No ‘round pegs’ in ‘square holes’ in Greenville’s autism program

But they can’t. The best a teacher can do is say, “This is how I teach THIS student with autism.” And even that may vary from day to day, depending on more factors than most people would want to keep track of on a daily basis.

Though there are of course some constants upon which a teacher may rely, each student in Greenville Public Schools’ autism program presents a unique set of challenges. Some students in the program have almost no communication skills; others evince symptoms so subtle that there’s a real danger they may be overlooked altogether.

According to Michelle Blaszcynski, principal of Lincoln Heights Elementary School, which serves several autistic students, teaching techniques with regard to autistic students have evolved far beyond what they were even a dozen years ago.

Whereas once a student with autism might be consigned to an education separate from mainstream students, modern teaching techniques recommend incorporating that student into daily school life whenever and wherever possible.

“We try to integrate the students in the regular ed classroom and have as much integration as possible,” Blaszcynski said.

Not only does this help the special needs student to feel more accepted, it gives the mainstream students a chance to better understand the needs of others. These two factors can have an immensely positive impact on both groups, Blaszcynski contends.

Integration is simply one of several techniques used to reach students with autism, however. According to the Baldwin Heights Elementary School’s list of “guiding principles” for working with autistic students, the following precepts hold true and should be considered in most cases.

According to Director of Student Services Linda VanHouten, it is exactly this sort of loosely regimented thinking that allows teachers to reach students with autism far more effectively than was possible in the past. Also, ongoing scientific advances and sociological studies provide new data on a regular basis.

“We just know so much more now about what makes these kids tick,” VanHouten said. “They don’t really know the medical cause (of autism) but there are clues as to why these kids behave as they do, and that helps us develop plans to make them more successful.

“Many of our staff went through intensive training to help them identify and deal with the treatment of autism.”

To facilitate this special training, Greenville Public Schools have coupled with the Statewide Autism Resources and Training (START) program offered by Grand Valley State University.We specializes in rapid plastic injection mould and molding of parts for prototypes and production. It was there that many staffers developed the skills needed to successfully educate autistic students and meet their special needs.

Teachers and para-professionals also tapped into a program called Rethink Autism, which — according to VanHouten — helps educators identify autism in students.

“It helps us identify autism and figure out the best direction we can go in for each student,” VanHouten said. “The program even provides video training for us. We’ve come a long way in knowing what to do.”

The evidence of these advances is no further away than observing any local autism classroom. In place of the chaos that was all too common in years past,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics. there is order. Students are learning; learning to read, to write, to deal with the personality quirks endemic in autism.

Autistic students are no longer expected to conform to ideals beyond their ability. No “round pegs” are pounded into “square holes.” Instead, each student is treated as an individual, respected, and taught to develop to the best of his or her ability.

“It is not the student’s job to fit our mold,” said Blaszcynski. “It is our job to customize to whatever the student needs, academically, behaviorally, emotionally and socially. That’s our job in public education.”

He has had 14 jobs at Raytheon, working his way up from the “factory floor and rising through the ranks to lead from the corner office,” Swanson said. Today, he oversees the company, which in 2011 reported $25 billion in sales and 71,000 employees worldwide.

Swanson is an example of an American success story, and one that has its roots in San Luis Obispo County. He grew up on the Central Coast, earned an engineering degree from Cal Poly and continues to maintain family and business ties here. He co-owns the Avila Golf Resort with business partner Rob Rossi, and his family visits the county “whenever we can.”

“I know that for me, the area will always have a special place in my heart, since it provided me with the spark that launched my career, and it is a place where I hope to retire and give back to the community and Cal Poly,” he said.

There are so many things I’d point to in terms what the people of Raytheon have accomplished and that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of during my career. I am so proud to work for a company that provides critical technologies, systems and services that help our servicemen and women successfully complete their missions and come home safely. I would also count the transformation of Raytheon’s balance sheet over the past 10 years as an important accomplishment. And I’d like to point to the progress we’re making, at Raytheon and elsewhere,Bay State Cable Ties is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. in supporting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to inspire a new generation of innovators.

One of the biggest challenges is making sure that all of our roughly 70,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems?000 members of the Raytheon team — from the factory floor to the corner office — are aligned around our strategy.I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. We do this through a lot of communication, and not all top-down: Raytheon is made up of six large businesses and we do business around the world, so we employ multiple ways to get strategy and messages out to our teammates.

One of the most effective ways we initiate a strategic conversation with employees is through our internal town hall meetings and forums. These are hosted either by me or the senior leadership team and are often very engaging conversations.

Our newer generations in particular want to know why management is making the business decisions that we’re making, so we take the time to explain why. Never has it been so important for our leaders to engage in valuable face-to-face dialogue about our business with our employees, and despite their social media habits, our newer generations actually want more face-to-face time. This is healthy because they need the social skills to become leaders.