PaTTANpod

Transitioning from youth into adulthood can be very challenging, especially for students with disabilities. Members of the PaTTAN Youth Engagement Specialist (YES) team join PaTTANpod to discuss the importance of engaging students in transition planning, as well as resources and support available from the YES team.

Click here for more episodes

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCkBP2csbOssi3rUsfM-yQT1DVGUihxg2

Also available in podcast format on iTunes and Google Play Music

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pattanpod/id1436873041?mt=2

Google Play Music

https://play.google.com/music/m/Iwyth5xyq26f67f4qrzktutbxke?t=PaTTANpod

Natasha Fletcher, Youth Engagement Specialist

Natasha Fletcher is a Youth Engagement Specialist at PaTTAN East with over a decade of experience helping individuals with behavioral challenges and mental health concerns. Specializing in Behavioral Health management with youth Natasha uses that experience to advocate for individuals with disabilities along with providing the knowledge to expand and defend their rights while supporting self-advocacy. By focusing on the youth, she understands that no significant learning can occur without first building a significant relationship. Through lived experience as a child navigating the foster care system and an adult who struggles with ADHD herself currently, are reasons why she gets up in the morning and fight for those that are unable or have difficulties fighting for themselves.

Hayley Penn, Youth Engagement Specialist

Hayley Penn is a Youth Engagement Specialist for PaTTAN Central. She has a background in Behavioral Health and Psychology and many years of experience working with young people throughout her time as an employee at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. As a Youth Engagement Specialist, her mission is to help provide a seamless transition for students with disabilities from high school to college or the workforce. Her goal is to advocate for support services that allow students to participate in competitive employment and higher education. She provides technical assistance and training as part of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) and PATTAN.

Hunter Steintz, Youth Engagement Specialist

Hunter Steinitz, MDiv. (Master of Divinity) is a Youth Engagement Specialist with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) in the West. Hunter is a self-advocate and speaker and brings her experience of living with a rare genetic skin condition. She has spent over a decade working with children and young adults through her church and disability communities and continues to connect and engage with those communities. Hunter's current areas of focus at PaTTAN include Secondary Transition, Employment, Family Engagement, and more.

Host

Sara Frey

Producer

John Ragsdale

Animation

Media Solutions

Special thank you to Pennsylvania Training and Technical

Assistance Network (PaTTAN), Pennsylvania Department of Education,

And Bureau of Special Education

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

PaTTAN AI team would like to record a NAC 2024 Promo (commercial) for the upcoming conference to highlighting the session strands for Families and highlight Children's Institute

PaTTAN AI team would like to record a NAC 2024 Promo (commercial) for the upcoming conference to highlighting the session strands for Educators, Related Service Providers, BCBA.

To promote cross-department and cross-agency collaboration, HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low-incidence disabilities, provided special opportunities and incentives for teams of attendees in 2023.

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

To promote cross-department and cross-agency collaboration, HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low-incidence disabilities, provided special opportunities and incentives for teams of attendees in 2023.

Sydney Evans and Stephanie Brennan describe their experiences at HELIX and the benefits of collaboration among classroom teachers and special education teachers and practitioners.

https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/HELIX-Conference

Sydney Evans is a first grade teacher at Whitemarsh Elementary School in the Colonial School District. She attended the HELIX conference for the first time with her colleagues, Stephanie, Michaelle, and MT. She found this conference to be meaningful and informative even as a general education teacher due to having the opportunity to teach students with exceptionalities in my classroom setting. Sydney enjoyed having this experience and loved getting to meet new people and share new findings.

Stephanie has been a life skills teacher for more than 15 years. She is passionate about helping students achieve their highest level of autonomy and independence through collaboration and creative problem solving. Stephanie has led her district in inclusive practices and community engagement, running a student- staffed restaurant out of her classroom for 10 years. Areas of expertise include child and family advocacy, behavioral support strategies, and interprofessional practice.

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

To promote cross-department and cross-agency collaboration, HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low-incidence disabilities, provided special opportunities and incentives for teams of attendees in 2023.

Michaelle Khatchadourian and Mary Therese (MT) Sabatino share how participating in HELIX supports self-reflection and collaboration.

https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/HELIX-Conference

Michaelle has been an occupational therapist for 35 years. She owns her own business and has contracted with the district for 11 years providing a variety of related services. Michaelle’s areas of interest includes sensory integration, use of assistive technology to support function, and mentorship. Michaelle loves her job and enjoys learning and collaborating with all disciplines to support the students.

MT is a school-based speech, language pathologist who has been practicing in the field for over 15 years. She has special interests in the areas of language and literacy development, assistive technology, advocacy for families of children with disabilities, mentorship, and interprofessional practice. MT is active in the Pennsylvania Speech-Language Hearing Association (PSHA) and co-chair of the schools committee.

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

Rebecca Schillack and Kathleen Mease discuss how attending HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low incidence disabilities, impacted their efforts to support English language learners with disabilities.

Rebecca and Kathleen attended the 2023 HELIX conference as part of a team from Bensalem Township School District through a conference program promoting cross-department and cross-agency collaboration.

HELIX conference: https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/HELIX-Conference

Miss Schillack is a Special Education teacher at Bensalem Township School District teaching students, within the Life Skills program, Functional Language Arts and Reading Strategies. Miss Schillack has worked as a Special Education Teacher for the Bensalem Township School District for 15+ years. She co-teaches a class with Ms. Mease, the English Foundations' teacher at Bensalem High School. The class includes students that have English language needs in addition to their individual disabilities.

Kathleen Mease is an ELD teacher from Bensalem High School. She primarily teaches newcomer English Language Learners, but also co-teaches ELLs who are within the Life Skills program. She works closely with a Life Skills teacher to help these students with reading strategies.

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

To promote cross-department and cross-agency collaboration, HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low-incidence disabilities, provided special opportunities and incentives for teams of attendees in 2023.

Shannon McMahon and Lorendana Martinez describe their experiences at HELIX and their ongoing efforts facilitating collaboration among Special Education and English Language Development educators and practitioners to support English language learners with disabilities.

HELIX conference: https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/HELIX-Conference

Shannon McMahon is currently a Supervisor of Special Education for Bensalem Township School District. Mrs. McMahon has worked in the field of Special Eduction for over 25 years. This year Mrs. McMahon is working closely with the team at Bensalem High School in focusing on support for English Language Learners who have complex support needs.

Loredana Martinez, MS, CCC-SLP is a bilingual speech-language pathologist for the Bucks County Intermediate Unit .She holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Pennsylvania state licensure in Speech-Language Pathology, and Teacher of Speech and Language Impaired certification in Pennsylvania. Loredana has 32 years experience working in brain injury rehabilitation, acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care, and school-based settings. She has been a member of the BCIU’s Multilingual Learner team since 2007.

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

Missy Garber and Kathleen Lopez discuss how HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low incidence disabilities, enhances ongoing collaboration among educators and practitioners involved in professional mentoring.

https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/HELIX-Conference

Missy Garber, Ph.D. is an itinerant teacher of students with visual impairments with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown. She was formerly the Director of the Teacher of the Visually Impaired Preparation Program and Co-Director of the National Center for Leadership in Visual Impairment at Salus University where she currently serves on the Blindness and Low Vision Studies Advisory Board. She also serves on the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Education of Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired (PACES-BVI). Dr. Garber has published several peer-reviewed articles and textbook chapters and presented at regional and national conferences. In addition to PA certification as a TVI, Dr. Garber is a Utah-endorsed teacher of the deaf-blind. She is also the parent of a young adult who is blind.

Kathleen’s educational credentials include: a Master’s Degree in Education from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and a Dual Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Education for Special and Elementary Education from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Also, she is a Certified Reading Specialist (K-12), Certified Elementary Educator (K-6), and Certified Special Educator of Visually Impaired (Birth-age 21).

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net

Natalie Steltzer describes her ambitions to become an educational interpreter and experience providing American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation at HELIX, the annual conference celebrating high expectations for students with low incidence disabilities. Natalie attended the 2023 HELIX conference as part of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Special Education’s Attract Prepare Retain (APR) initiative.

PaTTAN Deaf and Hard of Hearing Initiative: https://www.pattan.net/Disabilities/Deaf-and-Hard-of-Hearing HELIX Conference: https://www.pattan.net/Training/Conferences/HELIX-Conference

Natalie is a Junior majoring in American Sign Language and English Interpreting and minoring in Early Childhood Education at Mount Aloysius College. She is working towards becoming an educational interpreter.

Visit our website at http://www.pattan.net