Progress — 2014
Page 49
Phelps School continues its commitment
to education through technology, monitoring
___________
BY GARY RIDDERBUSCH
NEWS-REVIEW EDITOR
___________
Phelps School District has worked
to advance its commitment to education in many ways this year, including
using technology at a new level in
speech therapy, monitoring student
progress,
integrating a schedule
change and incorporating standardized
testing.
At the end of last school year, the
school was faced with speech teacher
Wendy Schaetz leaving the district, according to District Administrator Delnice Hill.
“Since she does such a wonderful job
and knows our students very well, we
did not wish to lose her services. Together with our information technology
department, we started to develop a
plan to keep services with Wendy but
to provide them over the internet,” said
Hill. “We weren’t sure how it would all
work out, but we proceeded to get all of
our needs in place.”
As fall rolled around, the school district had to overcome a few glitches.
But once those were fixed, it has
worked out quite well, she said.
“When we began this process of distance delivery of speech services this
year, no one was quite sure how it
would work,” said Schaetz. “But it has
proven to be an effective model and
demonstrates how the world is changing with technological advances!”
The model has worked perfectly at
Phelps School because of a highly supportive administration, parents and
teachers, according to Schaetz.
“We have had very little technical
issues, the aides are truly amazing and
we work very well together, parents
have been very supportive, the children
love seeing their teacher on the iPad as
well as in person once a month,” said
Schaetz. “The teachers are very accommodating and we keep in touch via
email on a regular basis to ensure
there is effective carryover of students’
IEP goals with classroom needs.”
Although Schaetz works with students from a distance, she keeps data
and takes notes on each student as
they work together, just like she would
in person.
“I have a list of all the therapy materials in the physical room at Phelps
that I keep in a binder with me. I can
say to my aides, Teresa or Jill, ‘Could
you pull out the book on the bottom
shelf behind you?’ I can physically see
all my materials from my FaceTime
screen, making it easy to use them. It
is crucial that I know all of my materials inside and out, and how to use
The Phelps School continues to expand the use of technology
in the classroom, according to school officials. Students in a
them. For tes ѥ