I have accepted an invitation to demonstrate my manipulatives from Jodi Burr, Assistive Technology Specialist, Louisiana Assistive Technology Initiative at the state-wide 2015 LATI North Summer Summit as Gallaspy College of Education at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana on June 10. Because my manipulatives are available for check-out at the LATI centers, I hope many questions- simple or difficult- will be asked by educators to help them serve their students more efficiently and effectively.
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I was notified by DeeDee Buun, Georgia Department for Special Education Services and Supports, that my proposal to present at the 2015 Institute Designed for Educating All Students (IDEAS) Conference on June 1-5 has been accepted! The 2015 IDEAS Conference is sponsored by the GA DOE, Georgia Tools for Life, and Georgia Council for Exceptional Children. This will be my second opportunity to present at the IDEAS Conference.
I am looking forward to hearing from the educators who are using my manipulatives in their classrooms and answer any questions that they might have. See you at the conference!
I appreciate the help I received from Carol Thomas, Principal at Centralhatchee Elementary School in Franklin, GA, for providing an opportunity to share my teaching strategies. With Georgia’s high- stakes testing this month, I know that her time is very valuable. Hopefully, I can provide some last- minute resources to help her students learn their rigorous math standards before they are administered the Georgia Milestones Assessment.
I had two sessions at the 2015 EdCamp Rome Conference in Rome, Georgia. Educators from Floyd County Schools, Rome City Schools, and other regional school districts had many opportunities to make important connections with people and obtain innovative ideas for the students in their classrooms. Saturday was definitely a very productive day!
I would like to take a minute to thank Colleen Lines, Director of the Ogden Resource Center, Washington State School for the Blind, for reviewing and then posting my information on Washington’s list serv. Her willingness to post my information is very helpful, especially due to the distance from Washington to Georgia. If our correspondence can help at least one student in Washington, it will definitely be worth it!
I appreciate the opportunity to share my math manipulatives with Dr. Diana Gregory, Interim Chair of the Inclusive Education Department, Kennesaw State University at 10:00 on April 3. Because Kennesaw State University is one of the leading universities for teacher training programs, I plan to share the differentiation of instruction strategies of my number line to 10,000,000 and other math manipulatives that address the standards of fractions, decimals, weight, capacity, elapsed time, and money. I will also share some of my low vision and braille math manipulatives. With the rigor of the Common Core, my goal in having this demonstration is to provide future teachers additional instructional strategies to meet the academic needs for ALL of their students.
I had a great conversation with Elisa Wilkinson, Family Specialist for the Project for New Mexico Children and Youth Who are Deafblind. I mentioned to Ms. Wilkinson about the recent articles I had published in National Federation of the Blind’s Future Reflections magazine and the Canadian Deafblind Association’s Intervention magazine. She offered to forward my contact and articles to parents in New Mexico who have deafblind children. I sincerely appreciate her help!
I had three successful demonstrations in Tampa on February 9th. I shared my teaching strategies with Emily Wilson, Specialist at Florida Alliance of Assistive Services and Technology (FAAST). Then, I had the opportunity to see the amazing low and high tech assistive technology devices at her center.
My second demonstration was with Sheryl Brown, Executive Director of the Tampa Lighthouse for the Blind, and her colleagues. Then, I met with Laura Brown, Coordinator of Visually Impaired Program and her TVIs at Hillsborough County Schools and Kay Ratzlaff, Coordinator of Instructional Resource Services, and her colleagues from the Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired (FIMR-VI) at the Manhattan Center. Both demonstrations were full of enthusiastic teachers. I believe that everyone left with additional knowledge and were ready to work with their students.
I really appreciate everyone fighting the rain to attend my demonstrations. I hope that I can visit Florida in the near future!
Kathleen Farrand, Editor for the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Visual Impairments and Deafblind Education Journal, Visual Impairments and Deafblind Education Quarterly, informed me that she is interested in publishing an article in the Summer issue about a deafblind high school life skills resource teacher who uses my braille manipulatives during her lessons while students use my student versions. The teacher in the article is an amazing person and very inspirational because of the dedication to her students. Stay tuned!
I am pleased to stated that I am meeting with Emily Wilson, FAAST Program Specialist, at Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology in Tampa at 9:00 on February 9th. Sharing ideas is the main goal of this demonstration. Every time I visit assistive technology centers and school districts, I always gain additional information to provide strategies to use with my students at Elm Street Elementary in Rome, Georgia.
I had an article about my math manipulatives and teaching strategies published on FAAST’s website in October 2014. It is going to be exciting to demonstrate my ideas in person!