Category: Updates

With school going back in session all over the country, Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools is so proud to look back at all that was accomplished this past summer. These summer months were a busy time for Special Olympics, with two major events in two months: the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle, Washington and the 50th Anniversary Celebration in Chicago, Illinois!  READ MORE

This year, the Inclusive Schools Week’s theme is “Kaleidoscope of Friends.” If you look into a kaleidoscope, you see an infinite array of patterns of brilliant light created by repeated reflection. Kaleidoscope comes from two Greek words: kalos, meaning “beautiful,” and eidos, “shape.” And indeed, education takes on a beautiful shape when all children belong and are valued as contributing members of the school community. That is the vision of inclusive education; it drives decisions, actions and core beliefs. Repeated reflection helps shape effective practices to meet the needs of all students. When we add the word “friends” to that image, the result is a myriad of relationships that provide opportunities for the support and growth of all children.  READ MORE

 

When a colleague invited Joy Kirr to a professional development day featuring the Scottish design thinking expert Ewan McIntosh she didn’t think it would be life changing. She was flattered to be asked, and wanted to make the most of the opportunity, but her experience of professional development up to that point didn’t lead her to believe it would be Earth-shattering. But then, McIntosh gave the teachers assembled a simple task: Pick one problem in your school and start working on it today.  READ MORE

Managing a school and district is a juggling act. Add into this the oversight of not just teachers academic skills, but their habits, and curriculum designers can quickly feel something slip. Offering teachers professional development opportunities may help, and these activities don’t always need to focus on hard skills.  READ MORE

In every classroom, teachers try to engage students who have a variety of temperaments: extroverts, introverts and ambiverts. They work with children who crave sensory stimulation and with those who are highly sensitive to noise and visual distraction. While one temperament is not better than any other, introverted students are often “overlooked, undervalued and overstimulated in our schools,” said Heidi Kasevich, a 20-year teaching veteran and director of education for Quiet Revolution, an outgrowth of Susan Cain’s best-selling book on the power of introverts.  READ MORE

Many special and general education students of all ages and achievement levels don’t get enough sleep. They suffer from sleep deprivation. They routinely get far less than the roughly eight to 10 hours of sleep they need. The long-term consequences of sleep deprivation put them at serious risk for obesity, diabetes, accidents, heart disease, and premature death. In school, at home, and with friends, the consequences are immediate.  READ MORE

Tara Taylor’s journey as a single parent started when her daughter was 6 months old. Now, her daughter is in college, and Taylor can reflect on her experience as a single parent during those K–12 years. In short: It’s not easy. “Think about all the challenges that two parents face,” says Taylor, “and multiply that.” For single parents, getting the kids out the door in the morning, handling homework at night and juggling school events with work can be tough. Here are 10 things your school can do to help make it a little easier for single parents.  READ MORE

Effective professional development helps educators better address the rapidly evolving needs of students. But with limited budgets and teacher time, how can PD be served up effectively, and integrated and tracked? Education leaders share their best practices for ensuring that professional learning time is well-spent, focused, shared and rewarded.  READ MORE

Disability advocates are calling on federal education officials to clear up what they say is misleading information that’s keeping students with intellectual disabilities from being able to attend postsecondary programs. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos this month, 71 advocacy groups and other stakeholders from across the country said guidance is needed to clarify that funding available under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and through vocational rehabilitation can be used to pay for transition programs offered on college campuses.  READ MORE

Does tightening the screws on schools and teachers lead to benefits for students? For the past couple of decades, school reform efforts have assumed that the answer is yes. Setting ambitious goals, and putting pressure on schools to reach them, would push students ahead. And past research has shown that math scores rose as more states began threatening and sanctioning schools with low test scores in the 2000s.  READ MORE