September 22, 2016 TSBVI Webinar. 
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     >> Good afternoon.  [Echoing]. 
     Excuse me. 
     Nathan, can you hear me?
     >> It's on. 
     >> Good afternoon, everybody and welcome.  Excuse us while we figure out your technical bugs here.  Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.  We are delighted you decided to partake with us in this year's active learning study group from assessment to I'm involvement and instruction.
     My name is Matt Schultz.  I am a deafblind education consultant with the Texas School for the Blind deafblind outreach team.
     This is my colleague  
     >> Kate: I'm Kate Hurst, with the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
     >> And with us is Charlotte Cushman and Patty Obrzut from the Penrickton Center.  They will both be chiming in throughout today's webinar and our future sessions, which speaking of, let's take a moment and check our collective calendars.  We have five online gatherings scheduled for  maybe between now and the next eight months.  The next gathering as you see on your screen is November 10th.  We'll get together again in January on the 26th.  March 30th we'll get together.  And finally we'll gather on May 25th for the last date in this year's series.
     >> Kate: I just want to point out here, Matt, I've had some questions about this.  You do need to register for each individual session.  The reason for that being that that is the way our system gives you credit for having attended each session, and I know that getting credit hours for a lot of you is very important, but it also helps us know how many people are coming into the room each time and how many rooms we need to open up. 
     >> Matt: On your screen you will see our objectives for this webinar series.  Over the course of our next five meetings we hope to increase your awareness of Active Learning and its implementation in both the home  there are parents out there who have joined us today  and of course in the school as well.  We hope to help you gain understanding in how to adapt classroom instruction and individualized education plans, using the Active Learning approach.
     We also hope to help U.S. participants gain an understanding on how to align Active Learning instruction and IEPs to the general curriculum.  Indicate and we don't know 
     >> Kate: And we don't know if that's an issue for all of our attendees or just for our own country.
     >> Matt: You will note that one of the things we didn't note in this year's objectives is specifically on Active Learning assessments and that's because we kind of tackled that topic last year in a series of webinars.  On your screen you will see the link that you can use to access that series if you want some more information on the functional scheme assessment and we'll talk more about some resources on that topic later today.
     A couple of things we want to do before we dive into today's content is talk about what some of our expectations are for you guys as participants in this virtual gathering.  Blue R. but also get feedback on what you're looking to get out of this study group from your perspective.
     So we hope that you will register and attend all five webinars within the Active Learning series.  It is a series.  It's designed to build on the content of the previous gathering and we hope you can make it to all five.  We hope you will participate in the chat pod during our broadcast, and my goodness, you're already off to a great start.
     >> Kate: Yes, they are.
     >> Matt: And we promise to do our best to being responsive to both your comments and questions in the chat pod.
     We really hope that you share video footage of Active Learning instruction.  It's a great way to make this a twoway conversation.  We know there's some obstacles in place for some of you on that topic, but we'll have some more information today on how you can go about getting the paperwork needed to share those videos and really again hope that you can do so.
     We also hope that you as participants will post questions on this website that we're going to spend a lot of today talking about called activelearningspace.org.  Now we want to hear a little from you.  And as we asked you to respond to this poll in regard to your learning style, the question is what is most important for you to have included in each of our webinars?  And you can choose all that apply.  Our handy guys in the studio are pulling up the polls on your screens right now.
     So are you somebody who would really like to see videos of students engaged in Active Learning activities?  Would you really like presentation from the speakers to you providing instruction? 
     Are you looking more for an opportunity to have time to discuss and have your questions answered and hear other people's questions? 
     Or are you looking more for additional resources that you can kind of dive in on your own time, more of a selfstudy approach. 
     Please respond to any that apply to what you're looking for.
     >> Kate: And all of this information is going to help us as we go along in making sure that we set up a format that will meet your needs each and every time we get together. 
     >> Matt: Everybody wants to see videos.
     >> Kate: Well, that's not a surprise. 
     >> Matt: We want to hear from the  you want to hear from the speakers.  We'll do our best to give you guys great information.  So glad we have Charlotte and Patty and all their experience to help with that.
     Lots of people want additional resources, which we are so going to give you today.  Just buckle up. 
     The poll is now closed.  Thanks, guys, for using that method to give us that feedback.  It's really important to us.
     And speaking of Charlotte, are you there, Charlotte?
     >> Charlotte: I am.  Let's hope you can hear me. 
     >> Matt: We're hoping Charlotte can chime in now and talk a little bit about that survey that was sent out to you guys in your email, another way that we were hoping to get information about who you guys were and what you were hoping to get out of this. 
     >> Charlotte: Yes, can you hear me? 
     [Echoing]. 
     >> Charlotte: I can hear a big echo. 
     >> Matt: I'm going to give our guys a minute to connect Charlotte through.
     >> Charlotte: Tell me if you can hear me now.
     >> Kate: Now we can hear you.
     >> Charlotte: Hello, everyone.  I didn't want to say good afternoon because I know we have a lot of people for whom this is good morning.
     So hello down under.  It's really exciting to see people from all over the world here, and this is a little bit of a technical feat for us so our fingers are crossed that all will go well with this and smoothly today.
     As Kate and Matt mentioned, I did send out a survey just to help us to try to figure out who is participating and who's going to be part of this whole study group.  And we have actually 200 people who registered, which is many, many more than we were expecting.
     So we're thrilled.  I know not everybody was able to be here live today and we know a number of people will be looking at the recorded version of this and listening to the recorded version.
     But I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our  the results of our survey.
     So about a quarter of you responded to the survey, and the survey is still open.  I will put the URL in the chat room as soon as I stop talking since I can't do two things at once.
     But anyway, what I wanted to let you know is we're thrilled that we had 10 families sign up.  Many TVIs, many special educators, lots of education consultants who will be sharing information with the classrooms where they consult, some special ed directors, AT specialists, the curriculum designers, grad students.  If you're not on that list plead go ahead and put in the chat room if there's another role that you have because we're really interested to find out who all is represented here.
     We're also very excited that there are people from all over the U.S. here.  We have people from Maine to Georgia and Texas to Alaska.  For those of you who are not American, that's a big geographic distribution so we're excited about that.
     And special welcome and thanks to those of you from different countries.  So in addition to the United States, we're really excited that we have people here from the UK and Canada, Australia and New Zealand and Belgium.
     Again, if you are not listed on that list of countries, if I didn't mention your country, please do go ahead and put it in the chat window.  We just know the people who we sent  who sent their surveys back in.
     So we're very excited about that and special thanks to I believe in Australia those of you who are on vacation this week, who are up at 5:00 a.m. to be here, so that's what I call dedication.  Thanks very much. 
     Let's have the next slide, please. 
     So one of the tricks in trying to plan this training was to find out which of you were just getting started and which of you are looking for more advanced training.
     And as you can see from the slide, it's about exactly half and half.  So really our hope is that there will be enough information here for those of you who are beginners and especially the pointers towards where the resources are that you can find and explore yourself.  We're hoping that it will be applicable to you and for those of you who are at a more advanced level, we hope that you will chime in with your own ideas and experiences and also that hopefully you're getting some of this to be able to share with others.  So we hope there's something for everybody.
     And the next slide, please. 
     Again, we were trying to get a sense of who you are and what you're doing, and as you can see from the slide here, more than 60% of you are using Active Learning in your classroom, so we're very excited about that.  I think you'll have lots of great experiences and information to share with us and with your colleagues.  65% of you describe yourselves as complete novices or with some knowledge.  And 35% as intermediates or experts.
     So again, we've got a huge range in this group and we'll do our best to try to make it useful to all of you and hope you will chime in with either questions or examples from your own teaching.
     So most of you have not completed the functional scheme assessment.  As Matt pointed out in the very beginning, that is on the Texas School for the Blind website and the link is in the handout and you will be able to find that again.  So please go back and look if you're interested in learning more about that.
     And the next slide, please.
     Again, we wanted to look at the range of which of you think that your student's IEP incorporates an Active Learning approach.  And once again we found not surprisingly a really wide range.  It's about a quarter of you do think that your IEP or your student's IEP incorporates an Active Learning approach.  About a quarter of you know, a quarter of you sort of.  And more than a quarter of you are actually not working directly with students.
     So again, we do have a lot of consultants and special ed directors, people who are supervising others.
     So hopefully by the end of this each of you will feel comfortable thinking about ways that you can have the IEP incorporated in Active Learning approach.
     Next slide, please. 
     So why are you here?  Again, we were kind of very divided.  About an equal number of you do and do not feel confident implementing the Active Learning approach.  And to our group here, Matt and Kate and Patty and I, thought it was interesting that many of you, the majority of you are using a Active Learning approach, but maybe not feeling confident.  So again, hopefully we'll help you feel more confident as a result of participation.
     And most of you are here because  hopefully everyone's here to learn more about Active Learning, but brainstorming new ideas, having a dialogue with others and also supporting families and other teachers are big reasons why you're here.  We'll try to meet all your needs if we can.
     Next slide, please.
     I think that you have certainly figured out how to use the chat room.  It's wonderful to see so much activity in there.  But I wanted to just alert you that you can ask  you can submit questions in two ways.  One is you can put it in the chat box as I think people are doing.  Some of you may feel that you don't want everyone to read your question, and I think all of us who are teachers or who have ever taught would definitely say that there's no such thing as a stupid question.  Chances are if you're wondering about it, somebody else is too.
     But if you feel more comfortable you can always just click on one of the hosts and ask your question privately.  Or on the presenters.  I think you click on host or presenters.  For submitting questions.
     And I think that's it.  Back over to my colleagues Matt and Kate. 
     >> Matt: Thanks, Charlotte.  We are ready to begin our content for today with a tour of Active Learning Space. 
     >> Kate: Tell them about your quick change.
     >> Matt: I'm going to change wardrobe real quick and then we'll start.  [Laughter]. 
     >> Matt: Now we would like to take some time to introduce you to the online resource Active Learning Space.
     You can find it on the web at activelearningspace.org, all lower case.
     Active Learning Space is a website created through a partnership between Patty Obrzut at the Penrickton Center for Blind Children, Charlotte Cushman and Kate Hurst from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.  This site is designed as a resource and tool for family members, classroom teachers, itinerant and vision, deaf education teachers, therapists and paraprofessionals as well as campus administrators.
     Any and all team members working with students who benefit from the Active Learning approach.
     The content is intended for interested parties that may be new to the Active Learning approach and looking to learn more as well as for experienced practitioners that are looking for resources to share with others or to use in training.
     As we proceed through an orientation to the website, we will take a few minutes to dive into some key topics by looking at video clips of Patty lecturing on aspects of the Active Learning approach and also take a look at children at work and play in Active Learning environments.
     A good starting point for our tour and discussion is with the question:  What is Active Learning?  For this inquiry, let's turn to the Channel 4 news team in Detroit.
     >> Michelle: In a sixminute profile speech on the Penrickton school.
     >> Imagine the challenges of having a child who is blind?  Now imagine that they're living with perhaps another disability on top of that or maybe two.
     >> We've seen visually impaired children and adults do amazing things.  But what if you've got yet another barrier or another barrier and how that would complicate it?  That's what some moms and dads deal with everyday when they have a child with multiple disabilities.
     It's not twice as difficult, it's many times more challenging.  And the Penrickton Center for Blind Children in Taylor is the only place that addresses these issues and the wonderful thing is they don't charge the families a penny. 
     >> We didn't know what to do with him.  All of the therapists that were trying to help us weren't sure what to do with him or how to help him and how to best work with him.
     >> Jack is blind with cerebral palsy and developmental delays, three disabilities.
     This is called the Little Room.  It is specifically designed for each child to introduce everyday tools and toys into their sightless world, a world where Jack can independently explore through touch.
     >> When he started here he didn't hold a spoon, he didn't bring food to his mouth at all.  And now he usually twice, three times during a meal, he will independently bring the spoon to his mouth and do it all on his own, which is huge for him.
     >> He's gaining life skills, small steps to independence and most importantly mom says he's a lot happier.
     >> This was the first time that he's actually using his hands, he's making noises, he's babbling.  He's being a little boy.  He's playing.  This is how Jack plays.  And it's nice to see that. 
     >> Penrickton's success is built on the concept of Active Learning.  Executive director Kurt Sobeli demonstrated by having me close my eyes.  It was unnerving when he began thrusting objects into my hands.
     >> People do this to blind children, hard, hard.  Soft, soft.  To a blind child it's like doing this.  It's invading their personal space and you want to push them away.  And what we see kids will throw their hands up and pull back.
     >> With Active Learning therapists give the child choice.  This time he offered me a box full of options to feel, hear, even smell.  It's more engaging and a lot less threatening.
     >> More than likely you made the choice, you had the opportunity to make the choice and you can play with those things.
     >> So that's the world you've created here?
     >> Absolutely.  We do it all the time.  Children become active if given the opportunity.
     >> Without that opportunity if the child's not engaged, not removed from their wheelchair, they will withdraw.
     >> You start seeing behavior problems, start seeing screaming, sometimes selfabuse because they're looking for  they're starved for attention because they can't see the world around them.
     >> And stimulation.
     >> And stimulation.  And they want that stimulation.
     >> Kyra is wheelchair bound, but thanks to Penrickton's innovative track harness system known as a HOPSA dress, she's in control of her learning with her hands, feet and ears, simultaneously on the walls, floor, even with objects hanging from her harness.  She's learning and building leg strength.  It's all about stripping away limitations.
     >> If you can sit up by yourself it works on a whole raft of things from feeding, dressing, bathing, all those types of skills.  We're working on leg strength so you can be pulled to stand and we see children coming in our program who have never done this independently.  They've always had some mechanical device helping them.
     Well, the HOPSA dress helps them to get there.
     >> The learning and playing continues every waking moment here.  Even with the concentrated attention, patience is the greatest virtue.
     >> It takes Jack a year to learn something, not a day.  So you have to have that patience and that creativity to come up with new and exciting things to challenge him in the way that he can learn.  You have a victory everyday.  It's understanding that if he touches a toy for one second and he didn't before, that's a victory.  It's not just teaching daily living skills.  It's him learning to play, him learning to communicate, everything. 
     >> Some of these families will drive from several hours away.  The children will stay there at Penrickton five days a week in the residential program and then go home.  It's not easy for parents to let go because they are, you know, so obsessed with this child, but they do see progress and it's doing things for them that they can't.  And the best part is this is totally donor supported.  Penrickton does not charge those families a thing.
     Now, they do have a national conference coming up in November where parents can attend, learn the Penrickton system, the Active Learning system, and they've also got a fundraiser coming up October 16th in deer born.  We'll put the link to the site up.  And if you're interested and have a child who could benefit from this you can access this.
     >> Wow.  I'm amazed at this place.  It's like heaven on earth for these kids.
     >> It really is and for those parents because they want to do so much but it is just so challenging.
     And what we didn't see there, there are tracks in the ceiling so you saw Kyra in one spot, but they can build the rails so she can go anywhere in that room.
     >> Even though she's in a wheelchair, but she's on that harness and can move.
     >> She has just enough leg strength so she can bounce and move herself along and she will move herself on that track and it opens the world to them.
     >> That was a learning thing too that they said you didn't grab someone's hand and put something in their hand, that's invading their space.  I didn't know that.
     >> Wouldn't that be your go to?  You want to help them.
     >> Let them make the choice on what to grab.  Cool story.
     >> October 17 R. 16th is the fund I razor.  We'll put the information on Facebook so we can help them out.
     >>> While that news profile gives us a great overview of Active Learning and what it looks like, let's turn to the Penrickton Center's assistant director Patty Obrzut for more information on the Active Learning approach.  We're going to pick this video up after Patty has asked the viewer to find four balls or household items that are catchable.  She then asks the viewers to juggle one item, two items, three items and then four items at a time.  And that's where our clip begins.
     >> So now I have some questions for you about the activities.  The first question is were you an active or a passive participant? 
     So I'm betting at least 50% of the people out there did not go and get the balls that I asked you to go get and you did not participate in the activity.
     So you were all passive participants, but let's say the other half of you actually did get the balls and try to juggle.  You were active participants in the activity, and that's the first key factor in Active Learning is that the child needs to participate in the activity.
     So remember I'm going to talk about five characteristics for Active Learning and the first one is you have to be an active participant.
     So now let's talk about the second question.  What would it take for you to be able to juggle all the balls that you've got from your home?  Let's say a month from now, what would you need to do so you could juggle three balls?
     I'm guessing most of you are going to say that you would have to practice.
     So now you've got the second point of Active Learning, which is you have to have repetition.  So it might take me a month or it could take me a year to figure out how to juggle three balls, but remember, repetition is important and it's going to vary from person to person.
     Some people can juggle three balls after a month, some two years, and others are like me and I just can't seem to get the idea.
     Now we're at the third part about Active Learning which is let me ask you this question:  What kind of skills did you need to juggle the ball?  What kind of developmental skills?
     So the first thing is you had to be able to pick up a ball.  You have to be able to grasp a ball and you have to be able to throw a ball.  You have to be able to use two hands.  You might have to do midline activities.
     So those are all developmental skills that you needed to complete this task.
     I picked an activity that I hoped you would be able to succeed at home, at least catching one ball or throwing two balls.  I'm not sure I thought all of you could get the three balls, but I picked an activity that you had developmental skills so that you could succeed at.  You could pick up a ball, you could throw a ball and you can grasp a ball.
     If somebody out there can't grasp a ball, I just presented you with an activity that you weren't going to be able to succeed at.  And Active Learning is all about understanding the developmental characteristics of a skill and understanding the developmental skills that someone has and matching them and giving a child appropriate activities.
     So now the fourth question:  What would it take for you to want to juggle all on your own without me asking you to do so?
     So let's say I said next week I would mail you a box of 100 chocolate bars?  Do you think you would do it, learn how to juggle if I sent you those 100 chocolate bars?
     Some people out there I'm guessing, about half of you, maybe 25% of you to 50%, might do it.  The other half are saying nope, not worth it.  I'm not going to do that.
     I can tell you for me I actually do not like chocolate so giving me chocolate candy bars is not reinforcing and I'm not going to want to juggle for that.
     However, money usually works for everybody, so let's say I wanted to give you all $100 if you were succeeding at juggling three balls by, let's say, the end of next month.
     I'm guessing again about 50% of you will say 100 bucks is pretty good, I'll take you up on that offer and you would practice and maybe learn to juggle in that time frame.  And others would say nope, not enough money.
     So let's raise the bar and say 500.  I'm guessing about 90% of you are saying for $500 you would give it a try.
     Other people might do an activity just because they find it fun and the reinforcing might be the challenge of can I succeed at juggling those golf balls or tennis balls.
     So remember, reinforcement is a key factor when doing Active Learning but you need to know what the reinforcement is for each person.  Is it food?  Is it a social activity?  Is it money?  Is it noise?  Is it the tactile sensation?  What is reinforcing to each person?
     So now lastly, was there anything distracting you from being able to do the activity at home?  Let's say you're a parent and you have three children at home and they're running around screaming at you saying hey, mom or dad why are you juggling those balls?  That could be a distraction, you're answering those questions instead of trying to juggle.
     For me I am sitting here with lights and cameras on me and it's a little bit stressful so it might prevent me from being able to concentrate on my activity.
     So let say you didn't have breakfast this morning or let's say you didn't get enough sleep last night.  Or let's say there's somebody over watching you trying to juggle the balls, making fun of you.  Those are all things that can be distractions in the environment.
     And Active Learning is all about preventing those distractions as much as possible.  Eliminating things that can interrupt somebody's ability to do a task.
     So remember with Active Learning there's five key points.  The person has to be active.  There needs to be reputation.  It has to be at a person's developmental level.  There needs to be some kind of reinforcement.  And you need to limit the amount of interruptions in a person's environment.
     >> Matt: Now that we have a better idea of what Active Learning is let's take a few minutes to explore some of the key concepts involved.  The first is called the dynamic learning circle.
     The dynamic learning circle represents the four stages of learning that occur when a learner, adult or child, is introduced to a new task or activity.
     Stage 1 occurs when a learner is both aware and interested in the new learning topic.
     Stage 2 occurs when the learner becomes curious and active in relation to the topic.
     Stage 3 occurs when the learner becomes habituated to the topic.
     Stage 4 occurs when the learner is ready to move on to a new topic of learning.
     As practitioners of the Active Learning approach, it is important to be able to recognize each stage of the dynamic learning circle as well as to understand how to promote changes in the environment to facilitate continued learning.
     When a child or adult becomes stuck in a specific stage, this Harmonic  dysharmonic learning occurs, self injurious and behaviors can be a sign of dysharmonic learning.  Identifying and correcting the cause of this break down is imperative in fostering new learning and skill attainment.
     Let's listen together as Patty discusses the first stage of the dynamic learning circle.
     >> Patty: In the first stage of the dynamic learning circle a child or learner becomes aware and interested in something.  Typically they're going to become aware of one of three things.  The first thing they could be aware of is their own sensory or motor activities.  It could be they're moving an arm, moving a leg, moving their head.
     The second thing that they could become aware of is an object in the environment.  And the last thing that they could become aware of would be a person or people in the environment.
     I'd like to give you an example of how a child goes through the dynamic learning circle in stage 1.  So for this example I'd like you to pretend that I'm a child with multiple special needs.  I'm going to be someone who's visually impaired as well as a child with cerebral palsy.
     So let's say that I have hands that have high must sell tone or spastic cerebral palsy and I keep my thumb to the palm of my hand and I keep my fingers over my thumb.  And let's say that my arms tend to naturally fall in a position to the sides of my body.
     I'd like to introduce this child to this item which is a whisk.  Most people would take the whisk and set it down in front of the child, let's say I'm in my wheelchair, they might put the whisk down on the table or on the wheelchair tray in front of the child.
     So I'm sitting in my chair, I can't see, and my hands are fisted like this.
     >> Patty's hands are raised to shoulder level with fisted hands.
     >> Patty: And I would ask to ask you, is this child aware of the object that's in front of me?  And I would say the answer is no.  If I'm visually impaired and I have cerebral palsy and someone sets a whisk down in front of me, I'm not aware that it exists at all because I'm not touching the object, I'm not doing anything to the object, I might not even know it's there.
     So let's say now that the person wants to try to make you aware of the object.  So sometimes people might take the object and slam it on the sable.  So now am I aware of the object?  Well, a child with multiple special needs, especially if they're visually impaired, might hear sounds going around them all the time.  So do they really understand that there was a sound that they can interact with or do they just hear that sound as something else in the environment that they should ignore?
     So in stage 1 of the dynamic learning circle I have to get that child to be aware of their own activity, their own sensory activities or objects or people in the environment.
     A lot of people will then say, okay, I want this child to touch this whisk.  I'll take their hands that are up here and I will grab their hand and bring it down to the object.
     And I have to tell you that's the absolute wrong thing to do when you're trying to practice Active Learning techniques.
     You never take the child and bring the child to the object.  You have to do the exact opposite.  You need to take the object and bring the object to the child.
     So how do you do that with someone who's in a wheelchair, who's hands are sitting up like this when they can't touch the table?  And the answer is a simple one.  You have to pick up the object and bring it to the child's hand.
     >> Patty dangles the whisk by the tip of the handle and brings it to her fist at shoulder level.
     >> Patty: Okay.  So you will have an object that you want a child to be introduced to.  And someone's going to have to hold that object close to that child so that it's barely touching their hand like this.
     Now a child could be aware of the object because their hand is actually touching the object.
     So let's say instead of me holding it up like this 
     >> At shoulder level.
     >> Patty: I'm just going to hold it in front of me so you can see it.
     Now that the object is in front of a child like this 
     >> The whisk is held in front of Patty and she uses her right fisted hand to touch the whisk.
     >> Patty: They might become aware of their own motor activity or own sensory input.  Let's say that child doesn't like that toy.  Maybe they move their hand away from the object.
     What's interesting about children is they tend to have a natural position they go back to.  So typically if you just leave the object where you had it that child will move their hand back to that object and they might touch it again.
     Maybe they move their hand away from it, but eventually that hand might come back and touch the object again.
     It's very important in Active Learning that you don't Chase the child around with the object.  So if the child moves their hand over here you don't move the object over here.  You leave it where it started so that child can decide to come back if they want to to figure out where that object was.
     So in stage 1 let me just repeat that the most important part is that a child becomes aware and interested in their own movement activity and object in the environment or people in the environment.  That's all of stage 1.  If a child's not aware of the object, then they haven't even hit stage 1 of the dynamic learning circle and you have to change the environment so that they can be aware of their environment.
     >> Matt: For additional information about all of the stages in the dynamic learning circle, please take some time to explore the section on the website.  It is located under the Active Learning principles tab.
     Another topic explored under that same tab is the five phases of educational treatment.
     The five phases highlight the fact that Active Learning is an approach, not a piece of equipment.  The five phases are titles:  Offering, imitation, interaction, sharing the work and consequence.
     Today we will introduce phases 1 and 2. 
     The purposes of phase 1 or offering are:  To promote trust between the learner and the adult, to observe the learner's reactions, to identify what the learner likes dislikes, to develop an understanding of the learner a's emotional level and to introduce selfactivity.
     Let's take a look at a video example of Phase 1 offering.
     >> This video segment begins with the transition from the vibrating brush which has caused Jack to fuss, to the introduction of a new object.
     Note that Cindy repositions Jack and reassures him that it's all right, but she does it in the session just because Jack has been unhappy.  He quickly adapts and Cindy holds a multicolored wooden rattle suspended near his right hand.
     Again, because this is the offering stage, she simply presents the object to him without commenting or requesting that he do anything.  Jack smiles and vocalizes. 
     Cindy introduces a seed pod rattle on Jack's left side.
     He vocalizes and brushes the rattle with his left arm.  He touches the multicolored wooden rattle with his right hand.
     Items are held at the level where he's likely to touch them with random movements, which then encourages further exploration. 
     Again, note that Cindy doesn't touch Jack with the item, but rather these objects are simply offered to him. 
     Jack brushes the seed pod rattle with a random movement with his right hand and then continues to explore it after he has discovered it. 
     He reaches across midline to play with the rattle.  He explores the seed pods with his fingers. 
     >> Matt: That wonderful video of Cindy and Jack at play really highlights the key concepts behind offering.
     You will notice Cindy makes no demands on Jack.  She only requests that Jack allow her to play near him, and this request is a nonverbal one.
     Cindy is making an offer of an activity and Jack can accept or decline.
     During the offering phase, if a learner interacts with the objects in the environment, the adult must accept the method of exploration.  If the learner mouths, throws, taps, bangs, pushes, bites, bends, however they explore it, the adult needs to not interfere with that exploration.
     When offering, do not interrupt the learner by speaking to them while they are exploring.  Wait until they take a break and then keep your comments simple and pertinent.  For example, if the student explored a seed pod rattle, simply say "You played with the rattle".
     Phase 2 is titled imitation.  The purposes of this phase are:  To increase the learner's interest in activities that occur nearby, to increase the learner's ability to initiate, to increase the learner's belief in him or herself, and to introduce activities and movements that may not yet be performed by the learner.
     Let's watch an example of phase 2 imitation.
     >> When the video begins we see Cameron seated in a stroller with his brother Hollis kneeling him before.  Throughout the activity Hollis stays in close physical proximity to his brother.  Hollis and Cameron each have a bumpy noodle ball with an eight inch flexible strand attached to it.  They mouth the ball.
     They then explore the space between the bumps with their index finger. 
     Cameron and Hollis hold the ball by the flexible strand and twirl it in front of them. 
     Cameron puts the string in his mouth briefly then once again explores the ball with his fingers.  Hollis does the same. 
     Cameron rolls the ball around while holding it with his index finger, causing the string to flip back and forth before mouthing the string briefly.
     He seems to notice that his brother is imitating him. 
     Cameron takes a short break and turns his face into the side of the stroller.
     Cameron bites on the whole ball and looks at his brother doing the same thing. 
     Hollis and Cameron twirl their balls by the string and bump them together.  Both seem to be smiling. 
     >> Matt: The older brother in this clip, Hollis, reported that although he interacts with his brother a lot, that this might have been the first conversation he had with Cameron when he allowed Cameron to lead. 
     He pointed out a moment in the video where he thinks his brother really realized that Hollis was imitating him and that he was in fact leading the conversation.
     The moment he described was when Cameron kind of lights up, smiles and kind of moves  sits up in his chair a little bit.  It's almost as if you can pinpoint that moment as an instant where Cameron's selfconfidence grew.
     Simply put, that is the power of imitation. 
     For additional information about the five phases of educational treatment, please take some time to explore that portion of the Active Learning Space website.  Additional videos from Patty about the five phases will be added to the website soon. 
     Now that we've introduced two key areas of the Active Learning approach, the dynamic learning circle and the five phases of educational treatment, let's move on and see what other information can be discovered on activelearningspace.org.
     The third tab on the menu is titled assessment.  Here you will find information about Dr. Lilli Nielson's functional scheme assessment, including information about what areas of development are assessed and some tips for teams beginning the functional scheme assessment process.
     If you have never completed a functional scheme assessment before, we want to encourage you to view the Active Learning study group webinars from the 2015'16 school year which focus on that topic.
     The fourth tab on the Active Learning Space menu is titled implementation.  Here you can discover information on how the Active Learning approach implemented for classroom instruction, including video footage of a science lesson adapted to the developmental level of an Active Learner.
     You can also see how a science lesson aligns with the Texas essential knowledge and skills as well as our Texas prekindergarten guidelines.
     Under the implementation dropdown menu you will also see a heading for arts and crafts.
     Here you will find ideas and photos of craft activities to use with your student or child.
     One of the underlying principles of Active Learning is that all individuals should be active participants.  And that materials and the environment should be adapted in such a way as to encourage activity and exploration.
     Therefore the emphasis is on the process of activities rather than the product.
     This means that facilitating the exploration to promote cognitive and physical development is the goal.  With an arts and crafts project, learners should be given materials that are interesting to them to explore and the activities should be at their developmental level.
     The next tab that we'd like to preview is titled materials.  Here you will find information about things to consider when choosing materials to use during Active Learning instruction as well as a list of sources for purchasing specific items.
     That brings us to the equipment tab.  Here you will find information about various pieces of equipment or perceptualizing aids split into two categories, things you can buy and things you can make.
     This is a wonderful resource to share with your more industrious and handy team members, friends or family members.
     The next item on the Active Learning Space menu is titled training events.  Here you will find a list of Active Learning training events both online and in person that are scheduled at locations across the United States.  Please feel free to share information about Active Learning events near you as we are happy to include them on the site.
     The next menu on the site is resources, here you can find books and articles related to Active Learning.  The books previewed are all by Dr. Nielson.  You can read a short summary of her publications to see what specific topics may interest you the most.  Titles include are you blind?  Early learning step by step, as well as the flexible individual enriched level appropriate curriculum or commonly referred to as the FIELA curriculum.
     If you are bursting at the seems to get your hand on the information this very instant, the article section is for you.
     Simply click a link to read about selections on how to become a better playmate, how to use a resonance board and room or how to incorporate the Active Learning approach to your classroom activity routines.  There really is a lot of great information here.  Useful for new practitioners or parents, but also handy for more experienced folks who are looking for resources to share with others.
     >> Matt: All right.  We are back live in the studio, but we're not quite done with our tour of activelearningspace.org.  Charlotte, would you like to talk to the group about that last tab on the website called questions? 
     >> Charlotte: Indeed.  I hope you can hear me. 
     >> Kate: Yes.
     >> Charlotte: Okay, good.
     We are inviting any and all of you to share your questions and we will do our best to answer them.  Sometimes people are interested in finding specific materials, sometimes you may want to have suggestions for particular students.  Whatever your question we'll do our best to get back to you.
     And in fact, that's one of the carryover pieces from today's webinar study group that we hope that you all will do.  We hope you will go out there and submit your questions.
     I think there were a couple of other slides, Matt and Kate, about the newsletter and so forth.
     >> Kate: Yes.  They're there. 
     >> Charlotte: Okay.  All right.  Great.  We're jumping around here.
     So another thing that's on the website is a place where you can subscribe to our mailing list.  And we thought that it might be nice for those of you who would like to receive innovation whenever we post something new, we will be probably sending this out about once a month.
     So for example, Kate mentioned that we will be posting additional videos and this will give us a chance to say hey, go in there and take a look in the Little Room section.  We've just posted a bunch there.  So we'll try to let people know.
     So please do go ahead and subscribe.
     I think there's another slide we wanted to look at on Pinterest. 
     Yes.  So I know many of you are on Pinterest and I just wanted to give you a head's up that we have a board on Pinterest.  It's actually through the path to literacy site, but you can go on there and find it.  We've got the URL right there.  And it's a great way to be able to share information I think for those of you who already be converts.  Hopefully you can go in there and find some of the things that you're looking for as well, especially materials and implementation, we've got some good ideas in there.
     There should be maybe a slide on DropBox.  I don't know what order things are coming in.
     Okay.  We have two different links for DropBox here.  One is really a view only and one is if you would like to upload and share something.
     So we invite you to upload anything you would like to share, sample IEP goals using an Active Learning approach.  Case studies, especially when you've got the permission already granted.  We are hoping that people will be interested in sharing some video clips of your students doing different things.
     So the URLs are there on your screen and again you can access those later if it's hard to click on them now. 
     I think that was it for the slides. 
     >> Matt: Great, thank you, Charlotte. 
     So again, y'all, between now and our next gathering, please go on to activelearningspace.org, explore.  There's really some great content there.  And if questions come up, use that mechanism to submit them.  We hope that if enough folks go there and submit their questions that we can create a bank of frequently asked questions to put up on the site.
     There's no such thing as a silly question.  If you're wondering about it, it's likely that someone else is.  So please do use that question tab.
     We've given you guys a lot of information today.  If you have any questions or comments about 
     >> Kate: I'm going to jump in.  Ellen asked can we get the PowerPoint so we have the links?
     Those  that information is all in your handout.  So if you haven't downloaded the handout yet over in the files pod or for some reason it didn't come to you, if you click on the version that has the docx ending to it, that's a Word document so you can have that information and have some ability to make sure you have all the links and everything like that in working order to get to those things.
     But you do have all of the information that was in the PowerPoint is in your handout. 
     Do we want to talk about assignments real quick?  Because this is one of the things  this is really where the questions come in is the assignments.
     >> Matt: Uhhuh.  So your assignment, before we get together, is to submit a question on that website.  Let's get the ball rolling so please go there and do that.
     If you are interested in sharing video of your student, contact Kate and she will give you the permission form that we will need you to fill out so that it's okay that we share that video together on  during our webinar.
     >> Kate: And that's my email address I'm posting right now so you can send it to me there.  Let me know and I'll send you a media release form so that we have permission to use that. 
     >> Matt: Cynthia is bringing up a point about Active Learning research.  And Charlotte responds by letting her know that we would love to add a link to the site with some Active Learning research information. 
     >> Kate: And anyone that knows of research that is going on, I would be very interested in learning more about it and connecting with people that are doing research.
     We are hoping to maybe do some little single subject research things this year, but don't know exactly how that's going to  whether we're going to be able to do that or not.  So please do keep in touch on that.
     I am very interested in terms of your questions because as we mentioned, the focus of this is going to be from assessment to IEP development to implementation.
     And I know in Texas we have a lot of folks that have the issue of everything has to align with the general curriculum or trying to line up with the general curriculum.  So I'd be very interested in knowing what types of concerns y'all have related to IEPs and developing goals and objectives.
     Also what things come up for you or what questions you have about how to implement Active Learning approaches to do instruction in general curriculum areas.
     I think if you go on the Active Learning Space website you will see a couple of  great examples of teaching a simple science lesson using an Active Learning approach, but we want to try to brainstorm together more ideas for that.  So please post questions, let us know what you're interested in there.
     >> Matt: You can also share information in the question portion of the website about obstacles that you're facing in implementing an Active Learning approach in your school, in your area, in your home.
     We do hope that the website can be a source, a resource to help problem solve some of those issues.  You know, whether it's specially designing and packaging information for school administrators so they can understand the value of the Active Learning approach.  I think that would include this research link that we're talking about.
     But also some information to educators that are new to it and concerned about oh, you're asking me to redesign all my classroom activities.
     Any of those issues that you all are seeing out there, share them with us so that we can provide resources that are helpful to those obstacles. 
     >> Kate: And we had a question about  it said where do I find IEP goals that incorporate Active Learning?
     Like I said, we don't have a lot up there right now, but one place you can go and find a little bit of information about a sample goal is under the assessments, I believe, on the  let me just doublecheck so I'm not lying.  Let me look on the page. 
     Under the assessment tab there is  no, it's actually under the implementation tab where it says Active Learning in general education.  There is a little bit of information that I pulled together from the core curriculum goal  core curriculum areas in science and showed how the goal might be written related to Active Learning.
     So if you go all the way to the bottom of that article you will see one sample goal.  That's all we have so far.
     But I really would encourage you guys to share, submit your IEP goals that you have, send them  you can send them to me, send them to Charlotte Cushman at Perkins, and we would like to be able to use some of those as we go along in our study, you know, for this website  or webinar.
     >> Matt: Yeah.  I think it's one of our goals to show that you can provide instruction using the Active Learning approach that is where the student is at and what they need and still align it with the requirements from your state or your area.
     It can be done and we want to talk about how.
     You will see on your screen part 2 of your CEU code.  It began with 151 and it ends with 003. 
     If you would like credits for participation in today's webinar, don't forget to download the signin roster.  That's located in the files box on the lower righthand corner of your screen.
     >> Kate: You need to fax that to Carri Keith at 5122069320.
     >> Matt: That's impressive.
     >> Kate: I actually remember that. 
     >> Matt: We're looking at the chat pod to see if there's any other questions.  Charlotte has posted the link there to that spot on the activelearningspace.org that Kate was talking about and included her email there at Perkins.
     >> Kate: We are so thrilled that so many of you are interested in this and I really hope that you'll join us for the next one.  We're just getting started and your input is so important to us in figuring out what we need to do in each one of these.
     So please let us know.
     Having over 100 people in a study group is a real different thing for us, so bear with us if we're not doing things the way you need them done.  Let us know.
     >> Matt: Kate, Denise would like for you to repeat that fax number.
     >> Kate: It's 512  I'll put this  actually put it in the chat.
     5122069320. 
     And for those of you that are far away and you don't want to fax it in, let me also say that you can email it to Carri Keith and I'll put her  folks like to scan it and email it.  It's  if I can type.  KeithC@TSBVI.edu.  And I also think this is written on the form when you download it so I don't think you have to remember it.  It will be right there. 
     >> Matt: Leah says thank you.  It is 4:00.  We thank you so much for joining us today and we will see you next time. 
     >> Kate: We're so glad you're here.  Bye guys.