Online Training

Description: Many educators are acutely aware that all learners are unique with different strengths, preferences, experiences, backgrounds, and needs. However, with all of this rich diversity, there's no way to design a perfectly-tailored educational experience for each individual student. So what's an educator to do?

The answer lies in Universal Design--a framework that doesn't focus on perfection, but rather emphasizes designing and teaching to the edges so that the full educational experience is as optimally welcoming, accessible, and inclusive as can be for all learners. Through the pillars of Universal Design, this online workshop aims to provide educators with a deep understanding of UD foundations in order to focus on creating the optimum educational experience not just within, but also outside, the classroom.

One live video (“synchronous”) session will be held. Live sessions will focus on participant questions with facilitator answers and discussion. It will be recorded and viewable, for those not able to attend live, and/or for reviewing after the event.

Facilitator: Emily Helft, Ed.S.

Length: 1 "Unit" or approximately 10 hours of material in total (although individuals will vary in their amount of engagement and time needed to complete the workshop). 

With schools moving to online learning, many parents have found themselves taking on the role of substitute teacher at home. It has been rewarding for some, but stressful and overwhelming for many. Taught by an LD/ADHD veteran of 35 years, this event will provide you with tips and strategies on understanding the online platform, helping your student with online homework while keeping calm, working with teachers, and understanding your student’s legal rights in online learning.

Length: 1 "Unit" or approximately 10 hours of material in total (although individuals will vary in their amount of engagement and time needed to complete the workshop). 

Description: Today, online or remote learning is the new normal for most students in higher education. As all are learning to pivot quickly to meet the current demands, some are better prepared than others. It is often believed that the online platform is not “user friendly” to students who learn differently (LD), yet for the past seven years, Landmark College in Putney, VT, has been offering online courses to high school students with executive function (EF) challenges as part of their successful online dual enrollment program. Using our knowledge of LD student profiles and experience with online learning, this session will share information on: (1) current understanding of online/remote education and ways to ramp up to online, (2) learning needs of students with LD in online courses, (3) evidence-based best practices for online instruction—practical tips and strategies, and (4) changing accessibility needs, accommodations, processes, and protocol for online learning.

Facilitator: Adam Lalor, Ph.D.

Length: 1 "Unit" or approximately 10 hours of material in total (although individuals will vary in their amount of engagement and time needed to complete the workshop). 

Description: As students progress through school, they are required to develop increasingly complex literacy skills. As the literacy demands grow, we spend less and less time teaching students how to extend their literacies and successfully read and write across academic content areas. This undoubtedly hurts neurodivergent learners the most, but all students suffer when literacy instruction is one-dimensional or non-existent.

In this online workshop, we will explore and practice three teaching practices that can and should be implemented in any K-12 or college classroom:

1. Assembling multi-modal text sets
2. Modeling “expert” literacy skills
3. Designing authentic writing tasks and delivering interactive writing supports.

***Note:*** Although this workshop will focus on high school and college instruction, the content is appropriate for educators working with students in grades 4 and up.

Length: 2 "Units" or approximately 20 hours of material in total (although individuals will vary in their amount of engagement and time needed to complete the workshop). 

Description: The word epidemic is often used to describe the sharp increase in autism diagnoses in the U.S. The use of this term is indicative of how autism is commonly seen: a medical condition to be feared, prevented, treated and cured. The concept of neurodiversity, which is at the heart of Landmark College’s approach, requires re-framing autism as a different (not lesser) way of seeing and navigating the world. In this online workshop, we will use the voices of autistic self-advocates and Landmark College’s programs for autistic students as our guide to understanding autism from this perspective.

Workshop Topics:

1. What does it mean to be autistic? Listening closely to the voices of autistic self-advocates (ASAs) will provide us with an expert answer to this question. We will contrast the medical model of autism with the views of ASAs and in the process explore how stigma and misconceptions of autism impact the development of a positive sense of self. Additional topics will include:
   • Disabling environments and the social model of disability.
   • Camouflaging and its impact on autistic students.
   • Dual-empathy and the importance of understanding and accepting the differences associated with autism.
2. Diversity “on the spectrum.” You may have heard the tremendous diversity associated with autism described by Dr. Stephen Shore: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” This can present a significant challenge in supporting autistic students, especially because there is not one way to support a group this diverse. In our experience, providing high-quality supports requires understanding the unique profile of each student. Through personal accounts, case studies and research findings we you will learn how to identify the individual strengths and challenges in seven key areas:
   • Pragmatic language
   • Social awareness
   • Monotropic mindset
   • Information processing
   • Sensory integration
   • Repetitive behaviors
   • Neuromotor differences
3. Designing, adapting or applying supports. Finally we will apply what we have learned about profiles of strengths and challenges to a case study exercise. You will identify a student profile and an “environment.” This could be a particular classroom, a dormitory, an office on campus or any other environment that you would like to examine. You will be guided through the process of imagining what supports or changes to the environment might be needed to help that particular student succeed. Through this collaborative and personalized process, we will explore a wide variety of supports across environments that participants can apply to their work with students.

Length: 2 "Units" or approximately 20 hours of material in total (although individuals will vary in their amount of engagement and time needed to complete the workshop). 

Description: In this online training, we will investigate the metaphor of Executive Function (EF) as orchestra conductor. Namely, that EF helps increase functions that are too quiet (activation), tamps down sections that are too loud (inhibitory control), responds in the moment to changes (flexibility), and keeps track of the timing and content of all the individual players (working memory). That is a lot of work to handle, and sometimes the conductor needs help—practical tools for supporting students in these three EF domains will be explored. An equal emphasis will be placed on understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of EF and implementing empirically supported EF strategies.

Facilitator: Rick Bryck, Ph.D.

Length: This training is broken into two modules, containing approximately 20 hours of material in total (although individuals will vary in their amount of engagement and time needed to complete the workshop).