Goals for my work on the web.

My goals for creating a wiki for my classroom are to expand the learning which occurs in our classroom to the homes of my students and to bring the needs my students have in their home and non school environments into the classroom. I had hoped to accomplish this by working more closely with caregivers, parents, family and friends and I endeavor to use the wiki as a vehicle to enhance and facilitate communication amongst us. In my looking around the Internet, in search of ideas which I can use to help my students, I discovered the power some educators had found in the use of a blog to collaborate with one another. This blog is my attempt to reach out to parents and other professionals who work for people with severe disabilities for their input, comment, opinion and advise. It is my belief that as Helen Keller said "Alone we can do so little and together we can do so much." I know that by working with and learning from others I can offer so much more to my students than I could working alone.

A couple of indespensible sites.

As a new teacher of students with severe disabilities I found myself at a loss for effective strategies and curriculum to help my students. I searched and searched and stumbled one day on http://www.cindysautisticsupport.com This site became a starting point for many of my journeys into the world wide web in search of strategies and ideas which would work with my students who are severely and profoundly disabled in a variety of ways. I found that even the majority of special education sites I visited didn't address my students' needs. But Cindy's site led me to resources I could use both for my students with autism as well as other disabilities. It was through a link on Cindy's site that I found Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs. I am learning so much from this exhaustive site and I am very grateful to it's author. From both of these sites I have discovered countless resources for my students, and expect to continue to visit them regularly.

Best Buddies Lunch

I spent a good deal of Saturday at a local coffee shop with some of my students and a group from a local university. The goal for our meeting was to get acquainted with one another and begin our year together as "best buddies". I was very proud of the way my students presented themselves and I was impressed with the way the university students conducted the meeting. I look forward to an incredible year associated with this group of young adults. Best Buddies is an organization which pairs students with disabilities with their non disabled peers. Best Buddies International