Powerful Strategies for STRENGTHENING YOUR SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM to Better Support Your Students with Learning Disabilities

Presented by Savanna Flakes
Outstanding Special Education Teacher, Leader and International Presenter

Specifically Designed for K-12 District and School Leaders and Leadership Teams: District Special Education Leaders, Principals, Special Education Teachers, Resource Teachers, Co-Teachers, Inclusion Specialists, Special Education Department Heads and other specialists that support students with learning disabilities

Learn the key components of highly effective special education programs for students with learning disabilities
Boost special education teacher expertise to increase learning for your students with learning disabilities
Powerful practices that can be adapted to fit the needs of your students with learning disabilities, including Specially Designed Instruction strategies, realistic modifications and accommodations, effective co-teaching ideas, grouping students, collaborating skills, and much more
Develop a plan to structure your special education program for greater results using high-leverage practices and dozens of instantly usable strategies you can use and share with your teachers, schools and district special education teams

Practical Ideas and Strategies

Learn how to strengthen your current special education program for your students with learning disabilities in this strategy-packed, two-day institute led by nationally acclaimed presenter and special education leader Savanna Flakes. You will learn how to develop special education teachers’ expertise in working with students with learning disabilities, along with ways to continually monitor and adjust instruction based on student results. This is a unique opportunity to evaluate your own special education program, including resource rooms and co-teaching, using current research that identifies high-leverage practices and learn how you can make powerful changes to your own program.

Take an intensive look at what works for special needs students and how you can adapt it to meet the needs of your school or district. You will leave with dozens of practical strategies and an extensive digital resource handbook to help you lead your school or district team. Join Savanna and your colleagues for two, fast-paced days packed with the best research-based strategies to increase the school success for your students with learning disabilities.

A Practical, Two-Day Institute Focused on Strengthening Your Special Education Program that Serves Students with Learning Disabilities

Plan to attend as a special education teacher, school team, department team, district team, or as a school/district leader to gain specific strategies to increase the effectiveness of your special education program for students with learning disabilities. You will learn how to build on the success of your current program, identify the key components that have the greatest impact on student achievement and find specific areas you need to target for implementation and improvement. Leave equipped with a wealth of the most effective strategies and high leverage practices to help you accelerate achievement for all your students with learning disabilities in your schools and classrooms.

Develop a Plan to Structure Your Special Education Program for Greater Results and to Boost Special Education Teacher Expertise for Students with Learning Disabilities

Discover the attributes of highly effective special education programs and how you can incorporate them into your own program. During the two days, you will learn numerous strategies to maximize achievement for your students with learning disabilities, seamlessly incorporate highly effective instructional strategies that better meet the range of students’ needs, and provide greater access to the curriculum. Discover the key components of Specially Designed Instruction and dozens of brain-based engagement and assessment strategies to motivate special needs students. Gain specific tips to increase the success of co-taught classrooms with efficient planning tips, effective ways to collect IEP and classroom data to guide instruction, and powerful collaboration practices. You will also receive an extensive digital resource handbook to help you implement all you learn when you return to your school or district.

Here's What You Will Learn...

Key components of successful special education programs that accelerate achievement for students with learning disabilities … Implications for your own school or district program
Applicable ways to incorporate reading and writing goals into all aspects of your oral language therapy
What highly effective special education teachers know and do when working with students with learning disabilities
Dozens of Specially Designed Instruction strategies that can be used in the resource room and general education and co-taught classrooms
The four high-leverage practices that every special education teacher should use
Dynamic assessment techniques to collect rich student data and use to adjust instruction
Specific ideas to provide scientifically research-based instruction that will enable you and your teachers to strengthen students’ reading, writing and math skills
Keys to successful communication and collaboration with general education teachers
Ideas to help students with special needs to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum
Tools and resources that support behavior management, self-regulation and executive functioning
Exciting ways to use technology to increase academic achievement for all learners
Practical differentiation strategies to increase rigor and higher-order thinking skills
Formal and informal assessments to quickly determine student understanding
A wide variety of methods to engage students across a range of levels and disability categories
How to use Specially Designed Instruction to increase achievement and progress on IEP goals for your students with learning disabilities
Grouping structures that maximize learning
Tips for using technology in a co-taught program
Strategies to teach students to learn and work in groups in a co-taught classroom

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

Working with students who have special needs is a challenging and complex job requiring numerous skills. With the wide range of learning disabilities and skill sets of students with special needs, you need a plethora of strategies and tools at your f ingertips that will strengthen individual student learning as well as build a powerful special education program in your school or district. I’m excited to share with you what I have found works to strengthen special education instruction for students with learning disabilities in schools and districts.

During this unique two-day institute, my goal is to provide you with numerous strategies to help you seamlessly integrate high-yield instructional practices, Specially Designed Instruction, and technology into your curriculum and instruction. Motivating reluctant learners, supporting social-emotional behavior, differentiated instruction and grouping, dynamic assessment, and cooperative learning are just some of the topics we will explore. Many of us are providing students with learning disabilities meaningful access to rigorous curriculum through a co-teaching model which I will also discuss and share ready-to-use ideas for your own program.

You will experience hands-on strategies to increase your effectiveness as a special education teacher, build expertise and reboot your instructional toolkit to improve achievement of students with special needs. Join your colleagues and me for two, fast-paced days devoted specifically to Special Education teachers, leaders and district leaders and teams. You will leave this institute excited, refreshed and ready to try innovative approaches and ideas to solve challenging situations.

Sincerely,
Savanna Flakes

P.S. I pledge that you will leave with dozens of effective instructional strategies for accelerating student achievement and decreasing the achievement gap of students with special needs.

Who Should Attend

K-12 District and School Leaders and Leadership Teams: District Special Education Leaders, Principals, Special Education Teachers, Resource Teachers, Co-Teachers, Inclusion Specialists, Special Education Department Heads and other specialists that support students with learning disabilities

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an extensive digital resource handbook giving you access to countless strategies. The handbook includes:

Descriptions and examples of Specially Designed Instruction in action
Co-teaching lesson plan templates and ways to manage flexible grouping best practices
Reproducibles for Specially Designed Instruction
Teacher-friendly lists of instructional strategies to support Differentiated Instruction
Compiled list of all the technology resources and tools to assess and engage students

For in-person seminars, registrants will also receive a printed copy of the resource handbook as long as their registration is received in the BER office at least 15 calendar days before the event.

Semester Credit Option
UMASS Logo Up to four graduate level professional development credits are available with an additional fee and completion of follow-up practicum activities. Details for direct enrollment with University of Massachusetts Global, a nonprofit affiliate, will be available at this program.

Meet Inservice Requirements
At the end of the program, each attendee will receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify hours of participation in meeting continuing education requirements.

(Back to Top)