And crazy started for me with the desk. It ends self-directed learning. It starts, I'll tell you when you can get up. I'll tell you when you can go to the bathroom. I'll tell you when you can walk around. I'll tell you when you can tap your foot.
Do you know how many times I've been yelled at for disrupting class, for speaking out of turn? The school of all kids is hard to escape. The teacher would say, "Stop it, stop it, John. What is your problem, John?" And the logical conclusion of the child is that he has a problem, that he is defective. That is the pedagogy of shame. When I am shamed enough, eventually I am stopped.
ADHD is not a child who can’t focus, it is really that a person pays high attention to too many things, and that is a gift. We should burn the DSM, which is only concerned with what people cannot do. It doesn't talk about any of the good stuff, how gifted and special the kids with diagnoses are.
So the teacher says, "John, John, you have to focus!" The tidal wave of shame comes with this. Can I teach the kids what to say to that? Make eye contact with your teacher, and with a big smile, say, "Excuse me, that was a vapid euphemism." (euphemism is a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing).
Yelling at a kid to focus does no good. How about if we say, "How can I help you focus?" That changes things. How about, “what are three things we can come up with that would help you focus?
My top three favorite places that the behavioral problem kids are sent: 1) the hallway, 2) the in-house suspension room (loss of recess), 3) the Principal's office.
Look at the message about me and learning that is sent when I am placed in one of those places. We have to watch the way we talk, the way we segregate and humiliate the kids that don't fit our idea of normalcy. What kids learn is that either they need to stop being themselves or get out. You perform, or you get out. And state testing is making this dynamic even more entrenched. But that is not what education should be about.
We need to stop the tracks. The detention center is definitely one track. How about reading groups? Every kid knows what the smart and stupid kids read, Spot vs. War and Peace. Tell your child in a lower reading group that they are smart, that they will advance.
We might as well paint a target on a kid. Talk to your kids all the time about how bright they are, that they are destined to accomplish exciting things. Early reading is not an indicator of intelligence. Science now tells us that early readers are often surpassed in achievement by others later in life.
What brain science now tells us, is that the brains of kids with diagnoses of deficits keep developing later into life than those of "normal" kids. That the brain will grow to compensate for the deficit, around the deficit, to bring out greater gifts than normal learners will ever have.
Can you do me a favor? Please demand in yours schools that the word "retard" be treated like the moral equivalent of the racial slur.
No kid can learn with public humiliation every day. You have to pull kids out of this experience. And many kids, after facing it all day in school, come home to parents, who say, "What's wrong with you? What is your problem? Why don't you just do your homework?" That's when learned helplessness, the state of giving up, sets in. The shockers mice experience in science labs are on, and the kid just wants to die.
When a kid starts cursing, when they draw violent pictures, what do you think they are trying to tell you? Their pain is invisible. It's hard to understand how a spelling bee can make a kid want to disappear, but it can. If you don't want to talk about it, let's talk about drugs and alcohol problems instead. Kids like me get involved with drugs and alcohol all the time. Drugs will ruin kids like me. You have to intervene, But don't talk pathology. Help them out of their shame. Help them understand that the alcohol and drugs are all about shame.
Please take the word lazy out of your vocabulary as well. Depressed, right on. Anxiety and Learned helplessness, yes.
Let's talk about change and heroes now, because it's the heroes that matter. It's the heroes who can lift kids out of their place. Like my mom, who taught me and showed me every day that I wasn't defective. She was an advocate for me. Find out what your child loves to do, and do it with them. Teach them that they are not broken, rather that the system is broken, every day.
My dad looked at me, and said, "John, I love you regardless of how you do in school." Do you know how much that means to hear that from Dad? Kids kill themselves over their grades, not getting into the write colleges. You need to teach your children that they are good people, regardless of how they perform. That can change a kid's life.
There is a time to stop remediation. There is a time to talk about strengths and gifts. To say that what you can do is more important than what you cannot do. That is a paradigm shift to gifted thinking. So my best teacher, Mr. Rosenbaum, offered me project-based teaching, and asked me what I like doing. And when I told him soccer, he didn't accept that. He directed me towards using my mind. But of course, he got fired.
We can't continue to treat our teachers like cogs in a machine. We need to empower them. One important way to empower kids and teachers is with accommodations. Never let kids feel ashamed of accommodations. Accommodations are not cheating. LD kids scores improve 45-50% with accommodations, other kids' tests only improve 2-3%. People with 20/20 vision aren’t helped by glasses. People with near or farsightedness are.
High school was a tough go for me. Spanish class? I can't even conjugate an English verb! How can a kid have responsibility without choice? Responsibility is contingent upon choice. High school is a time of conformity. Shame creeps in. But shame does no good. It is not a catalyst to learning.
Please tell your kids that college is a great place! That things get better in college, your kids will rock college! Because what do kids tell you about how to make school better? No classes before noon. Untimed tests. When I get to choose what I study.
ADD/LD doesn't go away, and I don't want it to. I don't want to be cured. Through the idea out the window that normal is only way to be. That learning outside the lines can include skimming books. Take wild brainstorm notes with different colors. To become metacognitive is to learn how your learn. My success has to do with looking inward, not defining myself as defective, but with embracing my gifts. It's not about being a perfect kid, it's about understanding how your mind works. Let's stop fixing kids who do not have a problem.
Q&A
Q: How do you organize your thoughts while speaking or writing?
A: The way I do it is to get away from the idea that tangents are bad. We are taught that daydreaming or getting off topic is bad. An inventor once said that his best inventions came from daydreaming. But I do try to do is be very rigid with a framework that includes topics. I try to think about how much time to spend on each topic. It's like a big brainstorm. So I connect the tangents. It comes with practice, of saying what is my broad category, and let my mind run. So I embrace tangents, know my broad categories and I connect them.
Q: What do you do when you've given up on school?
A: You ask yourself, why have I given up? You understand and try to think about what you love. What I discovered was if I give up on school, on the game - because it is a game and we can learn how to play it - I would close a door for myself. And I wasn't ready to do that. Think about the right route for you. If you want to learn more, find yourself in college. Learn how to play the game. Sit up front, make eye contact. Learn how to regurgitate things back to your teachers. Because teachers love that. Play that game because you love learning and want to continue to learn in the future.
Q: How can you help your disorganized child?
A: Tell you child that getting organized will get easier every day. Think about, what is worth your time. Pick you battles, is it more important if your child loses his books or his pencils. There is no one best way to be organized. Organized people have developed a system that is right for them. Help them understand what is right for them. Ask your child what works for them. 80% of the time, they will be wrong. Try it, and than ask them again. Over time, that child will learn how to organize for themselves.
Q: How did being a part of the “soccer jock” crowd help you, and what should kids do who can’t find an identity in the sports world?
A: The jock stuff, really, is a double-edged sword. As a kid who had trouble learning, I was forced into the soccer jock identity. And my parents went psycho over it, just like they did with the learning. It was, perform, or you are not valued. It restricted my social interactions, because there is a jock culture, and it is a hard-drinking culture often, and it's not good for a kids with addiction issues. One of the best thing that happened to me, and I went to college on a soccer scholarship, was when I got injured. But let's talk about kids who don't thrive athletically and need to find other means of success. What does a child's mind love to think about? It might be buried under shame, crap, I can't, but you need to dig it out, and reward them for what they are good at. You've got to tell kids that what they can do is all good. Project-based learning is learning by doing, to understand knowledge holistically. My earth science teacher took us surfing. Open up their environment with what they are passionate about.
Q: What do you make of the terms, learning disorders, learning disabilities?
A: Great question. I'm not saying that they don't exist. I'm not saying that they are socially constructed. But what we need is an action shift, a programming shift. What's behind the idea of trying to deconstruct the language we use to describe these kids? I want to look at how the medical model for describing kids like me is the language of pathology, about disease. And this language has suffocated the way we intervene, the way we do programming. So to replace it, what I am for is understanding cognitive diversity. What that means is that if we looked around the country, is that every mind is different, unique. In nueroscience, what we are discovering is that the brain is the most elastic organ we have. If I am born with a deficit in my brain, such as ADD, my brain grows around it, it gets larger in other places. But the language of disorders doesn't embrace that growth, or the fact that so many kids with ADD are often or will become gifted students.
Q: So how do we break down the barriers?
A: The most important step for parents or teachers is to pump the child full of the message, you are not defective. No child should feel that they are not good enough or broken. But the big challenge is systemic, the way we train teachers. If we don't give teachers the tools to individualize instruction, we are going to keep having the drop out rates. The last piece that that where we are going with standardized testing, one size fits all is the opposite of recognizing cognitive diversity, cultural diversity. The medical models are concerned with what people can't do, ignoring that some of our greatest people have had great weaknesses as well. It focuses on fixing problems.
Q: Are you suggesting that teachers not play by the rules?
A: Yes, let's just be honest. I believe that a child's sense of self, getting kids connected to learning should be our educational goals. If we don't connect a kid to their passion for learning, the rest is inconsequential. We have to approach academics in a balanced way, talking about strengths and gifts. Sometimes when we take the pressure off kids to perform academically, they perform academically. Connect the kids with what they care about. You can achieve academic goals and a kid's sense of passion at the same time. What matters is people over programs. Teachers have the ability to reach in and pull a kid out of their terrible place. The essential goal of education is to empower kids to be critical thinkers, to connect them to what they are passionate about. But the reason I am successful is because I conquered the reading, which I could do because of great teachers to taught me that I have gifts to offer.
Q: How can we raise kids' self esteem?
We need to reassociate success and self-esteem with doing something we care about, not in pleasing some institution, not with achievement. So what can people do? You have to model being a connected and caring individual for your child by getting to know them and insisting that they get any accommodations that would help them to learn, which are guaranteed by law. It is the responsibility of the parents to passionately advocate for their children. Kids pick up on that. They see that and feel it. You have to give them concrete strategies to be successful that work for them. And tell them that they are not a broken kid. We have to understand the paradox of disability, which is that our gifts are often directly the results of our deficits.
April 2001 - Towson University
Books by Jonathan Mooney:
Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal, pub. By Holt, Henry & Co, @2008
Learning Outside the Lines: Two Ivy League Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD Give You the Tools for Academic Success and Educational Revolution, pub. By Touchstone, 2000
Think about this big industry that we call special education. There are drug companies waiting to make profits, and academics waiting to build careers out of this process. But guess who has no voice here? The kids who live it day to day. So I want to be their voice. All those kids who are silenced by their education.
I am sick and tired of the horror stories about kids like me, kids with diagnoses like LD/ADHD. I'm sick of the fact that our prisons are 60% kids like me. I'm sick of the fact that our mental institutions are 80% filled with kids like me. I got sick of people telling me that I would be lucky to flip burgers. I spell at a 3rd grade level. I read in the 8th percentile, which means that I read at a 7th grade level. My digit span tells you that I have the attention span of a gnat. And yet, I graduated from Brown University with a 4.0 average, was a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, have written books etc (permit me to brag…).
When I am forced to sit there at a desk, my attention wanders. But what happens when I am allowed to get up? What happens the moment that I can move around, the moment I decide what I want to study? The moment I am truly engaged? How disabled am I then? Not at all.
Can you imagine a kid rolling into class saying, yes, I'm ready to learn, and I'm defective. Deal with that.
I want to try to isolate how a kid who everybody thought would end up flipping burgers ends up at the top of his class. It has to do with surviving an institution that was obsessed with the idea that there is only one best way to learn. What we lose in the school of all kids is that we lose cognitive diversity, and the gifts that come out of that. Most schools tell you, you are broken. Fix yourself, or get out.
The place of common ground, the place that will revolutionize the way we do school, is the place that we all have been, and it starts in first grade. That is when kids' war stories start. That is when kids begin to think of themselves as stupid and crazy and lazy.
If you want to call for change, to call for reform, we need to talk about what is going wrong. So let's start with crazy. And crazy started for me with the desk. It ends self-directed learning. It starts, I'll tell you when you can get up. I'll tell you when you can go to the bathroom. I'll tell you when you can walk around. I'll tell you when you can tap your foot.
Do you know how many times I've been yelled at for disrupting class, for speaking out of turn? The school of all kids is hard to escape. The teacher would say, "Stop it, stop it, John. What is your problem, John?" And the logical conclusion of the child is that he has a problem, that he is defective. That is the pedagogy of shame. When I am shamed enough, eventually I am stopped.
ADHD is not a child who can’t focus, it is really that a person pays high attention to too many things, and that is a gift. We should burn the DSM, which is only concerned with what people cannot do. It doesn't talk about any of the good stuff, how gifted and special the kids with diagnoses are.
So the teacher says, "John, John, you have to focus!" The tidal wave of shame comes with this. Can I teach the kids what to say to that? Make eye contact with your teacher, and with a big smile, say, "Excuse me, that was a vapid euphemism." (euphemism is a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing).
Yelling at a kid to focus does no good. How about if we say, "How can I help you focus?" That changes things. How about, “what are three things we can come up with that would help you focus?
My top three favorite places that the behavioral problem kids are sent: 1) the hallway, 2) the in-house suspension room (loss of recess), 3) the Principal's office.
Look at the message about me and learning that is sent when I am placed in one of those places. We have to watch the way we talk, the way we segregate and humiliate the kids that don't fit our idea of normalcy. What kids learn is that either they need to stop being themselves or get out. You perform, or you get out. And state testing is making this dynamic even more entrenched. But that is not what education should be about.
We need to stop the tracks. The detention center is definitely one track. How about reading groups? Every kid knows what the smart and stupid kids read, Spot vs. War and Peace. Tell your child in a lower reading group that they are smart, that they will advance.
We might as well paint a target on a kid. Talk to your kids all the time about how bright they are, that they are destined to accomplish exciting things. Early reading is not an indicator of intelligence. Science now tells us that early readers are often surpassed in achievement by others later in life.
What brain science now tells us, is that the brains of kids with diagnoses of deficits keep developing later into life than those of "normal" kids. That the brain will grow to compensate for the deficit, around the deficit, to bring out greater gifts than normal learners will ever have.
Can you do me a favor? Please demand in yours schools that the word "retard" be treated like the moral equivalent of the racial slur.
No kid can learn with public humiliation every day. You have to pull kids out of this experience. And many kids, after facing it all day in school, come home to parents, who say, "What's wrong with you? What is your problem? Why don't you just do your homework?" That's when learned helplessness, the state of giving up, sets in. The shockers mice experience in science labs are on, and the kid just wants to die.
When a kid starts cursing, when they draw violent pictures, what do you think they are trying to tell you? Their pain is invisible. It's hard to understand how a spelling bee can make a kid want to disappear, but it can. If you don't want to talk about it, let's talk about drugs and alcohol problems instead. Kids like me get involved with drugs and alcohol all the time. Drugs will ruin kids like me. You have to intervene, But don't talk pathology. Help them out of their shame. Help them understand that the alcohol and drugs are all about shame.
Please take the word lazy out of your vocabulary as well. Depressed, right on. Anxiety and Learned helplessness, yes.
Let's talk about change and heroes now, because it's the heroes that matter. It's the heroes who can lift kids out of their place. Like my mom, who taught me and showed me every day that I wasn't defective. She was an advocate for me. Find out what your child loves to do, and do it with them. Teach them that they are not broken, rather that the system is broken, every day.
My dad looked at me, and said, "John, I love you regardless of how you do in school." Do you know how much that means to hear that from Dad? Kids kill themselves over their grades, not getting into the write colleges. You need to teach your children that they are good people, regardless of how they perform. That can change a kid's life.
There is a time to stop remediation. There is a time to talk about strengths and gifts. To say that what you can do is more important than what you cannot do. That is a paradigm shift to gifted thinking. So my best teacher, Mr. Rosenbaum, offered me project-based teaching, and asked me what I like doing. And when I told him soccer, he didn't accept that. He directed me towards using my mind. But of course, he got fired.
We can't continue to treat our teachers like cogs in a machine. We need to empower them. One important way to empower kids and teachers is with accommodations. Never let kids feel ashamed of accommodations. Accommodations are not cheating. LD kids scores improve 45-50% with accommodations, other kids' tests only improve 2-3%. People with 20/20 vision aren’t helped by glasses. People with near or farsightedness are.
High school was a tough go for me. Spanish class? I can't even conjugate an English verb! How can a kid have responsibility without choice? Responsibility is contingent upon choice. High school is a time of conformity. Shame creeps in. But shame does no good. It is not a catalyst to learning.
Please tell your kids that college is a great place! That things get better in college, your kids will rock college! Because what do kids tell you about how to make school better? No classes before noon. Untimed tests. When I get to choose what I study.
ADD/LD doesn't go away, and I don't want it to. I don't want to be cured. Through the idea out the window that normal is only way to be. That learning outside the lines can include skimming books. Take wild brainstorm notes with different colors. To become metacognitive is to learn how your learn. My success has to do with looking inward, not defining myself as defective, but with embracing my gifts. It's not about being a perfect kid, it's about understanding how your mind works. Let's stop fixing kids who do not have a problem.
Q&A
Q: How do you organize your thoughts while speaking or writing?
A: The way I do it is to get away from the idea that tangents are bad. We are taught that daydreaming or getting off topic is bad. An inventor once said that his best inventions came from daydreaming. But I do try to do is be very rigid with a framework that includes topics. I try to think about how much time to spend on each topic. It's like a big brainstorm. So I connect the tangents. It comes with practice, of saying what is my broad category, and let my mind run. So I embrace tangents, know my broad categories and I connect them.
Q: What do you do when you've given up on school?
A: You ask yourself, why have I given up? You understand and try to think about what you love. What I discovered was if I give up on school, on the game - because it is a game and we can learn how to play it - I would close a door for myself. And I wasn't ready to do that. Think about the right route for you. If you want to learn more, find yourself in college. Learn how to play the game. Sit up front, make eye contact. Learn how to regurgitate things back to your teachers. Because teachers love that. Play that game because you love learning and want to continue to learn in the future.
Q: How can you help your disorganized child?
A: Tell you child that getting organized will get easier every day. Think about, what is worth your time. Pick you battles, is it more important if your child loses his books or his pencils. There is no one best way to be organized. Organized people have developed a system that is right for them. Help them understand what is right for them. Ask your child what works for them. 80% of the time, they will be wrong. Try it, and than ask them again. Over time, that child will learn how to organize for themselves.
Q: How did being a part of the “soccer jock” crowd help you, and what should kids do who can’t find an identity in the sports world?
A: The jock stuff, really, is a double-edged sword. As a kid who had trouble learning, I was forced into the soccer jock identity. And my parents went psycho over it, just like they did with the learning. It was, perform, or you are not valued. It restricted my social interactions, because there is a jock culture, and it is a hard-drinking culture often, and it's not good for a kids with addiction issues. One of the best thing that happened to me, and I went to college on a soccer scholarship, was when I got injured. But let's talk about kids who don't thrive athletically and need to find other means of success. What does a child's mind love to think about? It might be buried under shame, crap, I can't, but you need to dig it out, and reward them for what they are good at. You've got to tell kids that what they can do is all good. Project-based learning is learning by doing, to understand knowledge holistically. My earth science teacher took us surfing. Open up their environment with what they are passionate about.
Q: What do you make of the terms, learning disorders, learning disabilities?
A: Great question. I'm not saying that they don't exist. I'm not saying that they are socially constructed. But what we need is an action shift, a programming shift. What's behind the idea of trying to deconstruct the language we use to describe these kids? I want to look at how the medical model for describing kids like me is the language of pathology, about disease. And this language has suffocated the way we intervene, the way we do programming. So to replace it, what I am for is understanding cognitive diversity. What that means is that if we looked around the country, is that every mind is different, unique. In nueroscience, what we are discovering is that the brain is the most elastic organ we have. If I am born with a deficit in my brain, such as ADD, my brain grows around it, it gets larger in other places. But the language of disorders doesn't embrace that growth, or the fact that so many kids with ADD are often or will become gifted students.
Q: So how do we break down the barriers?
A: The most important step for parents or teachers is to pump the child full of the message, you are not defective. No child should feel that they are not good enough or broken. But the big challenge is systemic, the way we train teachers. If we don't give teachers the tools to individualize instruction, we are going to keep having the drop out rates. The last piece that that where we are going with standardized testing, one size fits all is the opposite of recognizing cognitive diversity, cultural diversity. The medical models are concerned with what people can't do, ignoring that some of our greatest people have had great weaknesses as well. It focuses on fixing problems.
Q: Are you suggesting that teachers not play by the rules?
A: Yes, let's just be honest. I believe that a child's sense of self, getting kids connected to learning should be our educational goals. If we don't connect a kid to their passion for learning, the rest is inconsequential. We have to approach academics in a balanced way, talking about strengths and gifts. Sometimes when we take the pressure off kids to perform academically, they perform academically. Connect the kids with what they care about. You can achieve academic goals and a kid's sense of passion at the same time. What matters is people over programs. Teachers have the ability to reach in and pull a kid out of their terrible place. The essential goal of education is to empower kids to be critical thinkers, to connect them to what they are passionate about. But the reason I am successful is because I conquered the reading, which I could do because of great teachers to taught me that I have gifts to offer.
Q: How can we raise kids' self esteem?
We need to reassociate success and self-esteem with doing something we care about, not in pleasing some institution, not with achievement. So what can people do? You have to model being a connected and caring individual for your child by getting to know them and insisting that they get any accommodations that would help them to learn, which are guaranteed by law. It is the responsibility of the parents to passionately advocate for their children. Kids pick up on that. They see that and feel it. You have to give them concrete strategies to be successful that work for them. And tell them that they are not a broken kid. We have to understand the paradox of disability, which is that our gifts are often directly the results of our deficits.
April 2001 - Towson University
Books by Jonathan Mooney:
Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal, pub. By Holt, Henry & Co, @2008
Learning Outside the Lines: Two Ivy League Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD Give You the Tools for Academic Success and Educational Revolution, pub. By Touchstone, 2000
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Opportunity to interview Dir of Spec Ed Candidates
Hello Everyone,
Good News - The Georgetown School District's search for a new Director of Special Education has been successful in attracting highly qualified, experienced candidates for this important position! At this time the district's search has been narrowed to three finalists.
Next week, each candidate will come in for one day to meet with various administrators, school committee members and, of course, our special education parents! The district is looking for help from interested special education parents to speak with the candidates and offer their feedback and thoughts regarding them.
The candidates will be visiting on Monday (4/9), Wednesday (4/11), and Thursday (4/12); the scheduled time to meet with parents will be from 2:30pm-3:00pm. If you would like to help interview the candidates, please let me know by Friday, April 6th, at noon. The first five parents to contact me regarding their interest and confirming availability for a particular day will be selected. Upon your selection, I will forward specific information, as I receive it, to you regarding the candidate(s) that you will meet and the location of the interviews.
I thank you very much for considering this important way to help our school district select the very best candidate for Director of Special Education. The ability to dialog, speak with, listen to and relate to our special education parents is a critical qualification for the ideal candidate to have. The process of building positive relationships with special education parents is paramount to providing the best quality programs and services for our students. Experience building effective special education programs, creative problem solving skills, the ability to make and explain valid data/research-based decisions, are a few other valuable qualities for the candidates to have. In preparing for an interview, you may want to come up with your own ideas of important qualifications or qualities for a candidate to have. Please feel free to ask whatever questions you believe will help lead our schools to select the best candidate, rather than any question related to your own child's particular situation.
I look forward to hearing from any special education parent who would like to help conduct interviews and will be available at the aforementioned times.
All best regards, Pam Lundquist, Chairperson, Georgetown SEPAC at tenhawkway@comcast.net
Good News - The Georgetown School District's search for a new Director of Special Education has been successful in attracting highly qualified, experienced candidates for this important position! At this time the district's search has been narrowed to three finalists.
Next week, each candidate will come in for one day to meet with various administrators, school committee members and, of course, our special education parents! The district is looking for help from interested special education parents to speak with the candidates and offer their feedback and thoughts regarding them.
The candidates will be visiting on Monday (4/9), Wednesday (4/11), and Thursday (4/12); the scheduled time to meet with parents will be from 2:30pm-3:00pm. If you would like to help interview the candidates, please let me know by Friday, April 6th, at noon. The first five parents to contact me regarding their interest and confirming availability for a particular day will be selected. Upon your selection, I will forward specific information, as I receive it, to you regarding the candidate(s) that you will meet and the location of the interviews.
I thank you very much for considering this important way to help our school district select the very best candidate for Director of Special Education. The ability to dialog, speak with, listen to and relate to our special education parents is a critical qualification for the ideal candidate to have. The process of building positive relationships with special education parents is paramount to providing the best quality programs and services for our students. Experience building effective special education programs, creative problem solving skills, the ability to make and explain valid data/research-based decisions, are a few other valuable qualities for the candidates to have. In preparing for an interview, you may want to come up with your own ideas of important qualifications or qualities for a candidate to have. Please feel free to ask whatever questions you believe will help lead our schools to select the best candidate, rather than any question related to your own child's particular situation.
I look forward to hearing from any special education parent who would like to help conduct interviews and will be available at the aforementioned times.
All best regards, Pam Lundquist, Chairperson, Georgetown SEPAC at tenhawkway@comcast.net
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