Special Education Today Newsletter 2(48)

What in the world will he prattle on about this week?

Editor’s Note: The issue number for this issue has been updated 29 May 2023—JohnL

Welcome to the 48th issue of the second year of the newsletter for Special Education Today. Even though I’ve played a little loose with how many issues I published last year, we are coming up on the anniversary when regular readers might anticipate that I’ll announce the start of a new year (i.e., volume). When do you think that should be? Let folks know in the comments (open to all subscribers). Six more issues? Eight more?

Overview: This issue has a few house-keeping notes, a listing of recent posts, and a little bit of gratuitous commentary. Those features should be familiar to regular readers.

Subscribers

The list of subscribers now includes greater than 550 addresses, edging up toward 600. If you got an email notice about this issue of the SET newsletter, you've most likely already subscribed. If your notice came from a friend or colleague, please take the opportunity to subscribe and have your own, personal pipeline to SET.

Regardless of how you come to reading this message, please use the “share” button to let others who may not be subscribers know about the community. Also, note that I usually put a share button on individual posts, so readers can help disseminate specific content, too.

I'm just about ready to announce that I’m personally bailing on Twitter. I suspect I’ll keep the @SpecialEdToday active. I’m thinking that people will not be able to find me @JohnWillsLloyd, but that’s OK…as long as they can find SET. TW just seems too problemsome generally at this time. I suppose I could just let my personal account go fallow, but not delete it. What do y’all think?

I am also considering—and this feels much more important—offering deeply discounted subscriptions to people who take paid subscriptions as members of a group. Here are two possible scenarios: (a) an administrator of a local education agency wants to have all of her special education teachers receive SET for a year, providing them with on-going professional development and opportunities to share discussions about topics in special education or (b) a professor wants to use SET as a course supplement, permitting the professor to initiate on-line or face-to-face discussions about SET content. Please let me know what you, dear readers, think about these ideas.

Current Contents

This past week, people who looked at the e-mailed notices found some of the following articles. Those who haunt the site itself actually saw additional posts. If readers go to https://www.specialeducatointoday.com, they will find all the latest articles about various topics in the magazine—as well as a listing of all the archives (available to paid subscribers). Read up on the past week’s posts!

• Special Education Today Newsletter 2(43)—What's the SET news and info for 1 May 2023

• Thoughtful notes by Natalie Wexler about reading instruction—Isn't more phonics all we need?

• A film about reading as a civil right—Isn't this something you want to see?

• Valerie Williams introduced transition initiative—What's to know about OSEP-EEE efforts?

• Friday photos returns! Here's Kristy Somerville-Midgette—How about this superintendent of schools?

• ASAT Newsletter for May 2023—What about beneficial interventions for autism?

• CEC-DR launched "Sped Legacy"—Want to learn more about the history of special education research?

In the next week, I hope to publish another installment in the TEDE series. This one will focus on decoding (i.e., sounding out) longer, harder words that require more sophisticated decoding skills.

Commentary

Spring is here in central Virginia. It is beautiful. Just ask anyone who lives here.

With spring flowers, we get birds, insects, and other local denizens (love them). In our case, we have had two swarms of honey bees around our house recently.¹ I mentioned one of them 17 April 2023 in Newsletter 2.42 That first swarm was on the east side of the house. There was a second one on a comparable spot on the west side of the house.

Pat invited a long-time friend and neighbor from our former neighborhood, Kelly, to investigate. Kelly (back story: He’s directed multiple non-profits around C’ville and an ordained Baptist minister) keeps bees in our previous neighborhood on rural Tom Mountain. For his second visit to check the second swarm, he showed up with full bee-keeper regalia. He was hoping to add another hive to his collection.

Our pal Kelly, in his apiarist outfit, opening an entrance that bees were using on our house. Photo by John Wills Lloyd. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Kelly not only brought his outfit, but a smoker. A “smoker” is a can that is used by apiarist uses to keep the bees from attacking. Kelly had a smoldering rag inside the can and could pump smoke out of its spout by pushing an attached bellows. Here he is holding can and the previously smoldering rag out (he’d dipped it into a wagon filled with rain water)

The apiarist, our pal Kelly, holding his smoker and the previously smoldering cloth that he had just removed from it and doused in water.Photo by John Wills Lloyd; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Well, Kelly found that the bees had used an entrance into the facia and soffet that led to an abandoned nest for hornets. Here’s a photo of the deserted hornets’ nest.

Abandoned hornets’ nest from central Virginia. Photo by John Wills Lloyd. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The bees, however, had gone deeper into the attic. Kelly couldn’t get them on this trip. Kelly will come back, don his bee-keeper suit again, and climb into the attic to capture them. Should I update this post once he’s done the deed?

Now, I don’t have any stretchy analogies to special education and disabilities for this bee-swarm and -keeping story. May haps some readers can make a connection? Please drop them in the comments.

Meanwhile, please remember that I hope everyone is safe and happy. Also, please remember to take care of each other, and (of course) to teach your children well.

JohnL

John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
UVA Professor Emeritus
Founder & Editor, https://www.SpecialEducationToday.com/
Co-editor, Exceptional Children

SET should not be confused with a product with the product that uses the same name and is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades. Despite my appreciation for CEC, this product is not designed to promote that organization.

1. Just a couple-few notes about birds: We had my first spring siting of a Rose Breasted Grosbeak today. There are House Wrens (!) nesting next to my truck’s parking place. We’ve had the male Great Crested Flycatcher, probably one that has nested here repeatedly over the last 4-5 years; the males as I understand, arrives early and stakes out territory for a nesting pair. .