Michelle Ribaudo welcomed everyone to the October, 2019, meeting of CoMO SEPTA held in the multipurpose room at Center for Early Learning North. She began with a brief hello and talked about her excitement to be part of all of the amazing things SEPTA has done.
Tara Arnett then gave a very exciting treasurer’s report. Due to the Inclusion Walk beingmore successful than expected, the executive board will be working on a revised budgetto review and vote on at the November meeting. Michelle Ribaudo and Amie VanMorlan talked about the generous donation from the Thompson Center to help support after school inclusion clubs, which has rolled out at one school already.
Speaking of that, the first recipient of our SEPTA Spotlight was revealed: Ms. Sarah Greenlee of Gentry Middle School! Ms. Greenlee has been instrumental in fostering inclusion via the Kindness Club at Gentry. You can read more about her nomination (and a bit about her herself) in our October Spotlight post. And remember to nominate amazing staff using our online form here: SEPTA Spotlight Submissions.
Announcements were made, including an update of our shirt fundraiser. As of right now, we’ve sold 49.. thisclose to the halfway mark of our 100 goal. Head to our It’s Cool to Be Kind fundraiser and nab yours, on sale now through Oct 31 only. All six styles are in youth and adult sizes.. and they make great gifts. 😉
Also announced was a walk & roll-a-thon by People First (head to Stephens Lake Park’s Happy Hollow Shelter at 2pm on Saturday 10/19 to join in) and several upcoming events that are taking advantage of CoMO SEPTA’s traveling sensory space to make their event more inviting to all. The Sensory Room is being utilized not only by schools, but also the community. One location will have us set up the room this year to see what it looks like and then create their own in the future. Mill Creek’s Cougar Fun Fest on 10/18, Christian Fellowship Church’s Fall Fest on 10/31, and an Inclusion Celebration at Skylark Bookshop on 11/3.
As for upcoming SEPTA-hosted events, you don’t have to let the Halloween fun end on Oct 31. We have an inclusive trunk-or-treat Spooktacular planned for November 2, 10-noon, in the parking lot of Missouri Employers Mutual. All ages and abilities are welcome, costumes are optional. If you have questions or if you’d like to host a trunk for the trick-or-treaters there, e-mail us at comosepta@gmail.com Also next month is our November meeting. It will be November 19th at 6:15pm. The presenter is Kerry Townsend, CPS Library Media Coordinator, who will share with us books with a focus on inclusion, diversity, and disabilities. We’re still ironing out the location, so keep watching for details.
Michelle also passed around the committee sign up sheets. We need people on the following committees: Social Planning, Event Planning, Advocacy, Meeting Support , and Teacher Support. More committee details will come in another post.
Michelle then introduced the speaker for the evening, Dr. Lara Wakfield from Smarter Steps (www.smartersteps.com) to talk with us about Strengths-Based IEPs.
Dr. Wakefield handed out a Present Level of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance to show where on the IEP that a child’s strengths are listed as well as a Student Strengths Inventory Parent Questionnaire that we would use during her discussion. She then pointed out that even though our children or the children we work with have a disability, the disability does not define them and each and every child has alot of strengths.
Dr. Wakefield asked everyone to fold over the Present Level sheet and to write down five of your own strengths. She gave the participants a few minutes to come up with five strengths. Some members of the group were able to write down five; however, many had difficulty coming up with that many. This is common, as it is hard to sit down and just write strengths about yourself.
Next, Dr. Wakefield asked the group “what is a strength?” The group came up with the following definitions:
-Things you are good at
-Things that come easy to you
-Things you feel confident doing
-Positive Attributes
-Positive impact on others
-Things to offer to classroom/school
This broader definition takes into account things outside of what is typically thought of as strengths. To assist with developing a list of strengths, Dr. Wakefield went through the Student Strengths Inventory Parent Questionnaire. This worksheet has categories to help the user to think and develop a list of strengths. The categories are:
Rules/Discipline
Social-Emotional
Personality/Mood
Academics
Interests
Under each of these categories are very friendly wording suggestions, that can be used to make a robust Strengths portion of the IEP. These strengths can then be used to support and play into the goals and accommodations for the student.In addition, Dr. Wakefield encourages children to participate in their own IEP meetings. The strengths section of the IEP is a great way to get kids involved with their own education.
Now that the group had the questionnaire, Dr. Wakefield asked everyone to make a list of ten strengths of their child. This was a very easy and quick task, as we all had the worksheet to start our thinking outside the box of strengths.
After Dr. Wakefield presented, Michelle thanked everyone for coming. She also reminded everyone about our educator mini-grants, and shared about the two were being awarded this month. The meeting portion was adjourned, but the room was reserved for social time after the meeting.