Deena Melendez Meli
Dracut,MA
Summary
- Special Education Administrator, All Levels
- Massachusetts Moderate Special Needs Teacher, PreK-9
- Massachusetts Elementary Teacher, 1-6
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Evaluation Team Chairperson
Lowell Public Schools
08.2011 - Current
- Review documents related to the Special Education pre-referral process
- Coordinate and chair the
- Evaluation Team’s approach in the complete study of students
- Follow and ensure IDEA, and O.C.R
- Compliance regulations related to parent and student rights; ensuring timelines are adhered to and upheld
- Encourage involvement of parents in the evaluation process through written and verbal communications
- Involve and prepare Team members in developing Individual Educational Programs, which reflect diagnoses and prescriptions of comprehensive Team member evaluations/assessments
- Maintain complete and cumulative individual records, educational plans and reports on all students receiving Special Education services
- Conduct all necessary and prescribed conferences with parents, teachers, administrators, consultants, and related outside agency personnel
- Facilitate planning for the integration of students into less restrictive environments
- Work collaboratively and cooperatively with
- Special Education Administration and School Administrative Staff regarding student case processing
- Work constructively with others in identifying and solving problems related to all aspects of the curriculum
- Review and monitor all annual review Team meetings and generated Individual Education
- Programs from a staff of 20 Special Education teachers and related service providers
- Prepare for and participate in Bureau of Special Education mediation
- Participate in ongoing training regarding mandated
- Dyslexia screening and best practices for literacy instruction
- Participate in and implement traininnhs related to the New IEP Improvement Project.
English Language Learners Lead Teacher
Lowell Public Schools
02.2004 - 06.2011
- Design and implement district-wide Sheltered Instruction Observational Protocol (SIOP) workshops
- Facilitate the understanding and implementation of the Massachusetts English Language Proficiency
- Benchmarks and Outcomes (ELPBO)
- Conduct monthly professional development on topics surrounding sheltered instruction using the TeachFirst model of Professional Learning Communities
- Organize and administer all state mandated testing/assessments for English Language Learners including the MELA-O
- Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment (MEPA), and the IDEA Proficiency Test (IPT)
- Assist teachers in planning, creating and implementing sheltered instructional strategies in a PreK-4 setting
- Member of Language Assistance Team
- Maintain extensive databases in conjunction with Aspen.
Special Education Teacher
Lowell Public Schools
09.1998 - 06.2011
- Design and implement daily curricula related to English Language Arts, Mathematics, and History/Social
- Sciences based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
- Modify Silver Burdette Ginn and Scott
- Forseman reading series as well as Math Investigations to meet the needs of students with diverse learning styles including those individuals with English as a Second Language needs
- Develop
- Individualized Educational Programs (IEP) and quarterly progress reports using the EasyIEP internet database
- Chair annual IEP review meetings
- Engage in both TEAM and Teacher Assistance Team meetings
- Design and implement language arts units and lesson plans based on Project Read (“Phonology” and “Framing Your Thoughts”), Wilson Reading System levels 1& 2A, Wilson Fundations and Edmark Reading Program
- Conduct small strategic reading intervention groups using leveled readers
- Design and implement individual behavior modification plans
- Conduct both formative and summative assessments including the Woodcock-Johnson III and Woodcock-Johnson Revised
- Woodcock-Munoz, KeyMath, Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests II and III (WIAT), the
- Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP-2), The Learning Accomplishment
- Profile-Diagnostic Edition (LAP-D) and The Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System.
Adjunct Faculty, Lowell Teacher Academy Instructor
Fitchburg State College
08.2006 - 04.2008
- Designed and implemented LTA Special Education first year course syllabus based on the Principals and
- Standards of Effective Teaching, serving all district wide newly hired special education teachers; approved by Fitchburg State College
- Organized and conducted training for teachers in special education on policies, procedures, and fulfillment of professional responsibilities
- Assessed the teacher’s knowledge of effective planning and assessment, effective instruction, promotion of high expectations and equity
- Reviewed and assessed lesson plans, classroom management plans, and Individualized
- Education Programs
- Delivered city-wide professional development on Woodcock-Johnson
- Psycho-Educational Battery-III and Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests-II/III.
Moderate Special Needs Teacher
Beverly School for the Deaf
09.1997 - 06.1998
- Designed and implemented daily curricula embedded within language-based instruction for functional reading, math, science, social studies, health, activities of daily living, speech, language and audition classes
- Created and adapted units for students with Severe Language Impairments, Aphasia, Apraxia
- Down's Syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, legal blindness and deafness at various academic levels, ages 11-13
- Conducted both formal and informal academic assessments including the Brigance
- Inventory of Basic Skills, Inventory of Early Development and teacher created vocational reading inventories
- Designed and implemented individual behavior modification plans
- Developed Individualized
- Educational Programs and quarterly progress reports
- Created augmentative and alternative communication materials
- Delivered academic instruction in Signed Exact English II.
Education
Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies - Curriculum Design/Special Education
Fitchburg State College
Fitchburg, MA05.2003
Master of Science - Moderate Special Needs/Elementary Education
Wheelock College
Boston, MA08.1997
Bachelor of Science - Communication Disorders
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH05.1994
Timeline
Evaluation Team Chairperson
Lowell Public Schools
08.2011 - Current
Adjunct Faculty, Lowell Teacher Academy Instructor
Fitchburg State College
08.2006 - 04.2008
English Language Learners Lead Teacher
Lowell Public Schools
02.2004 - 06.2011
Special Education Teacher
Lowell Public Schools
09.1998 - 06.2011
Moderate Special Needs Teacher
Beverly School for the Deaf
09.1997 - 06.1998
Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies - Curriculum Design/Special Education
Fitchburg State College
Master of Science - Moderate Special Needs/Elementary Education
Wheelock College
Bachelor of Science - Communication Disorders
University of New Hampshire
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