Position: Special Education Teacher
District: School District of Washington
Ginny Gilbertsen, a Special Education Teacher at the School District of Washington in Missouri, has been using Rethink in her classroom for just over a year, and she and her paraprofessionals are loving it!
According to Ginny, there are so many ways in which Rethink has helped her, but the most valuable aspect to her instruction is the variety of materials and lesson plans. She says that when she is stuck writing a few goals, all she has to do was research on Rethink. Not only is she able to find goals, but the objectives help her pace her teaching. Ginny says this is especially helpful for her because she teaches grades K-6 and because of this, “The need to individualize instruction is great. It is difficult to be an expert in every area for every child but Rethink makes this a reality! I am able to plug in IEP goals, research and teach,” she says.
But, she adds, it isn’t just her who benefits from the platform, but also her paraprofessionals. One paraprofessional, in their first year, was struggling to come up with ideas to guide his student; but according to Ginny, “After watching videos that Rethink provided, not only did he have more ideas, but he felt more confident in his abilities.”
“Last year was my first year writing an IEP for a student in kindergarten. I researched the areas this student was weak in, found these in Rethink, along with goals and lessons! They even had benchmarks.” – Ginny Gilbertson
Ginny and her paraprofessionals are not only in agreement about the benefits of the program, but also about the benefits of the app. The RethinkEd app allows them to track data effectively and efficiently to ensure that their instruction is always data driven. Not to mention, Ginny adds, the fact that, “Carrying around clipboards with several sets of papers clipped to it is cumbersome and frustrating. Rethink solves that problem.”
Great Job, Ginny and keep up the good work! Congratulations on being this month’s Spotlight Teacher!
