Paraeducator-Teaching Conference August 28, 2009   8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
This full-day workshop is designed to provide training for paraprofessional support staff and supervisory professionals (certified staff) who are working with children with autism and related disabilities.  The focus will be on collaboration and defining roles and responsibilities.  The first 20 teams(supervising teacher and paraprofessionals) registering will receive a copy of "The Paraprofessional's Guide to the Inclusive Classroom Working as a Team", Second Edition.

Topics that will be addressed include:        
A “short course” on autism and related conditions
        * The hallmark features of autism in social behavior & communication/language impairment
        * Impact of student’s interests, activities and imagination
        * Abnormal response to sensation
        * Theory of mind, information processing, and organization skills
        * The changing roles and responsibilities of the paraprofessional as well as some pitfalls
        * Being a member of a team in the inclusive classroom
        * Providing curricular and individualized instructional support
        * Understanding and implementing positive behavior supports
        * Maintaining communication between team members and confidentiality of information

To register and for more information visit: https://odie.esu10.org

This would be a great adventure for families as well as classrooms!  Check out http://www.negpp.org/!  there is a challenge there to visit all of the 15 listed Nebraska state parks!  If you want to participate, you must register there on the web site. 

This might be a great summer project to continue to engage students in Nebraska Geography! Have your own Great Park Pursuit!  Challenge your next group of students (any age would love this) to get to as many of Nebraska's parks this summer as they can.  Once they get there, have them take a picture of the park sign and two more pictures from inside the park.  They must then email those pictures to you, the teacher.  You can create a map in Google Earth and mark their travels using the pictures they took!  This would also make a great competition between class sections or maybe between conference schools!  (They could even use their cell phones and send those pictures if your cell plan will handle that!)

Most importantly, encourage your students to get out and enjoy Nebraska's state parks!

http://www.negpp.org/

I know many of you are thinking about awards for students this time of year.  Here is a site with MANY different types of awards you can download and print for your students!  Don't forget, that is one of Marzano's strategies! 
http://www.myawardmaker.com/templates/education.html

Connect Nebraska is a site developed for 4th grade teaches to reach across the state to other classrooms and share lessons and classroom experiences.

You can visit the site at http://sites.google.com/site/connectnebraska/Home and see what they are all about.  Josh Allen of Papillion-La Vista Schools is maintaining the site and would welcome any class wanting to connect with others, just contact him.

You can download a file to Google Earth and see what classroom have been participating.  Skype and iChat are two methods that are being used to exchange information. 

I was able to hear from the Sydney class at the NETA presentation.  They enjoyed signing the Nebraska State song and singing Happy Birthday to a teacher attending the conference from a participating 4th grade classroom.

This is a fun web site for 6th grade math!  http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mesg/html/math6web/math6shell.html

Opportunity that I received via email that I thought you would like to hear about. 

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will sponsor a Project WILD workshop
in Loup City on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.  Please
view the attached flier for more details.

The workshop will include a visit to Bowman Lake for some hands-on, aquatic activities.

Please forward this announcement to anyone who you think might be
interested in the workshop and would benefit from the training.

Call or email Michelle Koch (402-471-5363 or michelle.koch@nebraska.gov) if you have questions or would like to register.

This looks like a very fun comic maker!  What a great way to have students review!  This might be most appropriate for 3rd grade and up! Please leave a comment!  Let us know what you think! 

Super Action Comic Maker

This looks like a very fun comic maker!  What a great way to have students review!  This might be most appropriate for 3rd grade and up! Please leave a comment!  Let us know what you think! 

Super Action Comic Maker

Here is a contest for you!  Have your students "doodle" the Google logo in a contest! 
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/

Rowe Sanctuary
Iain Nicolson Audubon Center
44450 Elm Island Road
Gibbon, NE 68840
Tel: 308-468-5282
www.rowesanctuary.org
www.audubon.org

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM OFFERINGS
C.S.I. (Crane Scene Investigations) (Approximately 2 hour program)
The largest gathering of sandhill cranes in the world happens right
here in Nebraska! You and your students are invited to become Crane
Scene Investigators and learn about these unique birds. We then take a
hike to a viewing blind. C.S.I. is designed with your students in mind
and only available from the first of March through the first of April.
Dates and times fill fast, so make your reservations early!

For downloadable educational videos, activities and lesson plans about
sandhill cranes, be sure to check out KIDS & CRANES on the CRANE
CAM sponsored by National Geographic and Rowe Sanctuary. Go to
www.rowesanctuary.org and click on CRANE CAM. The DVD is also available
in our Nature Store.

Earth Connections
Join award-winning artist and educator Caryl McHarney as she guides you
and your students through her hands-on approach to nature. No batteries
are required and no previous experience in drawing or journaling is
needed!

Caryl will be available March 23 through 27. Please call the education office for details.

OTHER PROGRAMS
Nebraska’s Waters & Wildlife
Let us design a program to meet the needs of your students. A variety
of outdoor activities and projects centered around the Platte River,
associated land and wildlife are available and have been correlated to
the state standards. Activities can include art, language arts, science
and social studies. This program is available throughout the year
except during March (See Crane JepBirdie). Program length is variable
and determined by you.

SPLASH (Senses Providing Language Arts Skills Help)
The focus of this program is to develop writing skills in a natural
way. We begin the day sharpening observations skills, and then turn our
attention to outdoor activities that include creative writing,
vocabulary building and word choice, and emphasis on figurative
language, similes, metaphors, personification and alliteration.
Activities include a river dig, hikes, and just getting dirty! Call for
more information.

PLEASE NOTE - Program Costs
Program cost is $3.00 per student for the first two hours and $1.00 per student for each additional hour.
For more information, please contact Keanna Leonard at 308-468-5282 or by email at kleonard@audubon.org