Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Free Upcoming Webinars

These trainings are from AbleNet University.

Teacher and Paraeducator Teaming for Student Success

DATE: July 12, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 45-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: Padmaja Sarathy
DESCRIPTION: The Paraeducator Series will offer three webinars designed to increase the knowledge and skills of paraeducators in supporting students with disabilities in diverse settings. Combined, the focus of the webinars is to prepare paraeducators to provide optimal support that assists student’s learning success while facilitating self-dependence. This series should be appealing to teachers who guide and supervise paraeducators routinely as well as district special education trainers in their design and delivery of professional development.
Part 2: This webinar session will address the essentials of a winning teacher-paraeducator team to support students with disabilities. Besides gaining greater clarity about teacher-paraeducator role differentiation, participants will learn steps and processes to achieve collaboration, communication and conflict resolution skills for learner success.

Pediatric Seating

DATE: July 19, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 60-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: MICHELLE LANGE
DESCRIPTION: This webinar will address the specific issues of Pediatric Seating. Growth, of course, is key with this population. Flexibility in a seating system is also required to accommodate orthopedic and range of motion changes and medical interventions, including surgeries and tone management. Positioning is also dependent on the mobility base, as many children use adaptive strollers, dependent manual wheelchairs, self-propulsion wheelchairs and power wheelchairs.

Choose and Learn with Your Eyes Using myGaze

DATE: July 26, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 60-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: FIORELLA QUINN
DESCRIPTION: Eye trackers are tools that measure how our eyes behave. They monitor what we look at, for how long, and where our eyes go. For many years eye-gaze technology has been used as an alternative-access method for individuals with physical disabilities. It allows a person to operate a computer or control the environment without having to drag a mouse. And it is faster, easier, and more efficient than other access methods. Recently, however, eye-gaze devices are used more and more in the classroom, especially in environments that provide different methods to access content and promote inclusion for learners of all abilities. That’s because eye-gaze technology is more affordable and easier to setup and utilize. In this webinar we will explore the myGaze device, a very popular eye tracker from Visual Interaction. This device is user-friendly, simple to setup and calibrate, and requires no training. It is small and lightweight and can be attached to most monitors and laptops. Paired with a powerful mouse emulation software (EyeMouse Play), myGaze can be used to control other software, navigate websites, access learning materials, play games, and communicate. With specific software, it is also a valuable assessment tool that can provide information about what a student focuses on, what attracts his/her attention, and what he/she understands. Workshop participants will view many examples of activities created for various software applications and designed for eye-gaze users to promote participation, engagement, and inclusion. Resources and strategies will be shared with attendees. Materials for Classroom Suite will be posted to the Classroom Suite Activity Exchange.

Fun Activities Using Remote Controlled Devices

DATE: August 04, 2016, 02:00 pm EST - 30-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: MARY HAGER
DESCRIPTION: This presentation will include suggestions for remote toys and devices that are easy to use and can be adapted for home and classroom. In addition, ideas will be reviewed on what to consider when purchasing devices using transmitters and receivers.

Intervention Strategies for Self-injurious Behaviors

DATE: August 31, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 45-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: PADMAJA SARATHY
DESCRIPTION: Students with significant disabilities may engage in a variety of unconventional behaviors causing injury to themselves –-such as hitting, head banging, scratching, hair pulling, biting, or screaming. These problem behaviors interfere with learning, inflict bodily harm and cause injury. The webinar will discuss the function that it serves, the contributing factors that trigger the behavior and how to observe and document the behavior. In this session, both educators and families will learn how to change the triggers, provide supports to the student and teach more appropriate replacement behaviors.

Build the Brain When it Counts: Stimulate Literacy Development with Enriching Experiences

DATE: September 13, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 45-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: PADMAJA SARATHY
DESCRIPTION: Build the Brain When it Counts series offers three webinars to increase the knowledge and skills of educators to nurture children’s executive function skills through the cognitive, literacy and social-emotional thematic frameworks. The strategies and activities will illustrate an invigorating learning process to put Pre-K to Kindergarten children on a positive learning trajectory.
Part 2: Using the thematic framework of the ‘Literacy World’, this webinar incorporates best-practice strategies to promote and advance communication and literacy development of Pre-K and Kindergarten students. A popular children’s book will serve as the focal point for exploring the theme of literacy. Educators will learn how to design and deliver a variety of enriching experiences to spark children’s sense of wonder and advance their learning.

The Three Ps for Behavioral Support: Preventive Strategies, Personalized Supports and Positive Strokes

DATE: September 29, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 45-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: PADMAJA SARATHY
DESCRIPTION: The Paraeducator Series will offer three webinars designed to increase the knowledge and skills of paraeducators in supporting students with disabilities in diverse settings. Combined, the focus of the webinars is to prepare paraeducators to provide optimal support that assists student’s learning success while facilitating self-dependence. This series should be appealing to teachers who guide and supervise paraeducators routinely as well as district special education trainers in their design and delivery of professional development.
Part 2: With the aid of classroom scenarios and student-specific vignettes involving both general education and special education settings, this webinar session will illustrate how to use the “Three Ps” approach guided by the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) model to eliminate or reduce problem behaviors. Participants will learn how to use Preventive Strategies (P1), provide Personalized Supports (P2) and deliver Positive Strokes (P3).

Speech Dude Tells All: Tech Tools For The Special-needs Classroom

DATE: October 04, 2016, 01:00 pm EST - 60-minutes
COST: FREE
DESCRIPTION: In this presentation, participants will be introduced to a wide variety of innovative technology tools that can be easily integrated into teaching and learning in the special needs classroom. Participants will be given ideas for integrating tools into Common Core instruction in ways that engage and motivate students with moderate to severe disabilities. Note: Participants should access the webinar through the Google Chrome browser

Apps Across the Curriculum – Supporting Diverse Learners with Google and iOS

DATE: October 11, 2016, 02:30 pm EST - 60-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: DIANA PETSCHAUER
DESCRIPTION: After first issuing 1:1 iPads, Chromebooks and laptops, many schools are now implementing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programs that provide more choice for educators and learners. Some are Going Google with Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education (GAFE). How do you support diverse learners on all devices, using free and low-cost Apps & AT solutions? Join us for this session focusing on ensuring success for all learners using the tools, features and apps available in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Chrome Web Store. These free and low cost AT solutions support personalizing education for students, as well as engaging and including all students in a UDL environment.
You will learn about a number of built-in accessibility features, as well as a number of free and low-cost apps, extensions, add-ons and web resources to support your students in accessing textbooks, learning materials (Handouts/Worksheets), research and study skills and completing assignments using technology. AT and app solutions to support students with learning disabilities (including Dyslexia), physical disabilities, low vision or blindness, and difficulties with executive functioning, literacy and math will be discussed. You will have a powerful toolkit for fostering access and success across all platforms, devices, and subjects! Access to General & Special Education with Digital Tools, AT, Apps & Resources for all students will be discussed.

Build the Brain When it Counts: Nurture Social-emotional Domain with Positive Behavioral Approaches

DATE: October 17, 2016, 10:00 am EST - 45-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: PADMAJA SARATHY
DESCRIPTION: Build the Brain When it Counts series offers three webinars to increase the knowledge and skills of educators to nurture children’s executive function skills through the cognitive, literacy and social-emotional thematic frameworks. The strategies and activities will illustrate an invigorating learning process to put Pre-K to Kindergarten children on a positive learning trajectory.
Part 3: Using a thematic framework of the ‘Emotional World’, this webinar will illustrate a variety of enriching early experiences to foster the social-emotional development of Pre-K and Kindergarten students. A popular children’s book will serve as the focal point for exploring the theme of emotions. Educators will learn how to design and deliver diverse activities to advance student growth in self-regulation and problem-solving based on neuroscience findings.

Apps and AT To Support Executive Functioning

DATE: November 10, 2016, 02:30 pm EST - 60-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: DIANA PETSCHAUER
DESCRIPTION: Executive function is often described as difficulty with planning, behavior control/regulation, organization and thinking skills. For individuals with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, learning disabilities or a nonverbal learning disability, components of executive functioning can limit functional capabilities in all areas of occupation. Students struggle with planning, memory, organization and experience frequent challenges with recalling the Who, What, When and Where of many tasks. In this session you will learn about AT tools and Apps to support many executive functioning skills such as time management, shift and flexible thinking, emotional regulation, self-monitoring, planning and prioritizing, organization, attention and focus, task initiation, and more! Join us for demonstrations, examples, discussions and methods of implementation!

Accessibility Features in Mobile Devices – What Is New in iOS and Android?

DATE: November 29, 2016, 01:00 pm EST - 60-minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: JENNIFER COURDUFF
DESCRIPTION: By law, mobile devices must include support for persons with vision, hearing, learning, physical, and motor disabilities. For example, did you know that you could set your device can be a “Switch” to help persons with severe physical limitations live a full and productive life? In this session, participants will be guided through the accessibility features offered on iOS 10 and Android-based devices, and will be provided with scenarios for applying accessibility features for personal and professional productivity.

Taking AT Along to Colleges and Universities

DATE: December 07, 2016, 10:30 am EST - 60-Minutes
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: GAYL BOWSERJANET PETERS
DESCRIPTION: When high schools and post-secondary programs for disabled students work together to help with transitions that include a student’s use of assistive technology (AT), continuity of the student’s AT use is much more likely. The Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology in Post-secondary Education (QIAT-PS) comprise a variety of on-line tools available to improve assistive technology planning for transitions from K-12 education to post-secondary education. This session will explore the QIAT-PS tools and offer examples of how they have been used.

AT Independence in College: The QIAT-PS Student Self-evaluation Matrix

DATE: December 14, 2016, 10:30 am EST - 1-Hour
COST: FREE
PRESENTER: GAYL BOWSERJANET PETERS

DESCRIPTION: In this session, we will look at factors students must consider when attending college, including accessing available AT services and supports. A newly revised student self-evaluation matrix will be presented as a strategy for preparing students for independence with AT during the transition from high school to post-secondary education.

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