Many students with disabilities not prepared for college

While about 80% of Massachusetts high-school graduates attend college -- more than in almost any other state -- 37% are not prepared and require college remedial courses, according to a Massachusetts Department of Education and Board of Higher Education report released Thursday. About 63% of high-school students enrolled in special education required remedial college courses. The Boston Globe/Associated Press

Woman sees new future in Braille advocacy

After Juliett Cody lost her sight in 2000, she found a new calling working with others with visual impairments. She returned to college for a degree in communications and aims to become an advocate for Braille literacy. San Diego Union-Tribune

People with disabilities considered in disaster planning

Better planning is needed to accommodate people with disabilities during community emergencies, some advocates say. Such disaster planning requires people with disabilities to be identified, communicated with and cared for in adequately equipped shelters during emergencies, said Kenneth Willette, a Massachusetts fire chief. The Boston Globe

Tantrums differ in children with disabilities

The temper tantrums of children with ADHD and other disabilities differ fundamentally from those of other children, according to a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Children with disabilities are more likely to consistently lash out at others, hurt themselves or be unable to calm down, researchers said. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)

Special-Ed Getting New Computer System, Staff

The District school system plans to spend $4.3 million on a computer system designed to keep track of special education students' academic life, replacing several systems plagued by bad data and an inability to communicate with one another.

During a news conference yesterday, D.C. State Superintendent of Education Deborah A. Gist also announced that the city plans to hire 30 full-time case management workers, at a cost of $3.2 million, so that students referred to special education can receive services more quickly.

The initiatives are "a way in which we intend to serve students more effectively," Gist said. She was joined by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty at a news conference in the lobby of her office at Judiciary Square. The Washington Post

Rhee Proposes 'Differentiated Learning' Program

District Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says the District can reduce the high cost of special education with a program that would keep more disabled students in the same classroom as regular and gifted students.

The so-called differentiated learning program would tailor lessons for the students. She's proposing that the program be tested at West Elementary School in Northwest Washington before being installed across the city. Rhee says the school system would hire a private special-education school to run the program.

The currently spends about $137 million on private school tuition each year for about 2,400 children whom it cannot serve in the public schools. The Washington Post, ABC 7 News

High School Essay Analogies & Metaphors

These are like a, you know what I mean, like how shall I say? Have a good laugh. Here's some actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease. 14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

26. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
27. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
28. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

Teaching Ambassador Fellowship Positions

Secretary Spellings has announced the creation of Teaching Ambassador Fellowship positions for currently practicing, K-12 public school teachers at the U.S. Department of Education for the 2008-2009 school year. These positions will offer highly motivated, innovative teachers the opportunity to contribute their knowledge and experience to the national dialogue on public education. The Fellowship includes two kinds of opportunities for teachers across the U.S. Up to 20 Classroom Fellows will remain at their schools under their regular teaching contracts and will be paid to participate in additional Department discussions and projects throughout the school year on a part-time basis. Up to five Washington Fellows will be chosen to become full-time, paid federal employees in Washington, D.C. for the school year, working on education programs and participating in policy discussions.

Teaching Ambassador Fellows will be selected based upon their record of leadership, impact on student achievement, and potential for contribution to the field. Highly qualified K-12 public school teachers who have spent at least three years in the classroom are eligible to apply. Teachers must be currently practicing in and employed by a public school district to be eligible. To ensure collaboration at the school and district levels, teacher applicants must have the full support of their school principals.

Applications are due by April 7, 2008. Teaching Ambassador Fellows will be named by early summer for the 2008-2009 school year.

Please read the detailed information found at http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship to learn more. Be sure to click on all of the links to review the following: Program Overview (http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship/programoverview.html)Eligibility (http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship/eligibility.html)Applicant Info (http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship/applicant.html)Application Instructions (http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship/applicationinstructions.html) FAQs (http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship/faq.html).

Idaho mulls future of school for hearing, vision impaired

Idaho plans to keep open the state's 99-year-old boarding school for those with visual and hearing impairments, though an education official said final decisions on the school's location and size have yet to be made. Some state lawmakers suggested the needs of these students could be more efficiently met at the local level, but the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires the state to offer a live-in schooling option. The Idaho Statesman (Boise)/Associated Press

New Year, New Baby!!

At 10:27 PM on February 7, 2008, Chinese New Year, my baby boy, Rohan Myron, was finally born through vaginal delivery weighing 6.11 lbs and 19 inches tall. I was totally exhausted but relieved! I felt like I was the happiest person on earth at that moment. Continue: MOTHER BLOGGER

Texas law requires educators to spell out autism services

Brandon Guppy, 14, who is autistic, is chased by his brother, Matthew, 15, at a park near their Houston home Saturday. The boys' mother, Michelle Guppy, is among the thousands of Texas parents trying to work through the "autism supplement" for their students.
BRETT COOMER: CHRONICLE

Texas educators and parents now will need to discuss 11 specific content areas for students with autism under a newly revised state law. But some educators fear that parents will misinterpret the law: "My biggest concern is that it'll be construed that there's an entitlement to these services," said Cynthia Buechler, an attorney who specializes in education issues and is director of the National Educators Law Institute. Houston Chronicle

Famous Dyscalculics

Thomas Edison (inventor)

Cher (singer, actress)

Hans Christian Anderson (Danish author of several World-famous fairytales like "The Little Mermaid", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling")

Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, author, politician, scientist, philosopher, publisher, inventor, diplomat...)

Henry Winkler (best known as The Fonz from Happy Days, now a published author of several childrens's books about children with learning disabilities)

Mary Tyler Moore (from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Dick Van Dyke Show, That 70's Show, countless tv productions...)

And then there's the character Max Lopez from The George Lopez Show and Liberty from Degrassi: The Next Generation.

DISCLAIMER: For obvious reasons Hans Christian Andersen, Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison did not get diagnosed with dyscalculia - so we don't claim that they are dyscalculic, but chose to add them in this video because studies show that they in fact had significant problems with numbers depite being highly gifted in other areas - that's how a dyscalculic is.

Autism Myths

A light hearted look at the many autism myths that are around. These myths can directly affect the lives of people with autism and aspergers, so we need to laugh about it sometimes.