BloomBoard Collection: Strategies for Teaching Students with Down Syndrome

Last semester I was asked to write a Down syndrome 101 presentation for the Statewide Low Incidence Disabilities Network.  The presentation will be turned into a webinar that will be used across Texas to teach classes on strategies for teaching students with Down syndrome.

As I began my research, I was contacted by BloomBoard.  They asked me to explore their site, and if I was interested, they wanted me to be one of 20 featured education bloggers in the month of February to share a collection of learning resources.

BloomBoard is a new site for teachers, so I was curious as to what it was all about.  I was excited about the innovative way that they support teachers in compiling resources and how they make it easy for other teachers to access those resources.  Basically, BloomBoard is a place where educators can learn, share and discuss the best teaching ideas to solve everyday classroom challenges and improve their practice.

Teachers who want to post a collection of resources on BloomBoard can do so easily, and the submitted resources are screened and approved by the BloomBoard team before being posted.  This process ensures the quality of the overall collection.  Teachers who would like to learn more about a topic or solve a specific challenge can run a search of collections to find resources on their desired topic.

Because I was in the process of researching strategies for teaching students with Down syndrome, I decided to submit some of the resources that I had come across as my collection.  In my collection, you'll find an instructional video on strategies for beginning readers with Down syndrome, charts to teach to students' strengths, overviews of health concerns that may affect learning and so on.  Each of my resources includes a synopsis of the resource provided, and the downloads are all free!

If you work with students with Down syndrome, I sincerely hope that you find this collection helpful.  I work with this student population every day, and I have found through research that there is always more to learn.  If you're not a special education teacher, you will still find a wealth of topics that target your specific needs.

Teaching Strategies for Students with Down Syndrome

If you're interested in the February schedule for bloggers who will be featured, visit BloomBoard Blog to see if there's a topic that interests you.  Yesterday's blogger offered a great collection titled "Teaching Engineering is Not Scary!"

I'm now happy to introduce the next featured blogger in this campaign.  Lindsey Petlak is a Golden Apple award-winning educator with over a decade of educational experience, both at the classroom and corporate levels.  She served as a national consultant for ETA/Cuisenaire for nearly two years, training teachers, coaching in classrooms, working with students, and creating hands-on learning products across the nation.

Teaching all grades from K–4 at North Shore School District 112 in Highland Park, Illinois, Lindsey is currently a 4th grade teacher and believes passionately in making learning hands-on, fun, relevant, inquiry-based and dependent upon authentic assessment. 

She has the pleasure of contributing to blogs for Scholastic, Class Dojo and GoNoodle, along with her own classroom blog called The Open Road: Route 125, where she creates adventurous learning experiences for her students by implementing yearlong thematic instruction.  Additionally, she has been featured in Scholastic Instructor magazine, SmartBlog on Education, and Education Talk Radio.

Outside of school, she is mother to a precociously wonderful four-year-old son and married to her best friend.  She loves life and tries her best to live it to the fullest!