Our School, Transition and Adult Vocational programs gathered today to celebrate with Adam R., in honor of his graduation from PACTT.
Congratulations, Adam! We are all so very proud of you!
(Above, Right) - Adam and his family look at photos from his 12 years at PACTT.
(Above, left) - Lauren presents Adam with his Certificate.
This week, I had the pleasure of joining our Transition Program for an interactive workshop at Lifeline Theatre. Organized by PACTT Arts & Recreation Coordinator Robert Mann, these workshops allowed participants to get an inside look at characters and costumes and explore the theatre space. Next week, they'll go back to see the play in action.
Our school, transition, and vocational participants each had a unique visit with the Lifeline team in the last couple of weeks. Here are some action shots from their visits:
It's wonderful to have all our students under one roof again! Our high school classroom was hard at work this week - and enjoying their new space:
Thanks to a dedicated group of parents and friends who came out to help us move a few Saturdays ago, a committed teaching team who has spent innumerable off-the-clock hours unpacking and organizing, (and some VERY flexible students!), we are grateful to have our classrooms up and running in their beautiful new space.
The top two photos are our North classroom; the bottom two are our South classroom.
The construction teams finished work on our second floor last week, and the cleaning crew came through to spruce things up a bit. I've never seen those floors so shiny!
From top-to-bottom: The top two photos are our north side classroom (previously carpeted). The bottom two are our south-side classroom. Both have new floors, newly painted walls and ceilings, and an added chair rail / vinyl wainscotting along the bottom of the walls
Students and staff returned from Winter Break this year to a welcome surprise - Santa's elves had begun renovations on the school's second-floor classrooms. Those two classrooms had been in great need of a little TLC! With new floors, patched and painted walls & ceilings, and the addition of some durable wainscoting, the rooms will look good as new! They're not -quite- finished, but here's a sneak peek of the work-in-progress ...
From our houses to yours, we wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season!
(Thanks, Shaun, for the festive holiday bulletin board!)
John celebrates with veteran PACTT team member Solange
The entire school, transition and vocational program participants gathered Tuesday to celebrate John N., our newest graduate.
Congratulations, Johnny! We are SO proud of you!
Participants in our School, Transition and Adult Vocational programs hopped on the El last week for our annual holiday adventure. They checked out the windows at Marshall Field's (err ... Macy's), a trip through the Kris Kindlemart to see the City Tree, and a stop at McDonald's for a treat before heading home. This year, some of our folks even made a quick trip to tell Santa what they REALLY wanted under the tree this year! Lucky for us, the weather cooperated, and the trip was a grand success.
Take a look at scenes from some of our adventures:
December 2011
Here we come a calendar-ing!
Before I forget - or you forget! - I wanted to remind everyone that our Winter Break for School and Transition programs begins on WEDNESDAY, Dec. 20th at NOON. Students will eat an early lunch that day, and buses, cabs, and pack mules will all leave from the school at 12 p.m. Please ensure that someone will be at your home to meet this bus at its earlier arrival time. Group homes will be staffed accordingly.
Spreading holiday cheer
Our students got in the spirit of things this week, as they packaged donated items for our friends at the Howard Area Community Center. Last month, an anonymous donor gave us tons of lunch bags, mini-radios, and other assorted doo-dads. So, we decided to turn it into a vocational opportunity for our students (who loved putting together all the packages), and a way to spread the cheer with another local organization. The folks at HACC will share the packages with the students in their after school programs. Find photos, and more details, later this week, right here on thePrincipal's Blog.
Our annual tradition
All our School, Transition, and Adult Voc folks bundled up and headed downtown this morning to catch the windows on State Street, visit the tree in Daley Plaza, and enjoy a (highlight-of-the-trip) stop at the Golden Arches for a snack before heading back north on the El. Everyone has been looking forward to this long-standing PACTT tradition (and we were THRILLED that the weather cooperated this year!). Snapshots from the trip will (hopefully) be online by this weekend.
Stay up to date with all things PACTT on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/pactt), our website, and especially here on my Principal's Blog. More info on our HACC donations, photos from the Christmas trip, and more will arrive in both places in the next few days.
Wishing you ...
And finally, no matter what holiday you celebrate this time of year, may it be filled with the gifts of joy, love and peace.
See you next year!
- Paula
p.s. School and Transition Programs resume Wednesday, Jan. 4th.
November 2011
First Quarter Ends
Hard to believe it, but we've reached the end of our first quarter. Progress reports will be mailed or sent home in the next week or so. We're proud of all our students' accomplishments! We've been working hard and playing harder -- scroll down in this blog for pictures of our Halloween fun!
Save the date!
PACTT's annual Thanksgiving Feast will take place Wednesday, November 23rd from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. School families will gather at the main school building (7101 N. Greenview), and Transition / Voc families will celebrate at the Transition Center (1544 W. Morse).
As always, we'll provide the turkey and all the fixin's. If you'd like to bring something for the festivities, a dessert or drink (juice, pop, water), would be appreciated.
The little things DO add up ...
Thanks to your support, we've had a successful semester of school fundraising!
- We earned nearly $300 from Target RedCard users (we get 1% of all purchases made using the card).
- We've collected more than $300 worth of Boxtops for Education (we earn 10 cents for each boxtop sent in -- Do THAT math, and you'll see that the little things really DO add up - keep sending them in!).
- And we sold more than 40 Entertainment Books!
Thank you for all your support! For more information on the Target card, visit:www.target.com/tcoe. For more info on the Boxtops for Education, see: boxtops4education.com.
Agency Fundraising Fun
PACTT's first-ever Gold Rush takes place this Sunday, Nov. 13th. Visit www.pactt.org/gold to see how you can turn your old jewlery into cash for you - or donations for PACTT!
Stay in Touch
Want to stay updated on all things PACTT? "Like" us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pactt), and visit here at the Principal's Blog. Also, be sure to update your information in our new online database (www.pactt.org/gogreen) - available by 11/14/11 - to keep up with all the agency-wide news.
As always ... Thank you for your continued support of our programs, our team, and our extended PACTT family!
- Paula
Students and staff from School, Transition and the Adult Vocational program all got in the Halloween spirit this week -- from pumpkin carving to popcorn balls, and costumes galore! (Click the arrows to scroll through the pictures.)
Our Transition Class ventured off last Friday in search of the perfect pumpkin -- and found a few fun animal friends in the process!
"It's like a traffic jam in your head, with conflicting signals quickly coming from all directions, so that you don't know how to make sense of it all."
-- Author and parent Nancy Peske, describing her son's sensory processing issues
This description is in the first of a three-part series on sensory processing disorders, presented by Child Mind Institute. (You can read the entire article HERE.)
It's rare to find one of our students who doesn't have some kind of unique sensory need. As we know, there's no one solution for everyone, and we know that sometimes we need to try lots of things before we find one that works. Luckily, we also have an Occupational Therapist with all sorts of creative solutions!
Have a sensory-related question? Tap into Lill's 13 years of experience at PACTT. Email questions or ideas to LillOT@pactt.org, comment directly on this blog post, or use our Contact form.
We look forward to hearing from you!
On Friday, our elementary class went on the search for the perfect pumpkin
'Tis the season for crunchy leaves, trick-or-treating, darker evenings and colder weather. For some of us, fall is a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of summer. For others, the change in seasons throws our natural rhythms temporarily out-of-whack.
For individuals with autism, changes in seasons can be confusing. They can disrupt schedules, limit favorite activities (What do you MEAN I can't swim outside in October??), and mean a wadrobe swap that we neuro-typicals even have trouble adjusting to.
The Autism Society of America has shared a useful list of tips for helping to create a successful Halloween for kids on the autism spectrum. Check it out here: Halloween Tips.
Did they miss anything important? Tell us in the comments below!
All our classes took some time to enjoy the beautiful weather this week!
Ed. Note -- This year's sale is now finished. Thank you to all our supporters!!
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It's time for our annual Entertainment Book sale! The books are $25 each, and contain thousands of dollars worth of coupons, good for stores, restaurants, and services local to YOU!
Books are available in either North/Northwest or South/West editions. The more books we sell, the more funds we raise -- simple as that!
This year, to make it even EASIER, you can order and pay for your entertainment book online! (The order form below will redirect you to our shopping cart for online purchase). Orders are due by Oct. 31st, so you can get a head start on your holiday gift-giving!
If you have questions, email learningcenter@pactt.org
(And thank you in advance!)
This week, we celebrate Luis O., who graduated on Friday from PACTT's Transition Program. Luis, his friends, teachers and family celebrated with a slide show of photos and memories -- and cake, of course!
Congratulations, Luis!