Special Education Today Newsletter 4(13)
Special Education Today Newsletter 4(13)
Last week’s news and info rolled into a newsletter for week beginning 16 September 2024
Colleagues, welcome to this week’s edition of the Special Education Today newsletter. It’s the usual, and by “usual” in this case, I mean to alert readers who’ve been following SET for at least a year that they will recognize that it’s the time of year when I talk about watching migrating hawks.
Photo
Yes, I spent many hours on “the mountain” (as some members of my mother’s family called Rockfish Gap on Afton Mountain) this past week. I got a sunburn (forgot my hat), my neck ached, and I saw (no joke) 1000s of migrating hawks headed to Central America, the Caribbean, and the northern parts of South America.
This view of the hillside across the gap should be familiar to people who read the SET newsletter of 18 September 2023 (and probably some earlier ones, too), as it shows a similar scene as a photo in that newsletter…it’s just that this one is full of hawk gawkers. Birds often come over Bear Den Mountain (it’s the one with no clouds above it and to the right in the photo). They may catch a thermal to gain altitude and then come along the nearer ridge (sometimes called “Scott Mountain”) or they may simply stream off to the right in the photo (i.e., south-south-east), staying on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.1
This past week I was present when lots of migrants passed through the Rockfish counting station. The counting station is one of scores of stations all across North America affiliated with the Hawk Migration Association of North America. All those stations report daily data the number of migrants to pass them. Here is a clipping from the data for the middle of September 2024 for the Rockfish Gap station:
Across the top of the chart are abbreviations, mostly for species of raptors (Obs Hrs = observation hours; species are OS = Osprey; BE = Bald Eagle; NH = Norther Harrier... BW = Broad Wing…TOTAL = hmm…total!). Now, lest you get the wrong impression, even though I was present and looking up on the 19th, 20th, and 21st, I did not personally see each and every one of those birds…not 2808 on this past Thursday, 8972 on Friday, or 9747 on Saturday. But, I did see way lots many.
There are volunteer “counters” who are much more capable than I of identifying types of birds. The tabled data come from the official counters. When there are large numbers of hawks (50-300) in a group (often called a “kettle”), one official counter will aim her or his spotting scope at the group and click a counting device for each bird she can see. When there are two (or more!) kettles in different parts of the sky at the same time, the counters split the responsibilities for groups.2 Every hour, the official counter for the day asks all the other counters to report their data for the previous hour and zero out the counters for that hour.3 For those who are interested in less quantitative data, there are other indicators of the number of birds: “Someone in the crowd will say, “Large group above [x point]” and another person will say, “Holy cow!” (or “holy” synonym for excrement). Someone else will say, “Oh my gawd.” And so it goes….
I may be returning to The Mountain again this coming week. Probably the major surge of Broad Wing Hawks has passed, but there will be plenty of other birds over the coming weeks (especially less common migrants such as Golden Eagles).4 Readers can learn about data from hawk watches throughout North America from the Hawk Migration Association of North America and HawkWatch International.
Status
I want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to the folks who make the adventure possible for all of us. Thanks to those who have paying subscriptions…warning: doggerel follows.
SET support keeps the boat Upright, regular, and afloat. Just that US$1.15 per week Brings one all the nifty news, accurate (I hope) analysis, and info you seek!
Li-Yu, Mike, and Kathy are the stalwarts among the boat floaters. Hey, y’all rock! Thank you.
And (just mentioning a few), Joel M., Mike N., Blaine G.-Mc., Bev J., Kristen A., Marilyn F., Roberta B., Tom Z., Dimitris A., Cheryl D., Paige P., Vicki W., Tina C., Bob P., Jean C., Rebecca S., Bryan W. and a few score of others—your paid subscriptions fill the sails of this little vessel. Thank you!
Also, thanks to the many people who have free subscriptions.
A lot of the membership can be attributed to subscribers telling others about SET. Thank you! The numbers matter, so please invite others to join you.
Quasi ToC
Here is a list of the posts for the previous week. As of the time of this mailing, they are all still available for free to everyone. As this week progresses, they (except the newsletter) will go behind the paywall.
Special Education Today newsletter 4(12): What were the haps for the week beginning 9 September 2024?
Young adult outcomes after separated vs integrated special education: Are some young adults doing better than others? [paid subscribers]
Engaged Time: Lovitt's Lines: What musings did the superb special educator offer about engaged time in SET for September 1984?
Playing with your children: What's to be learned from treatments of this popular topic?
Happy birthday, Marty Kaufman!: Isn't it a good day to remember an important contributor to special education today?
Commentary
I’ve been having some pain in my wrist, Doctor Readers. It’s just a little soreness that can sudden become acute when I twist a top or grab onto something. The spot is just a little above the base of my thumb and on the back side of the wrist, close to where one’s wristwatch would be.
I’ve been avoiding using that hand-wrist-arm to carry things. I have put a stretchy support around it (one that has a thumb hole and velcro bands to make it fit snuggly). I humor myself by arguing (to myself, of course) that these efforts are helping—but I don’t really know they actually are helping. I’ve not done a particularly scientific comparison…I have no measures during “baseline.” Do you think, dear doctor, that I should add a regular dosage of ibuprofen or some other anti-inflammatory? Teehee.
These adaptations to my use of my left arm setting me shining about a host of things that we special educators do. I remembered helping a blind child to learn to put liquid into a container (e.g., a water cup). There were a couple of big tricks, like(a) getting the cup and the “pitcher” properly positioned before beginning to pour, (b) pouring slowly, and (c) stopping before making the receptacle overflow. Fortunately, this child had pretty good verbal skills, so we got away with a lot of explaining. One of the key techniques that we taught her was to grip the receptacle in such a way that she could put her index finger over the edge of it and down a little way into it; then she could pour slowly until she felt the liquid touch the tip of the finger…that was her Sd to stop the pouring. Of course, we prompted her to listen for changes in the sound of the liquid as she poured it…and we emphasized that. pouring very hot liquids with the hanging finger technique was a bad idea. (These days one can get fancy technologic devices that make noises and vibrate when the receptacle is full enough that one should stop pouring. Sigh.)
Then I remembered that in my behavior management class I used to devote 20-30 minutes every semester to discussing use of service animals by individuals with disabilities. Of course, I’d get around to taking about how the animals had to be taught skills (e.g., stopping at a curb, maneuvering around obstacles, prompting a human to duck under low-hanging branches) and how that training employed the same concepts we were studying for students learning behaviors (discriminations, reinforcement, etc.). Now, please understand that I think emotional support animals are pretty cool-fun-nice, but I’m talking about working animals…guide dogs or miniature horses. If you’re a reader who has experience in working with service animals, please send me a note.
Otherwise and in general, please let me know how it’s going. Send a note to me directly (my name and e-mail addresses are plastered on many walls around the intertubes). If you got this newsletter as a subscriber (free or paid), you can simply reply and—automagically—your reply will come to me.
Also, please remember the usual admonitions: Wear your seatbelts; take appropriate seasonal flu (and COVID-19) precautions (vaccinations, ventilation, hand-washing, masking when and where needed); and teach your children well.
—JohnL
SET Editor
Charlottesville
SET should not be confused with a product with a similar name that is published by the Council for Exceptional Children. SET predated CEC’s publication by decades.
Those hawks that stream to the right of the area in the photo pretty much fly right over the house of Jim Kauffman and Jeanmarie Badar, the people responsible for establishing the Badar-Kauffman Conference at Kent State University.
When the kettles are really large, the counter splits the group into a two-by-two grid, counts the birds in one quadrant, and then multiplies that number by four to get a count for the entire kettle. Because the kettles change (birds stream out at the top if the escalator) rapidly, fast accurate counting is important.
For the data collectors among SET’s readers, as far as I know there are no assessments of inter-counter agreement.
The number of gawkers will decrease, too; it’ll get down to three or four official counters and a handful of we “guests” or “visitors.”