LABBB Alumni Reunion Dance |
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Sharing best practices and promoting inclusive opportunities for students with special needs
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Executive Director's
Message
Dear LABBB Community,
By the time you read this, school will be open and ready for business! Our lives will be returning to a ‘new’ routine. Routines are part of life and are important for many of us. I especially like my morning routine; I enjoy my coffee, WBZ news (I like their weather reports:) and feeding my dogs! Each day my dogs greet me with such enthusiasm and I am always thankful for their boundless energy and greeting me with such happiness! This made me think of how important it is for everyone to be greeted with happiness (or a smile) and how I rely upon my routine. I share this, as we just kicked off our opening day for the 2022/23 school year (we were in person - Yeah!) because I realized several things … how excited I was to be starting a new routine with everyone returning, how grateful I am to be a member of the LABBB community, AND how happy staff were to be returning to start the school year! Our new routines are beginning, and I hope the transition to these routines go smoothly; PBS Kids for Parents has some wonderful resources, Creating Daily Routines for Kids.
Our teachers, educational assistants, and related service staff ensure that the needs of students and families are the priority. While there are continued challenges from the pandemic, their incredible work and commitment, creativity, dedication, and resilience are truly remarkable. My sincere appreciation to all of the LABBB staff.
Welcome to the 2022-23 school year!
LABBB Evening Parent Meetings
We are continuing to hold LABBB Parent Meetings on the same evenings as monthly dances. This provides parents an opportunity to drop their child off at the Lexington Community Center (39 Marrett Road), then attend the meeting upstairs at the Center.
These informative meetings allow us to discuss various topics related to programming, special needs planning, recreation, transition, post-22 planning, supplemental security income (SSI), financial planning, and many other important issues.
Parent meetings for 2022-23 will take place from 7:00 to 8:15 pm 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!
Under Paula Rizzo’s expert guidance, recreation opportunities continue for our middle and high school aged LABBB students. If you are interested in exploring any of these opportunities please contact your child’s teacher or program coordinator. I hope that everyone that attended the Reunion Dance on September 8th- had fun!
With appreciation,
Pam
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Flower Arrangements
By Jessica Sherwood
The students of Kathy Farley's room at Lexington High School are off to a busy start! They are providing the flower arrangements here at LABBB! The staff bring in fresh flowers for the students to place in vases. The students work on sorting (big vs small, pink vs white, etc.) and using their fine motor skills as well as visual motor integration skills to place the flowers into the vases. Keep up the great work, Mrs. Farley's class! We're all enjoying your work!
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LABBB Bedford welcomes all parents and students to the 2022-2023 school year!!
By Mrs. Good, Ms. McNulty
Classroom D113
We are thrilled to be kicking off our new school year together with old and new teachers and friends!
The students have been very expressive with their thoughts about being back to school:
“Our first week was awesome,” said Avery.
“I wanted to come to school to see everybody!” said Sasha.
“I was excited to return to school because I wanted to see my friends; I missed them!” said Brigitte.
“I couldn’t wait to see all my friends at Bedford High,” said Saul.
“I wanted to come back and see all my friends and teachers,” said Lucas.
“I am a new student and really like gym class! Baseball is my favorite sport!” said Ben.
“I look forward to going back to school to see my friends and start to learn again because my brain has been all slobby!” said Arthur.
“I am looking forward to what happens each month, especially all the holidays we celebrate!” said Grace.
“I am happy about gym class because I do all the activities, especially basketball!” said Tony
“I look forward to a new school year and trying new things in my swaggy senior year!” said A-Swag, AKA Arshiyah.
“I am very excited for my junior year. I hope to continue to grow with my artwork, improve in my figure skating, and do Best Buddies activities!” said Lindz.
All students have accepted the challenge of returning to the new school year after a fun-filled summer! We began our school year reading our next chapter book called “The Janitor’s Boy.” We are anxious to read about all the events that will unfold while absorbing all the new characters and their personalities. We are especially excited to read what mischievous behaviors the main character, Jack Rankin, will conjure up while executing his perfect crime! Other activities that we can’t wait to indulge in are gym and swimming class! We also will be going to our vocational sites, such as CVS, Whole Foods, and Cradles for Crayons! However, the one thing we look forward to the most is our Friday community trips! We get to practice making purchases for personal things that we need and want. We also practice ordering lunch at our favorite local restaurants, such as Ken’s Deli, Subway, and B Good. We are ready for it all!
LABBB Bedford wishes you all a happy and successful new school year!
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Wee Care Burlington
By Skip Avery, LABBB Transition Department
We are pleased to announce we have a new Community Partner, Wee Care Burlington.
Wee Care Burlington is a non profit organization that is operated by its Founder and Director, Ms. Donna Russo. Donna is the sister of LABBB’s awesome Community Instructor Paula Quinn. Donna is just like Paula, kind, hardworking, passionate, caring, and devoted to help those in need.
Wee Care is located at 10 Saint Mark’s Road, Burlington MA 01803, formerly the Burlington Food Pantry building.
I had the pleasure of visiting and speaking with Donna last week and we talked about her important work.
Donna told me; “At Wee Care Burlington, we strive to help parents and caretakers to be able to provide basic essential needs of children. We do so with grace and dignity…Never judging anyone's situation. Children need clothes and shoes that fit properly as they are growing, growing, growing. They also need developmentally appropriate toys and books to learn and grow. The babies need clean diapers and other essentials. It’s not only about the children…it’s about their families as well. Caretakers need to know that they have what they need to care for their children. In doing so, this creates an atmosphere with less of a tense, anxiety-inducing situation. It also alleviates the worry of knowing that they are not alone.”
Throughout the year we will be doing clothing drives to help support Wee Care. In the meantime please consider donating the following: new or gently used children’s clothing (newborn to middle school/adult small), gently used bibs, burp rags, receiving blankets, swaddle, new or gently used books and toys, new or gently used children’s shoes, boots, slippers, winter clothing for children, jackets, hats, scarves, mittens, snow pants, snow boots.
Thank you.
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Charley Farley Visits
By Jessica Sherwood
Some people may hear the name “Charley Farley” and think ”Who is that?” But not here at LABBB! Charley Farley is a celebrity amongst us, a superhero amongst mortals, a legend in the making! (Or something like that!) Charley Farley, for those of you who have not had the honor of meeting him, is Mrs. Farley’s therapy dog who comes to LABBB to visit. He enjoys long walks on the sidewalk, fresh water in an elevated bowl, eating snacks from our hands, and all the cuddles he can get! Our LABBB classrooms sign up for slots for a visit and they have the opportunity to ask questions about Charley, pet him, love on him, and discuss the steps necessary to care for a pet. There are many studies done which conclude that petting an animal can lower a person’s blood pressure and heart rate, lessen anxiety, and promote general wellness. The overwhelming response to Charley Farley here at LABBB is a booming “WE LOVE CHARLEY FARLEY!” Thank you to Mrs. Farley and Charley for helping us all with our wellness! I know I feel less stressed when he is around! So, sign up for a slot today!
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Clinical Corner:
Back to School 2022 – nevertheless, we persisted!
By Christine Carr
Fall 2022 is the first time in two years that students and staff at LABBB are returning to the classroom with smiles that we can actually see in person! As usual, the start of a new school year can elicit feelings of both excitement and dread. How can we develop transition and persistence skills for a successful year of social emotional health and learning?
Transitions are hard. A transition is defined as the process or period of changing from one state or condition to another. For many students and adults alike, shifting gears from an August out of the classroom to early morning alarms and school expectations is rough. How can we best support a transition? Develop the necessary skills – self-awareness and stress management are two big ones. Be gentle with our students and ourselves, manage the stress of the change. We are going to be grumpy after an early morning wake up. Acknowledge the feelings (encouraging self-awareness) and support meeting expectations and taking care of ourselves.
Persistence can be harder. Persistence is defined as firm continuance in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition. Ugh. Even the definition makes me sweat. Persistence is the ability to literally “hang in there” and most importantly, keep going. What helps with persistence? Work with your student (and yourself) to identify goals. Keeping in mind that goals can change, but it can be as simple as getting out of bed on time in the morning. The struggle is real but identifying the reason for the struggle; learning new things, making social connections and growth, can keep us going. Other goals include making new friends, graduating, working, etc. If we determine our motivation, we can persist. Hang in there everyone, the 2022-23 school year has amazing things in store!
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LABBB Adapted Physical Education, Recreation and Social Opportunities
Get your LABBB Gear here!
We will have the LABBB school store open from September 15 to October 2, 2022.
The items ordered will be processed after the school store closes and will be delivered at the end of October.
It is easy to order - online orders only.
Please take a look and get your LABBB gear here!
Remember to follow @LABBBREC on Twitter
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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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