Austin's Movie Wins a Telly!

Note: Tim Nagae is one of the supervisors at our local community cable station. He is entirely too modest about his own gifts in creating such a compelling short documentary.



Dear Friend:

"Austin's Movie" won another national video and film award from the "Telly Awards" - 2009 30th Annual Telly Awards - Bronze (Finalist) TV Documentary.

The "Telly Award" is one of the most exclusive awards most known as an award for TV commercials, but it is also for non-broadcast/broadcast TV programs. It is not easy to win this award; in fact, my previous production, "Haley and Madonna," which won an EMMY, did not win it. So it is quite an honor to be awarded.

The Telly Awards' website is http://www.tellyawards.com/ (The winners for the 2009 awards are not yet listed.) And there's an article about the Telly Awards on the Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telly_Awards

I was lucky enough to produce "Austin's Movie," which has been very well received and won the "Accolade" and "Telly." I really appreciate the fact that CTN, the public access TV station, gave me this opportunity to produce this movie, and that WFUM Flint broadcast it. Without them, it wouldn't have reached this much accomplishment. However, this acknowledgment really comes from Austin and his family, who touched so many people's hearts. I was just a lucky guy who made this movie about him and his family, and this project made me a better person than I used to be. Thank you.

Tim

Fundraising Ideas from National and Local Groups

I've been going through the old LDA (national) Statelines, trying to find all the items that I missed and would have liked to have seen shared on this blog. Here's a good one for all presidents, executive directors and membership chairs.--KK

Source: www.istockphoto.com

Letter written October 15, 2008:
Dear Affiliate Leaders,

I hope by now you have had the opportunity to view the recent materials sent to you from the Membership Committee for your use. The Membership Committee has been very active and attempting to provide you with usable materials in our efforts to increase our membership base. I wanted to share with you that at a recent LDA of Illinois board meeting, we tried one of the suggested activities. Our state board members were notified ahead of time to bring names and addresses of friends, colleagues, and relatives with them to the board meeting. At the meeting we filled out the letters and addressed envelopes and the membership invitations were then mailed out from the state office. A few days later my principal walked into my room and indicated she had received my letter and membership information. She said the membership fee was very reasonable and she was joining. That night my mother called and said she was joining also. It had never crossed my mind to ask either one of them! I was very encouraged that this small effort on my part resulted in two new memberships. I encourage all of you to review the membership materials and put them to use. Contact your state president and have membership items put on the agenda for your next state board meeting. Only through our active efforts will our membership increase. Please feel free to call or email Sharon Tanner or myself for any further information or clarification. Thank you for all your hard work and efforts on behalf of LDA!

Sincerely,
Ernie Florence
Membership Chair

Our county chapter does this with fund-raising. We have a database of all the past contributors to the chapter, and print address labels for our annual appeal. We print out an appeal letter with a tear-off at the bottom of the appeal letter. Return envelopes are pre-addressed with our treasurer's address label. Each board member gets a stack of envelopes and selects the labels for people whom they know. They write a short personal note at the bottom of the appeal letter, stick the address label on the envelope, and fold the letter, and return envelope into the mailing envelope. We have one board member who seals the envelopes and stamps them. Finally one member takes the batch to the post office, pre-sorted and bundled.

Source: artofmakingmoney.info

This chapter has a pretty good return on their letters. Some contributors designate their gifts to a reading tutoring scholarship in the name of a founding member. Others designate their gifts to a community college fund we set up in the name of another founding member. The remaining money goes into a general fund for other projects of the chapter. It's a lot of fun for us, because we get together for the mailing and a potluck, and it's a good return on our investment of time, postage and printing costs.

Kathleen

Other Ways of Staying Connected

Byron and I were chatting at the meeting on Saturday about using a wikispace for our board as another way to stay connected with our strategic planning efforts. I would be willing to set this up if that is amenable to everyone else....

odiogo

We frequently talk about finding ways to make text more accessible to our members. I know that we have odiogo on this site. How does this work and where can we find more information? Would this be something to add to our website somehow and post our newsletter or parts of it to address this possible need?

Austin's Movie wins a National Award!!

Here's the latest from Tim Nagae, filmmaker mentioned in an earlier post:

Dear Friends:

I would like to inform you that "Austin's Movie" won a national award for film and TV programs called, the "Accolade Award - the Award of Excellence: short documentary." The Accolade's website is www.theaccolade.net and they are going to post the name of "Austin's Movie" on this site soon.

There is another one above the "Award of Excellence," called "Best of Show." But there was no Best of Show for TV programs for this time, which means the "Award of Excellence" is supposed to be the best....? By the way, "Haley and Madonna" won the 2004 Best of Show 4 years ago. If "Austin's Movie" won the Best of Show, a short clip of the movie would be posted on their website, though. But I'm very very happy with this award!

This is a great honor to me, Austin, Austin's family, those who were involved in the production of "Austin's Movie," especially John Sauve, Donna, Matt, CTN and WFUM that broadcast the program. And of course, Lucy for inspiring me to make this movie. Thank you for supporting the production of "Austin's Movie"!

Sincerely,

Tim Nagae

P.S. As always, the link to the promo video of "Austin's Movie" is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FShuvD8MGGY

Manipulatives as Standard Accommodation

Okay, I am not as political and sometimes not quite as cerebral as Kath, but my brain does seem to churn out a lot of thoughts. Here's one of the latest:
On standardized assessments, such as our friend the MEAP, some students qualify for a calculator correct? Well, one of our teachers was presenting on Algeblocks last week, and I had a thought: what if Algeblocks or AlgebraTiles were a standard accommodation?

Students would have to know how to use them independently and they have no labels, so there would be no outside assistance or influence. AlgebraTiles or something like them could even be printed as one extra page. Students who operate in the abstract wouldn't need them and wouldn't use them. Those who are not operating at that level may have an actual scaffold and be able to show their comprehension on an assessment.

I am completely aware that this is not a likely reality, but I continue to wander in the world of what if.... on this one!

LDA of Michigan President Posts Question About "Full Continuum"

I was able to post a question for the November 24th weekly chat about Designing and Delivering Quality Special Education, hosted by EPE Research Center and Education Week.

picture source:
http://www.edweek.org/rc/articles/2008/10/27/special_education_in_america.html,
accessed 12/1/08

Question from Kathleen Kosobud, Doctoral Candidate, Michigan State University (and President, LDA of Michigan):

With the increased focus on inclusive practice, many parent groups fear that "individualized" education will no longer be realized for children with "high incidence" or "mild" disabilities. What would you say to those who are concerned about "preserving the full continuum"?

George Theoharis:

The fear of decreased individualization is common, but unfounded. As with good inclusive practices we keep students with mild disabilities and their needs as central to planning. We cannot forget that removing students from the learning environment does not equal needs being met.

We have years of experience and research to show us this. The trick is to differentiate and plan for students needs upfront. One real example of this is when I am doing a presentation with teachers, I ask a few of them to go to the back of the room to get some remedial help on differentiating curriculum. The very act of standing up and leaving to learn in an area that is difficult for them causes them to feel anxious, and stigmatized. They feel very unprepared to learn in the new environment. Yet, this is what we ask our struggling learners to do everyday.

Another way to look at the continuum is not about spaces (4 walls) instead it is about intensity of services. And the law demonstrates that if services are portable, they should be brought to the child (emphasis added).

For more of this discussion, see Designing and Delivering Quality Special Education, November 24, 2008 with guests:

• Nancy Reder is director of Government Affairs for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, an organization working with states to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.
• George Theoharis, a former teacher and principal, is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Leadership at Syracuse University, where he studies classroom inclusion practices and other special education issues.