This publication is for families, districts and other
community agencies to share in the joy and education of NYSSB students.
December
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
Each year at this
time I like to share with you a story that I feel fulfills my wishes for you.
The story was written by Brian Morgan and is titled The Legend of the
Christmas Prayer. The story goes
that there was once a man who wanted give something special to his friend’s for
them to celebrate the Holidays. After thinking long and hard the man came up
with what I feel any
On the first day of
Christmas, I pray for you joy in abundance and laughter, for laughter cures our
ills and joy makes our spirits soar.
On the second day of
Christmas, I pray a sigh when you need one, for a sigh clears the heart as a
cough clears the throat, and with a sigh comes acceptance of what we cannot
change.
On the third day of
Christmas, I pray for you tears when you need them, for tears clear the eyes to
see the stars and cleanse the soul to let healing begin.
On the fourth day of
Christmas, I pray for you serenity, for the fights and wars start in individual
breasts and that is where they might end.
On the fifth day of
Christmas, I pray for you wisdom, for our priceless gift is the gift of choice
– and we should use it every day, in word and deed.
On the sixth day of
Christmas, I pray for you patience, for most troubles pass if we wait them out,
and success comes with persistence.
On the seventh day of
Christmas, I pray for you courage for there may be pitfalls and dangers ahead
and problems can only be solved when they are faced.
On the eighth day of
Christmas, I pray for you compassion, for we cannot help others until we
understand them, and we cannot understand them until we walk in their shoes.
On the ninth day of
Christmas, I pray for you a willingness to work, for work turns dreams to
reality --- whether the dreams are ours or belong to those we can help.
On the tenth day of
Christmas, I pray for you unwavering faith, for faith shapes our morals and our
destiny and draws us closer to God.
On the eleventh day of
Christmas, I pray for you a mind full of hope, for hope determines our
attitudes, sets our goals, and creates our ideals.
On the twelfth day of
Christmas, I pray for you a heart so full of love that every day you must give
some away to those whose paths you cross.
This story has been
sent around the world over the years to be people of all faiths and now it
comes to you. I wish you well in this Holiday Season and the New Year to come.
Family Association Meeting
Monday
January 14th, 2008 at 4PM.
Food will be provided.
Representatives from PEF will be coming to give us an update on what
they are working on for the school and answer any questions you may have. They would also like to show you all a draft
of the NYSSB Family Brochure that they worked on with everyone before
Homecoming.
Please RSVP
to Carol Samborski or Bethany Burgess.
We’ll Miss You!
After 24 years at NYSSB, Department Head
Suzanne Wheeler retired this month. She
says “My 24 years at NYSSB have been very fulfilling. I have met many wonderful people and
especially many, many special students who will always hold a special place in
my heart. I will never forget my years
at NYSSB and I am a better person for having worked with you all. My best to you as you begin the New Year 2008.” We would like to wish Sue the best in her
retirement and we will miss her very much!!
Due to the retirement of Suzanne Wheeler, Department Head
for Education here at the
News from the
by Judi
Piscitello
As always, for your information and not an
endorsement of any product or service:
The
SQUID Tactile Activities Magazine
by Judi
Piscitello
SQUID Tactile Activities Magazine, published
by the American Printing House for the Blind, is intended for students 5 to 12
years of age. Four SQUID issues are now
available, with more issues planned. Karen
J. Poppe, Tactile Graphics Project Leader, welcomes student feedback about the
types of activities they enjoy the most and would like to receive more of in
future SQUID issues. Please encourage
students to complete a short survey at APH's web site. Comments from teachers
and parents are welcomed as well. Thank
you for your feedback! To complete the
survey go to: http://www.aph.org/edresearch/squid.html
What’s
Happening in the Classrooms?
Unit 1
Jamie Hermance, Kathy Babcock,
Tricia Severino
Unit 1 has had a fun and very educational month! We learned about many holidays that are celebrated in December including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. For Christmas, we read a few books, decorated a tree and made our own ornaments for the tree. For Hanukkah, we researched it on the computer, made a Play Doh menorah and ate potato latkes. For Kwanzaa we read a book that gave a child’s perspective of Kwanzaa, strung beads and ate fried bananas. Each of the activities we have done associated with these holidays has revolved around using tactile skills as well as all of our senses. In addition, each of these activities has helped expand our cultural knowledge base.
We have put up many decorations for the holiday season. The students made a lot of the decorations and the ones that the students did not make; they helped to hang them up. We are really proud of the students and their hard work at making the holiday decorations. They have really made the classroom and hallway look beautiful! Unit 1 would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!
Unit 2
Karen
Courter, Jamie Kramer, Jolynne Rada, Grace West
Unit 2 has been busy this Holiday
Season. We made a lot of decorations for
our classroom, made presents for our families and made Reindeer Hand ornaments
to hang on the school Christmas tree. We
had a great time at the Sing-a-long and did some special artwork for the Art
Show. We especially enjoyed our trip to
the
In the classroom, we stayed on
schedule and on task. We did some
science lessons with a bucket of snow that Grace brought in from outside. Noah enjoyed playing in the snow the
most. We also spent a lot of time
working on Alternate Assessments. We are
ready for the Holidays and for some vacation time at home with our families,
but we will be so excited to come back in January! We wish everyone a great Holiday Season!
Unit 3
Jackie Cackett, Sue McGregor, Tammy Pestlin
December has been full of lots of fun!! We had many holiday activities including
holiday story time by our very own Mr. Knowles. The kids enjoy listening to him read the
stories. We took a field trip out to
lunch at Sport of Kings restaurant and then walked over to Dollar Tree for some
holiday shopping. We were able to get
all our supplies for the presents we made for our families and friends. We hope you like the frames and candleholders.
They were made with love!!! We also sent home a tree that the kids painted
and decorated just for you. That was the
project we worked on this month in Art therapy. The kids all chose which paint they wanted to
use and then what sparkly decorations to glue on the tree. The holiday sing-a-long was a wonderful way to
get together with our other schoolmates and really celebrate the true meaning
of this holiday season!!! To spend time
with our loved ones and let them know how much they mean to us. Hope everyone
has a marvelous holiday season and a wonderful New Year!! See you next year!!!!!
Unit 4
Reggie Neubert, Diane Bassett, Kathy O’Neil
We've been as busy as Santa's Elves this
month. The students sponsored a
collection of personal care items for the Genesee/Orleans
Ministry of Concern, “Agency
of Last Resort". Students
typed and brailled announcements, distributed lists, collected items and
graphed the number of donations. Special
thanks to Travis for preparing, practicing and delivering a great announcement
on the PA system about our collection. Also
a "thank you" to Michael for delivering the items to the
Travis learned about sewing this month. He asked to make an Elf's hat to wear to our
Christmas sing along. He learned about
sewing as he put a white pompom on his green elf's hat. Instead of a large
Our next project is the National Geographic
Kids, athletic shoe collection. If you
receive new athletic shoes over the Holidays please send your old ones to us (with
the laces, only athletic shoes are being collected). We will send them to National Geographic Kids
and they will send them to NIKE for recycling and try to set a Guinness World
Record. The collection ends January 20, 2008
so send them in to Unit 4. Thanks and
Happy Holidays!
Unit 5
JoMarie McMullen, Rachel
Ciociola, Mark Herrmann
This month the students in Unit 5 have been working
on studying the purposes of writing for ELA.
They learned that you can write or read for different purposes, such as
for information, pleasure, or to be persuaded.
They practiced listening to passages and determining why that passage
was written. They also practiced writing
from each area as well. The students
completed the unit on the Civil War.
They learned about the Reconstruction period and also learned about
famous historic people who participated in and advanced fundamental democratic
values after the war.
For Math, the students did a fun unit on
geometric shapes. They identified shapes
and the number of sides each one has.
They also used the shapes to make other shapes, such as snowflakes! Planet Earth has been the topic for
Science. Students have been studying
rocks and minerals that form the crust of the Earth. They enjoyed feeling and identifying textures
and differences in rocks. The students also
worked on community skills. They visited
the Public Library, a local restaurant and local stores. They worked on talking with people in the
community, and money skills to make purchases.
Unit 6
Steve Hagen, Bryan Bradt, Judy Wetzel
This month saw the conclusion of our chapter
reading book, The Island of the Blue Dolphins. We watched the movie in class and discussed
the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. After several delays, we finally finished our
hallway display project The Depth Zones. Each student did a short report on several sea
creatures. Next, we made a pull-through
view finder that gives a numbered outline of each of the 20 creatures and what
depth it lives at. Beside this on the wall, are all 20 individual student
reports in both print and Braille. It
goes nicely with the scale model sharks hanging from the ceiling. We had a final discussion of these creatures
comparing their defense mechanisms, mobility and eating styles. Many of these creatures have been mentioned in
our class chapter book. Next we went on
to classify fish by body part characteristics and began a unit on the planetary
water cycle. NYSSB is an official
Channel 4 Weather Bug site. We therefore
have computer access to many weather and planetary issues/activities. In our final school week of 2007, our activities included discussions of
Christmas in other countries, crafts, receiving/giving gifts, and wishing each
other well for the holidays and coming new year.
Unit 7
Becky Oshlag, Kim Hilburger, Ray Follett, Christine Sadler
Even though there were only 3 weeks of school
in December, we have been making every day count! We continue to shop every Tuesday so we can
cook on Wednesday. Our culinary
creations this month were spaghetti and meatballs, homemade macaroni and cheese
and chicken casserole. Our class had an
awesome display at the “Big Event – Art Show”.
We used the new painting window to help us make portraits of other
people in our classroom. The second part
of our Big Event was the
Unit 8
George Sawyer, Amy
Gromlovits, Kim Shephard
Our Unit 8 had a great December this year. We started thinking about presents we could
make or give to our friends and relatives. By the way, this is the season to be jolly. We planned a day out in the community to
search for presents. First, we went out
for breakfast and this gave us an opportunity to practice our dining and
socialization skills. Second, we went to
a store that was within our budget and selected and paid for those items.
This month's "Big Event" was
"The Arts". The words for each
week were "sing", "dance", and "celebration". We enjoyed looking at and feeling the artwork
that was up for display. Cookies and
juice were offered as refreshments. Well,
the year is drawing to a close and we are looking forward to our "Winter
Break". Look for our news of
January, at the end of next month.
Unit 9
John Carroll, Patty Fernaays, Jill Harkness
Unit 9 took time out during this busy season to
remember the soldiers who won't be home for Christmas. We made holiday cards and decorations and sent
them to our troops in
Unit 10
Anne Bird, Mary Beth Demmer, Jeff Fletcher
Christmas excitement
was definitely in the air in Unit 10 this month! Many of our activities were focused around a
Christmas theme; we took a fun Christmas quiz, learned how to spell words
associated with Christmas (in both English and Spanish!), and researched facts
about reindeer – did you know that reindeer are very good swimmers? Some of the students worked on fractions this
month, which came in handy for measuring ingredients while making some
Christmas cookies.
This month we also
continued with our folktales theme. We
read several different folktales from various countries and learned about their
cultures, including the countries of
UPCOMING PROGRAM THEMES:
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
This month each of the students worked on creating and/or finishing an original piece of artwork to display in our NYSSB student art show. Everyone made artwork that was truly unique and original and everyone came to the art show which was part of the December Big Event sponsored by Music & Art Therapy and Program Services. This month many of the students also chose to paint pine tree centerpieces. Thanks again to John Deja for making the tree centerpieces for us to paint. Also, the December edition of the NYSSB Times is due to hit stands by the end of the month. Thanks again to Dawn and Michelle for helping by printing Braille copies of the paper. The December edition will include features such as an interview with Bryan Bradt, a senior profile on Amanda, and an interview with our old friend Chris W.
IMPORTANT DATES: 
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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