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Jenny Godfrey - Topeka, KS
As an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher in the Auburn-Washburn School District, Jenny Godfrey works with students with autism in her highly structured classroom and in community based settings. She works closely with her colleagues in the school as well as with outside consultants for her students who also have home-based programs. Jenny emphasizes that it is important to make her classroom meet the needs of her students; rather then making the students fit the classroom.

Godfrey received her Masters of Science degree in Early Childhood from Emporia State University, in Emporia Kansas. Godfrey is also an Adjunct Professor in Early Childhood at Washburn University. She has been involved in early childhood education for over 20 years and says that “There isn’t a college course that teaches you what you learn in the classroom”.

Godfrey sees working closely with families and collaborating with other service providers as important parts of what makes her students successful. She strives to support transitions from infant-toddler programs, as well as transitions from her program into school age service.

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Constance Miller – Antigo, WI
Constance Miller teaches at Antigo Middle School where she emphatically refers to the students in her 6th grade LD classroom as having learning differences more than learning disabilities. Connie understands the concept of learning differently better than many because she is also learning differently, in that she is a blind teacher of sighted sixth graders, most of whom are diagnosed with learning disabilities.

Ms. Miller has a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Chapman College as well as a second Master’s Degree in Special Education from Cardinal Stritch College, Milwaukee, WI. As a veteran teacher, Connie has continued her life long love for learning by challenging herself with new professional development opportunities each year.

She says “Each of us is our own best teacher and learning is the flip side of teaching.” Connie was selected as Sigma Alpha Teacher Exchange Recipient from Heartspring in 2006 and participated in the Iditarod Winter Teacher Conference as a featured speaker. As an example to her students, Connie accepted the opportunity to become an Iditarider and ride in a dogsled for the ceremonial start.

For the past few years, Ms. Miller has approached her classroom with an all encompassing thematic unit to make their lessons real and functional. Her classroom mascot, a stuffed Bulldog named AMS, has led the way for her class to experience the rails through Amtrack, the road through truckers and the Greyhound, the skies through UPS and now the trails by way of the dogsled. She says, “Taking a new thematic approach each year keeps me fresh and provides a framework for my students to organize subject matter and ideas taught in their particular grade.”

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Sarah Reed - Jacksonville, FL
Sarah Reed is a Deaf Educator at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, teaching fourth graders who range from hard of hearing, to profoundly deaf. Each year some of her students are day students, while others live in the dorm throughout the week and return to their homes on the weekends.

Ms. Reed received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Flagler University where she graduated with a double major in Elementary Education and Deaf Education. Sarah continues to learn by attending workshops, reading professional literature, visiting other classrooms and through collaboration with other teachers. She says, “In my pursuit of becoming a successful and effective teacher, I must try to learn about every new strategy available.”

Sarah applies that belief as she uses a multitude of teaching strategies that actively engage each child in the discovery process in order to reach her students. Following the deaf education philosophy of Total Communication, she strives to provide every instruction in at least two different ways, such as American Sign Language and spoken English to ensure that every student has equal access to information and learns to his/her potential.

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Leanne Russell - Pullman, WA

With many years of experience in special education, Leanne Russell is the first Work Experience Coordinator in Pullman, Washington School District. In that position she
develops and implements transition programs for students with disabilities. She works closely with community businesses and service providers to design job opportunities and supports for her students.

Russell sees the main goal of education as providing an opportunity to acquire sufficient knowledge necessary to develop independence in all areas of the student’s life. In order to assist in this goal, Russell describes her classroom as being highly structured in clear, concise procedures and routines just as other best practices classrooms would be. The thing that sets her class apart is that the classroom encompasses the entire school and the community in which they live, rather than being limited to the four walls of her physical classroom.

Ms. Russell received a Master’s degree in Administration & Curriculum Development from Gonzaga University; Spokane, WA. As a life long learner herself and an individual dedicated to special education, Leanne says “Special Education was not developed to be a life sentence, but an opportunity to receive extra support in areas that are difficult to navigate alone, such as learning to read, mathematical concepts, organization of thoughts, and generalization of knowledge in multiple settings.”

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Karen Thomas - Pittsburg, PA
Karen Thomas considers herself fortunate to be able to provide speech, language, and pragmatic training in her work with students on the autism spectrum. As a Speech and Language Pathologist in the Pittsburgh, PA schools, Karen provides teacher consultation, engages in co-teaching, and provides one-on-one and group treatment in various learning environments across the school setting and on community-based outings.

Ms. Thomas received her Masters degree in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Pittsburg. She completed the training and certification program for the TEACCH. (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children) method.

Ms. Thomas feels collaboration with other professionals and agencies is essential to meeting the total needs of any given student. She says, “We all hold important information that when combined give(s) a more complete picture of a student. It is this picture that allows each of us to apply our given areas of expertise to have a more effective and efficient impact on a student’s life.”

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Wendy Trail- Goddard, KS
After first being a paraprofessional and then an interrelated teacher, Wendy Trail teaches adaptive physical education to students from 10 school districts as well as the parochial schools in the Sedgwick County Special Education Cooperative. She serves children with a wide range of disabilities.

Ms. Trail received her Master of Science degree from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas with her teaching certification from Texas A&M. She became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2005.

Ms. Trail works with general physical education teachers, physical and occupational therapists, and speech pathologists to provide alternative activities and methods for implementing individual goals and objectives. Because Wendy often works with a student for several years, she is able to see the progress in skills that take a long time to develop and provides some consistency and history for the team. Wendy says that preparing for her National Board Certification has helped her to provide more student driven learning in her program.