/news-archive/tag/special-education/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:05:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2018/12/05/derrick-alexander-easterseals/ Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:05:56 +0000 /news/?p=72868 ... Easterseals Arkansas honors graduating student as Volunteer of the Year]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student who is graduating this month has been recognized for his outstanding volunteer service with children in the community.聽 Derrick Alexander, a 36-year-old senior聽from Little Rock, was recently honored by as a Volunteer of the Year for the Academy. He will graduate from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock on Dec. 15 with a bachelor’s degree in聽health education and promotion. Alexander is an intern for Easterseals Academy at Riverdale, a school for children with developmental disabilities. Alexander jokes that he was selected as a Volunteer of the Year 鈥渂ecause I鈥檓 awesome.鈥� 鈥淭he kids love me. The staff loves me,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 am there every day except Wednesday when I am here at class. I participate in all the activities. I鈥檓 just really involved. There are 35 kids in the academy, and I know everyone of them by name.鈥� He call himself a 鈥渏ack of all trades鈥� who has done everything from working with the students, answering phones, assisting with lessons, and supervising recess, to installing security cameras in the classroom and organizing books in the library. His favorite activity was volunteering during the Special Olympics earlier this semester. 鈥淲orking the Special Olympics was very fun,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 got to see the excitement on the kids鈥� faces when they bowled a strike, picked up a spare, and were just having fun. Whenever they won a medal, there were a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.鈥� Dr. Janea Snyder, assistant professor of health education and promotion and Alexander鈥檚 internship supervisor, said it was a joy to witness how much the students and staff at Easterseals adored Alexander during internship site visits. 鈥淗ealth education and promotion majors often have a passion to serve, and this is true for Derrick as he has also served our country,鈥� Snyder said. 鈥淲hile completing his 200-hour health education internship at Easterseals, his heart for serving others and going above and beyond was recognized in him being awarded their Volunteer of the Year Award for the Academy for 2018. He is respectful, generous, and overall just a great guy.鈥� Alexander is a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served a tour in Afghanistan as well as relief duty during Hurricane Katrina. He started at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 2016 after attending University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College. He remembers visiting 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock as a sixth-grader at Franklin Elementary to visit Derek Fisher, former NBA player and coach, who played for the Trojans at the time. 聽 Alexander, a father of a son and two daughters, said his own kids made him want to major in health education and promotion. 鈥淥ne day, I know they will go off to college, so whatever knowledge I have can help them,鈥� he said. In the end, Alexander鈥檚 time at Easterseals has left an impression. After graduating in December, he is considering attending graduate school to study special education, a decision he says was influenced by his time at Easterseals. 鈥淓verything about the kids and their progress makes me want to work in special education,鈥� Alexander said. 鈥淭hey are all very amazing, the kids and their progress. There are a lot of things about them that are amazing.鈥� In the upper right photo,聽糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student Derrick Alexander has been recognized by Easterseals Arkansas as Volunteer of the Year for the Academy. Photo by Ben Krain.聽]]> /news-archive/2017/08/28/idea-600k-grant/ Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:47:11 +0000 /news/?p=67750 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock receives $600k to fund special education research]]> The $601,775.75 grant will allow the IDEA Data and Research Office to continue its specialized research in quality data reporting and management on special education programs for the . 鈥淲e鈥檙e probably one of the best kept secrets on campus,鈥� said Director Jody Fields. 鈥淭he continual funding from the ADE Special Education Unit demonstrates the importance of the work we do on their behalf. It further allows us to support faculty in research and graduate students through assistantships and internships.鈥� The U.S. Department of Education requires that all school districts in the U.S. provide data and analytics services for special education. This is the 13th year 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock has received the grant. This information includes race, demographics, education placement, discipline data, special education testing data, and graduation counts. Collecting this information ensures that special education programs are working as effectively as possible. If school administrators want to see if a program needs to be modified or replaced, they can look at reports generated from IDEA Data and Research. The IDEA office can also assist researchers looking to conduct studies related to education. These services include data compiling, data analysis, and survey creation.]]> /news-archive/2017/04/12/cassandra-steele-2017-jazz-juleps/ Wed, 12 Apr 2017 08:28:40 +0000 /news/?p=66831 ... Cassandra Steele to be honored at 2017 Jazz & Juleps]]> The Thursday, May 25, event, which celebrates Better Speech and Hearing Month, will be held at the Clinton Presidential Library in downtown Little Rock. Doors open at 6 p.m. There will be a silent auction and a live auction will begin at 7:30 p.m. Craig O鈥橬eill of KTHV will serve as the special guest auctioneer. The honoree, Cassandra Steele, is the director of special programs for the, where she previously held the position of coordinator of speech and hearing services for 14 years. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to be honored, but I consider myself more of a behind-the-scenes person,鈥� Steele said. 鈥淭he things I have accomplished for children with hearing and speech-language disorders are very rewarding, but it鈥檚 not something for which I seek credit out front. I enjoy seeing the improvement in communicative skills and partnering with parents and individuals in the community to better lives for children with hearing and speech disorders.鈥� In her role at Little Rock School District, Steele oversees nearly 60 speech pathologists and more than 200 special education teachers who work with the more than 2,700 students who receive special education lessons within the district. 鈥淢y job is one of those jobs that touches the lives of so many different people from all backgrounds,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t just crosses all cultures, all socioeconomic backgrounds. Serving children and serving people with disabilities is one of those things that you just love.鈥� Among her accomplishments is the formation of a parent advisory committee to help guide professional development for teachers and to serve as a resource for parents of children with disabilities. She also formed a partnership with educators from Japan to facilitate a learning environment for Japanese students with disabilities. 聽 In the higher education arena, she helped establish a partnership that started during the 2016-17 school year that allows 10 audiology and speech pathology graduate students from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to earn practical experience and stipends by working with students in Little Rock School District. All proceeds from the event will be used to create an endowed scholarship fund in Steele鈥檚 name to assist future students in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology. Steele, who graduated from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 1988, was previously recognized as the 2014 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Alumni of the Year for the College of Education and Health Professions for her outstanding service on the Audiology and Speech Pathology Development Council. She is the first graduate of the audiology and speech pathology department to be named the Jazz & Juleps honoree. Tickets are $50, of which $30 is tax deductible, and will be available at the door. Tickets also can be ordered online. Sponsorships are available. For more information or sponsorship opportunities, contact Kristi Smith, senior director of development for the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Office of Alumni and Development, at klsmith4@ualr.edu or 501.569.8739. More about Cassandra Steele: Steele graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 1984. She next earned a master鈥檚 degree in audiology and speech pathology from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 1988. Steele is currently working toward the education specialist certificate in educational administration and supervision. Steele and her husband, former state Sen. Tracy Steele, live in North Little Rock and have two children. Their daughter, Sumone, is a sophomore at Tennessee State University and their son, Tracy, is an eighth-grader at North Little Rock Middle School. She belongs to multiple organizations whose missions encourage quality of life and leadership, including the local chapter of the American Heart Association, Greater Little Rock Chapter of Jack & Jill of America, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the American Speech-Language & Hearing Association.]]>