[IEP_guide] Teaching by example

[Guest guest]

Teaching by example BY KRISTIN WINTERMANTEL

DURKIN

STAFF WRITER

Stroudsburg school aide with Down syndrome has advantage in classroom

Barbara Kavelines was 15 when she decided what she wanted to do in life.

She accompanied her mother to Take Our Daughters To Work Day at Morey

Elementary School in Stroudsburg and spent the day in a learning-support

classroom.

Barbara Kavelines was 15 when she decided what she wanted to do in life.

She accompanied her mother to Take Our Daughters To Work Day at Morey

Elementary School in Stroudsburg and spent the day in a learning-support

classroom.

After that day, the teen knew she wanted to be a teacher, working with students

with special needs — kids diagnosed with autism, Down syndrome, or other mental

and physical disabilities.

Ms. Kavelines knew their challenges well.

She herself was born with Down syndrome.

Over the next several years, she graduated from Pocono Mountain Senior High

School, enrolled in Northampton Community College, where she made the dean’s

list and earned a certificate as a teacher’s aide.

For the 2006-2007 school year, she worked as an aide in the Stroudsburg Area

School District.

Ms. Kavelines’ story was recently featured in Woman’s World, a national

magazine.

It’s the latest highlight in a long list of achievements and awards for the

23-year-old, who lives in Coolbaugh Township, Monroe County, with her parents,

and Louise Kavelines.

From the time Barbara was a child, Mr. and Mrs. Kavelines always encouraged her

abilities, making sure she had as normal a life as possible, with all sorts of

opportunities, from swimming lessons to acting in school plays. “When she was

born, the doctor said to treat her just like any other kid,” her father

recalled.

School days

Like her older brother, Drew, Ms. Kavelines attended Coolbaugh Elementary

School and Pocono Mountain Intermediate School, then moved on to high school.

There were people along the way, of course, who didn’t think she would

accomplish all that she has. “Even today, she always has to prove herself to

people who don’t know her,” her mother said.

That fateful Take Our Daughters To Work Day came when Ms. Kavelines was in

ninth grade. Mrs. Kavelines is a speech and language pathologist at Morey

Elementary, and upon arrival, she introduced her daughter to Sherry McIntyre, a

learning-support teacher. Ms. Kavelines ended up spending the day in Mrs.

McIntyre’s classroom. That night she told her mother she wanted to teach.

Mrs. Kavelines admits she was a bit worried by the announcement. “I had a lot

of trepidation as to how this would ever come about. How could we find

something that would fulfill her needs?”

But the family soon learned of a program in the Pocono Mountain district for

students with disabilities. It paired them with Lehigh University graduate

students who acted as job coaches, taught them workplace skills and helped them

secure a kind of internship in certain fields. Through that program, Ms.

Kavelines spent part of each school day in Ms. McIntyre’s classroom in

Stroudsburg, learning how to be a teacher’s aide.

“I loved being with the kids,” she said.

Liked classroom

The experience cemented her goal of working in a classroom.

As Ms. Kavelines’ high school graduation neared, her mother learned of a

teacher’s aide certification program at Northampton Community College. Ms.

Kavelines applied and was accepted, enrolling in the school’s satellite campus

in Tannersville.

It was a daunting challenge — she had to keep up with the other students in her

classes and master college-level material. “It takes me slower (longer) time to

understand the material,” Ms. Kavelines said. “But I learned a lot in the

classes, about (special education) students and their exceptionalities.”

She managed by keeping her course load light, with just one or two classes each

semester. It took her four years instead of the typical two, but Ms. Kavelines

was a dean’s-list student who also was active in the college’s theater

productions. She received the school’s Mirror Award for the 2003-2004 school

year. It’s given to a student each year for outstanding dedication and work in

a play.

Ms. Kavelines’ graduation in May 2006 was a source of immense pride for her and

for her family.

“It meant everything to us because we always had very high expectations for

her. We wanted her to be able to do whatever she wanted to do,” her mother

said.

The receipt of her teacher’s aide certification meant another challenge —

finding a job. Ms. Kavelines had spent a summer in college volunteering as an

aide to Mrs. McIntyre for a camp for kids with special needs. She returned as a

volunteer last summer.

There wasn’t a paid position available in Mrs. McIntyre’s classroom for the

2006-2007 academic year, but Ms. Kavelines found a sponsor, Fitzmaurice

Community Services, a social-service agency, that would pay her a modest salary

to work as an aide.

“I love doing math with the kids, and sometimes I do reading with the kids,”

Ms. Kavelines said. “I had a student I worked with helping him to write his

name.”

She became close to the students — first- and second-graders — and also to Mrs.

McIntyre. “She became a mentor and my friend and she’s also my boss,” Ms.

Kavelines said.

Kids accept

Since her mother teaches in the district, she got to see from time to time how

Ms. Kavelines was doing. “The kids adore her. They know her as ‘Miss K.’ We’ve

been at the mall and have run into her students and they run up to her and say,

‘Miss K! Miss K!’,” Mrs. Kavelines said. “And that’s an affirmation that

they’ve accepted her.”

Ms. Kavelines’ presence in a learning-support classroom is good for the

students’ parents, too, her mother believes. They get to see the possibilities

that are out there for people with disabilities.

Other teachers and school officials also have taken notice of Ms. Kavelines’

work. In 2005, the first year she volunteered, Stroudsburg Area Education

Association gave her its Friend of Education award, in appreciation of her

commitment to students.

Right now, Ms. Kavelines and her parents are looking for someone to sponsor her

salary for the upcoming school year. There is a hiring freeze at Morey

Elementary, her mother explained, but they hope that if it is lifted, she can

apply for a paid position.

But still, the family is grateful for all the blessings Ms. Kavelines has

received. “She has been thrilled that she’s done so well,” her mother said,

“and that she’s been so well-accepted.”

Contact the writer: kdurkin@...

Meet Barbara Kavelines

Age: 23

Residence: Coolbaugh Township in Monroe County

Family: She is the daughter of and Louise Kavelines and has an older

brother, Drew, who lives in Pittsburgh.

Work: She has been a teacher’s aide in a learning-support classroom at Morey

Elementary School in the Stroudsburg Area School District.

Hobbies: Acting, spending time with friends, swimming, fishing with her father,

drawing and music.

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[Guest guest]

i think are kids can do anything to be honest with lots of encouragement , i no there r kids that wont as have lots of probs but still do thing they like never say never i dont i want alex to live a happy life i dont think its much to ask for, i do hope he finds that someone special

hugs sylv