The Individual Classroom Referral - one support to kick-start the year to embed A.T. in your special education classroom

A.T. team's Individual Referral

Are some of your goals this school year is to use new and varied differentiation strategies as well as technology to support your special education students? The A.T. team's individual classroom referral may be something that you are looking for.

Our team supports individual classroom special education teachers and their students in the model Job Embedded Professional Learning.

There are two parts to this referral. There is a session of co-planning which includes reflecting on your student's needs, conducting a survey of what technology you currently have access to as well as planning a lesson which embeds assistive technology to support your student(s) learning.
(When planning an A.T. support with the focus of Universal Design for Learning a tools or strategy which is essential for a few students, the classroom teacher will note that all students benefit.) The second part of the referral is job-embedded as the teacher puts the planned lesson or activity into action in the classroom with his/her students. The A.T. itinerant teacher is there to provide as little or much support as the special education classroom teacher requires; from modeling to co-teaching. Reflection is included in the second part of the referral to ensure the classroom teacher has clear and personalized next steps in his/her journey incorporating A.T.

Our referral is open to ISPs and HSP special education classrooms - elementary to secondary.Here are a few examples of referrals that were done last year. Click on the images to link to a few of our detailed blog posts which share more detailed information about just a few of our previous sessions.

Junior LD - Read and Write Gold & SMART Ideas

Embedding Read and Write Gold during a Biodiversity research project at Bowmore Jr & Sr P.S.

Primary HSP - IWB & peripherals

Reinforcing classroom learning using the IWB at Clinton Public School's Primary HSP.

Junior HSP - SMART Ideas & IWB

Using the IWB and graphic organizer programme SMART Ideas to support the writing process in a Junior HSP class at Forest Manor Public School.

Secondary DD ISP - IWB

Stay tuned to our blog to read more snapshots of our referrals. TDSB teachers can access the itinernal referral form by going to the SEA Information and Forms tab on the internal web site here.

OneNote project spotlight: Supporting intermediate students at Bowmore Road Sr. P.S.

The inaugural year of our Assistive Technology OneNote intermediate project has wrapped up for the year. Including our secondary schools, 26 schools and 206 students were part of the A.T. pilot to support personal organization and transitions.

According to Peter Gazzellone, the Intermediate Home School Program teacher at Bowmore Road Junior and Senior Public School, being part of the OneNote project will have lasting effects on his students.

"OneNote has transformed our classroom and empowered our students. Not only has the software helped to organize our students learning, it has fostered them to become more independent and engaged learners. Being part of this exciting pilot was energizing as the teacher, since I saw first hand, the positive effects it had on my students. I am confident that my students have the skills set they need to be successful in their future grades. Such a fantastic initiative that I was grateful to be apart of."

During the project, each intermediate teacher paired up with an itinerant teacher from the Assistive Technology team. Mr. Gazzellone's class worked with itinerant teacher Valia Reinsalu. During the project, students researched and created a "My Favourite" poster. Throughout the research process they learned about the many OneNote tools and used hpLift to support their organization and learning.

Mr. Gazzellone, Ms. Appleby and Bowmore students.

At the final OneNote in-class sessions, students shared their completed "My Favourite" posters and were asked to reflect about which tools were most helpful to them during the course of the project.

A student's top 5 tools.

Here are a just a few "My Favourite" posters that Mr. Gazzellone's students created using tools and strategies found in OneNote and the hpLift app.

To see more Bowmore student posters and those of students at other TDSB project schools, visit our OneNote Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/AssistTechOneNote


Thanks to the all of the OneNote project teachers and students who took part this year. Our "phase 2" group attended our final Learning Community session last week. They shared ideas and discussed their students preparedness in transitioning into high school next year.