Atkinson Elementary
Parent Teacher Organization
North Andover Parent Advisory Council (NAPAC)
The North Andover Parent Advisory Council (NAPAC) is a volunteer organization of parents with children on IEP and 504 plans.
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Understanding our Differences
NAPAC will be debuting Understanding Our Differences (UOD) in Grades 3-5 in all five elementary schools starting in October. UOD is a nationally recognized, educational program that teaches elementary school children to develop understanding and respect for fellow students and others with physical, sensory or developmental disabilities. UOD is an interactive disability awareness curriculum that North Andover Elementary Schools teach to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.
Please see the NAPAC website for more details about the program: http://northandoverpac.com/index.php/understanding-our-differences/
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Video of Autism Session pilotted at Franklin School in 2015
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Volunteering for Understanding Our Differences
There are two ways to volunteer:
1) Help coordinate speakers for a program session. We are looking for high school/college students and adults with disabilities related to the UOD programs: hearing and visual impairments, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, autism, food allergies, intellectual disabilities to be speakers at our sessions. Please contact NAPAC at Northandoverpac@gmail.com if you know someone who can be a speaker.
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2) Help Facilitate a session at Atkinson. Sessions are on a particular disability and will be run approximately 2-2.5 hours, starting at 8:45am at the Atkinson School. Each session includes an Introductory Video, Guest Speakers and ~3 activities that the kids will do to help them understand more about what life is like with the particular disability. After the activities there is a sharing session to discuss what was learned through the activity. Please contact atkinsonptoboard@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering for one of these sessions OR sign up online here. Please note, you are welcome to volunteer for one session or multiple sessions. You can do all sessions at one school or you could do all the sessions on one particular disability across all schools. Whatever you chose - thank you for volunteering your time to this important learning topic!
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