Welcome to the third season of the Helping Children Learn Podcast! We start off by introducing you to one of our employees of the year. From the Carbon County Early Learning Center, Margarita Rivera (better known as Margie) pours her heart and soul into her students with true love and patience.

We sit down with Margie and another teacher from the Early Learning Center, Jen Prosock, to talk about Margarita's recognition as one of CLIU21's best educators for 2023-2024! We talk about Jen and Margie's different teaching styles and how they have more in common than they thought! And we answer a big question before we end the show, What Keeps Bringing You Back to the Classroom Each Day?

This is a special episode of the Helping Children Learn Podcast. It's the first time we have students on the show! One of CLIU's center-based programs, Carbon Learning Achievement School (better known as CLAS), is now a No Place For Hate school! This is a program from the Anti-Defamation League which gives tools for student-led discussions about bullying, inclusivity and diversity where they encourage each other to make their school a better place to learn. Our kids on this episode were strong enough to be vulnerable about their experiences and why this program has already helped them become better and more comfortable students.

TEAR DOWN THIS WALL: Sometimes a barrier to a child's ability to learn or communicate can be taken down with just one tool or device that can change their life.

In this episode of the Helping Children Learn Podcast, we have a chat with our two consultants from the Assistive Technology Department. We discuss how our students, with all different backgrounds, use all sorts of technology ranging from simple pencil grips to heavily programmed iPads. And we dive into one of the most important days of the year here at IU21 called Toy Adaptation Day.

Since the pandemic, student mental health issues have gotten significantly worse. Anxiety, depression and suicide among kids has risen so fast, mental and behavioral health professionals are working tirelessly to work this problem from new angles.

On this episode of the HCL Podcast, we speak with the supervisor of CLIU's Behavioral Health program Jason Savenelli as well as outpatient case worker Colleen Schenkenberger. We go over the state of student mental health and what's being done to combat the issue.

This podcast can be streamed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Amazon Music, and more! Just type in the search bar “Helping Children Learn” and you will find it. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, we have this podcast with closed captioning on a video! You can find it on the CLIU21's YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

For February’s HCL Podcast, we are highlighting our Deaf and Hard of Hearing program! Our DHH educators are working every day to help their students thrive in the real world. We sit down with two teachers who come from different ends of a child’s journey. Teresa Gladfelter is at Schnecksville Elementary and Christine Bloch is at Parkland High School. We talk about the struggles all DHH children face despite their age, common misconceptions with hearing devices, the importance of inclusion, and we always talk about some of our teachers’ favorite classroom successes.

This podcast can be streamed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Amazon Music, and more! Just type in the search bar “Helping Children Learn” and you will find it. For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, we have a video podcast with closed captioning on YouTube.

Also make sure to check out 21News on our CLIU website. This is another great way to keep up with CLIU21 happenings. Follow us on our social media platforms: YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X to stay up to date as things are happening!

CLIU21 helps special needs students of all ages, but we try to start our journey with a child when they are 3, 4, or 5 years of age. Our Early Intervention program aims to get a child in the program best suited for their needs with the goal of getting them ready for a traditional classroom.

Join us as we speak with Dr. Cathy Nelson (Early Intervention supervisor) and Amber Snyder (Early Intervention social worker). We'll be diving into a larger conversation about breaking the ice with parents and great stories of student success. #helpingchildrenlearn #podcast #specialeducation #earlyintervention #closedcaption

Aside from service animals helping people with disabilities, dogs are specially trained to work in professional settings. Police K9 units for drug sniffing, bomb detection, search&rescue. We also think of guard dogs and farm animal herding. We can't forget about therapy dogs! Roaming the halls of hospitals and nursing homes to make people feel better. But what if we applied the traits of an emotional support animal to the hallways of a school for students who needed that exact type of support? That's what we did at CLIU21 when we put a facility dog in our Lehigh Learning Achievement School known as LLAS. We have a chocolate lab named LLASie (see what we did there?) who is trained to calm students down, helping keep their behavior regulated and in check. On this episode of the Helping Children Learn Podcast, listen to our conversation with the school's supervisor and psychologist to break down all the benefits of having LLASie for students who need her.

Video games have come a long way from the days of the original Atari and Nintendo! Kids today are playing more video games than ever before and that has made esports (competitive video gaming) incredibly popular.We typically think of video games as a distraction from student responsibilities such as studying and homework.

But educators are now finding ways to leverage video games in the classroom and school setting. In this episode of the Helping Children Learn Podcast, we speak with CLIU's Michael Heater and Tony Mirabito about the successes they have found after nearly three years of running a scholastic esports league.

For our deaf and hard of hearing friends, we have YouTube videos of our podcast with closed captioning! Want to listen to this on your device or computer? You can find the Helping Children Learn Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon, and more!

You can also listen to it on our public RSS website: https://rss.com/podcasts/understandin...

#helpingchildrenlearn #podcast #growingtogether #leadership #executivedirector #conversation

Welcome to the rebranded Helping Children Learn Podcast! We're go excited to start a new show with our new executive director, Dr. Gregory Koons! In this episode, get to know him as he takes on the head job at IU21.

In this episode of Understanding the IU, we discuss how IU21 works along side, yet independently with the Carbon Lehigh Special Needs Childrens Foundation. The foundation sponsors and funds multiple programs a year for special needs students with the help of IU21 employees who volunteer their time. It's a special partnership enriching the lives of special needs families all over our region.