Spring, 2023: Issue 12

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!

This is our last publication for the 2022-2023 school year! We wish everyone a wonderful summer break!

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

MCIU’s Arcola Middle School Autistic Support class has enjoyed developing new skills throughout the school year. The one skill everyone enjoyed the most was being able to work on our cooking skills by making Jell-O. The students learned how to carefully boil water, mix the ingredients, and measure the appropriate amount of mix to pour into individual cups before placing them in the refrigerator to set.

MCIU’s Arrowhead's K-4 Autistic Support Class has been having a blast all throughout the school year. Recently the students enjoyed engaging in the school’s Fun Day on June 8th. The students had fun dancing, taking pictures, and playing yard games such as inflatable basketball. We want to wish everyone a happy and adventurous summer! We look forward to seeing everyone again in the fall!

While spring and summer bring warmer weather, longer days and opportunities to be outside, it can also be a challenging time for many of our students. As behavior analysts, we often see an increase in student behavior following students' return from spring break. Many of our students feel anxious about the approaching time away from school, state testing, transitioning to a new grade, or transition to a new building. The behavior analysts at the MCIU work hard to support the students and staff, so they can have a smooth ending to their school year.

Montgomery County Intermediate Unit BCBAs, Kimberlee Jennings and Kelly Darrenkamp, presented a training to Lower Merion School District bus aides regarding the use of applied behavior analysis strategies and interventions to support student behaviors on the bus. Both Kim and Kelly offered preventative strategies to create a supportive environment, an explanation of the prompt hierarchy, bus related behavioral scenarios, and a question-and-answer period. The big take away from the training was that communication across all team members is essential to safely supporting our students both in the school and in the bus environments.

The students in the Elementary Emotional Support program took a field trip to the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown. The students saw a bison, otters, a red panda, and some more commonly seen animals such as goats and chickens. We ended the trip by feeding some very hungry giraffes!

Because the safety of our students and staff is a priority, our annual Field Day activities were moved indoors because of the Canadian wildfire smoke in the area. The staff and students enjoyed games like ring toss, relay races, and games with water balloons. As an added incentive for displaying a positive attitude, following rules and showing good sportsmanship, the students were able to earn tickets that they could use to vote for which staff member would be slimed at the end of the day. The winning votes were Mrs. Graham (BCBA), Mrs. Caamano (BCBA), and Mrs. Kantzaridis (2-3 grade teacher). And they didn't miss the chance to slime Dr. Tinor as well!

MCIU School counselor, Josh Steff, uses engaging activities in classroom guidance lessons for elementary school students. For his series of lessons on creating a positive classroom environment, Mr. Steff showed optical illusions to teach students that individuals see things in different ways and that, while people may have different opinions, it’s important to respect different views. Students then participated in a tower building activity where each student played a different role on a team to achieve a common goal. Students learned the value of working together and sportsmanship, while having fun!

A picture says a thousand words! Congratulations to all of the Anderson School graduates! We couldn't be more proud of your accomplishments and to see all of the great things you will do!

Many of the students at The Anderson School are also enrolled in the MontcoWorks NOW workforce program for youth and young adults. Congratulations to all of our co-enrolled graduates! It's been an amazing journey. Tori was awarded a full scholarship to Montgomery County Community College! The MWN team and her counselor, Danielle, are so proud of her and all of the opportunities she and her classmates will have in the future!

One of our former MontcoWorks Now participants, Diamond, was honored with the Governor's Award at the annual PA Workforce Development Association conference. Diamond's hard work and assistance from the PA Workforce system resulted in this well-deserved recognition in front of hundreds of people. Diamond, pictured here with her son, family and members of the Montco Career Link team worked with Hakim Jones (pictured to her right) when she began in the program. Through Hakim's ability to problem solve and with his support and guidance, he was able to help her procure a paid internship with the PA Career Link. That internship turned into a full time job, where she is now working and able to fully support and be there for her son and family. Hakim truly helped get Diamond onto a path that changed her life! Congratulations to Diamond and Hakim!

Our MontcoWorks NOW participants had an incredible year. Our team served over 100 young adults and they accomplished some amazing things together! Our participants completed 88 work-based learning experiences (internships and job shadows) accumulating over $180,000 in wages through our grant funding. Sixteen of these individuals were directly hired into full-time jobs, nine earned occupational certifications (CDL, electrical training, IT certifications and more!) in their field and seven others graduated from high school and college! We are so proud of all our participants and look forward to an even more successful program year in 2023-2024.

The MCIU Life Skills classroom at Evans Elementary has enjoyed this wonderful school year. As the classroom is preparing to close out the end of the school year the students have been able to participate in many end-of-the-year building events such Kindergarten Beach Day, 4th grade activity day and even a trip to the Pennypacker Mills. Along with Miss Jaclyn’s MDS class, the students participated in the Evans Elementary school field day which correlated with our superhero school theme this year. Also, some of our students were able to participate in the Evans 4th grade musical titled “Once Upon a Lily Pad!”

The MCIU Life skills classroom had a fantastic first year being housed at Upper Dublin High School. Throughout the year numerous connections were built to help grow our students learning as well as involvement in the Upper Dublin High School community. Ms. Dunn, the high school Art teacher, opened her doors to allow our class to enroll in her newly developed Unified Art Class. The MCIU Life skills students were able to participate in art class where they are paired with partner artists for themed activities. The entire class celebrated the end of the year with a field trip to Board & Brush for final artistic expressions!

The MCIU life skills classroom at Colonial Middle School had such an amazing school year and created a lot of memories. One of the biggest memories the students will remember will be the trip they took to Philadelphia to learn about the many jobs that are available at Lincoln Financial Field, Go Eagles! The students also traveled to Norristown to take part in a wonderful technology focused session at flux space where we learned how to code, interacted with new technology, and learned about future technology that we can use in our daily lives. We are very proud of each student for their hard work and dedication to our Life Skills Program and look forward to their growth and success!

The students at St. Margaret School in Narberth participated in a week-long celebration for their school’s 100th birthday! Each grade learned about a specific decade, including popular culture, activities, candy, and other fun facts from “way back when!” Melissa Helfant’s third grade speech and language therapy lesson revolved around the 1920’s. During the session, photos of school items from the 1920’s were presented. Each student had to guess the item in each picture. There were some interesting answers! When shown a picture of a book carrier with a shoulder strap, students thought it could be a bookmark, a camera, a security lock for books, or a belt. When shown a picture of a chalk holder, some thought it was a candle holder or a belt holder. Their reactions were priceless when they found out the actual names of the objects. After discussing the similarities and differences between today's school items and the items from the 1920’s, all students agreed that the items they have in school today are much easier and less time-consuming to use. The session ended with a popular (and intense!) card game from the 1920’s…Old Maid

To actively engage her students and create meaningful learning experiences, Lori Craven is incorporating iPad technology into her math remediation lessons. First grade students at Friends’ Central Lower School are learning basic math concepts such as: subitizing, counting, adding, and subtracting, practicing on an online ten-frame.

Using The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Illuminations Interactive Ten-Frame, students are able to identify how many items are in the squares; put a specific number of items into the squares; or determine how many items are missing to fill the squares. Learning number facts on a ten-frame is a fun way to build a strong number sense foundation and automaticity in younger students.

This spring, the Hearing Support Program hosted its first Family Engagement Night on the topic of transition planning for students who are deaf/hard of hearing. Students and their families from multiple school districts across the County attended this informative and interactive presentation that offered guidance on effective transition planning for post-graduation. Various paths such as college, trade and technical programs, and employment were discussed in a way that highlighted the unique considerations and accommodations students and their families can explore as they prepare for the next chapters in life. Dinner was provided from funds raised by the MCIU Walk 4 Hearing Team.

Kelly Lauer was honored to have the opportunity to sit with the faculty of Upper Moreland School District for the class of 2023 graduation on June 6th. Her student, Stephen C., graduated with honors and will be attending Pace University this fall. Congratulations Stephen!

Students in Ms. Erica’s speech therapy groups have been having fun focusing on developing their language skills during cooking activities. Cooking provides a fun way to practice following directions, requesting, making choices, peer interactions, taking turns, and answering questions. Ms. Courtney, our wonderful Occupational Therapist, joined the groups to help our students practice daily living skills such as opening containers, pouring ingredients, and mixing. In March we made Shamrock Shakes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and in April we made Dirt Dessert to celebrate Earth Day. Student’s followed visual recipes to locate all the ingredients and follow step-by-step directions. At the end we all enjoyed eating a delicious treat or sharing it with a friend!

During physical therapy sessions, the students at Thomas Fitzwater enjoy playing outside on the playground with their peers during recess every day. They get to climb the climber and come down the slides with their friends and even get involved with a little game of soccer. To finish the sessions, they walk back into the school while working on their ability to move over the sidewalk and grass and manage their iPad communicator/talker.

The MCIU classrooms at Colonial Middle School, Perkiomen Valley High School and Evans Elementary celebrate communication every day. Many of our students communicate using multiple modalities, including verbalizations, sign language, Speech Generating Devices (SGDs) with communication apps, switches, pictures and eye gaze devices to name a few. The classroom support staff, teachers and related service providers are an essential part of supporting the Communication Bill of Rights across the curriculum and across all school environments.

The National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities (NJC) has developed the Communication Bill of Rights that include:

1. The right to interact socially, maintain social closeness, and build relationships

2. The right to request desired objects, actions, events and people

3. The right to refuse or reject undesired objects, actions, events or choices

4. The right to express personal preferences and feelings

5. The right to make choices from meaningful alternatives

6. The right to make comments and share opinions

7. The right to ask for and give information, including information about changes in routine and environment

8. The right to be informed about people and events in one’s life

9. The right to access interventions and supports that improve communication

10. The right to have communication acts acknowledged and responded to even when the desired outcome cannot be realized

11. The right to have access to functioning AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) and AT (assistive technology) services and devices at all times

12. The right to access environmental contexts, interactions, and opportunities that promote participation as full communication partners with other people, including peers

13. The right to be treated with dignity and addressed with respect and courtesy

14. The right to be addressed directly and not be spoken for or talked about in the third person while present

15. The right to have clear, meaningful, and culturally and linguistically appropriate communications

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