This publication is for families, districts and other
community agencies to share in the joy and education of NYSSB students.
October
2007
Our mission, through day
and integrated residential programming in a safe and nurturing environment, is
to provide a foundation of learning to enable each student to become a
contributing member in a diverse society, to achieve their highest level of
independence and to afford them the ability to live in a least restrictive
environment.
We will do this by
providing excellence in education and in residential programming, and by
promoting a learning environment that puts achievement and independence within
the reach of each student.
Goal #1: Students
receiving special education services will meet high educational standards.
Goal #2: Students with
disabilities will integrate with their non-disabled peers and community members
throughout their education experience.
Goal #3: Students with
disabilities will transition into living and working in as integrated a community
setting as possible.
Goal #4: NYSSB will
demonstrate good stewardship of its human, fiscal and physical resources.
Goal #5: All services for
which NYSSB is responsible will meet high standards and continuously improve.
SUPERINTENDENT’S
CORNER
By James Knowles
For this edition of Bobcat Tales I would like to share something on the lighter side. I carry this in my briefcase and from time to time re-read it to remind myself how fortunate I am. It is called May You Have and it goes like this:
May You Have
Enough happiness to keep you sweet
Enough trials to keep you strong
Enough sorrow to keep you human
Enough hope to keep you happy
Enough failure to keep you humble
Enough success to keep you eager
Enough friends to give you comfort
Enough wealth to meet your needs
Enough enthusiasm to look forward
Enough faith to banish depression
Enough determination to make every day better than yesterday
Have a great day and a great week!!!
THE
FAMILY CORNER
By
James’ Mom
(Teresa J. Shaut, Co-Chair NYSSB Family Association)
YES! We, the NYSSB
Family Association, now have a room to call our own. It is room #112 which is located on the first
floor of the
Next meeting: November 16, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. AND at 12:30 p.m. in the Family Room. Refreshments will be provided by the Family Association for each of these times. Our speaker will be Kim Kadziolka of People Inc. She will be presenting information on Transition and Residential Services/Group Homes for Visually Impaired. We will be meeting briefly prior to the presentation to discuss upcoming meetings, a Spring Fundraiser, Teacher Appreciation Week, and whatever you need to discuss. Hope to see you there!
from Michelle Ruble
Braille and Print books for children from National Braille
Press
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/publications/index.html
"Everything Braille" - Ideas and companies who offer
suggestions for families and educators that include Braille
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/publications/brailleresource-promote-materials.html
Independent Living Aids - http://www.independentliving.com/
Maxi Aids - http://www.maxiaids.com/
What’s
Happening in the Classrooms?
Unit 1
Jamie Hermance, Kathy Babcock,
Tricia Severino
What do we think of when we hear the word “October”? Well, Unit 1 thought of Halloween, autumn and leaves. We celebrated Halloween by decorating pumpkins, carving pumpkins, baking pumpkin seeds and eating pumpkin. We used all five of our senses to experience pumpkins. We went outside a lot to feel the cool autumn air. The students really enjoyed feeling the wind and we talked about the many ways in which wind is important. We gathered leaves and made leaf rubbings during art. We talked about the many colors of leaves, why leaves fall off the trees and listened to the sounds that crunching leaves make.
Even though October is behind us, we are looking forward to November. A lot goes on in November including Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving. We will be busy learning about the history of those holidays, why we celebrate them and why they are important to us.
Unit 2
Anne Bird, Mary Beth Demmer, Jolynne
Rada, Grace West
We have had a busy, fun-filled month in Unit
2! We began our month with a field trip
to “The Great Pumpkin Farm”. It was a
perfect Fall day to go on a hayride, practice our O&M skills while navigating
through a straw maze and feed some farm animals. We also enjoyed a “singing chicken” show and
ate a picnic lunch there. We
incorporated the pumpkins we brought back into many of our core
activities. For ELA we compared and contrasted
an apple (from our field trip last month) with a pumpkin. We made up a chart that showed the ways they
were different (e.g. pumpkins are big, apples are small) and how they were the
same (e.g. they are both round). For
Math, we weighed our pumpkins and put them in order from smallest to
biggest. Our favorite activity was a
Science experiment to find out if pumpkins float or sink (they float!). We also put on a very short play called “Five
Little Pumpkins”. Everyone had a line
and we worked very hard, practicing every day.
It was a great group activity with everyone having to work together, pay
attention so they were ready for their line and wait their turn. Then we performed our play for an
audience. The students did a great job
and were very proud of themselves (and rightly so!).
Unit 3
Jackie Cackett, Sue McGregor, Tammy Pestlin
Wow. . . .October went by so fast!!! The kids were cooperative, active participants
in all of our monthly activities. October was all about "Safety". The words of the week built us up to the big
event later in the month. One of the opportunities
we had to learn about was fire safety. The fire truck had to be the kid’s favorite
part. The firemen let them get up in the
truck and try on the fire helmet. It was
a wonderful experience for all of us.
We took our first field trip of the year this
month. We went to the Great Pumpkin Farm
in
Unit 4
Reggie Neubert, Diane Bassett, Jeff Fletcher, Kathy O’Neil
In
Unit 4 this month, some students studied about the earth's crust using tactile
diagrams. Travis, Chris and Justin are
listening to the story “Hatchet”, about a boy stranded in the wilderness. Travis and Chris are also reading a selection
in their reading book called “
Unit 5
JoMarie McMullen, Rachel
Ciociola, Mark Herrmann
During the past month, the students in Unit 5
worked on attending skills, comparing information, identifying statements as
fact or fiction and dictionary skills.
They have improved their ability to attend to lessons and stories and
respond to questions. They appeared to
comprehend statements that were facts/true, but needed some assistance with
fiction/false statements. Dictionary
skills are coming along. The students
worked on alphabetizing words and determining where words would be located in
the dictionary. They also learned about
nouns, verbs, and adjectives. For Social
Studies, the students completed a unit on the
Diagrams, charts, and graphs were the topics
for math. The students practiced
collecting data, making charts and then reading the charts/graphs they
made. They learned that graphs can tell
us the most, the least/fewest and things that are equal/same. It was also a nice way to work on vocabulary.
For Science, we completed a unit on the
systems of the body. The students
identified parts that go with each system and located them on the torso
model. They also learned how each system
works and how they depend on each other. The senses were the most fun. The students smelled, touched, listened to
and tasted several items. Those with
colds had a difficult time accurately identifying items through smell.
In addition to academics, Unit 5 also went to
the Public Library and to several local stores to find items related to
safety. They visited
Lastly, our class planned the Big
Event--Safety Awareness. We invited the
firemen, a police officer and a bus instructor to speak to the students about
fire, personal, and bus safety. Our
physical education staff talked about water safety.
Unit 6
We have continued this month to engage in more complicated assignments. These required homework to be done in the dorm, the use of the internet, the Victor Vibe CD reader for both textbooks and individual enrichment, raised line maps and graphs, and computer reading programs. Spelling and vocabulary words played a key role in the science and language assignments. Our monthly field trip took us to the Buffalo Museum of Science for National Chemistry Day demonstrations. We participated in activities/experiments involving the sugar content in fruits and vegetables, creating a hurricane in a bottle, the displacement of water as a fuel in a boat race, and the properties of solid objects when exposed to extremely low temperatures. Besides visiting the public library weekly for social studies and science books, we managed to go out to lunch at Tully’s. Food fuels the brain!!
Unit 7
Dan Dolph, Ray
Follett, Christine Sadler
Unit 7 has been very busy during the past
month. Besides our weekly shopping trips
to Martins and our Circle Time routine, the class was busy planning and
implementing. Some of the highlights
include the following… We stepped our weekly cooking class up a notch so that
the students can do some comparing and contrasting then share their opinions
with their classmates. This month we
cooked up some original pizza and compared it to organic pizza. We discovered some ingredients tasted very
similar while other ingredients had a taste of their own. We also compared homemade Chinese sauces to
store bought and the students preferred the homemade sauces hands down!
The balloon launch that was mentioned last
month was a hit. We launched over twenty
bio-degradable balloons however, we have not had any responses as of yet. This may be an activity we will attempt again
in the spring. The students talked about
mummies for Halloween and had a chance to mummify their own apples. Our field trips included a trip to the “Great
Pumpkin Farm” with another class which was enjoyed by all. The hay and corn mazes were among many of the favorites.
To end the month, the class went to the
Lancaster Opera House and saw the play “Anastasia Krupnik”.
Unit 8
George Sawyer, Amy
Gromlovits, Kim Shephard
The weather hardly felt like October this
month. The sun, warmth and blue skies
were a welcome sight. This time last
year, we were recovering from the surprise storm! This month, we went to "The Great Pumpkin
Farm" in
We also welcomed our new visitors from the
Geneseo Day Habilitation facility. They
are going to visit us every month. We
had a story read to us by one of their consumers. She used a voice synthesis machine (similar to
a Dynavox) to read the story to us. We
shared a snack with them and then said goodbye until next month. Our "Big Event" was put on by Unit 5.
The monthly theme was
"Safety". They invited a group
of firemen (who brought a fire truck), a police officer, a bus safety expert
and swimming safety experts to advise everyone about the things that we can do
to keep ourselves and others safe. The
"Big Event" was interesting and gave us information that we all can
use. Well, that is about all for this
month. The long term forecast tells us
that the weather will soon change. Look
for us next month, when we will tell you about all the things that we did in
November.
Unit 9
John
Carroll, Patty Fernaays, Jill Harkness
We did a lot of activities for Fall and
talked about safety. During science, we
listened to the let's read and find out about science book on tape and learned
why leaves change color. Then we went
outside and collected leaves to make our own leaf books. In History we learned about
In English Language Arts we continue to learn
and use manual signs and play familiar sounds bingo (inside and outside
sounds). Jessup has been working on word
families and is doing GREAT! Everyone
enjoys working on spatial relation activities.
In Math Jessup continues to work on addition and subtraction, we're also
working on matching, counting and money.
The “Big Event” was enjoyed by all. Last but not least we went to TULLY'S to
celebrate Jessup's accomplishments following his behavior plan ALL PLUSES 60+
days and counting. Great job Jess, we're
all proud of you.
UPCOMING PROGRAM THEMES:
October: Safety (Make Safe Choices) Fire, Vehicle, Personal and Water Safety.
November: Our Bodies – The Science of ME!
December: The Arts – Creating, singing and dancing.
January: Machines – Simple, Compound, Manual & Power
February: Numbers & Numerals – Googol, Count, Nemeth
March: Store – Groceries, Books, Movies & Clothes
April: Plants –
May: Vehicles – Cars Trains, Trucks & Airplanes
June: Pets – Dogs, Cats, Bird & Fish
July/August: Water – TBA w/ Fun in the Sun Day
News from the Art Room
By Jacquelyn Rease
Our weaving projects are almost finished and the students are learning why it takes the traditional Navajo weavers so many hours to complete one project. Everyone has been very patient and focused while working on their wall hanging weaving projects. They look great and should make a great addition to our walls here at NYSSB while they are on display. Another exciting announcement is the start of the NYSSB Times, our new school newspaper. Cody H. had the idea to create the paper and many of the students are working hard to write articles for the newspaper. Look for it to be published in the next couple of weeks. Also congratulations to Andrew H. for being chosen as the artist of the month for October.
IMPORTANT DATES: 
November 9th – Off!
Conference Day
November 12th – Off! Veteran’s Day
November 22nd & 23rd – Off for Thanksgiving
Break
December 24th to January 4th – Off for
January 7th 2008 – Welcome Back to School!
January 21st – Off! Martin Luther King Day
February 18th – Off! President’s Day
March 20th to 24th – Off for Easter
April 7th to 18th – Off for Spring Break
May 23rd & 26th – Off! Memorial Day
June 26th – School Year Ends
July 14th – Summer Session Starts
August 22nd – Summer Session Ends
Editor: Bethany Burgess, LMSW
2A
585-343-5384 or Toll Free 1-877-697-7382
Website: http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/nyssb/home.html
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NYSSB Contact Information