P.E.A. Committee on Special Education (C.O.S.E.) Update

cosepea@yahoo.com

by Debra Patsel, School #7, Cognitively Impaired, Mild, 5-6 grade.

The P.E.A.'s Committee on Special Education (C.O.S.E.) is reorganizing. The Committee is looking for members who strive for the best in their profession. People with insight into how intricate the DSS is and who can help make suggestions for the improvements necessary to achieve the optimum in communication and delivery of the best services and the continuation of professional development.

The Committee needs people with high ideals about our children and our classrooms. People who have a vision for the improvement of educational services to our students and how to best make systematic deliveries of those services. COSE seeks people who want to truly delve into making professional development more exciting, and relevant, and to help encourage others to participate. Interested staff members should contact, Debra Patsel, at cosepea@yahoo.com. COSE hopes to work together with the district for the betterment of all.

COSE plans to distribute a survey shortly, and hopes all recipients will take the time to complete and return it to the P.E.A. In addition, the committee is planning to present at least two workshops this year at the Brownstone. As always, flyers for each workshop will be distributed to staff members.

Resources for Staff Members

Some resources you may find helpful:

Professional Organizations that you may join to stay current with the latest strategies and research findings. Subscribe for e-mail newsletters, and resources from the web, these are free. This is a great way to find out about conferences. Many have book clubs, which will send you the latest professional development books in a wide variety of interests. Here are some sites that might be helpful.

CEC Council for Exceptional Children,
www.cec.sped.org

IRA The International Reading Assn.
www.reading.org

NJRA The New Jersey Reading Assn.
www.njreading.org

NCTM National Council Teachers of Math, www.nctm.org

AMTNJ Association of Mathematics Teachers of NJ,
www.amtnj.org

ASCD Assn. for Supervision and Curriculum Development, www.ascd.org

NJAGC New Jersey Association for Gifted Children,
www.njagc.org

Special Ed. Code Available to Educators

Need the special ed. code immediately? For your copy of CHAPTER 14, SPECIAL EDUCATION NEW JERSEY ADMINISTRATIVE CODE, TITLE 6A EDUCATION, (Readoption effective Sept. 8, 2003. Sunsets Sept. 8, 2008) go to

http://www.state.nj.us/njded/code/title6a/chap14/

Resources in Print for You

The Mailbox Magazine. If you can only get one subscription to any magazine, this is it. The Best ideas for learning centers, science experiments that are quick and to the point, bulletin boards, organizational tips, themed units that are cross-curricular. Plus they have many online supplemental forms and reproducibles and more ideas.

Teachers Helper is only black-line reproducibles that are skill based, themed, seasonal, and provide great reinforcement or homework. Look for both. Very grade specific, great for targeting specific work. "With my 10 to 13 year olds, I get both Grade 1 and Grades 2-3," Patsel commented. "Their on-line forms are great for newsletters, student lists, awards, and, events. The artwork and layout are done for you and you can type in the info and print it out and look wonderful!"

www.theeducationcenter.com

Until next edition, may all your days be Special

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