I’ve been writing for Macaroni Kid Ottawa Capital Region for several months and it dawned on me the other day that perhaps some people don’t know who I am or what an Educational Consultant is, so I thought it would be a great idea to explain more.
I’m a special education teacher with 19 years of experience working in a special education classroom and my passion is helping children with learning disabilities. This year I decided that I was ready for a new challenge so I opened up my own business called PossAbilities Educational Consulting. My motto is, “When you light up abilities, there are endless possibilities.”
As I navigate this new role, I’m excited about the different opportunities I am presented with and my favourite part of my new job is the change and diversity that each week brings.
So what exactly do I do?
IEP consults – one of my roles is helping families ensure their child’s IEP (individual education plan) is personalized, strategic and meaningful. The key phrasing in this acronym is individual. Many IEP’s I read are very generic and not individualized enough to showcase the wonderful talents of the student. My focus is always ensuring that abilities shine through in order to help tackle the challenges. For example, if a child is an exceptional visual learner, then the IEP should reflect visual teaching strategies. Furthermore, I help make sure that once the IEP is developed, it is actually being implemented accordingly in the classroom. With the beauty of technology, I consult with families all over Ontario.
Psycho-educational Assessments – many of the children I work with have psycho-educational assessments. One of the services I offer is reading through the assessment to make sure families understand what the assessment means for the child in the classroom. In other words I help families understand how the results of the assessment translate to day to day functioning in the child’s life. I also help parents prioritize the goals from the assessment in order to make sure they appear on the child’s IEP. I have training in psychometry and am learning to be a psychometrist so this is a great service I provide to families.
Advocacy – I help parents (and children once they are old enough) advocate positively for services that they need in order to succeed. Empowering families to advocate for what is fair is so rewarding. The definition of fair is ensuring that every child has what they need in order to succeed, not that everyone has the same resources. My favourite analogy to help children understand this concept is glasses. Would we ever deny a child glasses if they needed them to see? Would we ever insist that the whole class must wear glasses because one child needs them? Of course not – and it’s the exact same for any resource that a child needs to succeed. One child might need extra time, or a computer, or a scribe or a quiet place to write a test, or a standing station, or a fidget toy, but that doesn’t mean all children need it or that no child should have it. Teaching children to be proud to ask for supports that they need is very rewarding and often difficult to do. I also help families choose a school placement that might be more appropriate than the placement they are in.
Tutoring – I am a reading specialist and I teach children how to read and spell. One of my passions is teaching children real, true rules for the English language. English is actually very ordered and structured once we understand the rules and reasons for why words are spelled the way they are. For instance have you ever wondered about the spelling of ‘love’? Did you know that no English word ends in the letter <v> and so we end all these words with a single silent <e>? Did you also know that <uv> isn’t a combination in English that can go together because in cursive it looks like a <w> and when you can’t use a <u> in English, you use an <o>? These simple but very true rules, explains the spelling of <love> and <have> and <move>.
Workshops – all public school parent councils are able to apply for PRO grants (Parents Reaching Out) grants. I’ve been going to different schools to give workshops to parents and they are so much fun and really interactive. Two of my most popular workshops are my ‘Learning Styles Workshop’ and my ‘Sneaking Math into Everyday Lives’ workshop. I love giving workshops and am always developing new ones to target different needs and requests.
If you are interested in learning more about any of my services please feel free to send me an email at sharonreichstein@gmail.com.
