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Welcome to the Resource Room

Inspired by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Patron Saint of Students and Universities

Prayer

Come to our aid when you hear us calling.

Light up the dark, make the rough places plain,

Bring to our thoughts the unknown or forgotten,

Give us the words that we seek in vain.

Amen

 Success Comes When We Pull Together!

US Department of Education Blue Ribbon School Winner

The History of the Resource Program at St. Jane de Chantal

St. Jane de Chantal School manifests the presence of God, respecting human life where each child is valued. The pastor, administration, and faculty are committed to the education of all students. (School Mission Statement)

St. Jane de Chantal in Bethesda, Maryland has been “officially” teaching students with learning differences since 1986. Former principal, Sr. Mary Donald Cusick, SC, and the faculty saw a need to help struggling students learn. “Problem Solving Teams” were established to identify learning issues, create innovative education plans, and implement interventions to support students with learning differences.

Under the guidance of the next and current principal Elizabeth Hamilton, and the support of Pastor Monsignor Essex, a resource teacher, consulting school psychologist, school nurse, and resource classroom were added to the school. The Resource Program was designed to provide learning support and teaching strategies for students with documented learning disabilities. The students and resource teachers work in collaboration with the classroom teachers using subject curriculum to teach the students reading, math, science, social studies, and study skills as articulated in the student education accommodation plan.

St. Jane de Chantal has been a guiding example and cooperative mentor to the Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Schools Office as they established their Student Assistance Teams and Catholic Education Plans.

Over the past 25 years, The Resource Program at de Chantal has educated hundreds of students with minor to severe learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and developmental delays. Our students graduate and attend all the area high schools. We are most proud of our students who are regularly accepted into Montgomery County Public Schools’ LAD programs and the Catholic High Schools’ special programs such as the Ryken, Benilde, and Connelly Programs, where their success in learning continues.

February

Leap Year!!!!

Leap year: 2012 is a Leap Year

Upcoming Leap Day: 29 February, 2012

A leap year consists of 366 days, as opposed to a common year, which has 365 days.

During Leap Years, we add a Leap Day, an extra – or intercalary – day on February 29. Nearly every 4 years is a Leap Year in our modern Gregorian Calendar.

When is the next Leap Day?
Traditions and Superstitions on Leap Day
Leap Day Trivia

Why do we need Leap Years?

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun.
It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun.

Note: The illustration is not to scale.

However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn't add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

How do we calculate Leap Years?

In the Gregorian calendar 3 criteria must be met to be a leap year:

• The year is evenly divisible by 4;
• If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless;
• The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

This means that 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years.

The year 2000 was somewhat special as it was the first instance when the third criterion was used in most parts of the world since the transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar.

Who invented Leap Years?

Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years in the Roman empire over 2000 years ago, but the Julian calendar had only one rule: any year evenly divisible by 4 would be a leap year. This lead to way too many leap years, but didn't get corrected until the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar more than 1500 years later.

Accommodations for Students with LD

By: National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) (2006)

What are accommodations?

Accommodations are alterations in the way tasks are presented that allow children with learning disabilities to complete the same assignments as other students. Accommodations do not alter the content of assignments, give students an unfair advantage or in the case of assessments, change what a test measures. They do make it possible for students with LD to show what they know without being impeded by their disability.

How does a child receive accommodations?

Once a child has been formally identified with a learning disability, the child or parent may request accommodations for that child's specific needs. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act states that a child's IEP (Individualized Education Program) team — which both parent and child are a part of — must decide which accommodations are appropriate for him or her. Any appropriate accommodations should be written into a student's IEP.

Here are some examples of possible accommodations for an IEP team to consider, broken into six categories:

• Presentation:
  • Provide on audio tape
  • Provide in large print
  • Reduce number of items per page or line
  • Provide a designated reader
  • Present instructions orally
• Response:
  • Allow for verbal responses
  • Allow for answers to be dictated to a scribe
  • Allow the use of a tape recorder to capture responses
  • Permit responses to be given via computer
  • Permit answers to be recorded directly into test booklet
• Timing:
  • Allow frequent breaks
  • Extend allotted time for a test
• Setting:
  • Provide preferential seating
  • Provide special lighting or acoustics
  • Provide a space with minimal distractions
  • Administer a test in small group setting
  • Administer a test in private room or alternative test site
• Test Scheduling
  • Administer a test in several timed sessions or over several days
  • Allow subtests to be taken in a different order
  • Administer a test at a specific time of day
• Other
  • Provide special test preparation
  • Provide on-task/focusing prompts
  • Provide any reasonable accommodation that a student needs that does not fit under the existing categories

 

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