BSE Bulletin for Educators

We hope you are enjoying the last sunny days of summer! This month's issue of the BSE Bulletin for Educators contains valuable information from the BSE, 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. To continue to receive all future updates directly to your email address, subscribe to the BSE Bulletin mailing list by clicking the button below.

With appreciation for all you do,

The Pennsylvania BSE and PaTTAN Staff

bsebulletin@pattankop.net

We are looking for quick tips and tangible tools that teachers can begin using in their classrooms right away. If you are using a strategy or tool that you would like to share with others, we’d love to hear from you! Send an email to bsebulletin@pattankop.net to submit your story.

If so, consider applying for the Pennsylvania Fellowship Program (PFP) for the 2022-2023 school year. The Pennsylvania Fellowship Program (PFP) for Special Education Leaders is a customized, year-long professional development opportunity for special education administrators interested in developing their knowledge and skills of special education.

Fellows are engaged in learning, networking, and mentoring opportunities built to enhance their capacity and promote effective programming to ensure success for all students with disabilities.

The PFP is designed specifically for special education leaders with three or less years of experience in their current role. While individuals hold many different titles within Pennsylvania local educational agencies, including special education director, special education supervisor, special education coordinator, and director of pupil services, a special education leader is defined as someone who has primary responsibility for the oversight of special education supports, programs, and services within a local education agency. Anyone holding these responsibilities is encouraged to apply for the PFP.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that increases student access to learning. Teachers establish a clear goal, and students are offered flexible options/pathways for meeting the goal.

Let’s examine a potential goal for a science class. The class has been learning about plant and animal cells. As a check for understanding, the teacher has created the following performance goal: Students will write an essay to compare/contrast animal cells and plant cells.

Writing is not the only means for a learner to compare/contrast plant and animal cells. While it may be a great option for some learners, it may be the barrier that limits access for others. To remove this potential barrier, consider revising the performance task as follows: Students will compare/contrast animal cells and plant cells.

By eliminating the phrase "write an essay," the educator can now offer additional options/alternatives to writing, such as:

• creating a chart or diagram.
• providing a verbal explanation to accompany a constructed model.
• creating a podcast to discuss the similarities and differences.

Each of these options allows the learner to demonstrate understanding. Writing does not need to be eliminated as an option, but including it in the goal statement forces it to become the only option.

If the act of constructing an essay is essential to the goal, then consider changing the wording from "write" to "compose": Students will compose an essay to compare/contrast animal cells and plant cells.

By doing so, student access is increased by allowing for additional composition options to writing such as:

• word processing
• using speech-to-text
• scribing for a student

In this scenario, educators may also need to scaffold the writing/composition process for the learner by providing learners with:

• pre-writing/writing checklists or templates,
• sentence starters or sentence strips, and/or
• offering tools such as story webs, outlining tools, and concept maps/graphic organizers.

Clusive is a free, flexible, adaptive, and customizable digital learning environment. Students can use Clusive to read assigned or free-choice books and articles, build their own personal library (including Bookshare books!), and take advantage of Clusive’s growing public library. Clusive helps learners build self-awareness through discovering, choosing, and using preferences that help build learning skills.

Developed with the principles of Universal Design for Learning, Clusive supports readers by providing options, making clear, data-based suggestions, and giving learners ultimate control over their learning experience.

A trauma-sensitive, proactive plan for safely managing disruptive behavior includes knowing when to call for support and how to help a student de-escalate.

Read the room for safety. Can you take the first steps to de-escalate and support the student, or do you need to have another support member (school counselor, school psychologist, behavior interventionist, grade-level administrator) called to be with the student while they’re given an alternate location or you move the class out to another location?

Engage the student and validate the emotion as you observe it. Frame a response equal to the visible needs. For example:

• “I can see you want some space right now,” or
• “I can see you’re mad about _________,” or
• “You’re angry, I get it—you can make the choice to be angry, but not the choice to be unsafe. I can give you some space while I get you someone to talk to because we want to find a way to help you.”

Support the student, and restate what you hear them say when they do verbalize a need (e.g., “Thanks for telling me that; I heard you say you want your laptop, and you will throw a chair if you don’t get it”). Be an active listener, and don’t forget that they get talked at all day, and sometimes active silence is the best tool for a high-stakes moment.

Provide an opportunity for them to use a flash pass (flashing this pass to the teacher can allow the student to silently leave class and go to their alternate safe space), take a break in a calming corner, go for a walk, and/or do an alternate activity (listening to music, coloring/drawing, reading a book, using a sensory item to channel their big feelings, in an alternate location with staff eyes on them).

Open the door, and keep it open. A counselor or administrator may come in to support or take the lead in the intervention and de-escalation work, but you should always play an active part in the solution and processing of the event. The child must always know you play a role, not only in their academic success but also in their healing.

Name the behavior, as well as the expectations around it, within the framework of honoring where they are and what is or is not able to happen in the space.

De-escalate as you are able, based on the student’s needs and the circumstances, or request support from your school counselor, school psychologist, administrator, or mentor if the student has one.

Excerpt adapted from Bowerman, M.J. (June 23, 2022). "How to Safely Manage a Student in Crisis." Edutopia.

This year’s $1.8 billion increase includes:

• $525 million increase through the Fair Funding Formula. On average, Pennsylvania schools will see their funding increase by 8 percent.
• $225 million increase for Level Up to provide targeted support to the 100 most in-need school districts, ensuring that every child in Pennsylvania has the opportunity to thrive and succeed through equal access to a high-quality education no matter their zip code.
• $100 million increase for Special Education.
• $79 million increase for Early Education through Pre-K Counts and Head Start.
• $220 million for public higher education.

You may have recently heard a lot about the Science of Reading (SOR). The Science of Reading is a term used to describe a vast body of scientifically based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.

Some key characteristics of SOR instruction include:

• Learning to read is not a natural process
• Explicit systematic instruction works better for all children
• Prevention is easier and cheaper than intervention

If you’d like to learn more about SOR, check out the PaTTAN Literacy Resource Hub SOR page.

About 988

988 offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing mental health-related distress. That could be:

• Thoughts of suicide,
• Mental health or substance use crisis, or
• Any other kind of emotion distress.

People can call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for themselves or if they are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support.

988 serves as a universal entry point so that no matter where you live in the United States, you can reach a trained crisis counselor who can help.

The resources contained in this newsletter do not necessarily represent endorsement by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.