On October 6th, the SST hosted its first-ever gathering for regional DD Schools which included Directors, Teachers and Paraprofessionals from four of the five DD schools across our region with a total of over 100 educators involved! Beacon (Athens County), Carleton (Meigs County), Ewing (Washington County), and Guiding Hand (Gallia County) Directors, along with a couple of their Superintendents, and lead teachers from each building met in June to identify learning and collaboration goals for the October session. Our 2 main goals were 1) Recognizing and breaking the cycle of low expectations of learners with significant intellectual disabilities and/or complex needs, and 2) Establishing collaborative grade-cluster teams for designing high quality instructional materials.
Educators were involved in breakout sessions on a variety of topics;
Exploring Dispositions- Why do our students need access to the general curriculum? What does research say about providing High quality instruction to students with the most significant cognitive disabilities?.
Breaking the Cycle of Low Expectations - Do ALL educators believe ALL students can learn?
Breakouts by roles & grade clusters:
Paraprofessionals - How do you foster independence while providing intentional, just-in-time support?
Teachers K-12+ and Preschool: Conducting a Curriculum Audit - Designing instruction that provides Tier 1/Core instruction for All students.
Directors - Professional learning goals and implementation plans; Designing for sustainability.
Building Group Meetings for Reflection - What’s working? What needs refined? What’s missing?
We were thrilled at the energy and enthusiasm generated by this large group of educators! We want to acknowledge the commitment and support it took to arrange for so many personnel to be gone from their buildings for an entire day in order to learn and network. We look forward to facilitating more collaborative opportunities with this group in the future to support their learning journey.
