Learn how to reduce stress and anxiety in the classroom at Yachad’s International Inclusion and Special Education Conference “Turning Mirrors Into Windows” on Tuesday, October 27 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Aish Hatorah in Thornhill. The synagogue is located at 949 Clark Avenue West.
Yachad, the flagship program of the Orthodox Union’s National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD), provides unique social, educational and recreational programs for individuals with learning, developmental and physical disabilities with the goal of their Inclusion in the total life of the Jewish community.
Batya Jacob, director of educational support services for Yachad, elaborated on the theme of the conference: “The idea behind ‘Turning Mirrors Into Windows’ is that the goal is for students to become active learners and apply their own understandings to the material, not just repeating the information they are taught. Stagnant learners are like mirrors in that they just give back what they are taught, whereas students who are like windows will absorb the information their own way and then it’s not the exact same way that they were taught. The Toronto conference is geared towards all educators in typical and special education classrooms. It is for teachers who would like to learn new techniques and strategies to help their students deal with stress and anxiety.”
The keynote address will be delivered by Rick Lavoie. Mr. Lavoie served as an administrator of residential programs for children with special needs for 30 years as well as a visiting lecturer at numerous universities including Syracuse, Harvard, Manhattanville College, University of Alabama, University of Melbourne and Georgetown. He has served as a consultant on learning disabilities to several agencies and organizations including Public Broadcasting Service, The New York Times, National Center for Learning Disabilities, USA Today, Girl Scouts of America, Child Magazine, Instructor Magazine and National Public Radio. In 2009, Mr. Lavoie was the recipient of the Learning Disabilities Associations of America’s Samuel Kirk award.
Featured speakers at the upcoming conference include Mrs. Jacob; Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, international director of Yachad; Mike Dreiblatt, president of standuptobullying.net; Rabbi Avraham Goldhar founder of the Goldhar School, an online Jewish education resource; Dr. Mitchell Parker, Ph.D., clinical psychologist; and Tammie Roth, Early Childhood Educational Consultant and Staff Trainer at Enhanced Teaching & Beyond.
Register for the conference at www.yachad.org/specialedconferences. Cost is $140. For more information, multiple educator discounts and for other conferences in a location near you, contact Batya Jacob at 551-404-4447, 212-613-8127 or batyaj@ou.org.