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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 1, 2007 - 17 Educator lands grant to produce video By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Next September, some Futures students at White Oaks Secondary School's (WOSS) will head back to class -- in front of the camera, starring in a reality show of sorts. Jennifer Gunion, head of White Oaks Secondary School (WOSS) Special Education department, has received $2,000 to make a video to be used as a teaching resource across Canada. The Futures students who have mild intellectual disabilities, and specifically those in the Futures Supported Employment Training Co-Op Program, will be the stars and crew of the production, and they will have to apply for their jobs before landing them. The effort will be a hands on learning experience. The fruits of their labour will be a video that teachers across Canada can use in connection with issues of dealing with special needs students -- so the students' efforts will help other students. "My interest in special education developed because of my mother, who taught me that everyone has something special to contribute to society," said the 36-year-old Gunion of her mom Constance Gunion. With classes wrapped up for the summer, Gunion is now wading through the paperwork that will clear the way for the video project to get started when classes resume in September. "My interest in special education developed because of my mother, who taught me that everyone has something special to contribute to society." Jennifer Gunion Gunion is receiving the grant from Curriculum Services Canada's The Curriculum Foundation. The video will be a curriculum resource dubbed Visual Media Resource for Exceptional Secondary Students. It will aim to address students' special needs by focusing on their strengths. As it is being made, it will provide fundamentals for preparing students for a co-op work-term placement. The students involved in making the video will learn life skills such as developing a resume, learning to fill out a job application, understanding employees' rights, and demonstrating positive work habits. Once the video is done, the local students will have contributed to the education of other students. Teachers from across Canada will be able to download the video for free -- Gunion hopes it will be available by March 2008. More than 25 free, high-quality resources are available on The Curriculum Foundation's Teacher-Developed Resources page on its website, www.curriculum.org, and to date, more than 66,000 teachers have downloaded resources. Each year, The Curriculum Foundation awards grants to Canadian educators for unique and critically-needed curriculum resource proposals. The foundation is the charitable arm of Curriculum Services Canada, the PanCanadian standards agency for the accreditation of educational products and programs. The foundation is a charity that accepts donations used to provide teachers with the funding necessary to develop learning resources. Gunion began her career 21 years ago. She spent her first eight years working as a special educational assistant while working her way through her degree and then Masters in Education. Gunion has always worked in special education and after working at the Provincial Demonstration School, came to WOSS four years ago to head up the department. This September, she is taking on the position of heading up Special Education for Gary Allen High School, which focuses on alternative learning and though head- ing, etcetera," said Gunion. To Gunion, the true heroes in the scenario are the students, parents and her WOSS team colleagues who she is quick to credit -- Christina Annis, John Bartholomew, Lori-Jo Prescott, Michelle Vosu, Talat Chaudhry, Stacy Chandler, Leea Robinson, Ryan Luyk, and Janet Barton (of Community Living of Oakville's Passages program, which works with WOSS' Supported Employment Training Co-op program). Jennifer Gunion quartered in Georgetown, has sites in both Oakville and Burlington. Gunion, a 28-year Oakville resident, said she will be working out of the Burlington and Oakville sites and will definitely be at WOSS to oversee the video production. The $2,000 grant includes funds to assist with supply teachers and educational assistants to free up staff to facilitate the making of the video, which should begin in September and take about nine months to finish. "The idea being that students with disabilities are making a video about co-operative education/employment for students with disabilities. For example, interviewing skills, transit training, resume writ- TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GOVERNMENT GRANTS TO BOOST CHILD'S EDUCATION SAVINGS Saving early for your c becoming increasingly im expenses continue to ris tuition fees have increa 7 per cent since 1990. Fortunately there are se through a Registered E help families offset the ri "Even if families can't government funds earn i beneficiary is ready to a Peter Lewis, vice president, Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation. "Setting aside savings increases the probability of a child going on to higher education." RESPs qualify for the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), which adds 20 per cent of all contributions made to a maximum grant of $400 per year per child. Low-income families may also be eligible for an additional 10 or 20 per cent CESG on the first $500 contributed each year. The current CESG lifetime maximum remains $7,200 for all children regardless of family income. The 2007 federal budget includes proposed measures to provide more flexibility to families who save through RESPs, including eliminating the $4,000 annual RESP contribution limit and increasing the lifetime contribution limit to $50,000 from $42,000. The budget also proposes to increase the annual maximum contribution that qualifies for the 20 per cent CESG incentive to $2,500 from $2,000, increasing the yearly CESG maximum to $500, up from $400. Lower income families can benefit from the Canada Learning Bond (CLB), which provides a $500 bond for children who are born after 2003 and are eligible for the National Child Benefit (NCB) supplement ­ generally families with incomes under $35,000. These children will qualify for $100 CLB installments until age 15 in each year their family is entitled to the NCB supplement. A number of provincially based education bonds and tax credits are also available to help boost education savings. 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