The Wire

February's Digital Meet-Up will focus on adapting Mouse Squad for students with special needs.

Do you work with students who have special needs? Do you have questions about adapting Mouse Squad, or successes and best practices to share with the network? Then this meet-up is for you!

Check out the recording of this meet-up below, or view it on YouTube! You can also click here to see an online notepad with notes and resources from the discussion.

This Meet-Up will be led by Mary Bozzone, Mouse Squad Coordinator for the Gateway Academy Squad at P256Q in New York City. Along with a few of her students, Mary will share out some of the projects her students have worked on, and the best practices she has developed for using Mouse Squad curricula and projects in her work with students who have special needs.

Mary and her students have accomplished a lot during their years in Mouse Squad! Among other things, they have presented projects at the Emoti-Con! NYC Youth Digital Media and Technology Challenge (and won the prize for Most Innovative project there in 2012!), and you can check out their win for Mouse Squad of the Year 2011 here.

UPDATE: We will also be hearing from Erna Hernandez-Barenio, who has been the Mouse Squad Coordinator at P.S. 255Q for several years!

Details for the February 12th Mouse Squad Digital Meet-Up

• WHEN: The live meet-up will be held at 4pm EST on Wednesday, February 12th.
• HOW DO I JOIN?: This meet-up will be held over Google On-Air. Fill out the short registration form below, and you'll get an email shortly before the meet-up begins with a link to join via your Google+ account.
• WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A GOOGLE PLUS ACCOUNT? You can create one here, or you can watch the meet-up via live streaming on YouTube (you just won't be able to join the conversation). To watch the live stream, fill out the form below--you'll get an email shortly before the meet-up begins with a link to view.
• WHAT ELSE? If you can't join us during the meet-up you'll be able to watch a recording later on YouTube. This post will be updated with the link to the recording after it's over.

Remind me--what's a Mouse Squad Digital Meet-Up?

Starting in Fall 2013, Mouse Squad Digital Meet-Ups will be held most months during the school year. At each Meet-Up, you'll have the chance to hear a featured Mouse Squad Coordinator and their students talk about the work they're doing, how they run their Squad, and the best practices they've uncovered for tackling great projects at their site. Many meet-ups will also feature a focused discussion on a theme of general interest, either tied directly to Mouse Squad or related more generally to tech-ed, public education, digital media, etc.

For new Mouse Squad Coordinators, these meet-ups will be a great opportunity to hear from experienced Coordinators and begin to plan for your new Squad. For both new and experienced Coordinators, we hope that these meet-ups will be a forum for you to network with colleagues across the country, collect new project ideas, troubleshoot challenges in your Squad, and more.

Click here to see Wire posts that include recordings of past Meet-Ups.