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Increasing student achievement by the systemic alignment of technology, policies, and curriculum through a multi-tiered system of supports in a universal education setting.

In This Issue

Editorial

• MTSS & Expert Learners

End of Year Celebration

• Celebrating Success!

Success Stories

• Environmental Communication Teaching (ECT)
• Passport to Learning
• RESNA Certification

AT & UDL Loan Library Updates & More

• Loan Library End-of-Life category is now open!

TLC Resource Highlights

• Summer Learning
• AI Chat
• AI Artist
• Science Tools for Students
• Math Tools for Students
• UDL & Technology: Removing Barriers
• ATIA Learning Center Webinars
• District Assistive Technology Specialists (LATS) Contact List
• Resource Request Form

Let us know how we can help you this year!

• Your Technology & Learning Connections Team
• Your Passport to Learning Team
• Your Local Assistive Technology Specialists (LATS)
• Your MTSS Professionals



Editorial

MTSS & Expert Learners

A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) exists to ensure all students have access to high-quality, engaging instruction. It integrates instruction and intervention to meet the needs of students, identified through data-based decisions, to accelerate performance and ensure mastery of the standards. Additionally, effective strategies are utilized throughout their learning experience to align tiers of instruction and to ensure students meet with success. This data-based decision making and problem-solving is not something done for students, but rather a process that students should become fully involved with as they get older.

CAST defines expert student learners as purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed. Consider how district-developed documents, guides, and tools such as exemplars of mastery, rubrics, and progress monitoring tools can help not only teachers foster expert learners in these areas but also families. Here are the CAST top 5 tips for fostering expert learners.

• Support relevant goal setting
• Communicate high expectations for all students and recognize variability
• Promote disciplinary expertise (thinking like a scientist, or a historian, etc.)
• Focus on the process, not just the outcome; students are engaged in the learning process 
• Guide self-reflection 

Students with disabilities need to develop expert learner skills, not only for academics, but also for the identification, selection, and use of assistive technologies, accommodations, and accessible educational materials. These independent skills are critical for students as they transition to a post-secondary setting, whether it is in a work setting or higher education.

Students must become their own advocates, and the best place for them to learn and practice those skills is while they are in school as a part of a problem-solving process, and with an IEP team to guide and support them. Summer is a great time for students to extend and practice these skills by doing the things they are passionate about and enjoy. 

Check out the TLC Resource Highlights section of this newsletter and look for activities that students can do during the summer in a fun, low-stress environment. Give them the opportunity to make choices, practice decision making, and problem solving. Play is not just about games, it is also a time that students build independent self-determination skills, and Summer is a perfect time for play and learning!

Your TLC Team

End of Year Celebration

Celebrating Success!

There has been so much amazing work done this Spring in our professional development activities that directly impact student outcomes! The ECT Teams worked with students who have complex communication needs and increased communication skills. The Passport "travelers" explored ways to impact their students through new understanding in augmentative & alternative communication services, accessible educational materials, assistive technologies, and supports for physical access, vision, and hearing; journaling their experiences with their students.

The RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America) cohort has completed a 2-year intensive program reviewing assistive technology scenarios and research-based practices in order to achieve the RESNA Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) Certification.

The work these professionals have done is critical to ensuring the successful inclusion of students with disabilities in all tiers of instruction addressing grade-level standards in a multi-tiered system of supports. They provide support in helping IEP teams function as part of the problem-solving process at each school. We are excited about all they have accomplished!

Congratulations in your success, we want to celebrate you!

Your TLC Team

Success Stories

Augmentative & Alternative Communication Band 2

CAST AEM: Leadership

AT Assessment - Your Role

Education/Learning for Students: Physical Acess & Participation

Education/Learning Technology: Students for Vision and Hearing - Band 2

AT & UDL Loan Library Updates & More

Don’t Miss Out! End-Of-Life Items

Starts May 15th, 2023 at 10 AM EDT

Ends June 16th, 2023, at 4 PM EDT

A few important details you should know: 

• On May 15th, 2023 at 10AM EST, a new category in the AT & UDL Loan Library called “End of Life Items” will be available on the navigation bar
• There is a limit of 2 items per person - so select carefully     
• If inventory is exceeded at checkout – the order will not be processed and you may only receive a partial order
• An iPad will come pre-bundled with a case(s) and will be considered one item; we will not substitute items ordered
• Be aware that some parts or pieces could be missing from an End of Life item
• Notify Me will not be honored and a waitlist will not be available for items marked End of Life (E-O-L)
• Please do not combine regular AT inventory items needed for trials with End of Life / Permanent Loan items on the same order
• We cannot ship to a home address

On June, 16th, 2023 at 4 PM EST, the “End of Life Items” category in the AT & UDL Loan Library will no longer be available on the navigation bar.

Check out the AT & UDL Loan Library for more information!

TLC Resource Highlights

Summer is a great time to provide options for learning and to integrate technology and learning activities that center on the interest of the child; opportunities for choices, opportunities to track progress; creativity; and low-stress learning. Student characteristics, learner variability, and family dynamics are key characteristics in the development of standards-aligned skills and the confidence that will assist students in becoming independent learners across all environments.

It's also a great time for personalized professional development. Check out the resources below for students, parents, therapists, and educators!

For More Information

Visit the Technology & Learning Connections website for additional tools and resources to help prepare all students for college, career, and life. You can also view past editions of the AT & UDL Newsletter. 

This resource was funded through The Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services (BEESS). The information and resources are provided as a free awareness service to the educational community and do not reflect any specific endorsement by any parties involved. Please note that access to some resources may be blocked by individual school districts.