If you have not yet completed the Return To Learning Decision, please do so.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Well, a great deal has happened over the past several months. As new information is coming up quickly, I will be updating the website as well as sending out emails. Below is the information from yesterday's email.

Dear Young Adults, Families and Caregivers,

I know that the last few weeks have brought more questions than answers with regards to returning to learning in either in-person or virtual. The links below will provide you with further information, including two documents and a video of Nic and I explaining our return to learn plan for Community Transition Campus, including CTC Mayfield, CTC Straight, CTC Community, and Project SEARCH.

CTC Return to Learn Video

CTC Return to Learn Slideshow

CTC Young Adult Learning Experience

Also, as stated in the video, we are sending out a mailing to all families with registration paperwork. Please complete and send back to us in the envelope provided.

As always, feel free to contact Nic or myself with any questions or concerns.

John

Thursday, April 9, 2020 4/9/2020

Wow, we have certainly had some crazy weather this week. I just saw the following on facebook and wanted to share. I have no idea who wrote this, but thought it was wonderful.

There are great things to be learned in this troubled time.

What if???

If they cancel the rest of the school year, students would miss 2.5 months of education. Many people are concerned about students falling behind because of this. Yes, they may fall behind when it comes to classroom education...

But what if...

What if instead of falling “behind", this group of kids are ADVANCED because of this?

What if they have more empathy, they enjoy family connection, they can be more creative and entertain themselves, they love to read, they love to express themselves in writing.

What if they enjoy the simple things, like their own backyard and sitting near a window in the quiet.

What if they notice the birds and the dates the different flowers emerge, and the calming renewal of a gentle rain shower?

What if this generation are the ones to learn to cook, organize their space, do their laundry, and keep a well run home?

What if they learn to stretch a dollar and to live with less?

What if they learn to plan shopping trips and meals at home.

What if they learn the value of eating together as a family and finding the good to share in the small delights of the everyday?

What if they are the ones to place great value on our teachers and educational professionals, librarians, public servants and the previously invisible essential support workers like truck drivers, grocers, cashiers, custodians, logistics, and health care workers and their supporting staff, just to name a few of the millions taking care of us right now while we are sheltered in place?

What if among these children, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a slower pace and a simpler life to truly learn what really matters in this life?

What if we all came together to teach the world?

What if everyone learned at their own pace and wasn’t compared to other students?

What if they are AHEAD?

Monday, April 6, 2020 4/6/2020

If you do nothing else today, spend 5 1/2 minutes watching this video. I was looking around in CTC First Place teacher, Amy Ham's Google Classroom and found this. Very powerful and thought provoking for all of us. Here is a set of questions to reflect upon.

Friday, April 2, 2020 4/3/2020

I just sent the following out to all of the email addresses that I have on file for CTC. If you did not receive it, please send me your email address.

Dear CTC Young Adults, Families, and Stakeholders,

I hope that this email finds you safe and healthy. At CTC, we are going into overdrive to begin distance learning. Many of you have already heard from your young adult’s teachers, and if you haven’t, you will shortly.

We have sent out several communications via School Messenger, but we know that they have not reached everyone. I am trying this a different way, so hopefully I can reach every email contact that we have on file.

I am asking a few things from you, one to work with us to keep your young adult as connected as possible. I have sat in on several Google Meet sessions, and it is so wonderful to see the smiles and excitement that we are missing right now with the Governor’s Stay Safe, Stay at Home order. To that end, I know that not everyone has access to technology and the internet. If you have not already, please complete this CTC Internet Connectivity Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MqQMDdQDZ5giMxYvQiSkk-LUr17smk5WTaavRnUdiik/edit

We are working to get technology and access into the hands of our young adults so that we can get as many of our young adults ready for Distance Learning as possible. Based on the survey results, I will be reaching out to some of you individually.

While we are officially on spring break, our communications will be limited, but you can always access information online at both the Kent ISD website: https://www.kentisd.org/center-programs/family-resources/ and our CTC website: https://sites.google.com/view/community-transition-campus/home.

You can expect to hear from your young adult’s teacher or ISS staff the week of April 13, and we will be communicating about and starting our Distance Learning Plan shortly after that.

During this time, we are really focusing on Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Common Sense, and Compassion to make this as beneficial as possible given the circumstances. I know that there are many questions and we are working to answer those. We are working on accessibility. We are already discussing alternate plans for graduation. We have been completing annual IEP meetings via phone and Google Meet. While what we are doing may not be perfect, we are learning every day, and making changes. We are truly living what we try to teach our young adults every day. Keep trying; never give up.

Please feel free to reach out to your young adult’s teachers, myself, or Assistant Administrator Nic Bond, with any questions, concerns, or needs.

Stay safe and healthy,

John

Thursday, April 2, 2020 4/2/2020

By now, it is likely that you have heard that schools are closed for the remainder of the year in Michigan. Over the next few days, you will be getting School Messenger emails and texts, as well as emails from Nic and I. Tomorrow marks the start of Spring Break, during this time and April 14 & 15, CTC staff will be preparing to launch distance learning. This will look different for each of our young adults. It will likely be a mix of online, phone calls, and some work packets. Many of you have completed the survey. Early next week, I will reach out via email to those who have not responded, as well as to those who have limited access to internet or devices. Our goal is to make this time as meaningful, valuable, and relevant for as many of our young adults as possible. Teachers and staff are already doing a wonderful job staying in contact with their young adults. We will be ramping that up even more.

Today also marks World Autism Awareness Day. At CTC, nearly a third of our program are young adults with Autism. Here are some ways to support Autism awareness and acceptance.

Here is an arts & crafts activity that is good for fine motor skills as well as creating a sensory tool, a fidget spinner.

Stay safe and healthy this spring break, and I will continue to post, though it may not be daily. I will be in the school buildings much of next week, working to roll out distance learning.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020 4/1/2020

I was able to sit in on Todd's class meet up today. It was AWESOME! Please be on the lookout from emails from your young adult's teacher for these meet ups. Not all classrooms have set them up yet, but will be soon. I got to see the smiles on the faces of nine young adults and five staff that I miss seeing everyday. Truly, it is as easy as clicking a link or calling in to a phone number, depending on your access.

It looks like the Governor will be giving further information on the school shutdown tomorrow rather than today.

If you are in need of food, helpkent.org has an interactive map to show the emergency food access sites throughout Kent County.

Please, reach out to me if there is anything we can do to help, or if you have pictures or stories of things that you are doing at home. (johnkleff@kentisd.org)

Stay safe and Stay healthy.

Monday, March 30, 2020 3/30/2020

I hope this new week finds everyone safe and supplied. I have added a new page to the site for "Younger Years" photos. Please, send me photos of your son's and daughter's younger years. I am posting any and all staff and young adult photos of our childhood years. Please send them to johnkleff@kentisd.org.

If you haven't already, please complete the internet access survey.

Here is a link to games and activities from the US Mint. For many of our young adults (and us staff too), practicing money skills is a big deal.

Thursday, March 26, 2020 3/26/2020

Good morning,

Yesterday afternoon, some of you received a message from School Messenger, unfortunately some did not, and we are working through that, because your email is in the system. In that email was a link to an internet access survey. We are asking all of our families about how young adults access the internet during this shutdown to help us better provide distance learning activities and meet our young adults needs as best we can. Please take a few moments to complete the brief survey.

Starting to hear from more of our families and community partners. Will is showing some awesome form, and I can tell by the laptop, that is the Fit Body Boot Camp workout, because that is the workout I have been doing. I am not nailing the planks like Will though.

Ruby and Patty, it looks like Sarah Care is missing you guys as much as you are missing them.

This is time where things seem so much beyond our control, this is a cool video of a Virtual Cattle Drive. What amazed me most is how calm, quiet, and peaceful it was.

Remember, today is the food distribution that I posted about yesterday. Stay safe and healthy!

Thursday, March 19, 2020 3/19/2020

Good morning,

Despite what is going on in the world around us, we are working to reach all of our young adults. Teachers are getting creative in meeting their YA's needs. Tomorrow morning we will be having a virtual teacher meeting as well. Trying to sort through all of the "stuff" out there to find resources that may be helpful. Many of our young adults at CTC have difficulty communicating their needs. Many use AAC, which is Augmentative and Alternative Communication, which is pretty much anything outside of talking; iPad, pictures, signs, etc. I found this Boardmaker Set geared towards the COVID-19 crisis, which may be helpful for some of our young adults to say what they are feeling right now. There is also a social story explaining why we are staying home.

One positive change that I have implemented is increasing my exercise. Trust me, not my idea, but I am doing online exercise classes with my wife for thirty minutes. RIght now, my thighs burn. There are many ways to get in exercise and still keep socially distant. My dog is loving all of the extra walks. Some classrooms use GoNoodle for a quick exercise and sensory break during the day. I have even been known to join in when I hear it playing.

It has also been great hearing from parents. One has stated that their young adult has been enjoying ABCMouse. I signed CTC up for free access to that and a couple of other sites. Click here for the login code for ABCMouse, Adventure Academy, and ReadingIQ.

Families, feel free to email me pictures of your young adults learning at home, whether it is working on a website, a worksheet, cooking, helping with chores, etc. I'd like to make this as "interactive" as possible.

Make a great day,

John

Wednesday, March 18, 2020 3/18/2020

Good Morning CTC family,

Above, I have linked to the Kent ISD COVID-19 Resources page. This is updated regularly, and a good deal of the information is provided in English and Spanish. Right now, there is so much information out there, and I want to keep this to things relevant for our young adults.

Besides being a principal, one thing that I am struggling with right now is how to keep my own kids (11 and 13) informed but not overwhelmed. This link is a great resource from the National Association of School Psychologists about talking to your child about the coronavirus. This information is in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and several other languages.

In the coming days, we hope to have some videos on here as well as links to online resources. One that we've been watching at my house are the San Diego Zoo webcams. I could spend hours watching the penguins.

A site that is watched daily in many of our classrooms is CNN 10. Carl Azuz is a familiar face for many of our young adults, and would be a good addition to helping keep a bit of the "normal" routine during this time.

To help keep me in my own routine, I will be updating this site daily. While today has a lot of the "business stuff" of what we are doing, I am planning to have at least two "things to do" each day. I have put a request out to CTC staff to send things to me, but also, if parents, students, caregivers, etc. have some great links, send them my way and I will try to work them in. johnkleff@kentisd.org

Until tomorrow,

John

March 17, 2020

Dear Students, Families, and Caregivers,

I hope this message finds you well. It has been a whirlwind the past few days and information keeps changing as fast as it goes out. We are setting up this website to make it easy to get information into the hands of our stakeholders as quickly as possible.

Hopefully all of you have been in contact with your young adult's teacher. RIght now, some of the things that we are working on:

• Holding IEPs as scheduled, either via phone or virtually

• Making sure that our families have access to necessities during this shut down.

To that end, here is a link to the school lunch sites

Please feel free to contact Nic or I at any time via email or via phone, 8-3.

johnkleff@kentisd.org 410-4860

nicbond@kentisd.org 410-4420

Stay healthy and safe,

John