{"id":3514,"date":"2021-11-09T15:54:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T15:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3514"},"modified":"2025-02-11T12:40:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:40:53","slug":"expanding-teachers-abilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/09\/expanding-teachers-abilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding Teachers\u2019 Abilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3514_1bea6c-f8 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.kb-image3514_ad0396-79 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image3514_ad0396-79\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"384\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Dr.ToddHackett-Slimm-512x640-1-384x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-15957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Dr.ToddHackett-Slimm-512x640-1-384x480.jpg 384w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Dr.ToddHackett-Slimm-512x640-1-200x250.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Dr.ToddHackett-Slimm-512x640-1.jpg 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px\" \/><figcaption><em>Dr. Todd Hackett-Slimm<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Special education teachers are in demand nationwide.&nbsp;Over the past year, one local school district\u2019s collaboration with Wilmington University helped it fill this critical need with qualified staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn order to accommodate more learners with disabilities, the Colonial School District needed more teachers with a special education endorsement,\u201d says WilmU Assistant Professor&nbsp;Dr. Todd Hackett-Slimm, who chairs the College of Education\u2019s special education program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of conducting a wide-ranging search to hire experienced educators, the New Castle, Delaware-based school district looked inward and up the road to WilmU. With Dr. Hackett-Slimm\u2019s assistance, it developed an academic program that enabled 10 of its teachers to earn the certifications they\u2019d need to teach special education classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colonial\u2019s current special education specialists, several of whom had previously taught as&nbsp;WilmU adjuncts, served as instructors for the March 2020 to March 2021 coursework. Besides providing an on-site certification option, the WilmU-Colonial partnership allowed the teachers to study toward certification together in a customized curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs a cohort of teachers from the same district, they were able to share the unique learning characteristics of their district,\u201d says Dr. Hackett-Slimm. \u201cThey were able to share anecdotal stories and relate them to the course content, making it even more applicable to the needs of the district. Plus,&nbsp;the course instructors could teach specifically to the context of the school district. Colonial-specific components were integrated into the courses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WilmU\u2019s mission to expand working adults\u2019 skills has generated numerous educational partnerships with area school districts, businesses, and other organizations while benefiting their employees with career advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cColonial had approached me after they had heard about my work with the Appoquinimink School District, helping their teachers to obtain autism and severe intellectual disabilities certifications,\u201d says Dr. Hackett-Slimm. \u201cI\u2019ve also been meeting with the Milford School District on another autism\/severe intellectual disabilities certificate program.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2014David Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Special education teachers are in demand nationwide.&nbsp;Over the past year, one local school district\u2019s collaboration with Wilmington University helped it fill this critical need with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[78,626],"class_list":["post-3514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-college-of-education-liberal-arts","tag-magazine-fall-2021"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":78,"label":"College of Education &amp; Liberal Arts"},{"value":626,"label":"Magazine Fall 2021"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ExpandingTeachersAbilities-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":78,"name":"College of Education &amp; Liberal Arts","slug":"college-of-education-liberal-arts","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":635,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":90,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":626,"name":"Magazine Fall 2021","slug":"magazine-fall-2021","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1183,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15960,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3514\/revisions\/15960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}