4251 L Street
Philadelphia, PA 19124
1-215-289-4220 1-215-289-4229 (FAX)
E-mail:
APLucy01@nni.com
Special Thanks to Lavelle Fund for the Blind, Inc
for
Enabling us to Provide an Appropriate
Learning Station for Every Student
Saint Lucy Day School for Children with Visual Impairments made a request to the Lavelle Fund to further strengthen the education of students who are blind/visually impaired. One aspect of our school’s mission is to address the academic needs of our students defined by the National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youths with Visual Impairments and stated by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education,
“Technology is a tool to unlock learning and expand the horizons of students. It is not, in reality, a curriculum area, but it is added to the expanded core curriculum because of the special place it occupies in the education of blind and visually impaired students. Technology can be a great equalizer. For the Braille user, it will produce material in Braille for personal use and then in print for the teacher, classmates, and parents. Technology enables blind people to store and retrieve information and brings a library under the fingertips of the visually impaired person. It enhances communication and learning and expands the world of blind and visually impaired persons in many significant ways.”
The “core curriculum” refers to the body of knowledge that a student is required to master before high school graduation. The “expanded core curriculum” addresses the unique, specialized needs of visually impaired learners. This specialized part of the core includes, but may not be limited to the following areas: Compensatory Skills, Orientation and Mobility, Social Interaction Skills, Independent Living Skills, Recreation and Leisure Skills, Career Education, Use of Assistive Technology and Visual Efficiency Skills. The primary objective of SLDS is to stimulate each child—intellectually, spiritually and emotionally—in order that he/she may experience life to its fullest and to prepare them to actively participate in the sighted world we proposed the following project to Lavelle Fund for the Blind.
With this in mind the Lavelle Fund for the Blind accepted our proposal to complete the adaptive technology needs of each of our students. Each student has been provided with the appropriate hardware/software materials needed at their own individual learning station.
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“HOT OFF THE PRESS”
2005 with implementation
September 2005
GRANT #2 AWARDED TO
Saint Lucy Day School for Children with Visual Impairments
FROM
LAVELLE FUND FOR THE BLIND, INC.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
“FOCUS ON LITERACY”
Our new Grant Proposal to Lavelle Fund for the Blind entitled “Focus on Literacy” was accepted as of January 27, 2005! This grant will help improve the Literacy skills of our students and strengthen St. Lucy Day School mission to serve children who are blind/visually impaired in all areas of the expanded core curriculum. Our main goal is to give the students the opportunity to “Focus on Literacy” in all its forms; Braille Literacy, Print Literacy, Auditory Literacy and Media Literacy. We have the following three objectives: that every student have access to required curriculum reading in the form appropriate to their learning style, that the existing technology (made available because of the Lavelle Fund in 2004) be used to enhance the reading and writing skills of every student resulting in an individual Portfolio of each students’ reading and writing accomplishments during the year and third that the “Focus on Literacy” materials support both the Literacy needs in the Core Curriculum as well as the Expanded Core Curriculum.
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Special Thanks to our United Way Friends Remember our #1555
Reminder
You can specify your Catholic Charities Donations to Saint Lucy Day School for Children with Visual Impairments
READERS ARE LEADERS
Every year the National Federation for the Blind sponsors a Braille reading contest for the nation’s Braille readers. Our students who read Braille usually participate in this contest. This year not only the Braille readers are participating in this literary event but our Print readers have joined in the fun. It is essential that our children receive the benefits of being literate. Every day the students come into school they add a sticker (equal to 25 pages) to the school chart. The contest began in November and will end on February 1st. Good luck to our very confident readers. Thanks NFB for the great incentive!
Special Award Congratulations goes to
"Saint Lucy Day School for Children with Visual Impairments on October 16, 2003 from Associated Services for the Blind in recognition of its dedication to providing quality education, and inspiration, to children who are blind and visually impaired, leading them on the road to independence"
Sister Meg, for the 2003 LYNCH AWARD from the Pro-Life Union of Southeast Pennsylvania . This award is given in memory of Blanche and Thomas Lynch who devoted their lives to caring for severely disable children.
Mrs. Kathleen Cleaver for receiving the Elinor Long Award 2004 presented to an outstanding Pennsylvania Educator of Visually Impaired Students and the AER Division 10 Award 2004 for being an outstanding teacher of students with Visual Impairments. This is a national award and we are proud to have Kathy on our staff.
FROM RECREATION TO SERIOUS BUSINESS
On December 10th, 2004 students in Room 2 at St. Lucy Day School for Children with Visual Impairments spent lunch recess time drawing designs using PAINT software on their laptops. Some of the designs were used to make cards for family members. Another indoor recess due to bad weather led to a lively discussion about forming a business to sell student designed large print and Braille cards.
The first meeting of Amy and Sheila with business advisor, Sister Elaine, was held on December 15th, 2004. Products and materials were decided upon. This company would offer stickers, letter paper, envelopes, and cards with student produced artwork and messages in large print and Braille. Profit from sales will be split three ways: charity for children in need, reinvestment in company production, and “paychecks” for company partners. The next day, cost of materials and profit margin were outlined. A week later, plans for initial production were made, samples of existing artwork were compiled into label format, and sales packets including a sample sheet of Variety
Stickers, order forms, and an explanation of the company were compiled. The company’s partnership expanded to include all six students in the third and fourth grades: Amy, Sheila, Brianna, Anthony, Joseph, and Ayanna, thus increasing the variety of artistic talent and the number of sales contacts. The company name was changed from Amy and Sheila’s LPB Cards to LPB Cards (LPB means Large Print Braille). LPB cards hopes to make enough profit from sticker production to finance the cost of other products.
The students’ awareness of the aspects of running a business are remarkable, their marketing ideas creative, and their products captivating. To date over fifty sticker sheets have been produced. Details of delivery and billing are in discussion.
Call 215-289-4220 or e-mail selaine@hotmail.com if you wish a sticker sample and order form.