CVES SPED School News - Champlain Valley Educational Services

CVES SPED
School News
March 2012
Issue Number 1
“Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe”
BULLDOG BULLETIN
IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS: Plattsburgh Campus 561-0100, Mineville Campus 942-6691
Welcome to the Bulldog Bulletin from Champlain
Valley Educational Services – Special Education
Division. We will be highlighting some of our
students’ hard work and accomplishments in our
monthly bulletin. This is a collaborative effort by
students and staff from both Special Education
Campuses, Plattsburgh (WAFC) and Mineville (YD
-Yandon Dillon). We look forward to informing
families, community members and school districts
of our Bulldog Pride and our continued dedication
to student achievement!
Roxanne Pombrio
Director of Special Education at CVES
CVES ADMINISTRATION
PLATTSBURGH CAMPUS
Mr. Jerry Blair
Interim, Special Education Supervisor
Mr. Owen Maranville
Special Education Supervisor
MINEVILLE CAMPUS
Dr. Grace Stay
Building Principal
MINEVILLE CAMPUS
APRIL 3, 2012 6-7:30 pm
PLATTSBURGH CAMPUS
APRIL 4, 2012 4-7 pm
Check out www.cves.org for more information.
Communication News
This year, my students have been learning to speak clearer,
improve eye contact, increase vocabulary, speak in longer
sentences and carry on conversations. Part of their motivation
and success in speech therapy is a result of the use of the iPad
and computer. The iPad is a flat, portable tablet that can hold
many software programs (applications or apps) that are
colorful, musical, visually stimulating and engaging. The
children find it very easy to manipulate, and are more willing
to practice their skills using the exciting, fun programs. There
are numerous apps that are made specifically to improve
communication, vocabulary, articulation, social skills, reading,
spelling and math to name a few. My students all love to have
a turn on the iPad and computer. They practice speech
sounds, learn prepositions, new words, concepts, and some
very important skills like making eye contact and taking
conversational turns with peers. They can make movies of
themselves using their communication skills with iMovie on
the computer. Although technology is only one tool in this
speech therapist’s bag, it is a very important part of my
students’ learning and a key to their communication success.
~ Alice Knight at YD Campus
Communication--the human connection--is the key to personal
and career success.
Public Non-Discrimination Notice:Clinton-Essex-Warren-Washington BOCES a/k/a/ Champlain Valley Educational Services (CVES) hereby advises students, parents, employees and the general public that it offers
educational and employment opportunities without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, creed or religion, marital status, age, gender preference or disability. Students shall not be excluded from participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or otherwise be subject to unlawful discrimination under any program or activity. Inquiries regarding this nondiscrimination policy may be directed to:
James McCartney – Title IX Compliance Officer
Cathy Snow – Title IX Compliance Officer
1585 Military Turnpike
P.O. Box 455, Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Phone: 518-561-0100 Ext. 236
Roxanne Pombrio – Section 504 Compliance Officer
1585 Military Turnpike
P.O. Box 455, Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Phone: 518-561-0100 Ext. 299

POOL THERAPY
The pool is just one aspect of our
program. In the pool at CVES students
can enjoy exercise in a fun atmosphere.
The pool may be used any time of the
year. The pool is not only good for
exercise, but it can be a social experience
for students. The pool is a place where
Occupational Therapy may take place
with our students. The pool is a sensory
experience for students. Our students
really look forward to going swimming.
“Wild Animals of the North Country”
Karen Saroj’s class, along with Judy
Booth, speech therapist, has been
working on “Wild Animals of the North
Country”. They have been researching
and writing reports of wild animals in
this area. Mr. Youngman, instructor of
CV-TEC Environmental Conservation
class, has let the class borrow taxidermy
animals so that students may view the
animals up close. On Wed, Feb. 8, Mr.
Steve Hall (seen in the picture above)
from the Animal Wildlife Sanctuary in
Wilmington, NY came to visit the class
and speak about wolves and their history
in the United States. The presentation
included a slideshow of pictures of
wolves as well as other animals housed
at his wildlife sanctuary. He also told
stories of how these animals came to be
in the sanctuary. Steve and his wife,
Wendy also have a sanctuary for birds of
prey.
Our students love to work!
Students in Ellen Fraser's
class that have turned 14 are
eligible for in-house work
experience. They really enjoy
interacting with staff and their peers
throughout the building. It's especially
fun for them to chat with our
Cosmetology and Child Care students.
And then there's the extra bonus of
petting a few furry four-legged friends
in Vet-Tec! Delivering mail and
collecting recyclables helps prepare
them for future responsibilities.
The 9 th grade English class
honed their survival skills
while reading The Lord of
the Flies by William Golding
and is now reading Between a Rock and
a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, the rock
climber who had to make a serious
choice after being “stuck”, literally, in
the Canyonlands of Utah. They will be
interviewing an experienced rock
climber and participating in literature
circles centered on this novel.
The 10 th grade English class
investigated the power of an individual
while reading The Crucible, Arthur
Miller's play of the Salem Witch trials,
an allegory of Miller's own dealings
with McCarthyism. They are now
reading The Autobiography of Malcolm
X as told by Alex Haley, in which they
will investigate the influence he has had
on the Civil Rights Movement.
The 11 th grade English class delved
into the search for teen identity while
reading Shattering Glass by Gail Giles,
a novel, which demonstrated not
everyone fits “inside the box.” They are
now reading The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.
This is a novel told from the perspective
of a fifteen year old boy with Asperger's
Syndrome. As the students read, they
are discovering the role that family and
community play in shaping their own
identities, as well as comparing this
contemporary novel to the stories of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. In the spirit of
Sherlock Holmes, they will participate
in a simulated murder mystery
luncheon. The culminating project for
this class is a Powerpoint presentation
demonstrating their “true” identity.
The 12 th grade English class
analyzed the effects of struggle and
conflict on a person's life while reading
Med Head: My Knock-Down Drag-Out
Drugged-Up Battle with My Brain the
true story of Cory Friedman and his
battle with Tourette's syndrome and
severe OCD, as told to James Patterson.
They, too, are reading The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon, but are investigating
how Christopher's struggles have led to
change in his life.
~ HS English Teacher Mrs. Wilkins
From Ms. Sue
I would like to thank everyone;
students and staff for all of their hard
work in making our 2011 Holiday
show a great success. I truly
appreciate everyone’s cooperation and
dedication.
GREAT JOB EVERYONE!
As a team we can do anything
“Can I Help?”
Carol Burleigh’s
12:1, 3:1 class
has been busy with
community projects.
They were very
involved with
spreading holiday
cheer by making over 500 cards for
local nursing homes, and helping
decorate for the CVPH Senior Snow
Ball. Currently they are making dog
and cat treats to bring to the CV-TEC
Veterinary class. Students enjoy their
time in the community and in the
classroom working on the projects.
What’s cooking?
Mrs. Dayton’s class has a new recipe
to try every week. Friday is cooking
morning. The class makes a dish from
a recipe chosen by the class. They’ve
made everything from breakfast
burritos to brownies. The students are
learning their way around the kitchen
as well as increasing their reading and
measurement skills.

Students in Mrs. Waldron’s CV-TEC
academic assistance class work hard to
complete challenging Technical Reading
and Writing assignments. TRWs are a
required component of all CV-TEC
vocational programs; project assignments
vary depending on whether they are year
1 or 2 students. The career research
project requires students to research
numerous aspects of their chosen career
and write a report that includes a job
description, required qualifications,
needed skills, job responsibilities,
compensation, required education and
future career outlook. Other students
completed a college summary that
required them to research colleges that
offer programs in their chosen field and
write a detailed description of the
program and supports the colleges have
to offer.
Students in Ms. McGowan’s Careers
Class at YD sold soup and cookies in a
jar and raised $250.00 for the Moriah
Food Shelf. Way to be active community
members!
Diploma
Bound
Students in Mr.
Thompson’s
academic high
school class at YD are working to earn
credits towards their high school
diploma. This January three students
passed their RCTs bringing them that
much closer to their local high school
diploma. Congrats to all who passed!
What a fun winter this has been in
speech class! We have worked hard on
learning to name and point to all of the
vocabulary items that we see throughout
our home and school routines. Knowing
these words helps us be more confident
and successful communicators in our
environments. In addition to our fun
vocabulary units and social
communication skills that we practice
everyday, we are always working
improving our ability to follow
directions and increasing spontaneous
verbalization.
~ Ms. Litts-Cass Speech at WAFC
Ms. Sawyer’s class has a new behavior
incentive program and they call it
“BOOT CAMP”. Student’s start out as
Privates and by the end of the week can
earn the rank of Sargeant, Lieutenant,
Admiral or 5 Star General. The students
are working at achieving higher ranks
and enjoy the program.
~ Ms. Richardson/Mrs. Hamlin
Class Counselors
Mrs.
Johnson’s
class has
read several winter themed books in the
past months. Students retold one of the
stories by coloring the animals that
crawled into The Mitten. In March they
will be celebrating Dr.Seuss and will
read several of his books.
~ Ms. Johnson/Alice Knight YD
“A person's a person, no matter
how small.” Dr. Seuss
A student received
an Apple iPad2 and
the software
Proloqu2Go with
funds from the North
Country Chapter of
the National Down’s
Syndrome
Foundation. He has gone from low
tech to high tech in a matter of
minutes. The iPad now allows him to
have all of the pictures with voice
output needed for everyday
communication. No longer do just
pictures limit him in his
communication binder. This form of
technology is affordable, portable and
easy to learn for all students, therapist
and parents.
~ Janet Booth, Speech at WAFC
In the 6:1:1 Autism room we have
been working to identify animals, the
sounds that they make, and the places
they live or can be seen. As part of
our classroom curriculum, we are
always working closely with our
service
providers to
ensure that
students are
maximizing
their learning
opportunities
across all environments. Every minute
of the day is used as a teaching
moment, whether it is work time,
meals, or play time. We incorporate
IEP goals into all of our activities to
make sure students are learning at
their fullest potential. It is a goal for
our students to be able to wave and/or
say “hi” or “bye”, respond to yes/no
basic social questions, request desired
items either verbally or with a
communication device and to follow
basic directions.
~ Ms. Johnston is a Teacher at WAFC
Mr. Johnson’s
8:1:1 students
have been
working hard to
improve their
reading, math and
writing skills. They are also working
to improve specific social capacities:
listening, empathizing and problem
solving. The students’ collaborative
efforts have contributed to the creation
of an environment that is a safe and
fun place to learn and play. Gradually,
the students are becoming better
learners and better citizens.
~Mr. Johnson teaches at YD

Susan Richards
Speech
Some of my older
students are
developing the skills necessary to be as
independent as possible in a variety of
everyday activities in the community:
shopping, going out to eat, visiting the
elderly; and in the school community:
cooking and recycling. We also have a
school wide picture communication
system for the cafeteria that our students
help maintain.
March will bring the fourth rotation in
the community for our Career Pathways
students. Students are enjoying training
opportunities with the following
businesses this year: Banker's Orchard,
Chartwell's Dining Halls at Plattsburgh
State, Evergreen Valley Nursing Home,
Headstart, Kinney Drugs, Kmart, Little
Caesars, Meadowbrook Nursing Home,
Prays Farmers Market, Sam's Club, TJ
Maxx, Town of Plattsburgh, Tractor
Supply, and Wilson Farms. We thank all
of our businesses for their on going
support of our program and the valuable
skills we have learned at each of them.
~Ms. Robinson, CVES
Work Experience Coordinator
“Find something you love to do and
you'll never have to work a day in your
life.”
Teacher of
the Deaf
(TOD)
The three TOD’s on staff meet with
students with hearing loss to provide
instruction tailored to their special
learning needs related to their hearing
loss. TOD’s also provide
recommendations to classroom teachers
about how to optimize the listening
environment in the classroom for the
student. Students learn about how to
use and care for any listening equipment
that they use. Often students are the only
student in their building who wears
hearing aids. This can be a difficult
situation. This year we plan to take four
field trips where students with hearing
loss from all of our districts can come
together and meet one another. We
went bowling in October and sledding in
February. We look forward to our last
two trips this spring.
~Ms.Napoli is a Teacher of the Deaf
Ms. Peterson, school psychologist in
Mrs. Head’s classroom has been
working with students’ on establishing
safe boundaries in their lives. Students
are learning how to decide what
information is safe to share with the
different people in their lives and what
information they need to keep private.
For example, students talked about how
they can share most personal and private
information with close family members,
such as their mothers, fathers,
grandparents, favorite aunts or uncles or
in some cases their family physicians.
The students discussed how private
information wasn’t something to be
shared with people they have just met or
those they didn’t know well. Each
student drew a diagram illustrating the
people who are closest to them and the
people who were their best friends,
casual friends and those whom they
really didn’t know or had just met. Next
we will be talking about personal space
and how it affects social relationships!
BREAK DOWN
in SCIENCE
CLASS
Students in Ms. Denton’s 7 th grade Earth
Science class at WAFC have studied a
unit on Wearing Down The Earth. They
learned what mechanical and chemical
weathering is what causes them to
occur and how they change our
Earth’s surface. As part of this unit,
students made models to show one
type of weathering and presented their
model and a description of these
amazing “break-downs” to their
classmates.
On February 14, 2012 “Lizzie” started
school. Lizzie is a golden retriever
and is owned by Tom Quay. Lizzie
and Tom are certified and trained
through the Therapy Dog International
Organization. They currently visit
Momot Elementary, as well as patients
at CVPH. Lizzie will first begin
visiting Mrs. Ashline and Mrs.
Adam’s classrooms. There are other
therapy dogs that may be available,
and hopefully we will be able to
expand to include other classrooms.
Usually their participation is
incorporated with reading programs
and incentives. Students will often
take turns reading to the dog, or
children take turns sitting with the dog
while listening as a story is read.
~Deb Conroy is a counselor at WAFC
Mrs. Adam’s class collected over 150
cans for their
100 DAYS OF SCHOOL AND
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
WEEK.
The cans were donated to a local food
shelf. WAY TO GO!

Last month Ms.
Angel’s class at
WAFC
participated in
the nationwide
“Valentine’s for
Dogs” as part of
their unit on Humane Education.
Students made and collected Valentines,
donations and dog product coupons to
“have a heart” and treat dogs well. The
Valentines were addressed from dogs to
their owners with the theme of reminding
them that their dog loves them and to
please return the love by treating their
dogs well. The Valentines and donations
were mailed to Dogs Deserve Better, a
non-profit organization supporting rescue
and proper treatment of dogs.
The March highlight for Physical
Education Department is the annual
CVES Bowl-a-thon. For over 10 years
now the PE Department has held the
weeklong event, which features every
student at CVES bowling to raise money
for an area charity. All bowling is done
in the gym with the help of students and
staff keeping score and setting pins the
old fashion way. Each year’s recipient
charity is voted upon from a list of
suggestions made by any student or staff
member. Past years’ recipients have
included Ronald McDonald House,
Hospice of the North Country, Make –a-
Wish of Northeastern NY, and Elmore
SPCA.
~Mrs. Coakley/Mr. Daly PE Teachers at
WAFC and YD
Mrs. Head’s 8:1:1
classroom at
WAFC has
students cooking
on Mondays as
well as on holidays
and special events.
Students receive a recipe that tells them
all the utensils and ingredients needed.
They read and follow the directions with
assistance provided when they need it.
Students have increased their reading and
measurement skills and have enjoyed
preparing many different recipes.
During Chinese New Year, students
prepared Won Ton soup and it was um,
um, good!
During our school-wide celebration of
Chinese New Year, Mrs. Lee offered a
presentation on the aspects of the history
of China and the culture of modern
China. Mrs. Lee’s son lives in Shanghai,
China and she visits him often. Mrs.
Lee shared a slideshow presentation of
her visits to China and provided students
with an opportunity to view and
examine jade, tea sets, silk, Chinese
currency, green tea tasting, and she
presented all of the students with a red
envelope with a good luck coin from
China inside. Mrs. Lee reported that all
of the students were well behaved and
respectful of the unique culture of
China.
~ Mrs. Lee is a school psychologist at
WAFC.
The Chinese say that the Dragon leaves
wealth and prosperity in his path.
Mrs. Laura Birtz-Sisson, Speech
Therapist at WAFC, says that students
from Ms. Lucia’s room have been
working on greetings in speech. Miss
Laura is so proud of a student for his
patience and eye contact when greeting
his friends and teachers! Another
student easily transitions between
greetings and does so with a winning
smile! While, yet another student is
emerging with new sounds in his
repertoire and is learning to cheer for
himself!
In Mrs. Banker’s room, a student is
participating in table work while earning
time to “rap” for his classmates. And
another student always amazes us with
his enthusiasm for learning and earns
time to build 3-D models (out of paper)
of his favorite objects using /k/ sound in
words. Ask him about his latest
creations!
FIX IT SHOP
OPENS
Ms. Pellerin’s
Career Cluster class
is not only busy
with completing
assignments in a pre-GED curriculum,
they are also busy in the shop where
they are repairing items slightly
damaged/in need of repair, as well as
constructing Adirondack Twig stands
(wood provided by CV-TEC
Environmental Conservation class).
NO job too small!
Water World at CVES
Many CVES students of all ages and
from all programs look forward to
their physical and occupational
therapy sessions in the pool. Some
students are working on general
fitness and endurance as they swim
within an instructional swim class
with PT support so they keep up an
activity level for 30 minutes. Other
students are learning to tolerate water
on their faces so that they can become
more comfortable swimming with
their faces near the water. Many
children with the diagnosis of autism
have become independent swimmers
especially on their backs, and it’s
wonderful to see how relaxed and
comfortable they can be in the water.
For a blind student and many
physically impaired students, the pool
is a place to move freely with PT
support. The water provides a total
sensory experience for children who
crave sensory activities and allows
them to return to class relaxed and
ready to learn. The pool is a great
motivator to move when movement
outside the pool is difficult.

BUSY BUSY BUSY
Students in Mrs. Banker’s class at
WAFC participated in the Chinese New
Year celebration under the direction of
OT Tani Binghan. Students made
lanterns, which decorated the school
hallways, and they paraded through the
school with paper dragons that they
made in OT. Students also performed a
dragon dance in the gym.
Dragon Dance
Students also made bird feeders and
hung them outside their classroom. Now
students enjoy watching chickadees up
close.
Brain Gym
Students in Ms. Lucia’s class work on
Discrete Trials which is a program where
students learn to identify every day items
such as: Community Helpers, Verbs,
People and Animals. Some of the
students also work in the Reading Street
Program as well as a math program.
Students also have a letter of the alphabet
each week. During circle time we
review the letter, and students find
pictures that start with that letter by
listening to clues given about the picture.
Students also participate in a daily
exercise program called BRAIN GYM.
Students listen to a song, and have to
follow what the music is asking them to
do. Students sing songs and play
instruments.
*March 15, 2012
Early Release
*March 16, 2012
NO SCHOOL
Superintendent’s Day
It's been a busy fall and winter here at
the CVES health office. We enjoy
working with our new students and
seeing the progress of our returning
students. All of our students have
completed their annual vision and
hearing screenings. We want everyone
to know that we are always here to
provide medical care for students and
staff. Please feel free to stop by the
health office anytime.
From your CVES nurses
Dawn, Teri, Debbie, Nancy
Don’t Forget
OPEN HOUSE
*Mineville April 3rd
6:00 – 7:30pm
*Plattsburgh April 4th
4:00 - 7:00pm