Parker's Post

May 4, 2009 Rising Sixth-Grade Parent Meeting

On May 4, 2009, the Mabry Special Education team (6th grade teachers), will welcome the parents of our rising sixth grade students. We will meet at 6:00 in the Media Center prior to the general PTSA meeting at 6:30. A flyer with this information will be sent home with the students.

Our program will be a short presentation, introduction of our teachers and the opportunity for parents to ask questions.

We look forward to meeting you and having the opportunity to answer some of your questions and alleviate some of your concerns about the  transition to middle school. Please mark your calendars for May 4, 6:00.

Parent Night-February 12

We are hoping that you will be able to participate in the parents' night activities at Lassiter High School on Thursday, February 12 at 6:00. Please come and participate in the mini-sessions regarding special education issues and have your questions answered. More information can be seen on my previous blog post. 

Hope to see you there! 

Updated Information-Parent Night-February 12, 2009

     Many of you may not be aware of a wonderful resource which is available to all parents of special education students - the Special Education Parent Mentor Program. This is an outstanding program which serves to support the parents and educators of students with special needs.

    One of the functions of this Parent Mentor program is to provide workshops for parents and educators, and it is with great pleasure that we will have the opportunity to see this group in action on Parent Night, scheduled for February 12, 2009. This will take place at Lassiter High School from 6:00-7:30. Parent Night will afford parents of special education students (elementary, middle and high in our area)an opportunity to participate in mini-sessions of interest. At this time, the sessions are in the planning stages so more news on this will follow.

  The topics of sessions to be offered: Transition Services, Graduation Requirements, Legal Aspects of Special Education, Preparing for Your Child's IEP, Understanding the Psychological Evaluation and Supports for Your Child At Home. Teachers and parents can benefit from this opportunity to learn more about our children.

    If you would like additional information or would like to talk with a parent mentor, the phone number is 770 529-0046. Please plan on taking advantage of this available resource.

Vocational Testing in October

Many activities are taking place at Mabry and among these activities are upcoming tests. Our eighth grade students will be testing in September - the IOWA, achievement test, and the COGAT, an abilities test. In October, our students who receive special services will be taking a vocational assessment. A copy of the letter to parents is included in this post. This letter explains the great information that is derived from this assessment.

September 15, 2008

Greetings from the Special Education Department! We are off to a great start. We wanted to let you know about an upcoming activity (assessment), as we like to keep our parents informed.

All eighth grade students, who receive Special Education services, will be given a Career Survey and Interest Survey during the month of October. The Carl Perkins Act guarantees that all Special Education students will receive a vocational assessment. These assessments are done throughout the county and state in order to give us additional information that can be used for educational planning. These assessment tools can give us information regarding interests, strengths, and weaknesses. (A chart is returned with the results that show possible fields of careers that the student might have strength.)

This is a required assessment and just one more tool that can give helpful information when making decisions about high school. It does not determine classes, placement, etc. The entire battery of tests should take approximately one and one-half hours. We are planning on giving this test during the Connections/PE block of time during the month of October.

Please feel free to contact your child’s case manager or Betty Parker if you have any concerns or questions. Your child’s case manager is _______________________________________________ Mabry Middle School – 770 928-5546 Thank you, Betty Parker, Special Education Lead Teacher

A Great New School Year-2008-2009

      The Mabry Special Education Department welcomes you to Mabry Middle School. To our new students, we hope that you will come and  feel at home at Mabry. You will have wonderful teachers who are here to help you in any way. To our veteran students, we will be anxious to see how much you have grown and matured.

     One can feel the excitement in the air as our new sixth graders come to look at their new school home for the next three years. They have lots of great questions and are seem so excited about changing classes and using a locker. (Our veteran students do not want to show too much excitement as that would not be too cool. However, they seem to be glad to see their former teachers and friends.)

     Open House will be in August and dates will be announced soon. This will be an opportunity for parents to follow their student's schedule and meet the teachers. We look forward to this opportunity to meet each of you.  Each student receiving special education services will  have a caseload manager whom you will meet.  The caseload manager will be calling soon to make an introduction.

     What a great year this will be!