SUSTAINING INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN UKRAINE

U.S. experts in inclusive education together with their Ukrainian partners conducted workshops Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskiy, Lviv and Kyiv. The events were supported by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy  and organized by USG Exchange Alumni small grants program members, their schools and colleges, Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota, U.S. Embassy and Step into Life NGO.

Stephanie Fitzgerald, Joy Lee Fredrickson and Clay Keller joined Without Borders: Sustaining and Developing Inclusive Education Learning Community project aiming at developing leadership capacity in inclusive education and strengthening the U.S.-Ukrainian Partnership.

Sergiy Sydoriv of Ivano-Frankivsk college Precarpathian national university who was a co-presenter says it was not easy, but fun. When you feel the support and motivation from our U.S. colleagues, you know that you are doing right thing.

Here are just titles of workshops and presentations, much more is beyond words...!

KHMELNYTSKIY

 II International Inclusive Education Forum. Co-presenting Valentyna Malanchii, Sergiy Sydoriv, November 18

Meeting Svitlana Hubay, the head of Khmelnytskiy Department for Education

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION CONFERENCE IN KHMELNYTSKIY ACADEMY FOR HUMANITIES AND PEDAGOGICS – WORKSHOPS OF US EXPERTS

Target group: teachers working with students with special educational needs, teachers and graduate students of Khmelnytskiy Academy for Humanities and Pedagogics

Workshops of US experts  for teachers working with students with special educational needs

Co-Teaching through Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Ensure Equitable Student Achievement,  Joy Lee Fredrickson , IE consultant, school administrator, Osseo school district, MN

Creating Positive Environments to Support All Students, Clay Keller, special education professor and program coordinator at the University of Minnesota, Qatar University and the Special Education Division of the Minnesota Department of Education

A Look at Transition in the United States, Stephanie Fitzgerald, special education practitioner, Saint Paul, Minnesota

All Students” Means ALL Students, Joy Lee Fredrickson

Equity and Inclusion, Clay Keller

Transition: What it looks like for Parents, Stephanie Fitzgerald

WORKSHOPS OF U.S. EXPERTS FOR ADMINISTRATORS OF COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLS. November 19

Co-Teaching through Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Ensure Equitable Student Achievement,  Joy Lee Fredrickson

Creating Positive Environments to Support All Students, Clay Keller

Transition: What it looks like for Parents, Stephanie Fitzgerald

Concluding the conference, question-answer session

LVIV, November 20  

STEPS TO AN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION COMMUNITY - WITHOUT BORDERS - INTERNATIONAL COWORKING 

Participants:

• Teachers working in inclusive setting (schools, kindergartens): principals, vice principals, teachers, kindergarten educators, teacher's assistants, preschool educator’s assistants, practicing psychologists
• Parents of children with special educational needs.
• Non-governmental organizations involved in work with children / persons with special educational needs, persons with disabilities.
• 

Welcoming speech to the participants of the conference from the Department of Education of Lviv

Developing inclusive learning environment via " Without Borders: Sustaining and Developing Inclusive Education Community", Sergiy Sydoriv, Ivano-Frankivsk College, Precarpathian national university

Creating Positive Environments to Support All Students – Clay Keller

Co-Teaching through Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Ensure Equitable Student Achievement – Joy Lee Fredrickson

A Look at Transition in the United States – Stephanie Fitzgerald

Teacher’s assistant in inclusive classroom, Ilona Radchuk, Ruslana Hogol, teacher’s assistants

(Un) manageable child in the classroom, O. Deryn, speech therapist of the NSC "Dovira", co-founder of NGO "LOGO"

LEGO - Six Bricks as a Tool for Correctional and Developmental Work with Children with SEN, Nadiya Figurska, Kindergarten Educator, LegoFundation regional trainer

Another road: accepting a child, Yaroslava Nikanshin, a mother of a child with SEN.

Preparing students for work in inclusion, Anna Sobchuk, Lviv national University

Student Short Film Festival PositiveWOW Project. Extracurricular Inclusion, Olena Ditchuk, director of a children's club

IVANO-FRANKIVSK

November 21-22

Regional Workshop INCLUSIVE PRACTICES: UKRAINE-US COOPERATION

Target group: college and university students (Special Education, Elementary Education, Preschool Education), graduates-teachers who participated in the previous workshops, university lecturers, school teachers and kindergarten educators, school psychologists, speech therapists, education administrators. Total 196 participants.

Plenary presentation

Inclusive Vector of Ivano-Frankivsk College: Results and Prospects, Svitlana Nesterenko, deputy-principal, Ivano-Frankivsk college, Precarpathian national university

Without Borders: Sustaining and Developing Inclusive Education Learning Community project - developing inclusive learning environment, Sergiy Sydoriv, project leader

Multidisciplinary Approach towards Training Pre-service Kindergarten Teachers to Work in Inclusive Environment, Oksana Selepiy, Ivano-Frankivsk college

Inclusion through the eyes of students, Iryna Skavinska, undergraduate student

Video show

 All Students Means ALL Students, Joy Lee Fredrickson, school administrator, Osseo school district, MN. Expertise in teaching & supervising special education services for students birth through 21 years of age. Participants will be inspired to lead transformational system changes to meet the needs of EACH student and understand the customization of education through Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

A Look at Transition in the United States, Stephanie Fitzgerald, special education practitioner, Saint Paul, Minnesota.  Expertise in transition programs, elementary education, teaching of the physically impaired and work-based learning. The presentation will discuss the transition from school to adulthood for students with disabilities and show you what a transition program may look like. There will be a Walk and Talk activity at the beginning of this presentation that will help participants get to know one another and share their experiences on a number of questions.

Creating Positive Environments to Support All Students, Clay Keller, special education professor and program coordinator at the University of Minnesota, Qatar University and the Special Education Division of the Minnesota Department of Education. Expertise in academic program development, especially at the graduate level to increase the leadership capacity for inclusive education and establish government and university partnerships. Multi-tiered systems of support provide frameworks that can harness educational practices in pursuit of inclusion. The presentation will begin by briefly reviewing such systems of support, extending them to inclusive education. It will then describe in more detail Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, a tiered system that can create positive school and classroom environments and promote a preventative approach to classroom management.

Four workshops ART THERAPY AND ART PEDAGOGY IN INCLUSIVE SETTINGS

• Game Therapy in Inclusive Education, Oksana Selepiy, Tetyana Daniv, Ivano-Frankivsk college
• Shadow Play (Theatre therapy) in Inclusive Education, Natalia Nykorak, Ivano-Frankivsk college
• Paint therapy, Kateryna Gotsulyak, Tetyana Stambulska,  Ivano-Frankivsk college
• Storytelling, Olha Sorokalita, Lidia Sydoriv,  Ivano-Frankivsk college

Panel discussion

Speakers: a teacher, a student, a school psychologist, a speech therapist, ESP (preschool). ESP (school), a principal, a college teacher, an educator, an inclusion expert, a Department of Education officer.

November 22

INCLUSIVE IDEAS CO-WORKING

Presentations, video filming, poster designing, brainstorming and sharing ideas for practical implementing Day 1 ideas.

Facilitators: Iryna Skavinska,  Lidia Sydoriv, Ivano-Frankivsk college

Workshop ART THERAPY FOR CHILDREN WITH SEN

Facilitator: Hanna Maksymchuk, Ivano-Frankivsk college.

Reflections, certificates award session

KYIV

International conference Sustaining Inclusive Education Community:   Ukraine-U.S. cooperation, America House Kyiv,  November 23, 2019

Sergiy Sydoriv, project director, Without Borders: Sustaining and Developing Inclusive Education Community, Precarpathian national university. The project and National Inclusive Education Consortium: developing inclusive learning environment

Sean О’Hara, Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine,  Vira Ternovska, Academic Affairs Specialist, Public Affairs Section,U.S. Embassy Welcome speech to conference participants

Valentyna Khivrych, director-general, Directorate of Inclusive and Extracurricular Education, Ministry of Education and Sciences of Ukraine. Inclusive Education in Ukraine: realities of today

Yurii Demedyuk, head of expert group of Extracurricular Education, Directorate of Inclusive and Extracurricular Education, Ministry of Education and Sciences of Ukraine. Inclusion in Extracurricular Education

Marianna Onufryk, head of NGO "Social synergy". ICF in Inclusive Education

Anna Zaplatynska, Ph.D, associate professor, head of department of orthopedagogics, orthopsychology and rehabilitation, faculty of special and inclusive education, Dragomanov national pedagogical university. Special technologies of learning in supporting students with SEN

Svitlana Nesterenko, Ph.D, vice-principal, Iryna Skavinska, student, Ivano-Frankivsk college, Precarpathian national university. Inclusive Vector of Ivano-Frankivsk College: Results and Prospects

Inna Yashchuk, doctor of pedagogics, professor, dean of department of elementary education and philology, Tetyana Tsegelnyk, teacher, Olga Polyanovska, Ph.D, assistant professor, Kateryna Binytska, doctor of pedagogics, professor of  Khmelnytskiy Humanities and Pedagogy Academy. Training pre-service teachers to work in inclusion settings in  Khmelnytskiy Humanities and Pedagogics Academy.

Anna Sobchuk, postgraduate student,department of elementary and preschool education, Lviv national University, Natalia Pryimak, methods specialist, Lviv Department for Education Training pre-service and in-service teachers to work in inclusion environment

WORKSHOPS. LINE 1: US EXPERIENCE IN INCLUSION

Transition: What it looks like for Parents,  Stephanie Fitzgerald,  Co-presenting Valentyna Malanchii  

Co-Teaching through UDL to Ensure Equitable Student Achievement, Joy Lee Fredrickson, Co-presenting Olha Telna

Creating Positive Environments to Support All Students, Clay  Keller,.Co-presenting Sergiy Sydoriv

WORKSHOPS. LINE 2: BEST INCLUSIVE PRACTICES FROM UKRAINIAN TEACHERS

Nataliya Ivashura, teacher, department of special education and psychology, Kharkiv Academy of Humanities and Pedagogics, head of charity fund “Flowers of Life”. Developing individual trajectory of teaching autistic children. Facilitating Olha Telna

Iryna Bigus, finalist of “Teacher of the Year - 2019” contest, nomination  “Teacher of inclusive class”, elementary school teacher, Ivanna Horbatyuk, teacher’s assistant, school № 8, Khmelnytskiy.  1+1=succes: a clue for effective cooperation between a teacher and an assistant. Facilitating Valentyna Malanchii

Here are some selected quotes from presenters and participants: