2009 Sam Houston

Council for Exceptional Children

Special Education Conference

Date: Friday, February 20, 2009

Venue: Region 6 Professional Development Center

Click Here for Conference Information Flyer!

Conference Registration will close Feburary 13, 2008!

Click the "Register Now" Button Below to Sign Up!!!!

Conference Registration Fees

Regular Registration - $80.00

SHSU Undergraduate Registration- $40.00

Accepted Payment: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Purchase Order

Need-Based Conference Scholarships Are Available, Please Contact James Williams for More Information!

Conference Schedule:

8:30- 9:15 Registration and Light Breakfast
9:15-9:30 Welcome
9:30-11:00 Keynote
11:00-12:30 Lunch (On Your Own)
12:30-1:55 Breakout Sessions 1
2:05 -3:30 Breakout Sessions 2

Please Note...
Registration includes a light breakfast, a tote bag, door prizes, and all conference materials.
100% of conference proceeds benefit The Sam Houston SCEC Chapter!
Due to Limited Space, there will be No On-Site Registration!!!

Keynote & Breakout Presentation Information Below

Our Keynote Speaker will be...

Dr. Bill Heward

Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University

President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International

Presenting...

Keynote Address

Ten Faulty Notions about Teaching and Learning That Hinder the Effectiveness of Special Education

Like all learners, students with disabilities progress best when they actively participate in well-executed instructional programs informed by scientific research. Unfortunately, many students with disabilities spend their school days in programs that are (mis)informed by a set of widely held beliefs about teaching and learning. Ten well intentioned but misguided notions will be identified (e.g., Teaching Discrete Skills Trivializes Education and Ignores the Whole Child). Reasons why each notion is mistaken will be provided and suggestions for how educators and parents can counter these notions and the "worst practices" they encourage will be offered.

Dr. Heward Will Also Present a

Special Afternoon Breakout Session Titled..

Six Common Teaching Mistakes and What To Do Instead

This breakout workshop will focus on six teaching mistakes committed frequently by teachers at all grade levels and across curriculum areas (e.g., Mistake #3: Asking students, "Do you understand?"). Each mistake will be presented in a three-part format. First, the mistake and examples of its occurrence will be described and/or demonstrated. Second, logical and empirical rationale will be offered for why teachers should eliminate or greatly reduce the frequency with which they commit the mistake. Third, one or more evidence-based and classroom-tested alternative strategies (i.e., what to do instead) will be presented and/or demonstrated. Participants will leave with a completed set of guided notes, handouts of examples and guidelines for implementing several of the alternative strategies, and an annotated list of references and resources.

Additional Breakout Presentations Include...

• Dr. Angela Larery (Diagnostic and Assessment Specialist-FOCUS Initiative)
• Is It a Developmental Disorder? Assessing Autism Spectrum Disorders in the School

  •  Autism spectrum disorders share many traits with other educational impairments including ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a non-verbal learning disability. This presentation addresses the core domains involved in assessing autism spectrum disorders and how to differentiate them from other educational impairments.

• Shana Boutte (National Facilitator-FOCUS Initiative)
• Surviving, Then Living with Asperger’s Syndrome

  • Shana Boutte is a female diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at age 26.  This presentation will be a reflection of her journey through life before and after diagnosis. She is a survivor and over-comer who has dedicated her life to helping others with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders.
    

• Dr. Jeffrey Bakken (Special Education Department Chair-Illinois State University)
• Mnemonic Strategy Instruction: Helping Students Remember

  • This presentation will discuss mnemonic strategies that teachers can implement within their classroom instruction to aid the recall of classroom information by students with and without disabilities.  This presentation will discuss what mnemonic strategies are, what research says regarding mnemonic strategies, and different kinds of mnemonic strategies.  It will also discuss how to decide what mnemonic strategy might be most beneficial given the information to be instructed, and how the mnemonic strategies can be implemented/interwoven into the instructional process.  Participants will leave with enough information to be able to develop their own mnemonic strategies for their own instructional use.

• Jennifer Crawford (Executive Director-The Learning Lane)
• How Play Promotes Learning and Language

  • The audience will learn about the stages of play for children in the development sequence for young children.  Each stage will be discussed for the participants and how you can use toys to help increase language skills in children with language delays and how toys can be the bridge to acquiring new skills for children.

• Dr. Denise Chapman (Assistant Professor-University of Houston-Clear Lake)
• The One-2-One Experience: Empowering the parent while increasing children with special needs’ communication in the home and clinic
  • The One-2-One Experience is the newest early intervention program offered by the Early Learning Clinic at the University of Houston Clear Lake.  This graduate-student supported program provides young children with special needs with individualize play-based intervention services to increase children’s language/communication development while empowering parents to implement key individualize strategies in their homes. This session will present the One-2-One Experience’s latest findings.
• Dr. Vicky Spencer (Assistant Director-Helen A. Kellar Institute at George Mason University)

• I’m Graduating!! Now What?

  • As students with disabilities are completing high school, a large percentage of these students are choosing a postsecondary education.  It is imperative that a well designed transition plan that includes college planning is in place to ensure a smooth transition from high school to college.  What does this include and how early does this process begin? This session will focus on the transition process from high school to a post-secondary education for students with disabilities. A college planning worksheet will be used to present the information.

• Renee Kwiatek (Full Time Lecturer-LLSP at Sam Houston State University)
• The Nitty Gritty of Interpreting Cross Battery Assessment for Educational Diagnosticians
  • Once you have completed the assessment, calculated all the G's and graphed all the scores what do you do with the information? What does it mean if Processing Speed is low but all others are high? What if Fluid Reasoning is low but Crystallized Knowledge is high? How does it affect the student's learning, what does it mean for teachers and where does it all go in my report? Want to Find Out????
• Jeanne Patrick (Transition Specialist-Region 6 Service Center)
• What's Up with High School Transition in Texas?

  • This session will explore how recent legislation and the new Commissioner’s Rules for Special Education are impacting transition planning. We will look at No Child Left Behind and IDEA 2004 requirements that have driven the new rules in Texas for transition planning.  Other issues that are having a big impact on our transition planning include HB 3826 enacted by the 80th Legislature, and the State Performance Plan. Information on these topics will be provided.

• Julie Zeilstra (Diagnostician-Conroe ISD)
• Effective Teachers of Literacy--What is it that they do?

  • When we think about what it means to be an effective teacher, we often can list several of those intangible qualities that make us think about teachers from our past who impacted our lives in a positive manner. We can all name those one or two teachers who simply cared about us and left a highlighted memory in our past.  We don’t typically remember influential teachers because of what they taught us; we remember them because of how they taught us, how they engaged us in learning, how they motivated us, and how they cared about us as individuals. Research consistently shows that teachers are a crucial factor in determining the effectiveness of instructional programs, including literacy programs.  Teacher quality is the single most important feature of schools that drives student achievement.  This presentation will share the major findings regarding the characteristics of effective/influential literacy teachers.  We will not discuss what curriculum to teach but how to teach it.  We will discuss those intangible characteristics that make a literacy teacher exemplary.

• Gail Wright (Partners Resource Network-PATH Project)
  • Real Parents, Real Thoughts!
    • Have you ever wanted to ask a parent/family what they really thought about the special education system? Would you like to hear what has worked for real parents? Would you like to hear what hasn’t worked for real parents? Come and listen to families discuss what they liked about working with teachers and what they wished they would of known… This session will present a panel of parents ranging from those who have very young children to those who have aged out of public schools. This is your opportunity to ask questions and listen to the guidance of families who have been and are in the system!