Miss-Delectable
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http://www.app.com/article/20091116/NEWS/911160343/1004/NEWS01
At Neptune Township High School, a program specifically assisting deaf students was the only other area program to take the award.
Program supervisor Claudia Mooij said that the high school program, started in 1990, has successfully integrated 56 deaf students into mainstream classes.
"The students have thrived academically and have been active in sports, clubs and other activities," she said.
Mooij said that the program receives students from Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties and even from as far away as Mercer County.
Students learn in both inclusion and general education classes, assisted in the latter by an interpreter who signs the lesson to them and, if needed, a teacher of the deaf, to provide extra assistance.
Interpreter Jennifer Coletta said the high school program employs three interpreters, three teachers of the deaf and a speech and language therapist.
Interpreters sign through the 72-minute classes (the district uses block scheduling), sometimes working in pairs to allow each other breaks, Coletta said.
Speech and language specialist Gerry Regan-Lavin, a longtime educator in the program, said the program has been heavily supported and protected by other teachers and administrators in the district.
"We have a very high profile here," she said. "(The school) supports us very much and includes us."
In Point Pleasant, Thompson, a former aide who returned to school to get a degree in special education, talks about her students with pride, showing off their schoolwork, photos of their trips and the wealth of materials they use, which could fill a home.
In addition to the curriculum of core subject work and learning practical skills, life skills students help run the school store, housed in their classroom. They go to work-study programs outside of the district and assist in the cafeteria.
Without the program, started in September, students would have to be sent out of district, Thompson said.
"This program is all about coordinating schedules," she said. "Our sole goal is for (the kids) to be as independent as possible."
At Neptune Township High School, a program specifically assisting deaf students was the only other area program to take the award.
Program supervisor Claudia Mooij said that the high school program, started in 1990, has successfully integrated 56 deaf students into mainstream classes.
"The students have thrived academically and have been active in sports, clubs and other activities," she said.
Mooij said that the program receives students from Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties and even from as far away as Mercer County.
Students learn in both inclusion and general education classes, assisted in the latter by an interpreter who signs the lesson to them and, if needed, a teacher of the deaf, to provide extra assistance.
Interpreter Jennifer Coletta said the high school program employs three interpreters, three teachers of the deaf and a speech and language therapist.
Interpreters sign through the 72-minute classes (the district uses block scheduling), sometimes working in pairs to allow each other breaks, Coletta said.
Speech and language specialist Gerry Regan-Lavin, a longtime educator in the program, said the program has been heavily supported and protected by other teachers and administrators in the district.
"We have a very high profile here," she said. "(The school) supports us very much and includes us."
In Point Pleasant, Thompson, a former aide who returned to school to get a degree in special education, talks about her students with pride, showing off their schoolwork, photos of their trips and the wealth of materials they use, which could fill a home.
In addition to the curriculum of core subject work and learning practical skills, life skills students help run the school store, housed in their classroom. They go to work-study programs outside of the district and assist in the cafeteria.
Without the program, started in September, students would have to be sent out of district, Thompson said.
"This program is all about coordinating schedules," she said. "Our sole goal is for (the kids) to be as independent as possible."