School Highlights October 2019 In This Issue Change The Game Conference Arthur L. Johnson High School ...........................4 Berkeley Township ..............................................4 “Inclusivity: Dream it, Build it, Achieve it!” On October 16, 2019, Burlington City High School ...............................3 more than 150 Game Changers, representing over 80 schools in 70 districts from across New Jersey, Burnet Middle School .........................................3 attended the 2019 SONJ Change the Central Elementary School (East Hanover Twp) ..5 Game Conference in Monroe. Change The Game Conference ............................1 Superintendent of Sayreville Public Clayton High School .........................................20 Schools, Dr. Richard Labbe, kicked off Crossroads South Middle School .........................6 the conference with a powerful and Delsea High School ...........................................17 inspirational keynote address. A peer- Delsea Regional Middle School ........................21 to-peer panel, “From Unified Clubs to Unified Sports to a Unified School: How East Hanover Middle School ...............................2 and Why UCS Works in Our School,” fol- Elizabeth Avenue School ..................................19 lowed. Afterwards, Assistant Principal Fountain Woods Elementary School .................11 and UCS Team Leader from Voorhees High School, Kelly Ann Gloucester City High School ..............................12 Kieffer, led the group through her “Ten Tips to Becoming a Uni- Grant Elementary School ....................................3 fied Champion School.” (These tips can be found on page 22.) Hillcrest Elementary School .............................22 The highlight of the day Jefferson Township High School .........................6 came with a lunchtime Kingsway Regional High School ........................19 presentation by Unified Lyndhurst Public School District .........................7 Youth Leaders from the Mainland Regional High School .........................2 Monroe Township Unified Mendham High School .....................................20 Club. Their Superintendent, Dr. Dori Alvich, spoke about Metuchen High School .......................................8 how the UCS activities and Millburn High School ........................................12 culture of inclusion has Monroe Township .............................................10 allowed students to form Newton High School .........................................18 lifelong friendships and North Hunterdon High School ............................9 become community leaders and role models for younger Overbrook High School .....................................14 students. Pond Road Middle School .................................21 Randolph High School ......................................22 Following lunch, the school Ridge High School ............................................22 leadership team members Roxbury High School ........................................14 came together in breakout sessions. Each left with Rutherford High School ....................................13 new ideas and a draft plan Sharon Elementary School ................................21 for working with their stu- Somerville High School ....................................12 dents to build and achieve Top 10 Tips to Becoming a UCS .........................22 their dream for inclusion in Union City High School .....................................18 their schools. Union High School ............................................20 Click here for the complete Woodrow Wilson Middle School (Clifton) .........22 article. Click here for more Woodrow Wilson School (New Brunswick) ........15 photos that are on Flickr. Office of Special Education Programs Page 1 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights October 2019 Mainland Regional High School The biannual Unified Soccer game between The West Gym was rocking and the Mustangs Cedar Creek and Mainland was played on 10/22 held on for a 6-5 victory, but per usual, every- at Mainland. The poor weather outside did not body wins in this game! Cheerleaders cheered “rain” on the participants, as the game moved both teams and the support from the fans was indoors. It was an intense affair - but the official outstanding. did an outstanding job, keeping both teams fo- cused on the most important aspect of this day Congratulations to both schools, staff, and play- - sportsmanship. ers! Most importantly they had fun! East Hanover Middle School On October 7th, East Ha- tions to answer. Partners as- ent colors. They picked songs nover Middle School had sisted athletes with all tasks, to sing as they walked, and all various activities/stations and they enjoyed moving students worked together to that were rotated every from station to station. find leaves of red, orange, yel- 10 minutes. Athletes and low, green, and brown. Then, partners were stationed at On October 21st, the weather they came back inside and one of the following: kinetic was beautiful, so East Hanover athletes and partners shared sand, sidewalk chalk, color MS took their Play Unified BINGO boards to play Hallow- by number, Candyland game, Club outside for the first 40 een BINGO. Athletes called exercise cards to follow and minutes. Athletes and part- out names of pictures with act out, and play catch with ners walked the track while assistance from partners. words on the ball with ques- looking for leaves of all differ- Office of Special Education Programs Page 2 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights October 2019 Burlington City High School Burnet Middle School Burlington City High School practiced hard for the Unified Burnet Middle School is off to a great Soccer Cup and had an influx of attention from around start. Every Wednesday they host the school. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the chance to buddy lunches. participate due to the Cup being canceled. So that being said, in order to give the athletes a chance to show off the Students came after school on Oc- skills they have learned over the past two months, instead tober 18th and planned a Halloween of practice, they had a mock game following the Unified Party. They also created a permission Cup guidelines with a few students from the Unified Club slip for students on social media, coming out to participate. Overall they had a lot of fun. since they will be having an Instagram account for Play Unified. The Unified Club was excited to receive the t-shirts they designed. They talked about the upcoming Pep Rally and Burnet’s T-shirts arrived for practice, the Youth summit they will be attending. They stressed which are donated from the NJEA. the importance of getting permission slips signed and They started practice for Unified ensuring that the teachers in the building are aware that Sports. Students are excited and the they will absent the day of the Summit. word is spreading. They expect the club to grow! Grant Elementary School Unified “Self Portrait” Bulletin Board Office of Special Education Programs Page 3 U.S. Department of Education School Highlights October 2019 Berkeley Township Arthur L. Johnson High School “Happy Unified Kids” Arthur L. Johnson High School had a busy October. From soccer to handball to socializing, here’s a day-by-day rundown of their activities. 10/1/19: Practiced warming up, passing, stopping the ball, and throwing it in, corner kicks. 10/3/19: Unified gym: practiced warming up and practiced all skills. 10/8/19: Game day at Summit. They won by 2 points but the students did really well passing and shooting the ball. 10/9/19: Unified Gym: practiced positioning, warm- ing up, and stamina (running). 10/11/19: Unified Gym: practiced positioning, warming up, and stamina (running). 10/14/19: Unified Gym: practiced teamwork and passing the ball, dribbling, and names for plays. 10/15/19: Game against Summit at home. They won by 6 points. Students worked more on defen- sive practices and learning teamwork. 10/17/19: Unified Gym: started hand ball, learning rules, practicing with different partners, warm ups. 10/21/19: Practiced warming up, stretching, pass- ing and dribbling, and corner kicks and positioning. 10/23/19: Last game against North Hunterdon home. Played on turf and won by 6 points. The stu- dents worked on kick off and worked with differ- ent general education students on the field. 10/24/19: Unified Gym: practiced skills they learned last week about handball. Worked on throwing the ball and catching it. 10/24/19: Activity period and lunch: Unified watched a movie and had snacks together. Social activity. 10/28/19: Unified Gym: Practiced the same skills and scrimmaged at the last 15 minutes. 10/30/19: Unified Gym: Games all day. Students played with different colored pinnies. The general education students did really great keeping up with the kids during the games and feeding the ball to their special education population. Office of Special Education Programs Page 4 U.S. Department of Education BE A BUCKET FILLER We learned that a bucket filler is someone who fills someone else “up” with kindness! This craft is centered on the book During one of our sessions, we Have you Filled a Bucket Today?: A made visible buckets for ourselves. guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Then, after getting to know each “Thank you for SchoolCarol McCloud Highlights and David Messing. other, we wrote compliment This book teaches children that we tickets to each one of our club making the world a th October 2019 all carry around an imaginary member