Together We Can
March 4, 2024
Now that we are in the month of March and spring officially starts in just 15 days, it is time to start thinking about the next school year.
If you have a child who is receiving Special Education services and is moving from 5th to 6th grade, or 8th to 9th grade, please join us this week for a presentation on the 'bridging" process. Information, including dates, times and links are located in this newsletter. The link to the recorded preschool presentation is also available.
On February 22, the Board met at its regularly scheduled Retreat at the Havemeyer Building and featured a presentation from the Office of Special Education and Student Supports. You are encouraged to watch, or rewatch, the session on the district’s YouTube page. Do not forget to fast forward past the 1:45:00 mark after the Executive Session. In addition, at the March 21 Board of Education Business Meeting, our department will be presenting on Community Connections and Windrose programs.
Best,
Stacey Heiligenthaler, Ph.D.
Chief Officer of Special Education and Student Supports
What We Are Seeing 👀 Around the Schools
Preschool Clothing Unit at GPS
Tie-dying in Ms. Nicole’s preschool classroom at North Street School celebrates the conclusion of the clothing unit.
Student's at Hamilton Avenue School in Ms. Darla, Ms. Patrizia, Ms. Melissa, and Ms. Kristen's classes participated in a fashion show culminate "Clothing," which was their unit of instruction for the past several weeks.
National Read Aloud Day at GPS
Ms. Fox joined other guest readers at Old Greenwich School for National Read Aloud Day on February 7 and read to Ms. Wilson's fourth grade class.
International School at Dundee welcomed nearly 20 guest readers on February 7 for for World Read Aloud Day! Parents, staff, and community members, along with district members Ms. Bonnie O'Regan, Mr. David Eisenstein, and Ms. Leah Zilich all came out to participate. After a reception and book shopping, readers enjoyed a shared book experience in every ISD classroom.
Open Gym at Julian Curtis
Parents were invited to not only to see the gymnastics class at Julian Curtiss School in action, but also participate in using some of the equipment. How fun!
Reading at North Street
Ms. Frankemolle works with a kindergarten student at North Street School in reading and writing the question mark, exclamation point, and the period in braille.
Math at Glenville
Ms. Povemba facilitated a lesson for two grade 2 students at Glenville School, which focused on place value up to 100. Within this lesson, the students were engaged in a number of interactive activities that included identifying values, skip counting, creating number lines, and writing math inequality statements. Students worked collaboratively and used a variety of resources and manipulatives such as counters, personal white boards and visuals of counters on cards within each activity to support their learning.
Multisensory Reading at WMS
Mr Ligouri leads a multi sensory structured literacy lesson at Western Middle School focused on vowel digraphs, diphthongs, and word study.
Meet the Author
It was an exciting day at Western Middle School. Some sixth and seventh graders in Ms. Barnett's class were lucky enough to meet Janae Marks, author of the book From The Desk of Zoe Washington. Each student got to meet the author and get their book signed, as well as a picture. Janae Marks taught the steps to becoming an author and how she came up with the ideas for her book. It was a magical afternoon!
8th Grade Elective Assembly at GHS
The Greenwich High School Class of 2028 came together for the very first time on February 6 in GHS's Performing Arts Center to participate in the 8th Grade Electives Assembly. Students were introduced to many of the amazing GHS electives available to them. We are looking forward to welcoming them as ninth graders in the fall!
Workshops and Resources
Special Education Bridging Information Sessions
If your child is transitioning, or "bridging," from PreK to kindergarten, elementary to middle schools, or middle to high school and has a 504 or IEP, please join the SESS department's virtual information session to learn more about the bridging process. If you can't join us, you can watch the recorded presentation which will be posted to the district website following the presentation.
PreK- Kindergarten
Here is the link to the Recorded Bridging Presentation!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mB2UlvjIqYj1Dw6LXWDo4dXg8w3wzZdQ/view?usp=sharing
Elementary to Middle School
Monday, March 4 at 6:30 PM
Middle to High School
Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30 PM
Reading Lab with MaryPat Caldwell
Last month, I recommended an informative book on dyslexia entitled, Overcoming Dyslexia, by Sally and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. I discussed the many strengths that come with dyslexia as well as the challenges. “Slow readers, fast thinkers!”
This month, I would like to summarize and/or quote some of the key points the author makes about the “explosion” in neuroscience and what has been learned about the cause of and treatment for dyslexia. With the use of fMRI, researchers have been able to study a person’s brain activity while reading. Researchers have discovered that dyslexic readers activate different, less efficient, parts of the brain when reading as compared to non impaired readers.
The Good News: The author explains that the “brain function in dyslexia represents a very isolated weakness. The neural systems involving thinking and reasoning are intact and perhaps enhanced. Dyslexic children have a weakness at the lowest level of the language system, phonological (sound) processing, yet all the cognitive equipment, the higher order intellectual abilities - necessary for comprehension - vocabulary, syntax, discourse (understanding connected text) and reasoning are intact.”
The author shares that 120 years after dyslexia was first described, a new definition was written into Public Law (in 2017), reflecting the most up to date science. The law reads, “The term dyslexia means an unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader, most commonly caused by a difficulty in phonological processing, which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read and spell.”
The author passionately advocates for early screening, early diagnosis and early intervention. She and I agree on the essential components of a reading intervention program, which include evidenced based, high quality instruction, systematically and explicitly taught with sufficient intensity by a knowledgeable teacher. This reading instruction should be taught as part of an “enriched total language experience” that includes each of the major components of reading.
In my training, I have been fascinated to learn that fMRI has also been used to study the brain of a dyslexic both before and after an appropriate intervention. Results have shown that appropriate interventions actually change the way the brain processes information for more efficient reading.
For more information on dyslexia and the brain (Georgetown University, Center for the Study of Learning), watch their informative video
The Office of Special Education and Student Supports
Email: stacey_heiligenthaler@greenwich.k12.ct.us
Website: https://www.greenwichschools.org/teaching-learning/special-education
Location: 290 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich, CT
Phone: (203) 625-7493