Introductions - Tell us about Yourself

[KarenJanowski]

Welcome to the Assistive Technology Network. Please introduce yourself and let us know where you are from.

[Elisa Wern]

My name is Elisa Wern and I am an Occupational Therapist and work full time as an AT Specialist for our school system here in Florida. I spent most of my time out in schools with students, teachers, and parents, but also coordinate district stuff, trainings, and do some trainings for university students. We serve PreK through 12th grade students, with every imaginable disability, being a university town, with a large hospital we tend to have a lot of students with varied medical needs with us. I love my job, never boring...it's great to live in a time where technology is keeping pace with our student's abilities, finally!

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

It is cool hearing about different parts of the country. I just moved to Southern Florida and had some shock about certain aspects of education. It is so interesting hearing about the various ways people teach!

[Christi Fant]

I'm Christi Fant, a Special Education teacher in Dodge City,KS. I am finishing up a Masters in Sped. with an emphasis in Autism. I am interested in how I can enhance my classroom with technology as well as accommodate some of my students idiosyncrasies. I have enjoyed tracking the QIAT listserve and have gleaned many tips and tricks to add to my bag. This is my fourth year in teaching and I love it and stress over it way too much. My students have been my teachers. I am especially appreciative of this form of networking as Southwestern Kansas is and can feel very remote at times.

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

I hear you about being a relatively new teacher and loving it and stressing over it! We're making it though, right?

[Nichole Thomason]

My name is Nichole Thomason. I am the AAC Program Coordinator for United Cerebral Palsy Assistive Technology Center in San Diego. I am working on my Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling and a Certificate in Rehabilitation Technology. My ultimate goal is to train, train, and train anyone who will listen in how to USE assistive technology. Hopefully putting myself out of a job one day. I love my MAC and I am addicted to learning as much as I can to help the people I serve. Thanks for all you do and all you teach me...you are my guru's!!!

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Sounds like you have a super cool position! Right on. Also, right on about the MAC!

[Hillary1]

Hi, My name is Hillary. I'm from Perth, Western Australia where I work with our Department of Education and Training as the Senior Consultant Assistive Technology. My initial training was in Early Childhood Education where I worked for 11 years as a teacher and consultant teacher. Along the way I did further study in the area of Special Education and I migrated to supporting the initial Inclusive Education movement in Western Australia in 1994 as a consultant teacher. My interest in Assistive Technology and special education sprang from this work when I became passionate about the role of technology in supporting students with disabilities, especially those with physical disabilities. I won a Churchill Fellowship to study Assistive Technology in Canada, Britain and the USA in 2002. My findings and reports submitted to the Department have been the grounding for the Assistive Technology team, which I manage, that we now have in Western Australia.
Similar to Adelaidelad I have serviced the entire state of Western Australia (the largest state in the world) and have had the priviledge of working in far flung places and many remote aboriginal communities. My work has also taken me nationally and internationally for conferences and consultancy work especially in the area of Inclusive Education and Assistive Technology.
I'm looking forward to being a part of such an exciting on line community where location is not a disadvantage.
Cheers
Hillary

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

That really is amazing about the distance factor being erased. Stuff like this is amazing for collaboration.

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Sharon. You should consider starting a Music Therapy discussion thread, or group. Have heard good things about the George Mason Programs.

[Wendy Homlish]

This is crazy! I feel like I know so many of you already from conferences, listserves. My name is Wendy, I'm an AT Consultant (hate the word Specialist for some reason) in Pennsylvania. I work for an Intermediate Unit, which is an educational agency that provides services to it's multi-county school districts (we cover 2 counties and 14 schools districts). Started out as an SLP (guess I still AM one!) 32 years ago, gravitated pretty quickly to special ed kiddos, and developed an obsession with technology when I got my first grant for a brand new, state of the art, Apple IIgs. Ah, those were the days! It was SOOOO much better than the IIe - I became an expert at opening those thing up and installing hardware, getting stuck disks out of drives. 11 years ago there was opening at our agency for a second AT Consultant, and the rest is history. I never want to retire - I just love this work, the kids, the teams (mostly!) and the technology - although sometimes it seems that just when I develop a comfort level with something, along comes something new, like this! Maybe that's why I love it!

[Marylou Connors]

Hi Everyone, I am Marylou Connors and I am a proud grad of the Simmons College AT program - Thank you Mads!!!! I work for the Town of North Andover in special education. I have been an AT wanna be for many years but last year I was able to do some AT evaluations and serviced a few children. This year I am excited to be working part time as Preschool Coordinator for our sped program and part time AT Specialist (for elementary level) - how excited am I - VERY !!! Finally, I can put more and more focus on what I love to do - so, I'm doing everything I can to get more current with all of the new AT that comes out every day - always willing and ready to learn so I'm excited about this group - I want to help North Andover adopt Universal Design successfully - it's a big job but many are already on board to help so we're ready and I won't be shy about asking all of you questions....This will be an exciting year for me! I'm doing what I really love!!! ML

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Maylou, That sounds so exciting about your work in North Andover. Makes me miss the North Shore!