If we meet someone who owes us thanks, we right away remember that.  But how often do we meet someone to whom we owe thanks without remembering that? 

                                                Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe

On November 23, 2011, staff and students joined together to break bread and celebrate the Westbridge Academy annual Holiday Feast.  It is an event that everyone looks forward to with great anticipation.  The feast was complete with all the traditional foods of Thanksgiving as well as desserts provided and prepared by the Westbridge Academy staff.  In life, one of the first lessons that we learn at home is how one is to conduct themselves while dining not only with family but in other social settings as well.  Students gained an opportunity to demonstrate and enhance some of the social skills attained through the Project Achieve program.  At Westbridge Academy, we are taught “Food is love” and on this day, both love and food were in abundance.

A Workshop Sponsored by the Outreach Department
Earn free CEUs and register at no charge!

DATE: Friday, December 9, 2011 

SCHEDULE: 

• 8:30 am – 9:00 am  Registration
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm  Presentation
• 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm  Lunch

LOCATION: Westbridge Academy Auditorium
60 West Street, Bloomfield, NJ (Parking available on-site) 

About

This interactive workshop will examine staff perceptions, then recognize the defining characteristics and types of bullying and why students become bullies. 

Discussions will include proven strategies to araise awareness and deter bullying to reduce incidents, as well as considerations for a well-defined and effective bullying prevention program.  Participants will gain strategies for working with parents as partners to reduce bullying in school and community settings.  

Our Presenter

Maria P. Kreiter, nationally-certified staff development facilitator through the National Staff Development Council’s Leadership Academy, will present this overview of Bullying and answer questions you may have about this transformative initiative. (See bio below). 

The Program

Bullying: Why “Stick and Stones” Thinking is Passé

• Define bullying characteristics
• Learn strategies to deter bullying
• Examine well-defined anti bully programs
• Gain perspective of parents as partners

Details

• Refreshments will be served in the morning.
• Lunch will be served after the workshop until 12:45 pm.
• Participants will receive 3 Continuing Education Credits.
• Participants will have the opportunity to take a tour of Westbridge Academy.

To Register

• Contact Eboni Williams 973.429.8110 ext. 110 for more information
• Register by Friday December 1, 2011 to guarantee seating
• Walk-ins limited (as space permits)

About Maria P. Kreiter

Maria P. Kreiter has been a committed educator for 19 years serving in a variety of educational positions in the private, public and university settings.  Maria is an adjunct college instructor, certified teacher, curriculum and instruction supervisor and principal who holds a Pennsylvania Superintendent’s Letter of Eligibilty.   

As an educational leader, Maria nurtures growth and potential by challenging people’s thinking about best practice.  She is a parent of two children with learning challenges.  Her experience enables her to bring a unique perspective to her programs.

NEW STUDY JUST PUBLISHED

A research report published in the journal Child Development, found that students who participated in programs that taught social, emotional, and behavioral skills, improved in their grades and standardized-test scores by 11 percentile points when compared with nonparticipating students. The report analyzed 213 studies involving over 270,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12.

According to the researchers, the impact of social, emotional, and behavioral instruction was equivalent to moving a student currently in the middle of his or her class academically to the top 40 percent of his or her peers.

In addition, when compared with their peers, the students involved in social, emotional, and behavioral instruction significantly improved in five additional key areas: (a) they demonstrated greater social skills, (b) less emotional stress, (c) better attitudes, (d) fewer conduct problems (such as bullying and suspensions), and (e) more prosocial behavioral – such as cooperating with and helping other students.

Click here for Report Abstract

The Stop & Think Social Skills Program
A Nationally-Acclaimed, Evidence-Based Program Supports Students Success

The Stop & Think Social Skills Program (from preschool through high school) is the anchor to Project ACHIEVE’s evidence-based school-wide positive behavioral support system which helps schools to address discipline, behavior management, student self-management, and school safety. Used in thousands of schools across the country, the Stop & Think Program has demonstrated its positive impact on student self-management, office discipline referrals, and academic outcomes in schools nationwide. Project ACHIEVE is listed in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices and has helped 1,500 schools nationwide during the last 20 years to meet important student, staff, and school goals. Westbridge Academy is proud to be participating in Project ACHIEVE and to share the following resources with you.

Stop & Think Social Skills Program

The Stop & Think Social Skills Program is a social skills program that teaches students, from preschool through high school, the interpersonal, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and coping skills that they need to get along in school – with peers and teachers. It is one of the top evidence-based social skills programs in the country, and it focuses on teaching behavioral skills such as listening, following directions, asking for help, accepting consequences, dealing with teasing, responding to peer pressure, etc. It is available through Sopris West Educational Services, or on the Project ACHIEVE website.

Stop & Think Music CD and Skill Posters

The recently-released the Stop & Think Music CD and Skill Posters for the preschool through grade 1 levels helps build important social skill. The Music CD “teaches” 14 of the most important Stop & Think Social Skills through newly composed songs that are sung in different, engaging musical styles – many with an accompanying children’s chorus. Parents and teachers across the country are just loving this CD – many buying them for their young children as gifts for home instruction. The posters reinforce these 14 skills by outlining the steps to each skill. In addition, each poster has the lyrics to its CD song printed on the side opposite the skill steps. To listen to three sample songs from the CD, to see some sample posters, and for more ordering information click here.

Stop & Think Parenting Book with its 75-minute Instructional DVD

The Stop and Think Parenting Book: A Guide to Children’s Good Behavior is based on the nationally-acclaimed and evidence-based Stop & Think Social Skills Program.  Accompanied by its 75 minute demonstration DVD, this program teaches parents how to teach their children the interpersonal, problem solving, and conflict resolution skills that will help them succeed in all settings. Focusing on the preschool to late elementary school age span, the Stop & Think Parenting Book helps teach children over 20 important behavioral skills—Listening, Following Directions, How to Interrupt, Accepting Consequences and Apologizing, Dealing with Teasing, How to Handle Peer Pressure—and how to use them in real life. For more ordering information click here.

ELECTRONIC BOOK #1

Teaching Students Classroom and Building Routines and Safety Skills

This electronic book describes Project ACHIEVE’s evidence-based Stop & Think Social Skills Program, along with how to teach over 100 Classroom and Building Routines (How to Enter a Classroom, Participating in a Classroom Discussion, How to Transition from One Activity to Another, Walking in the Hallway) at the prekindergarten to Grade 1, Grades 2 and 3, Grades 4 and 5, and Middle School levels. These skills help make the common areas of your school safer, and they help students to manage their own behavior in these important settings and situations.

Single Unit Price: $34.95
Site License Price: $149.95

Click here for more information or to order.

ELECTRONIC BOOK #2

How to Implement a School-wide Discipline System that Increases Students’ Prosocial Skills and Decreases Teasing and Bullying

This electronic book describes a school-wide approach to decrease teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, and physical aggression in a school using the six critical components that make up Project ACHIEVE’s evidence-based Positive Behavioral Self-Management System (PBSS): (a) the Stop & Think Social Skills Program; (b) the development of a school-wide student accountability systems; (c) ways to increase staff and student consistency; (d) how to keep the common areas of a school safe and prevent teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, and physical aggression; (e) crisis prevention, intervention, and response; and (f) the importance of home and community outreach.

Single Unit Price: $29.95
Site License Price: $119.95

Click here for more information or to order.

ELECTRONIC BOOK #3

How to Create a School-wide Behavioral Accountability System Resulting in Student Responsibility and Staff Consistency

This electronic book discusses the step-by-step process whereby schools develop consistent grade-level and school-wide behavioral standards that hold students accountable to the school’s discipline and behavior management system. By organizing behavioral expectations into a “Behavioral Matrix,” staff and administrators have a written “roadmap” that identifies expected student behaviors and helps staff to consistently respond to inappropriate behavior.

Single Unit Price: $34.95
Site License Price: $149.95

Click here for more information or to order.

For more information about Project ACHIEVE including free technical assistance papers and Powerpoints from recent presentations visit the Project ACHIEVE website or contact Dr. Howie Knoff at knoffprojectachieve@earthlink.net or 501-312-1484.

Building Strong Schools to Strengthen Student Outcomes is a Registered Trademark of Project ACHIEVE Incorporated. ©2010. All rights reserved.

A Workshop Sponsored by the Outreach Department
Earn free CEUs and register at no charge!

DATE: Friday, April 8, 2011

SCHEDULE:

• 8:30 am – 9:00 am  Registration
• 9:00 am – 12:00 pm  Presentation
• 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm  Lunch

LOCATION: Westbridge Academy Auditorium
60 West Street, Bloomfield, NJ (Parking available on-site)

About

This presentation will provide a general overview of RtI, especially targeting the general education teaching staff, to encourage “out of the box thinking” as it relates to meeting the needs of all our students.

Our Presenter

Ernie Brattstrom, Executive Director with Learning Tree Educational Consultants, L.L.C., will present this overview of RtI and answer questions you may have about this transformative initiative. (See bio below).

The Program

Response To Intervention: Out Of The Box Thinking

• What is RTI? An Introduction to the Five Components
• RTI: A Tool for Improving Achievement District-Wide
• Benchmark and Progress Monitoring Assessment: Using Data for Instruction
• Effective Teaming for RTI: Members, Process and Strategies for Building Your Expanded Circle of Support
• Interventions: Developing a School-wide Model of Support
• RTI and Learning Disabilities

Details

• Refreshments will be served in the morning.
• Lunch will be served after the workshop until 12:45 pm.
• Participants will receive 3 Continuing Education Credits.
• Participants will have the opportunity to take a tour of Westbridge Academy.

To Register

• Register here by Friday April 1, 2011 to guarantee seating
• Walk-ins limited (as space permits)
• Contact Eboni Williams 973.429.8110 ext. 110 for more information

About Ernie Brattstrom

Ernie Brattstrom has been a committed educator for 33 years serving in a variety of educational positions: with the NJ Department of Education as the Burlington County Supervisor of Child Study; as superintendent of schools with SCSSSD, Somerdale (K-8) and Florence Township (K-12); and as creator and superintendent of  the Salem County Special Services School District. He has also helped develop three charter schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

He has taught at Union College, Rowan University, Drexel University, and The College of New Jersey, authored multiple technical assistance manuals and has developed curriculum materials in writing, math, language arts, reading, and social studies.

Ernie’s certifications include: Teacher of the Auditory Handicapped, Teacher of the Disabled, Speech Pathologist, Supervisor, Principal, Chief School Administrator, Former Teacher of the Year.

Ernie takes pride in offering teacher-practitioners a variety of practical ideas, engaging activities, and simple management techniques designed to impact student motivation. You can expect to be able to take these innovative ideas back to the classroom and immediately implement them—his workshop participants enjoy his ability to blend humor with straight talk and to turn theory into practice.

On Monday, December 20, 2010, members of VFW Post 711 visited the annual holiday party at Westbridge Academy in Bloomfield, which receives students from eight surrounding counties, and made a donation to the school. The visit, donation and holiday party are all annual traditions. Viviana Litovsky, the director of the school (left) receives the donation presented Joseph Ellmer of Post 711 and Amy Parrills, (right) of Ladies Auxiliary 711.

Source: The Independent Press, Bloomfield Navigator, “Holiday Giving” 12/22/2010

We’re growing, and our technology is keeping pace. As Westbridge Academy grows, we need to give our teachers, specialists, and administrators with the appropriate tools to support their work. We were spending a lot of human time as well as resources implementing and maintaining  our computer servers,” reports Abraham Mathew, Supervisor for Special Projects. Because Westbridge Academy works on a limited budget, we also needed to be able to provide new desktops as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Our current servers had a limited lifespan remaining and warranties were about to expire, so our computer consultants, Accounteks, implemented virtual servers improving server management which saved both time and money. This makes it easier to store and back up data and apply updates. And, in the event of a disaster, data is easy to replicate, reducing downtime.

Now, employees have the ability to work remotely from anywhere, after hours or on days when inclement weather makes travel difficult. Accounteks also remotely monitors and maintains the servers enabling our employees to focus on the business of teaching, rather than being distracted by technology glitches. “Accounteks manages our servers and does our updates remotely, so I can focus on delivering school-based initiatives,” states Mr. Mathew.

Project Achieve

While staying true to its purpose and mission as it has for the past four decades, Westbridge Academy continues to provide a therapeutic learning environment for students in grades K-12. Only now the dining options have become a little tastier.

Instructors from several academic areas, such as Community Based Instruction (CBI), World Cultures, Computer/Technology, Language Arts, Workplace Readiness, the Fine and Practical Arts coordinated their lesson plans to organize two fall projects.  The first and larger project requires students to search for international recipes for our Westbridge Academy Student Recommended Cookbook, which can be found on our new website. They prepare a shopping list and then, in teams of two with their teacher (and a carefully crafted budget), go shopping for the ingredients.

While at the supermarket, students put into action many of the academic skills they have been taught, as well as the social skills they are learning through Project Achieve, the nationally recognized social skills program being used at Westbridge Academy.  Back at school they must properly store and organize their purchases. Students also storyboard the steps of a recipe, adding photos of the food preparation, and script the recipe for final presentation. Once completed, the cooking and photo shoot begins (and so do the wonderful aromas coming from the cafeteria).  When the cooking is finished, well, everyone knows what happens next!

Project Fiesta

The second project, the Latino-based Fiesta, follows many of the same steps used in the cookbook project such as the planning and shopping.  Here, they also research various Hispanic cultures, write reports, design fact-based placemats, and discuss the foods chosen to represent the student’s and class’s choices.  They also perform pieces of music, dance and/or read stories from the history-rich cultures.  Our students gain much more beyond academics by practicing a willingness to learn about each other’s heritage while utilizing basic and advanced social skills that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Students have expressed great enthusiasm for these two projects. Our program often blends together various academic areas to incorporate authentic life skills. Discussions are already underway to add a competitive component to our “Culinary Academy”; perhaps there will soon be a Westbridge Academy Iron Chef!

When it’s snowing outside, is school open? Parents at Westbridge Academy know right away, thanks to our Honeywell Instant Alert system. The system immediately notifies parents who sign up. And you can choose how you want to receive notification – by email or text message or both – about late-breaking school notices, such as snowdays, early closings, etc.

Parents can sign up to the system by providing contact information to their child’s case manager.

Sign up for our email newsletter and stay informed about Westbridge Academy news and issues related to our work, including school developments, programs for our kids and profiles of our staff.

On May 6th, 2010, Westbridge Academy held its annual Golf Outing, which marked a milestone for the school – Westbridge has helped nearly 3,000 students since its founding. The event helped build relations with people and businesses in the community and raise money for the school’s important work serving the region’s children. Thank you to all who supported us!

We hope you join us at our other fundraising events (provide links). We always appreciate your support. And since we provide programs for students throughout the school year, you don’t have to wait for a fundraising event to support Westbridge Academy!

When Westbridge Academy was founded nearly 40 years ago as a pioneering school for students with special needs, we made a commitment to set the highest standards for our own self-improvement as well as that of our students. That’s why we have implemented Project Achieve – a program that helps students develop better self-management skills. The program, which has been used in more than 40 states across the country, addresses three main areas:

• Improving students’ ability to solve problems, strengthen their own resilience, and develop effective self-management skills so that they can break poor behavior patterns, focus on school, and deal more effectively with peers.
• Improving staff professional development and instruction by incorporating “stop and think” social skills programs into the curriculum, which builds on our personal approach to learning.
• Increasing the quality of parent and community engagement to help students.

All Westbridge Academy staff have been trained in the program for implementation in the 2010-2011 school year.