Spring, 2022: Issue 9

Welcome to the OSS InSight published by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit's Office of Student Services. So many amazing things happen every day in our work with young people that we have to spread the word!

The Office of Student Services (OSS) has one main goal, success for students throughout their school career and beyond graduation. This goal is accomplished through collaboration with the students, other offices within the Intermediate Unit, parents, school districts and community agencies. OSS provides best practices through innovative programs and services delivered by outstanding staff and leaders to school-age children across Montgomery County. There are over 200 professional staff and more than 25 paraprofessionals supporting students and teachers for high quality programs. We are proud for the work we do on behalf of young people and strive for excellence each and every day. For more information visit https://www.mciu.org/offices/office-of-student-services/.

Sincerely,

Dr. Brittany Lourea-Waddell, OSS Director & The Administrative Team

Twelve seniors completed their high school careers with a wonderful ceremony on June 16, 2022. Anderson staff, friends, and proud family looked on as they received their certificates and turned their tassels.They all heard heartfelt tributes written by the staff in honor of each graduate. We were pleased to have a student speaker Sierra, who also received a full scholarship for Montgomery County Community College. Jalyn received the Thomas Marrone Resiliency Award for Resilience. All of us were moved to tears when Adryanna sang "The Climb" at the end of the ceremony. We are so proud of the hard work and determination that brought our class of 2022 to graduation. We wish them all the best, and hope they always remember that they matter!

Prom, Unified Track, Willow Grove Mall and Graduation, "Oh My!" The MCIU Springfield Township High School Spartans are wrapping up another great year! In April, two students and staff were dancing the night away at the Springfield Township High School senior prom that was held at Presidential Catering.

This spring, some of our students participated in and enjoyed Unified Track with their friends at Springfield Township High School. They both received varsity letters! Way to go!

As the school year comes to a close students took one last field trip to to the Willow Grove Mall where they practiced making purchases in person. The students were able to shop at Macy's, Gap, and Snipes to get some essential threads. Afterwards, the students relaxed at the food court and enjoyed a great lunch.

On June 8th, two of our MCIU Spartans will be participating in the graduation ceremony! We are so excited to share this special day with their families! Congratulations class of 2022!

Every day our students look forward to watching "National Day with Mrs. E." on her You-Tube channel. These videos look at current events and fun things to celebrate each day. Students choose journal topics that often focus on one of the national days. June 6th was National Yo-Yo Day, National Applesauce Cake Day, and National Eyewear Day.

"Shout Out!" to the MCIU Cheltenham High Class virtual classroom. On June 6th, the MCIU Cheltenham High School class were given a "Shout Out!" on "National Day with Ms. E." for being daily viewers of her show. The students were completely surprised by the announcement they heard their classroom and teacher's name! Their faces say it all (see above). Watch it for yourself by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CvDM3favcs.

The MCIU threat assessment team has created a training to help schools learn the PA K-12 Threat Assessment guidelines and procedures. The first in person training was held on May 17, 2022. In this photo, leader Jean Miksch is showing how the Threat Assessment model incorporates risk assessment protocols and Safe2Say reporting. If you have any questions, or would like to have school personnel trained, contact. Aviele Koffler, Program Administrator of Mental Health Services at akoffler@mciu.org

MCIU school counselor, John McGranaghan, has been implementing lessons based on the "Good Project" at LaSalle College High School. The "Good Project" was developed to promote excellence, engagement and ethics in education by preparing students to become good workers and good citizens who contribute to the overall well-being of society. Through research-based concepts, frameworks, and resources, the lessons are designed to help students reflect upon their values and apply those values in everyday life and give them the tools to make thoughtful decisions. Some sample lessons include recognizing people who do good work, values clarification exercises, examining their school’s mission statement and creating their own mission statement. In response to the values clarification exercises a majority of students listed, "Hard-work & Commitment" as their most important value with “Honest and Integrity" and "Personal Growth and Learning" not far behind. By developing their own mission statements, students had the opportunity to reflect upon their life’s purpose.

Yearly Highlights

The MontcoWorks Now team had an excellent year, serving close to 100 young people in Montgomery County, while enrolling over 60 new participants during the course of the program year! Six participants earned their High School diploma, several participants earned or will soon earn their GED or HS Equivalency, 28 paid work experiences were completed, and 20 participants exited from the program by being hired to a better paying job that better fit their needs!! We are proud of all the work our participants and team members put in this year and look forward to an even better year next year.

Paid Work Experience Updates

The MWN team works with over 100 worksite partners to connect MWN participants to a paid work experience (PWE). We currently have over 6 participants working at organizations throughout Montgomery County:

• Ravon and Jermaine are working for the Norristown Public Works department while they complete CDL training.
• Ryan is our second client to start a PWE at Eastern State Steel this year.
• Trevor is working at the Montgomery County CareerLink office and was able to train with former MWN participant Naquaysa who gained full time employment after completing her PWE there.
• Lindsay is completing her third PWE with the MCIU HR Department.
• Sye'd is working as a grounds assistant at Pennypacker Mills.

PWE's are a great opportunity to gain experience in the participant's field of choice and to learn if that career path is to their liking. We appreciate all of our worksite partners and are excited to support so many unique work opportunities for MWN participants.

In the multiple disabilities support (MDS) classroom at Hallowell Elementary School Mr. Sean Martin is a personal care assistant for a student who is deaf blind. As he describes it, inside an MDS classroom is a “world of adaptations, creativity, and thinking of new and novel ways to accomplish things.” While many children look forward to the annual field day at school, for some children the event can cause some apprehension or worry about what that day may look like for them. At Hallowell Elementary School there exists a sense of community and inclusion for our MCIU students. As the school prepared for the special day every MCIU MDS classroom student was included on a team with their peers. They were also invited to create tie dye t-shirts to wear with pride alongside all the other students. As you can imagine there was a lot of excitement leading up to the big event.

When field day arrived, Mr. Martin said, “The best word I can find to describe the feeling of the day is ‘delight.’ The school had created what felt like a big celebration, with the secret ingredient being the ingenuous feeling that can only be created by the innocent fun of children. Every single one of our students was included as part of a team and the adaptations were made to allow them to participate in every single activity.”

Events like field day create everlasting memories for our young people. A huge thank you to the Hallowell staff and students for making our MCIU children feel like a part of the Hallowell family.

Visitation BVM School’s third grade math students applied their knowledge of the concepts of area and perimeter with some hands-on learning. Students were given 24 “pieces of fence” which would become the perimeter of their “yard." Students were challenged to use all 24 pieces to make a 2-dimensional shape. Students then had to determine the length and width and use those values to find the area of their shapes. Students explored making several shapes with different lengths and widths. After evaluating their work, students determined the square produced the largest area. Students were actively engaged in their learning as they deepened their understanding of these math concepts.

How many ways can we teach farm concepts and vocabulary this spring? Speech pathologist Kathy Wilz and her students at Our Lady of Confidence have been working hard using VOOKS, a website that brings storybooks to life with some classics and some with new twists! These books become videos using the illustrations from the story with narration and music. We were able to compare and contrast the traditional Old McDonald with Old McDonald Had a Truck. Students talked about what Old McDonald had on each farm. They identified vocabulary like different types of farm equipment and animals, acted out the story using farm sets, answered "who, what, where, when and why" questions. Students even suggested some semantic absurdities like, "Does a pig wear a hard hat?" all while enjoying a technology twist to story time!

May is “Better Speech and Hearing” month. Speech therapy services help students work on improving communication skills. Across the MCIU students use various forms of communication to help express their wants and needs, participate in classroom activities and discussions and engage with their peers. The speech and language pathologist determines the appropriate communication device; however, a collaborative team consisting of occupational therapists, physical therapists, teachers of the deaf, teachers of the visually impaired, para professionals and the classroom teacher work together to insure that every part of the student’s needs are getting met. Read how one student uses her communication device in the classroom below.

Tobii Dynavox i-13 Eye Gaze with Snap Plus Core Communication Program

The Tobii Dynavox with eye gaze software is a communication device that allows the student below to use her eyes to navigate and select icons when communicating and participating in activities. Snap + Core is the communication software that is customized to this student’s needs containing personal vocabulary and images that support her everyday needs. Not only can she use her eyes, but the Dynavox program also allows her to use touch (i.e. her fingers) to select icons. The device is portable and accessible via mounting (i.e., on a table, her chair, a stand) so that she can access her environment!

Norristown High School student, Ben Wallace, received a generous gift from the Upper Merion Ladies Auxiliary. He was given a WeWALK cane. Ben is a student who is visually impaired and uses a white cane. The WeWALK is a device that attaches to the traditional white cane, which makes it become a “smart cane.” The person can use this device as you would with any other white cane but it has extra features. The WeWALK detects obstacles above chest level with an ultrasonic sensor and it gives the user a vibration when it detects an object. The device also pairs with the user’s phone via Bluetooth. The user can use apps with WeWALK’s touchpad without holding their phone. Finally, the WeWALK is integrated with Google Maps and Amazon Alexa. Ben has been able to use this device and incorporate it into his daily activities when needed.

On May 1st the Hearing Support team hosted their first family engagement event at the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown. Hearing Support teachers from the school age program and the early intervention program invited their students and families to come out for fun and to meet other families in our program. The weather was perfect and we had over 100 families stop by to check in at our table. We look forward to seeing more families next year!

Email: bwaddell@mciu.org
Website: www.mciu.org
Location: 2 West Lafayette Street, Norristown, PA, USA
Phone: 610-755-9433
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mciu23
Twitter: @mciu_oss