LABBB LSEP/LSTP Summer Program |
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Sharing best practices and promoting inclusive opportunities for students with special needs
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Executive Director's
Message
To the LABBB Community:
Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! I am excited to kick off another school year - this is such a time of excitement and emotion! Some of us (students and staff alike) may greet this transition with eagerness and smiles, while others may find this transition to be anxiety producing. Either way, returning to school can have big emotions tied to it! If you are interested, I wanted to share a wonderful resource related to returning, Understood.org, which offers some information and ideas you can use to help your child prepare for the return to school. We look forward to welcoming back our students, colleagues, friends, and families on September 6th for our students’ first day of school.
While I am very excited to start the school year, I am admittedly a bit nervous. There are some big shoes to fill. I have been reflecting on LABBB’s mission, ‘We design and deliver special education services that promote Academic, Social and Career Independence in the most inclusive settings as possible.’ I witnessed this first hand during our summer programming as I met students who challenged themselves and succeeded; diving off the diving board for the first time, learning travel training routes, staying up- to -date with their reading and math skills, and participating in community trips. They were engaged and handled the heat of this summer with grace! It was truly wonderful to see our LABBB community in action!
Health and Safety protocols are never far from our minds these days. Our nursing department and administration continue to closely monitor the guidance from DESE and the plans put in place by our member districts, as well as the latest protocols from the CDC and Department of Public Health(DPH). We will update you with any changes as they occur. To view our current protocols, please click here.
LABBB Evening Parent Meetings will continue on the same evenings as our monthly dances (Thursday evenings). This allows parents of middle and high school students to drop off their daughter or son at the Lexington Community Center (39 Marrett Rd., Lexington, MA) then attend the meetings. We also encourage our parents of elementary school students to attend the parent nights. These informative meetings provide time to learn about and discuss a variety of topics related to programming, special needs planning, recreation, transition, post -22 planning, supplemental security income (SSI), financial planning, supporting your child through their school journey, and many other important topics. Keep your eyes open for a survey regarding parent night topics that are of interest to you. We want to hear from you!
Parent meetings for 2022-2023 will take place from 7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. on the following dates:
October 6, 2022
November 17, 2022
December 15, 2022
January 19, 2023
February 9, 2023
March 9, 2023
April 27, 2023 (Annual Transition Fair)
May 18, 2023
We look forward to seeing you!
Please do not hesitate to contact me directly at pgirouard@labbb.net with any questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Pam Girouard
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Thank you Community Partners
By: Skip Avery
As the 2021/2022 school year comes to a close I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all the stakeholders in the LABBB Transition Department. I am proud and honored to work with such a professional, dedicated and caring staff at LABBB. Over the last few years the Transition Counselors and Community Instructors working closely with the LABBB Health Office, Teachers, Teacher Assistants, Specialist, Administrative Assistants and the Administrative Team and have done an amazing job of being creative, flexible and committed to providing our students with the best community experience possible.
In addition, I would like to acknowledge and thank our Community Partners for their continued support. We couldn’t do what we do without them;
Massachusetts State Archives, Whitsons Food Service, Bina Farm, Community Servings, CVS Corporation, Harvard University Recycling, Laney Clinic, Meadow Mist Farm, Roasted Granola, Medford Mystic Community Market, Stop & Shop Lexington, Omar’s World of Comics,
Food for Free, Good Pickin Farm, Whole Foods Bedford, Jelich Farms, Grace Chapel, COTA, Cradles to Crayons, Pine and Baker, Food Link, The Arlington Ice Rink and The Salvation Army
We are always looking to develop new Community Partners. If you know of any organization that might be interested in becoming a LABBB Community Partner please reach out to me at savery@labbb.net Thank you!
Finally, I would like to thank our awesome students and their families for all they do. Our students inspire us each and every day to do the best job possible as we strive to fulfill the LABBB mission;
We design and deliver special education services that Promote Academic, Social and Career Independence in the most Inclusive Settings Possible.
Shown in the picture above:
LABBB Community Instructor, Keith Edmeade, with LABBB Student, Deana, at LABBB Community Partner Ironstone Farm
Thank you everyone and have a wonderful August.
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Title: Francis Wyman at the Farm
Submitted by: Emily Hurd
Students in the Francis Wyman Elementary program closed out their summer session with a field trip to Great Brook Dairy Farm in Carlisle. In the days leading up to the field trip, students learned about where dairy products come from and how ice cream is made. They worked hard at using adjectives and verbs to talk about cows, and they had fun making ice cream in a bag with some new friends from the John Glenn Middle School program.
At Great Brook, students worked on choosing a flavor of ice cream, placing their order using their communication devices, and using their money to pay for their ice cream.
After a picnic lunch and ice cream, everyone got to tour the “smart” dairy barn and meet some cows up close. The baby calves were especially friendly! Students also got to see some other farm animals, including pigs, goats, sheep, and chickens.
After the field trip, students in the upper grades classroom used their communication, literacy, and number sense skills to write reviews of the farm. Each student chose a picture from the day to include in their review, shared their opinion using their communication device, told which part of the trip they liked best, and counted out how many stars they would give the farm. We’re looking forward to visiting and reviewing more places in the future!
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Mindful Minute
Written by the LABBB Mind/Body Team
QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
“Where the mind goes, energy flows.” -Ernest Holmes
MEDITATION OF THE MONTH:
DID YOU KNOW?
A 2018 study conducted by Tulane University assessed the impact of a brief intervention on third-grade students who screened positive for symptoms of anxiety in this randomized controlled trial. The intervention was associated with a significant improvement in emotional and psychosocial quality of life in the intervention group when compared to the control group, suggesting that yoga/mindfulness interventions may improve symptoms of anxiety among students. -taken from Yoga Ed.
Be Well,
The Mind/Body Team
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UMass Lowell students will serve as Unified Partners for this program. Registration is on a first come, first served basis. Athletes can register here.
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LABBB Adapted Physical Education, Recreation and Social Opportunities
August is a time to relax, swim, and enjoy the outdoors by walking or exploring through field trips. It can be a very hot time of year weather wise. Here at LABBB, we have a program known as LSTP & LSEP (LABBB Summer Transition/Extended Program). We have a smaller group than in our July summer program and do all sorts of fun activates weaved in with the education.
This group of staff, most of whom work at LABBB all year round, and students must be able to change plans last minute, depending on weather. We can have very high heat/humidity, flash thunderstorms, AC and internet issues; you name it, we are ready to pivot to keep everyone, safe, cool and happy.
The LABBB Recreation Brochure should be in your mailboxes shortly if you haven’t received it already. We have attached a digital copy with this newsletter.
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Remember to follow @LABBBREC on Twitter
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Updated LABBB Brochure
Click here or on the image to view the new LABBB brochure.
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A LABBB PODCAST
Patric Barbieri, Hosts a Podcast talking about special needs planning and resources related to our community
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In episode #22 we talk about our journey in building a mindful culture in LABBB. It is one of our core values that is posted throughout our collaborative. There is a significant difference between just talking about these practices and actually doing them. We made a commitment to offering mindful practices for all students in all our classrooms every single day. We also believe for us to be successful we need to offer and teach this to our staff as well. We are a community practicing together and this is the only way to get the true benefits. We have been fortunate to have many staff persons who have a myriad of unique mind-body skills to bring into our environments for both students and staff.
This initiative started organically back in the early '90s. We realized that these practices have a significant impact on managing the pervasive anxiety symptoms that people are feeling. Our mission was to bring these practices directly into our schools and for staff and students to know they have permission to practice at any time. When one individual is practicing it is benefiting their entire community!
Rayne Pratt and Lisa Poirier, LABBB Occupational therapists, join me in this podcast. They are members of our LABBB Mind/Body team and they are also the creators and facilitators of our all-day staff retreat that we offer.
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LABBB Collaborative
123 Cambridge Street, Burlington MA. 01803| LABBB.com
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