World Down Syndrome Day
March 21 was World Down Syndrome Day, a global awareness day which has been observed by the United Nations since 2012. Since chromosomes look like socks, students “rocked their socks” by wearing mismatched, colorful socks to support and create awareness. At Western Middle School, students gave out World Down Syndrome Day awareness stickers to students and staff who wore mismatched socks.
PreK Exploration of Water at North Street
At North Street School, PreK teachers are using the creative curriculum to teach students about water through hands-on exploration. The unit focuses on the three states of water: liquid, solid, and gas. Students engage in activities like water play (liquid), freezing water to create ice (solid), and observing boiling water to make playdough (gas). This hands-on investigation fosters curiosity and encourages exploration, making learning more engaging and meaningful for young learners.
Reading with FUNdations
Building strong foundational skills! These students at New Lebanon School working with Mr. Quezada are actively engaged in Fundations letter card practice, reinforcing letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and early reading skills. Hands-on learning like this helps build confidence and sets the stage for literacy success.
Building Language Skills Through Engaging Activities
Ms. Reiff, a speech and language pathologist at North Street School, facilitated a lesson that integrated a range of skills and concepts for her group of students. The lesson began with an engaging activity using an adaptive book, where the sentences were simplified and paired with visuals for each word. Students also responded to follow-up questions, choosing from a set of four picture options. These adaptive features help keep students engaged while supporting the development of both expressive and receptive language skills, as well as a deeper understanding of the story. Next, the students participated in a sorting activity aimed at strengthening their foundational language skills, vocabulary, and semantic mapping. This activity plays a crucial role in helping students process and understand language more effectively. Throughout the lesson, Ms. Reiff thoughtfully incorporated adapted materials, visual aids, and varying levels of prompts to ensure each student’s success.
Let's Problem Solve Together
Blending tech with hands-on learning! Ms. McEneany at New Lebanon School uses both digital tools and whiteboards to break down multi-step word problems, helping students visualize their thinking and develop problem-solving strategies. A great example of engaging, interactive instruction.
PE Gymnastics Unit
Students at Glenville School are currently enjoying a physical education gymnastics unit! This unit helps develop key physical skills such as strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination, while also improving body control and posture. The activities promote teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, which enhance students' social and cognitive skills. These benefits translate to the classroom by improving focus, self-regulation, and fostering a positive attitude toward challenges. Overall, gymnastics offers a fun, dynamic way for students to stay active and build lifelong fitness habits.
Building Reading Fluency
Ms. Mandelbaum, Special Education teacher at North Street School, works with a student using the Wilson Building Fluency program. This program helps students develop reading fluency by focusing on word recognition, accuracy, and speed. It enhances their ability to decode words efficiently, improving both reading comprehension and confidence. During this lesson, the student is learning to recognize and apply suffixes, which strengthens her understanding of word meanings and builds her ability to read more complex words. This structured, step-by-step approach fosters long-term literacy growth and academic success.
Ms. Rich at Hamilton Ave listens as a student reads. Running records are a great way to assess student’s progress with fluency and comprehension. A running record is a method of assessing a child's reading level by observing and recording their oral reading behaviors and accuracy, helping teachers understand a student's reading strengths and weaknesses.
Taking the Lead
Two fifth-grade students from Glenville School are leading the school in the Pledge of Allegiance and morning announcements. By taking on leadership roles like this, they not only build their confidence but also foster a culture of inclusivity and respect among their peers. Their participation reminds the entire school community of the diverse strengths and perspectives each individual brings, highlighting that everyone has the potential to make a positive impact. What a beautiful way to start the school day.
5th-Grade Mindfulness Ambassadors
The school administrators, along with fifth grade teachers Mr. Babyak and Ms. Young, celebrated and recognized the 5th-grade Mindfulness Ambassadors at Cos Cob School for their outstanding work in teaching mindfulness to all kindergarten and first grade students during morning meeting.
Multi-Sensory Instruction at WMS
Multi-sensory instruction means students simultaneously engage in two or more sensory modalities to take in and express information. These modalities are visual, auditory and kinesthetic/tactile. When teaching a structured literacy lesson, multi-sensory strategies can have a positive impact on student learning. During a structured literacy class at Western Middle School, Ms. Abramovich uses magnetic letter tiles, providing a hands-on, visual way to manipulate individual sounds and build words, which allows for active engagement in the learning process.
Visualizing and Verbalizing at the Middle Schools
“The Visualizing and Verbalizing® (V/V®) program develops concept imagery—the ability to create an imagined or imaged gestalt from language—as a basis for comprehension and higher order thinking. The development of concept imagery improves reading and listening comprehension, memory, oral vocabulary, critical thinking, and writing.” Special Education teachers and Speech and Language Pathologists across the district engaged Visualizing and Verbalizing training and had an opportunity to work directly with Stephanie Vogel from Lindamood Bell. Ms. Snyder’s seventh grade Academic Lab at Central Middle School engaged in using multiple sentence imaging and whole page imaging exercises.
The 5 P’s of Public Speaking
Students in Mrs. Previs’ seventh grade social studies class at Central Middle School are working on creating successful speeches on topics they are passionate about: from movies, to “One Direction,” and even playing the guitar. Students identify the 5 P’s (Planning, Preparation, Practice, Performance and Passion). In the Preparation stage, students have identified their passion and work on researching, planning a draft, revising and including important vocabulary related to their topic.
GHS New Course Registration Process
School counselors, Ms. Subach and Ms. Moeller, during lunch block, were ready to support students with the new online course selection process. For the first time, students can select their courses online through their Aspen portal. Any student or family needing assistance can contact their school counselor.
Clubs & Athletic Opportunities at GHS
Bella House school counselors, Ms. Dwyer, Ms. Snyder, and Ms. Nash (behind the camera), work with students throughout the year to help them learn about the opportunities and supports available to them at Greenwich High School. The counselors encourage students' interests by helping them engage in clubs and athletics and informing them about the individuals at GHS who are there to support them.
Welcome to GHS
On Wednesday, February 26, Greenwich High School hosted the Parent Curriculum Orientation Program. Incoming ninth grade parents were invited to GHS for tours of the building, a presentation led by Principal Mayo, and time to speak with the curriculum leaders of the school. Mr. Harry Burg, Special Education coordinator, was there to greet parents and answer questions about Special Education at GHS.
GHS Parent Coffeee
On Tuesday, February 25, Ms. Meagan White, assistive technology specialist, presented at the GHS SESS Parent/Guardian Coffee. She presented on how assistive technology can support students with disabilities. She demonstrated some easily accessible tools including Snap and Read and Co-Writer (which are free and accessible to anyone with GPS email) to help students with academic tasks including reading and writing.
Using AI as an instructional tool
On March 10, the GHS faculty and staff engaged in a full-day of professional development learning about artificial intelligence (AI). The training day included keynote presentations providing the latest update on AI in the world and in education. The day also provided ten breakout sessions. Many of those session were directly related to differentiation including Chat GPT - Modifying Curriculum for Students with Disabilities presented by Jody Minotti, Director of Regional and Transition Services at EdAdvance, and AI Tools in the Classroom and Differentiation presented by Rachel Rubin, GPS Inclusion Specialist.
Visualizing & Verbalizing Training at WMS
Ms. Abramovich, Ms. Barnett, and Ms. Lomanto, Special Education teachers at Western Middle School, are enhancing their skills in visualizing and verbalizing through a professional development session with Stephanie Vogel. This training is focused on improving students language comprehension, expanding vocabulary knowledge, and improving higher-order thinking skills.
Preventing Academic Failure Workshop
Ms. Jocelyn Bruchman, Greenwich Public School's reading lab specialist, is facilitating a series of PAF (Preventing Academic Failure) workshops to Cos Cob's special education teachers. This week's sessions focused on comprehension. The PAF program provides intensive, personalized instruction to help students develop essential reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension. The program also builds vocabulary and fluency, boosting students' ability to understand texts. By strengthening reading comprehension early on, PAF sets students up for long-term academic success.
Bridging Process for Students with IEP's
The SESS Department held virtual information sessions on the bridging process during the month of March. Please see the recordings below if you have a child transitioning in Fall 2025 from preschool to kindergarten, elementary to middle school, or middle to high school and were not able to join us.
PreK - Elementary
Preschool to Elementary School → Special Education Parent Orientation SESS
Elementary - Middle School
Elementary to Middle School → Special Education Parent Orientation SESS
Middle School - High School
Middle to High School → Special Education Parent Orientation SESS
Our SES PTAC representatives want you to know that they are available to anyone who wants to talk with someone about your child's receiving school to learn a little bit more about the day to day. Please email them at ses@greenwichptac.org with what the new school will be and they will connect you with the correct person.
504 Corner
with Michele Iannello
Transitions Do Not Have to be Hard
As I write this, it is hard to believe spring has finally arrived. This means that summer is just around the corner, and the new school year will follow soon after. All of these changes make me think about transitions—whether it is moving to a new school in Greenwich, heading off to college, or entering the workforce. As a parent, I can attest to how quickly time flies and how each of these transitions can bring anxiety about what comes next.
For students with disabilities, who require additional support during these transitions, that anxiety can increase even further. Fortunately, Greenwich has incredibly knowledgeable and supportive staff dedicated to ensuring that all students have the resources they need to access their education on an equal footing.
Whether your child will be joining us at a new school next year or is preparing for college, we are here to help. Below, I have shared a few articles and resources that you might find helpful as you navigate these transitions. Please remember to reach out to us with any questions—our team is here to support you throughout this process.
Eastern Connecticut State University: How Section 504 Applies to Post-Secondary Schools
7 things to know about college disability services
Your Child's Transition to a New School with an IEP or 504 Plan
Special Education & Student Supports Information and Resource Website
Please visit the new Special Education and Student Supports Department webpage on the Greenwich Public School Website. Information about Special Education supports and services as well as contact information is provided
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