This month's issue of the Bulletin contains valuable information, timely notices on professional development opportunities, and tools and strategies used by schools in the commonwealth. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at any time at bsebulletin@pattankop.net

With appreciation for all you do,

The Pennsylvania BSE and PaTTAN Staff

Watch this 5-minute video to learn more about emotional regulation for anger management, stress management, anxiety, depression, and coping strategies for many more mental health struggles. Learn strategies to provide a foundation of coping skills for elementary- and middle-school students; the same concepts can be applied to teenagers or high-school students.

Three Steps to Manage Emotions:

1. Notice And Identify Your Feelings
2. Think About Coping Skills You Can Use to Feel Better
3. Take Action by Practicing One Or More Coping Skill

Four Categories of Coping Skills:

1. Relaxation Skills
2. Distraction Skills
3. Movement Skills
4. Thinking Skills

Watch this 4-minute video that teaches children and adults how to manage their anger in five simple steps: The ABCDE Strategy. Super easy to do, with instant results! Try it the next time you lose your temper.

A: Awareness

B: Breathing

C: Count

D: Distance

E: Express

It isn’t a spot for them to hang out and ignore the world around them. Instead, children should feel safe and comfortable in the mindfulness corner so they can process what they are feeling.

A mindfulness corner works excellently in a home, but it can also work in a classroom. Read about the five tips on how to create your mindfulness corner. Number one: Location! Location! Location!

Unified bocce is similar to your grandfather’s bocce, except it’s played inside on a court with softer balls. But what really differentiates unified bocce from other sports is its feeling, its heart, and its caring.

“It’s bigger than sports. It’s more than sports,” said Andrew English, the head coach of Palmyra Area High School's unified bocce team. “It’s about teaching people to do things the right way. It’s much more about building relationships. Our differences are the big thing that everyone brings to the table.”

English estimated that some 300 school districts in Pennsylvania sponsor unified sports programs, including track and field, soccer, golf, and swimming. The popularity of unified sports seems to be growing, and the hope is that other Lebanon County school districts will follow Palmyra’s lead in the future.

Read the full article (linked below) and get involved with a unified sports team in your area!

On a recent visit to Western PA School for the Deaf, Dr. Carole Clancy, BSE Director, had the opportunity to see WPSD's state-of-art TV studio, editing suite, and a 3-D printing lab, which host a variety of STEAM activities designed to promote critical thinking and reasoning skills.

"It was a wonderful visit meeting with students, seeing their early intervention programs, their drone team, and their broadcasting classroom," stated Dr. Clancy.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), Bureau of Special Education is pleased to announce paid internships to eligible, out-of-state graduate students* to serve as school psychology interns in Pennsylvania local education agencies (LEAs) for the 2023-2024 school year. The $20,000.00 in grant funding, to pay out-of-state school psychology interns, will be available from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. Eligible LEAs include charter schools, cyber charter schools, intermediate units, and school districts.

* An out-of-state graduate student is a student with primary residency in a state other than Pennsylvania.

Visit the APR Repository to access the grant application, watch the recorded overview webinar, and see which LEAs are already approved for the school psychology paid internship for out-of-state graduate students. LEAs will continue to be added to the repository as their applications are approved.

This is a FREE virtual conference for educators, administrators, school psychologists, and math coaches. REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW! To learn more, go to the PaTTAN Math Website https://bit.ly/pattanmathconf

The PDE Conference, Making a Difference: Educational Practices that Work, was held March 1-3 at Hershey Lodge. The conference had 1200+ in-person attendees and 200+ virtual participants. The conference had daily keynote addresses for all attendees and over 60 breakout sessions across educational interest areas. The exhibit hall and poster session were very well attended; and, BSE and SEAP had open sessions available on all three days. Save the date for next year's conference - hope to see you there!

To ensure understanding of how to calculate the least restrictive environment (LRE) correctly for each child’s IEP and to be in compliance with IDEA and Chapter 14 regulations, check out the two new 15-minute videos!

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004), each public agency must ensure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are nondisabled; and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services IDEA §612 (a)(5).

If so, join the PASA DLM Team for Office Hours on April 18 from 11 AM -12 PM. No need to register; just click on the Zoom link included here - https://zoom.us/j/98207803625

Do you support students with significant cognitive disabilities? If so, be sure to visit the PA Training and Technical Assistance Network’s (PaTTAN) PASA DLM Instruction and Assessment Hub. Visit the “Communications and Announcements” tab for up-to-date newsletters shared with the field or access all teacher news at 2022-2023 PASA DLM Teacher News.