March 16, 2013

Friday, March 15th was a Professional Day. We had a great one at Dike-Newell. We started the morning with a pot luck breakfast.

Enjoying the potluck!

Sharon Brown, the Director of Special Services, joined us to answer some questions teachers had about the process when students are referred for testing because of difficulties in their reading, writing and math. It can take quite a while from the time the referral form is first completed until the testing is done and the team meets to review the results.

Charlie Gabelmann and Sara Wells

                                 

Janice Frey and Sue Mich

Sharon Brown also explained the current discussion at the state level about Chapter 33. Chapter 33 has to do with the guidelines for physical assistance of students who are at risk of hurting themselves or others. A committee at the state level recently had hearings and is making suggestions on possible changes to send to the Legislature in regards to Chapter 33. When more information is released, I will be sure to share it.

Getting prepared for Drums Alive!

Following the discussion with Sharon, the group moved into the gymnasium. We had a demonstration (we actively participated) of the Drums Alive! program. It is a combination of drumming, rhythm, patterns and movement which not only is great exercise, it also a great tool for learning. The instructor, Carol Richards, explained how this program has been used to assist learning with both students and adults. It was a lot of fun, we challenged our brains and we worked up a bit of a sweat!

Then we went back to the meeting room and several teachers shared writing that their students had done. The writing was amazing. It really was fantastic to see the kinds of writing that our students are doing, and how funny and thoughtful they are. Wanda Brown shared information about a workshop she attended last month. It was very interesting and exciting.

After lunch, the classroom teachers worked on scoring writing prompts their students completed. I was able to meet with the other speech pathologists. Gail Aseltine is the speech path at Woolwich Central School and Kitty O'Neill is the speech path at Fisher-Mitchell, Bath Middle School and Morse. The district just hired Joellen McCosh and she will be at Phippsburg Elementary and West Bath School. Joellen wasn't able to join us Friday for our meeting. Gail, Kitty and I talked about providing speech/language services to students, the tests that we use, case management and paperwork, and scheduling more opportunities for us to meet to discuss speech/language services.

This professional day was very busy and a rousing success!