2009 CSSE Summer Institute Schedule

About Your Event

The Georgia Center
The Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center & Hotel, located on the beautiful, historic campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, provides educational conferences, courses, and programs for lifelong learners. A total living and learning environment, the Georgia Center includes a 200-room hotel, restaurants, banquet areas, conference rooms, auditoriums, a fitness center, and a computer lab — all under one roof. As a unit of UGA's Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach, the Center brings the University's teaching, research, and service expertise to the people of Georgia and beyond! For more information, visit www.georgiacenter.uga.edu.

Special Needs
If you require special services or have dietary restrictions, contact your event coordinator, Holly Blanchard (holly.blanchard@georgiacenter.uga.edu) on or before 5pm ET on Monday, June 1, 2009.

Lodging at the Georgia Center Hotel
For your convenience, a block of rooms is being held for your event until 5:00 p.m. ET, May 8, 2009. Policies: (1) Tax Exemption — The State of Georgia only allows tax-exempt charges for a payment by a state-issued credit card or check or by a direct bill to a state agency (with a Georgia State Tax Exemption Certificate). (2) Lodging Cancellation — Cancel your reservation by 4:00 p.m. ET the day prior to your scheduled arrival to avoid being charged one night's room and tax. (3) Check-in is 4:00 p.m. ET; checkout is 11:00 a.m. ET. (4) At check-in, you must present your method of payment or a completed credit card authorization form (call 800-884-1381 for a copy, Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET).

Travel Information
Athens, Georgia, is located about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta. For directions and airport shuttle information, see www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/directions. A parking deck is located adjacent to the Center ($10 per night; vehicle height limit, 7 feet). Athens is served by Athens-Ben Epps Airport as well as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is located about 90 minutes southwest of Athens. Scheduled ground shuttle service and rental car services are available between Hartsfield-Jackson and the Georgia Center.

Event Cancellation Policies
(1) A cancellation received by 5:00 p.m. ET on or before Friday, May 28, 2009, will be refunded, minus a $35 processing fee. No refunds will be issued thereafter; substitutions will be allowed. (2) To change or cancel your registration, call 800-884-1381, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. (3) If an event is cancelled for any reason, the Georgia Center will not be responsible for any charges related to travel.

Registration

Please register by June 1, 2009

Continuing Education Information

This Institute is approved for 10 SCEIs continuing education credits.

CSSE Summer Institute participants may earn 1.0 Professional Learning Unit (PLU) required for teacher certification renewal by the Georgia Department of Education. A PLU Prior Approval Form may be required by your school system. If so, please contact Holly Blanchard, Conference Coordinator, at Holly.Blanchard@georgiacenter.uga.edu to receive a copy of the form via email.

The Georgia Speech-Language-Hearing Association is approved by the Continuing Education Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to provide continuing education activities in speech-language pathology and audiology. This Institute is offered for up to 1.0 CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area). ASHA CE Provider approval does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedures.

Session Descriptions

Keynote — Response-to-Intervention: Creating Environments to Meet the Needs of All Learners
Dr. Lisa Monda-Amaya
Response-to-Intervention (RTI) has received significant attention in the literature as a way of providing research-based intervention for preventing school failure and providing effective instruction to struggling learners. In this keynote address participants will receive general information on RTI including historical underpinnings, legal precedence, basic foundations, and samples from effective school application.

Stimulating Language in Bilingual Infants and Toddlers
Ms. Karen Guerra
Due to the rapid increase in demographics consisting of children and families from different cultural backgrounds, teachers, early intervention specialists, speech-language pathologists, and other educators are faced with many challenges. One of these challenges lies in understanding how to properly assess and educate children who may be learning English as their second language. This session will provide early intervention strategies aimed at identifying different types of bilingual learners, helping those learners succeed, and working with parents and caregivers.

Recommended Transition Practices for Young Children and Their Families
Dr. Katherine McCormick
Transition between and among programs is a major part of the lives of young children and their families. Results are presented from a set of studies including a national validation survey of early childhood and early childhood special education professionals of key practices that support the transition process as children leave early intervention and enter preschool. A description of each practice will be provided with examples of specific strategies for each of the practices. Participants will discuss these practices and strategies, barriers to their implementation, and their utility by professionals within their discipline.

Strategies for Including Students with Disabilities and Struggling Learners in the General Education Classroom
Dr. Lisa Monda-Amaya
This presentation will provide participants with practical instructional strategies for working with struggling learners and students with disabilities in the general classroom. Strategies will be presented that focus on giving students greater access to the curriculum. This presentation is appropriate for general and special educators as well as those interested in facilitating inclusion in the general classroom.

The New Wave: What Special Educators Need to Know about the Law
Ms. Beth Morris
This session will present state and federal legal requirements for an IEP and how to ensure that educators are prepared in drafting IEPs and participating in IEP meetings. Ms. Morris will discuss how to avoid legal pitfalls as identified in due process hearings and federal court decisions. Finally, special education issues commonly litigated and raised in contentious IEP meetings will be reviewed, and advice for dealing with such meetings will be provided. [Note: This session will be offered twice.]

Stimulating Language in Bilingual Preschool and School Age Children
Ms. Karen Guerra
Ms. Guerra will continue her discussion of understanding how to properly assess and educate children who may be learning English as their second language. This session will focus specifically on preschool and school age children, providing classroom strategies aimed at identifying different types of bilingual learners, helping those learners succeed, and working with parents and caregivers.

Use of Transition Practices by Public Preschool Teachers
**Featured session: Higher Education Consortium (Informal discussion will follow)**
Dr. Katherine McCormick
Public preschool teachers use a variety of transition practices to support young children as they enter and exit public preschool programs. A focus for the National Early Childhood Transition Center (NECTC) has been to provide information on the status of current practices by professionals in supporting the transition process for children and families. To this end, NECTC conducted a national survey of public preschool teachers. Findings will be reported and discussed with participants. Participants will be asked to provide information about the utility of these findings within their discipline and personnel preparation training programs. Opportunities will also be available to discuss barriers to the implementation of these practices.

Strengthening Partnerships: Effective Collaboration and Co-teaching
Dr. Lisa Monda-Amaya
This presentation is designed to provide an overview of effective teambuilding for collaboration and co-teaching. A focus on communication skills and approaches to problem solving, as well as practical strategies for handling collaborative team situations will be provided. Participants also will learn about various options for using co-teaching in their classrooms.

Keynote — Be All You Can Be
Mr. Ron Walker
This keynote emphasizes the importance of viewing education and service to children as a vocation, a calling, rather than a job. It discusses personal attitude and the development of true empathy, as well as the critical nature of mentors in achieving excellence in education.

Teaching African American Students
Drs. Gloria Boutte and George Johnson
This session will present historical and contemporary factors that influence the education of African American children in the U.S. Emphasis will be on the knowledge, skills and dispositions required by educators to provide an effective and equitable education for African American students. An overview of African American culture and accompanying teaching strategies will be presented.

Learning to Listen with a Cochlear Implant (Part I)
Ms. Kathy Newbern
This presentation will outline the steps involved in choosing a cochlear implant for children with hearing loss. Hearing loss terminology, speech-language and audiology assessment, cochlear implant candidacy, technology choices, and resources will be discussed.

Teaching the Many, While Disciplining the Few (Part I)
Mr. Ron Walker
This workshop provides an overview of the behavioral changes in American children and offers practical strategies for maintaining classroom order and controlling impulsive behavior.

From Dummy to Doctor: The Educational Journey of a Student with Learning Disabilities
Dr. Brendan Leahy
In this workshop, Dr. Leahy will share his own very personal experiences as a student who struggled with a learning disability. Through his story, Brendan will touch upon some of the issues and realities faced by educators, students, and parents in Georgia's current educational system. The session will provide participants an opportunity to actually experience what it is like to be a student with a learning disability. Finally, participants will be challenged to reflect upon and discuss what it takes for students with LD to experience academic and life success. [Note: This session will be offered twice.]

Working with African American Families
Drs. Gloria Boutte and George Johnson
This session will provide a strengths-based approach for collaborating with African American families and communities. Emphasis will be placed on providing culturally appropriate practices and implications for assessment. Participants will be actively involved.

Learning to Listen with a Cochlear Implant (Part II)
Ms. Kathy Newbern
This presentation will highlight activities for developing auditory skills in children with hearing loss for effective aural habilitation as beginning, intermediate and advanced listeners. The fundamentals of auditory skill development and basic speech acoustics will be briefly reviewed. Resources for the family and classroom teacher will also be provided.

Teaching the Many, While Disciplining the Few (Part II)
Mr. Ron Walker
This session focuses on ten critical strategies to control attention-seeking and oppositional behavior, while emphasizing the importance of maintaining instructional focus on those who want to learn.

Speaker Bios

Gloria Boutte, Ph.D., is the Schuyler and Yvonne Moore Child Advocacy Distinguished Co-Chair at the University of South Carolina. For more than two decades, Dr. Boutte's scholarship, teaching, and service have focused on families and students of color and school, community, and home coalitions. She is the author of two books: Multicultural Education: Raising Consciousness and Resounding Voices: School Experiences of People From Diverse Ethnic Backgrounds. She has received over $1,300,000 in grants and has published 60+ articles. Additionally, she has presented nationally and internationally on curriculum, instruction, and diversity issues. Dr. Boutte is the founder of the statewide Center of Excellence for the Education and Equity of African American Students.

Karen Guerra, M.S., CCC-SLP, is beginning her seventh year as a bilingual speech-language pathologist and bilingual mentor at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta-Scottish Rite in the outpatient rehabilitation department. Ms. Guerra's caseload focuses on both the assessment and treatment of bilingual children, and she has recently appeared on CNN Espanol regarding her work with Hispanic/Latino children with Autism.

George Johnson, Ph.D., is the Coordinator of the Special Education Program and Assistant Professor at South Carolina State University. Dr. Johnson has also taught at Jacksonville State University and West Georgia University. He has been a public school educator in Beaufort and Columbia, SC. His research specialty is disproportionality in special education and culturally relevant teaching. He has presented his scholarship nationally and internationally and has published articles and received grant funds in these areas.

Brendan Leahy, Ed.D., works as an educational consultant serving almost exclusively in the arena of special education and related causes/issues. The primary focus of his work is on assisting learners, especially learners with Learning Disabilities (LD), in their efforts to achieve academic and life success. To this end, Dr. Leahy collaborates with a variety of organizations throughout the state of Georgia including: The Georgia State Department of Education, The University of Georgia's Disability Resource Center, Georgia Tech's SciTrain University Program, North East Georgia GLRS, Anderson & Ward Educational Services and numerous schools and school districts.

Katherine McCormick, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education at the University of Kentucky. She also holds the James W. and Diane V. Stuckert Service-Learning Professorship for the University. Dr. McCormick came to Kentucky in 1998 following her tenure at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. While in Columbus, she was active in the development and implementation of the Georgia early intervention system and the preschool special education program. During that time, she chaired the Personnel Preparation Committee as well as the Interagency Coordinating Council for Early Intervention. She was also a member of the Georgia Special Education Advisory Panel. Dr. McCormick and her colleagues at Kentucky and other partner universities are currently entering a seventh year of funding for the National Early Childhood Transition Center (NECTC) funded by the Office of Special Education Programs. She will share information from this project with conference participants.

Lisa Monda-Amaya, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She has coordinated teacher preparation programs in the Department for nearly 18 years of her 20 years at the U of I. Dr. Monda-Amaya's research interests are in the areas of teacher preparation, collaboration and co-teaching, and strategies for including students with disabilities in the general classroom (academic and social). She has published in Exceptional Children, Remedial and Special Education, and Teacher Education and Special Education among others. Dr. Monda-Amaya has been heavily involved in teacher preparation and certification activities at the state level and has worked diligently to influence policy decisions in Illinois. She has served as an officer on the National Board of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children (4 years) and in the Illinois Teacher Education Division (14 years). Dr. Monda-Amaya received the state Award for Excellence in Teaching (ITED), the University of Illinois Campus Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and the Outstanding Undergraduate Professor and the Career Teaching Awards from the UIUC College of Education.

Beth Morris, J.D., LLP, is an attorney with Harben, Hartley & Hawkins in Gainesville, Georgia, a firm the represents public educational entities throughout the state. Having joined the firm in 2005, Ms. Morris's practice focuses primarily on Special Education matters, including handling litigation, administrative due process hearings, the substantive and procedural issues of serving special education students on a daily basis as well as encompassing the broad base of legal issues that affect all students and school districts. She has presented to school districts and educational associations across the state on various legal issues.

Kathy Newbern, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, LSLS Cert. AVT, is a speech-language pathologist and certified auditory-verbal therapist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. In addition to providing diagnostic and therapeutic speech-language services, she is responsible for assessment and habilitation of children with hearing loss and is a member of Children's cochlear implant team. Ms. Newbern has worked in the field of aural habilitation for more than 20 years in both clinical and academic settings and has been providing speech therapy and aural rehabilitation at Children's for the past 15 years. She was named "Clinician of the Year" by the Georgia Speech-Language-Hearing Association for 2004.

Ron Walker, M.A., is the President of Walker Educational Consulting, Inc., a company specializing in work with teachers and parents, and is the Educational Consultant to the National Professionals' Consortium on Attention Deficit Disorders. Mr. Walker's career in education spans over three decades and began in the classroom where he taught in a wide variety of settings at both elementary and secondary levels. He was an administrator at Woodward Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, where he directed a program for college-bound learning disabled students; he was a middle school principal; and he directed both day and boarding programs for the DePaul School in Louisville, Kentucky. Ron has spent the last fifteen years working with more than 700 school districts in approximately 30 states, giving workshops, providing school consultation, and speaking at conferences.