I received confirmation from Dr. Nicky Ice that my proposal to present at the 2014 Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference on Thursday, October 16th has been accepted. My presentation will stress how my manipulatives can be used to address the Common Core. The timing of the conference is perfect because teachers and students are going to need all possible means to help ALL students achieve mastery of their rigorous math standards.
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Jane Gay, Director of the Iowa Program for Assistive Technology, offered to provide information about my math manipulatives to the Area Agencies on Education AT Liaisons and the itinerant teachers who work with most if not all of the K-12 blind students in Iowa. Due to the distance from Georgia and with the 2014-15 school year upon us, I sincerely appreciate her help. Because of the increasing rigor of math standards, I hope to provide teaching strategies to teachers that will make a difference for many students’ education in Iowa!
I shared the link for my recent article that was published in Education World to Lynda Richards, Director of Northwest Georgia Learning Resources System (GLRS). I sincerely appreciate her positive feedback regarding the recent article about my differentiation strategies with the number line I invented. Ms. Richards also mentioned that she was going to share the article with her colleagues at Northwest Georgia RESA’s August meeting.
At the 2014 MEGA Conference, Mary Ann Danford, Secondary Curriculum Coordinator at Conecuh County Schools, Alabama, observed a short demonstration of my differentiation of instruction strategies with my number line to 10,000,000 and Fraction 16ths manipulatives. Based on the need to meet the needs for all of her students, Ms. Danford has invited me to demonstrate my teaching strategies to her colleagues on July 25th.
I would like to express appreciation to Pat Satterfield, Center 4 AT Excellence, a Georgia Tools for Life Network Partner, for offering to share my math manipulatives with teachers who visit her facility at Georgia Tech as well as with teachers and administrators at her presentations around the state. Ms. Satterfield has also invited me to present at the 2014 GATE Conference in December. Please check my website or Center 4 AT Excellence’s website at a later time for the exact date and time of my presentation when it becomes available.
I am going to demonstrate my manipulatives to Brooke Sibley, Director of Special Education and RTI, Newton County Schools, Mississippi on July 23 at 2:00. This will be a great opportunity to share my teaching strategies, especially with the 2014-15 school year just around the corner! We both agreed that if our time discussing my math manipulatives helps at least one of her students it will definitely be worth it.
I received confirmation from Dr. Celine Provini, Editor of Education World, that an article will be published regarding differentiation strategies for using my number line to 10,000,000. This article will provide instructional strategies for teachers to help their students achieve mastery of their math standards during the 2014-15 school year. Please continue to visit Education World or my website to read the article after it is published.
I received confirmation from Jodi Burr, Assistive Technology Strategist, that I am going to conduct a math manipulatives training for the colleagues in her region on July 24th at 9:00-11:00 in Bossier City, Louisiana. I am excited about the opportunity, especially since the 2014-15 school year will begin in less than two months for many school districts.
What a year! I want to thank the organizers of the 2013 MEGA Conference, 2013 Kentucky CEC Conference, 2014 Illinois Council of Children with Behavior Disorders Conference, and 2014 IDEAS Conference for the opportunities to present at their annual conferences. All of the conferences were filled with parents, teachers, and administrators who took their personal time and paid their own way to find effective new strategies to educate their students more efficiently and effectively. Some of them drove through blizzards in Northern Illinois, while some fought off the temptation of going to the sugary-white sandy beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.
I also want to thank the assistive technology center directors and facilitators in Louisiana and Illinois for respecting my Rome City Schools calendar and penciling me in their calendars for demonstrations and also thank others who are using my manipulatives with their students. Everyone is so busy in education these days with paperwork, meetings with colleagues and parents, and the students. As we all know, the priority should be reversed to put the students back as the central focus of our mission to educate .
Editors of magazines and journals have allowed me the opportunity to reach students in places that I have never been or have seen on map. I appreciate their dedication to dig through stacks of article submissions and time to understand my vision, which is to help all students.
I would not be able to thank all of organizations and people if it was not for my wife Susan. I always tell her that she is the spokesmodel, but she is also my editor, web designer, co-pilot at conferences, and she keeps everything together at home when I am traveling to demonstrations and school districts. Thanks for help, advice, letting my “wheels turn” off and on during the day, and everything else in between. You are the best!
I talked to Shelby Morgan, National Center on Deaf-Blindness Project Specialist, about my low vision and braille manipulatives. Because of the immediate need to increase all students’ achievement with rigorous academic math standards, Ms. Morgan offered to post details about my manipulatives as a resource on NCDB’s website. Over the next few months, with the assistance from Ms. Morgan and Tom Mc Fadden, Executive Director of the Canadian Deafblind Association, my VI manipulatives are going to be brought to the attention of parents, teachers, and administrators and can help deafblind students across the United States and Canada.