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A well-deserved congratulations to Kennedy Elementary School Special Education Teacher Ms. Karen Giera for receiving the Northeast Georgia RESA "Positive Partnership for Shared Services" award.
The award recognizes teachers and staff who partner with Shared Services in a meaningful way to meet student needs. Read what the nomination said about Ms. Giera.
How has your nominee partnered with you to help the students you serve?
Karen is very intentional when it comes to addressing each student's individual IEP objectives. In doing so, she provides explicit instruction tailored toward each student's needs and ensures that her instructional assistants are trained to provide the same level of service. Karen and I collaborate on goals before IEP meetings. Any time that I provide suggestions or materials to support these goals, she immediately implements the strategies in the classroom.
In what way has your nominee gone above and beyond to make your work more impactful for students?
Karen quickly implements strategies that we discuss. For instance, we have collaborated on daily living skills objectives. While most teachers rely on me to collect materials from home so that students can work on opening containers, buttoning pants, zipping jackets, or putting on socks, Karen takes the initiative to do this herself. When I mentioned that her students would benefit from slant boards, she had them ordered and in the classroom almost immediately. I have shown her some different strategies for creating worksheets for specific students' handwriting needs. While I initially created some worksheets, she took over and made similar worksheets for other students. I also LOVE when she lets me know why a strategy that I have suggested might not work for a particular student. She knows her students best. This eliminates wasted time trying strategies that might be unsuccessful. I appreciate her honest feedback.
What else would you like the selection committee to know about your nominee?
Karen treats everyone with care and respect - this includes her students, instructional assistants, fellow teachers, and anyone who walks in her room!
