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by Nicole Chiarello

Nicole Chiarello is working toward National Board Certification as an Early Childhood through Young Adulthood Exceptional Needs Specialist.

September 22, 2003

Well, summer vacation is officially over; school has started. Our principal sent us an e-mail stating that he wanted to talk to the five of us who are going through the board process about how the district can support us. The meeting was held the first day back to school. He told us that our district is supporting us by giving us four days off to work on our entries. The district also is willing to give us staff development hours for some work after school. We thought it would be best to take the same days off, if possible, since one of the things we need to do is read one another's papers. We also were told that the school bought a digital camcorder, which we can use to videotape our lessons. The new librarian in our school also offered to help tape the lessons. That was great news, because the videotaping was one of the biggest things I was worried about. Our librarian even offered to leave the camera set up on a tripod in our classrooms from time to time, so students would become used to seeing it around. Then, when it came time to videotape a lesson, the children would not be so focused on the camera. Next week, I will have to send home a permission slip to the parents asking them to allow me to videotape my students for my entries.

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Meet Nicole Chiarello

Nicole Chiarello received her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University at Buffalo, of the State University of New York, in May 1994 and her master's degree in special education, learning and behavior disorders from Buffalo State College in December 1996. For the remainder of the 1996-1997 academic year, Nicole worked as an inclusion teacher at Niagara-Wheatfield Senior High School in Sanborn, N.Y. For the past six years, she has taught a district-wide special education program for three-to-five students with emotional and behavioral concerns at Bradford Elementary School in Westerly, Rhode Island. Nicole was named Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year in 2000. She is currently serving on a district team focusing on social, emotional, and behavioral concerns in the classroom.

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