Webinars

WE TEACH Readtopia How to Be the Teacher You Always Wanted to Be

Think back to when you made the decision to teach special education…what inspired you to make that decision?

Was it to create all of your own materials (because the district didn’t have anything appropriate for your students)?
Was it the feeling of never having enough time?

Was it all of the IEP paperwork?

No. No. No!

The realities can be far apart from the real heart of teaching special education. You became a teacher because you saw that the students needed you, and you wanted to make a difference.

How can we get back to that?

In this on-demand webinar, special educator, Courtney Moore, and education expert, Caroline Musselwhite, share how Readtopia gives them the teaching resources to do their best work—helping them get back to what they love about teaching:

1. Teaching with engaging and age-respectful content aligned to the curriculum
2. Facilitating positive social-emotional learning
3. Making teaching come alive with Thematic Units, video, leveled graphic novels, and authentic texts
4. Really differentiating to meet the unique needs of each student

They’ll also share how the teaching resources helped them reclaimed the time and freedom they needed to feel on top of their game.

AT Today: The Role of Accommodations in Specially Designed Instruction

Presenter: Mike Marotta, ATP

With the proliferation of technology available in our classrooms today we don’t need accommodations anymore, right? Maybe you work in a 1:1 Chromebook environment so there is no need to document AT on an IEP, right? Or your school practices Universal Design for Learning, so there is no need for customized solutions for students, right?

The short answer is: NO, NO and NO!

In this on demand webinar, Mike Marotta explores the current landscape of technology in the classroom—looking at the role accommodations play in effective, inclusive instruction giving every student an opportunity to be successful.

He dives into:

1. Tools built into Google, and tools that go beyond Google
2. Ways to identify the right individualized reading accommodations
3. How to support students with reading and writing tasks
4. Tools that make instruction more effective for educators

Four Must-Have Foundations for Your Special Education Writing Curriculum

Presenter: Randy LaRusso, M.Ed.

The alternate assessment has brought writing into focus. The challenge is knowing how to teach writing for students with complex needs.  As a former Special Education Administrator, my experience has taught me that there are four foundational elements which are non-negotiable when teaching writing in special education. View this on demand webinar to see how to infuse the four elements of Confidence, Measurement, Instruction, and Engagement into your instructional program.

Hamilton Meets The Digital Learner: Who Reads, Who Writes, Who Tells Their Story?

Presenter: Amy D’Aquila, Educational Support Specialist

During the American Revolution, Founding Father Alexander Hamilton wanted to have a lasting impact on the world around him—a legacy to leave his children and grandchildren. His ability to read and write helped lift him from poverty to making a mark on history. Now in the current technological revolution, we can open this story for many more through accessible technologies. Let your legacy be that of connecting students to their full potential with the right supports. Amy D’Aquila will demonstrate visual, auditory, and learning supports that help bridge the gap for struggling readers and writers—using examples from the smash hit musical, Hamilton.

Quizbot—Your On-Ramp to Quizzes in Google Forms

Presenter: Dave Butler, Educational Support Specialist.

There are many benefits to using Google Forms for worksheets and quizzes including accessibility, instant grading, and integration with Google Classroom. 

With all of these benefits, why aren’t more educators using it? The reality is that it can be tough to get started. Quizbot expedites the process to create accessible quizzes in Google Forms. One click from any webpage or PDF is all it takes to generate a quiz with answers. From there, educators only need to edit questions and add additional questions for higher-order thinking. See Quizbot in action in this on-demand webinar.

A Principal’s Guide to Choosing and Implementing a Special Education Curriculum

Presenters: Barbara Tremblay, Special Education Principal and Mary Krenz, Director of Professional Service at Don Johnston Incorporated

What really matters when choosing and implementing a special education curriculum? Special Education Principal, Barbara Tremblay will share how her school chose and implemented the Readtopia® integrated literacy curriculum. She will discuss the turn around she witnessed in teachers and students when her school implemented age-respectful, truly leveled materials that helped guide teachers to do their best work with their students and make real growth.

Snap&Read for iOS: Top 10 New Features that Support Reading

Presenter: Kevin Johnston, VP Research & Development at Don Johnston Incorporated

Much of learning originates from text. So, what if text actually worked better for students? Now we have the tools to make text work for EVERY student—so they can comprehend it and learn from it. You’ve experienced this with Snap&Read on Chrome, now we brought these great supports to the new version of Snap&Read for iOS (iPad and iPhone). In this on-demand webinar, we’ll show you all the new supports including how to take a picture of text and hear it read aloud. You’ll see the super accurate OCR text, and text translation. Read and Annotate PDFs, read and annotate images! And, Integrate with iCloud, Drive, and OneDrive.

We Teach First Author! Teaching Writing to Students on the Alternate Assessment—How to Get Started

Presenter: Torrie Turner, Curriculum Support Specialist

Writing is an essential part of a comprehensive literacy program. So, why are most students on the alternate assessment stuck copying and tracing (even through high school)? Largely, the alternate assessments (including DLM) require students with complex needs to write using the letters of the alphabet, but this often begins with scribbling and letter-like shapes. Using First Author (an evidence-based writing curriculum by Dr. Janet Sturm) as a foundation, this webinar answers three key questions:  

What does writing look like for students with complex needs?

What does instruction look like?

How is progress measured?

We Teach Readtopia! 3 Things to Plan for the Best School Year Ever

Presenters: Jeanmarie Jacoby, M.Ed. and Laura Cuthbertson, Special Education Teacher

While special education classrooms are all very different, successful teachers have several things in common—they inspire, they adapt, and they truly reach every single student.

But it often feels like we’re flying by the seat of our pants. The general education classrooms seem to have a predetermined course (the curriculum and books are set at the beginning of the year). In our special education classrooms, it’s common to feel like we’re stringing things together—often over the weekend! What’s the best way to plan? How can we get ahead of the game? In this webinar, you’ll see an inside look at how Readtopia has given special educators the resources they need to reach every one of their most diverse learners.