Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Jeff Wensing 0:15
This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Welcome back to Public Education Matters. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the nearly 120,000 public school educators OEA represents around the state. Those educators truly are amazing professionals. They work together as a whole team to meet students' needs. They think outside the box and come up with some really creative, innovative solutions to every challenge they face, and they never give up. They want what's best for their students. They believe in their potential, and they work incredibly hard every single day to help every student succeed, no exceptions. I want you to listen right now to a really good example of that dedication in action.

Video Recording 1:16
Go all the way down, good, come up, good and go back down. Good, go, go, go, good. Tip, tip, tip, tip, tip, and go all the way up. Way to go, kiddo.

Katie Olmsted 1:34
That was a short clip from a video of an Anthony Wayne Local School District student writing his own name, something he was able to do for the first time thanks to a new assistive device. The device was invented and 3d printed just for him by his dedicated educators, an Anthony Wayne Education Association member and a member of the teachers association of Lucas County Schools, the local for the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie, West Ohio employees. We were able to sit down with both of them late last year to learn more about how they were able to design and create this device for their student, and about the opportunities that have opened up for this student now because of their ongoing work.

Maddy Schnabel 2:26
Hi, my name is Maddy Schnabel, and I'm an occupational therapist, and I'm contracted out into Anthony Wayne Local Schools.

Elena North 2:33
Hi, my name is Elena North, and I'm an intervention specialist at Monclova Primary.

Katie Olmsted 2:38
And both of you worked together to create this really neat assistive device for one of your students. What can you tell me about this item? And I know that it's an audio only podcast, so it's really hard to describe, but what can you tell me?

Maddy Schnabel 2:54
So we 3d printed a writing device due to the student's motor limitations. So imagine that we took, you know, the base of a car, almost built up some sides, and put a put a ball at the end of it to be able to support his palm and put a hole through that so that we could fit a crayon through it. And, you know, he was able to drive it around. And from there, he was able to start coloring. And from there, it just kind of this guy that was the little limit. We've adjusted it, you know, probably about five times to continue to tweak it and personalize it and individualize it to him. But it's completely 3d printed.

Katie Olmsted 3:34
Where did the idea for this come from?

Maddy Schnabel 3:36
This is Maddy. We just kind of imagined it. We knew that we wanted him to be able to participate in things that his peers were doing in the gen ed classroom, and we wanted to make sure that we were meeting him where he was at. And from that point, you know, we went online and played with some online softwares like Tinkercad to be able to design something that we felt like would meet the needs. Of course, the first prototype was not at all, you know, the most successful of all of them, but it gave us a starting point, and from there, we've been able to print multiple other models to be able to adapt and change, to be able to better meet his needs.

Elena North 4:16
This is Elena. But before, I think we got to that 3d printing aspect, we were trying to just pull different pieces of items we had in the classroom. Just once we saw he had potential to move his wrist in certain ways. And then once we realized he had that ability to activate a communication switch, then that's when, after trialing the different pieces of random items in the classroom that we can find. Maddy then explored 3d printing. And at the same time, we're also researching other adaptive equipment that was already out there, and we ran into the problem of a lot of the adaptive equipment was really expensive, so we didn't necessarily have the funds to just go and purchase that. But then at the same time, there wasn't a specific device already created that could address all the needs that the student needed. So we liked bits and pieces from multiple different devices, but in an ideal world, we would like to take all those bits and pieces and put them together. So Maddy was then able to go the 3d printing route.

Katie Olmsted 5:18
What are this student's needs? For his privacy. We're not identifying him by his full name, nor are we talking about his diagnosis. But what, what are some of the challenges he's facing, and what are some of his abilities that you're able to work with when creating an adaptive device like this?

Maddy Schnabel 5:35
So this is Maddy. So Cy, our student is wheelchair bound, and he is able to use a power wheelchair with head controls. He does have medical limitations, and he has a lot of equipment that travels with him, but a lot of the areas of strength that he has, in comparison to, you know, areas that may hold him back, is that he has a lot of range of motion and mobility at his shoulder to be able to control things. And when I say a lot, I mean that's relative, and you know, where he's at currently. So we've been able to capitalize on the movement that he does have with, you know, working in an anti gravity, anti gravity field, with the use of, you know, the the balls or different rolling devices that we've been able to use under the writing device to make it even easier for him, and we've noticed that since doing that, we've seen even more strength and range of motion develop, which was our original goal anyway. So it's been great to see him continue to grow with using the device.

Katie Olmsted 6:40
And this really marks continued growth for this student. Anyway, my understanding is, when you first started working with him, he was not in a public school setting, he was homebound, and he's just continued to grow and thrive in this space. Is that right?

Elena North 6:55
Yeah. So when I first started working with Cy, I would go into his home and work with him there, and slowly, over the years, we've progressed. And now he attends public school five days a week for several hours. He's so intelligent. You look at you can tell he just wants to communicate with you. He wants to tell you everything he's thinking. And the more that he's been in school, there's been exposure with peers, but then also more adults that he's around and engaging with him. And his growth has shown not only physically, but also communication wise and wanting to engage in different activities and participating with peers. So there's so many areas of growth that he's been able to show us, and this writing device is also just another way that it's helping him develop in more ways than just that writing aspect.

Katie Olmsted 7:48
What was it like for him to see his peers, coloring and writing and all of those things that he wants to do but he didn't have the tool to do it?

Elena North 7:57
Yeah, I mean, I can only speak from my, I guess observation of Cy, rather than speaking for him. This is Elena, so I can only speak for my observation. And at first you could tell it was a piece of equipment that was put in front of him. And this child has probably seen hundreds of different equipment in all types of varieties. But then once he was able then to realize he could create his own artwork. He did show a sense of pride. And he does when you can tell when Cy's excited. He wiggles his shoulders and kind of bobs his head back and forth. And so, you know, we would positively praise him like, wow, Cy, look at what you did. And then he would wiggle for himself and start head bobbing. So he would show in that way that he was excited, and then when his peers started acknowledging the work that he was completing alongside of them, he would wiggle even more, or he would be requesting different colors of markers or crayons to use. So his engagement has definitely increased in time, for sure.

Maddy Schnabel 9:00
And this is Maddy. And I would also say that, like something as simple as after he creates something, asking him, like, do you want to take this home? Do you want this to come home with you? And he would always wiggle, and, you know, he was always quick to respond. So I feel like that also kind of shows that level of pride, like Elena was talking about, that he gets to take something home with him, when, before, you know that wasn't a thing. He wasn't taking anything home from school, because at that point, you know, what he was creating was not necessarily as meaningful for him. So him being able to create his own artwork, I think also, you know, to take home and share is a great thing that came from it too.

Katie Olmsted 9:35
It's got to be very meaningful for you as educators too, to see this for Cy and with Cy.

Maddy Schnabel 9:44
Oh, well, this is Maddy, and it is 100% the most rewarding thing to be able to experience this with him, because obviously we're learning along the way, also we're changing and adapting to be able to challenge him and continue to meet his needs. But I can tell you when Elena sent me a Google meet invite to be able to try out our most recent prototype, and we got to see him write his name for the first time. I had like literal tears in my eyes, because it was just such a proud moment of like you could tell he had, he has the knowledge. He knew how to write the letters, he knew how to spell his name. He knew all of that, he just needed the outlet to be able to show us. So I feel like we unlocked a floodgate of now, a lot of opportunity and information that's up there just has a new way of coming out. So I'm really excited to see where it continues to go for him. Of course, it's great to share this with you know, anyone that listens to the podcast and any other formats that OEA decides to disperse this information, that's amazing, but ultimately, my my bucket was filled when I got to see that. That's what was most meaningful from this whole experience.

Elena North 10:53
This is Elena. I mean, I can agree with everything Maddy said. In my classroom, we talk a lot about small wins and celebrating those small wins, but seeing Cy be able to complete activities with his peers and then show a sense of pride that was a huge win, and seeing that he wants to continue to do that, he shocks us every day with something else that he's achieving. And it's I mean, it makes me so happy knowing that I get to come to work every day help make an impact in this kid's life, to help set them up for whatever's next. And seeing Cy achieve all of these little goals is just reiterating that there's more to come for Cy.

Katie Olmsted 11:34
And really that's the point of this assistive device in the first place, is unlocking his potential and allowing him to have skills to succeed in life. What do you hope he does with this?

Maddy Schnabel 11:47
This is Maddy, and I feel like I don't know exactly what I hope for. I just hope that it continues to build. You know, I don't, I don't know where the ceiling is, especially for, you know, Elena has mentioned a lot of times that for a lot of these kids, they're told no, or they're they're told that there's things that they aren't they aren't going to be able to do, or like, thinking back couple years ago, even for Cy, someone thinking that he wouldn't be able to hold a writing device or be able to color on a piece of paper or do any of those things, he's been told no for so long. So I don't ever want to try to limit on what I hope would be, because I think that the the opportunities are endless. You know, being able to think creatively and problem solve things. It's not a matter of if something's going to get done. It's how are we going to support this student to be able to do it if they want to.

Elena North 12:38
This is Elena. At Anthony Wayne, we talk a lot about hoping to set our kids up to be future ready, and I think this is just a step in the right direction. I just like Maddy said, I can't set you know what I hope to come out of it. Because I hope whatever Cy is trying to achieve, he's able to do that. But I think this is one way to set him up to be future ready. It's helping him gain independence, to hopefully sign a document one day, to write his name on papers, to help fill out forms that are personal to him. So I hope it's just a step to give him a life skill, to be future ready, and then anything else he chooses to achieve after that.

Katie Olmsted 13:17
I want to go back to a couple things you both have actually touched on already, the fact that your students are told no a lot, and I know educators are told no a lot, and I know resources are sometimes hard to come by, sometimes very thin. Did it feel like knowing what you were up against in terms of the cost of assistive devices that it felt like a no to start with, and how do we get past that?

Maddy Schnabel 13:43
Well, this is Maddy speaking from my experience, I primarily work over at Waterville Primary, which is another elementary building here in the Anthony Wayne Local School District. And we are very fortunate that our principal, Jamie Hollinger, is very efficient and is a wonderful grant writer, and she has written multiple grants to be able to provide lots of different programming for students at Waterville and across the district, to be able to benefit from and this is a wonderful example of that. So she had previously written a grant that was able to secure these 3d printers and the filament that's required. So I'm fortunate that that was that initial thought didn't come to me because I knew that I had the support of those resources in our building. And, of course, working in public education, you know, we are limited in a lot of our budgeting and a lot of our resources, so having that as an avenue kind of immediately was really helpful. Because, you know, as we're looking at assistive devices, we can take those pieces, like Elena said, where we see that we like this part of this assistive device, but we want to apply this concept to it and manipulate it in this way, and then we want to individualize it to Cy. So I think that having access to a 3d printer right away made that a lot easier for us to be able to, you know, hit the ground running, and be able to start trialing different things.

Katie Olmsted 15:07
What version of this invention are we on at this point?

Maddy Schnabel 15:13
This is Maddy. I believe we're on about five or six. With each one we've made different modification. So, you know, the first device was extremely simple, like I mentioned, and it was only able to hold a crayon, you know. And then the next model, we tweaked it a little bit more to, you know, more custom fit it to size forearm. And then, you know, the next model, we added some different wheels to it. We increased the base of support so that it didn't tip over as often. We increased the sides so that his arm didn't spill out. And then, most recently, we've actually changed it because we wanted him to be able to not only use a crayon, but use a colored pencil, a marker, a dry erase marker, a paint brush, any of those materials that he's exposed to in the academic environment. So it's actually something that goes on the front that you would imagine that other students are seeing is at the top of their desk. So, you know, a silicone pencil holder that holds their pencil and, you know, doesn't roll on the floor. And I was able to gain access to one of those, and we secured it to the front, so now he can use any of those writing devices fit in that, fit inside that. So it's certainly adapted many times.

Elena North 16:32
And we're still making changes. Sorry, this is Elena, but we're still making changes as we go. It's a lot of trial and error. So once you know, they 3d printed at Waterville, and they bring it over. Then we're trialing it with Cy and seeing, you know what's working, what's not working. How can we better it to the next level to help him? We're constantly finding things to keep improving and growing with Cy, as he does.

Maddy Schnabel 16:58
And this is Maddie, it that Elena just touched on. Of course, this being, you know, 3d printed over at Waterville. I work with a teacher over there at third grade, teacher Abby Foltz, and I feel like it also brings a really awesome element to this project, because, as Abby and I are working together on, you know, tweaking the supports, or any of the things that we're trying to, you know, make this print successful. All of the students in our classroom are watching us, you know, collaborate. They're watching it print on the the 3d printer, and they're asking questions about, like, What is this for? What is this going to do? So students at Waterville who have never met Cy are exposed to this, and they're learning, you know, a sense of empathy. They're learning about inclusion. They're learning about all of these problem solving techniques that we as educators are modeling to be able to showcase that as a process that not only are students using these resources to benefit from, you know, different steam technology approaches, but also we as educators are, you know, in the field right there with them. We're learning how to use these resources, and we're using them to better our students outcomes, too. I think that's a really awesome kind of sidebar, positive impact from this project.

Elena North 18:16
This is Elena, and then I mean tagging on to that once the Waterville crew is able then to send it over, and we're using it with Cy. He's been able to take it in his general education classroom, and all of his peers are able to see the product that the Waterville crew has been building, and watching him use it to the next level, and seeing how it's improving along as he is. And they get just excited to see Cy has a new device today, and what he's going to do with it, so.

Katie Olmsted 18:44
Why is it so important to have these opportunities for Cy to be doing these activities right alongside his Gen Ed peers, and to have them doing these activities alongside him with this assistive device making some of that possible?

Elena North 19:00
This is Elena. I think part of it is just that whole piece, the inclusion piece, where just because Cy may look different doesn't mean that he can't do what his peers are doing. It might look different, but at the end of the day, they're both creating a project, whether it's an art class or writing a book report and things like that. So just because somebody may look different or complete things in a different way doesn't make it wrong. It's still important, and the approach may be different, but the end product is still going to be there no matter what route they're taking. And I think it shows that empathy piece that Maddy touched on as it may be different and it may be hard, but he's finding ways to achieve it, and his peers are finding ways to support him into completing what they are as well.

Katie Olmsted 19:53
Do you think there are other students in your school or anywhere else that could benefit from this device?

Maddy Schnabel 20:00
This is Maddy, and I would certainly say that this device specifically is custom for side for the concept of like, we've recognized the size of his forearm. We recognize all of those elements. But the concept could certainly benefit other students, most certainly, and I think within our district, we're exploring other students that may or may not benefit from a similar level idea, and just kind of working together to problem solve on how we can take this concept and apply it in a little bit of a different way, so that we're, you know, continuing to broaden other students horizons as well. I think this just kind of opened the door to be able to think about things in a different way and use the resources that we have access to with 3d printing, to be able to kind of mitigate some of those budget limitations that we may have, you know, thinking about if we were to buy some high tech level assistive device, you know, that could be hundreds or 1000s of dollars when we think at think about the fact that we were fortunate to have a grant to pay for this, and be able to have that support from not only, you know, like I mentioned, Dr. Hollinger, but also the WPA, our parent association, they paired together to be able to write that grant. You know, having that buy in from our local community, I think, just really speaks volumes on, like Elena said, that level of inclusion that everyone's hoping for. You know, we want to make sure that we're continuing to expand and to support lots of students.

Katie Olmsted 21:28
And lots of students in Anthony Wayne do have different kinds of supports. Can you talk to me a little bit about some of the other programs and opportunities for students in Anthony Wayne schools?

Elena North 21:37
This is Elena just I mean, I can speak on what's in my classroom is we run weekly social groups, and the social groups focus and goal is to help set up functional life skills for these kids. And so one way we do that is we run a snack cart with our staff so our we have an order form that they send out to the staff members. They send their orders back. And then each week the kids are reading the orders, packing it, delivering it to the teachers, collecting money. So they're learning those types of skills. And then we take the money that they have then raised so far and use it towards community outings. So then they're getting out into the community there, such as going to Kroger and learning how to buy groceries, or going to a Walleye game and learning how to buy spirit wear and learning how to order food at a concession stand and then sit and enjoy the game, you know, socially with their peers, but then also with appropriate behavior. So we're learning so many life skills in multiple different ways. Every kid's track might be different in school, we talked about that future ready piece. Some kids might be college. Some kids might be a tech school. Some it might be work trades. It does. It's all going to look different for each kid. So we're just trying to create opportunities now to help set them up for success, for whatever is to come.

Katie Olmsted 23:02
Well, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and for your dedication to 3d printing those opportunities for this student and overcoming the challenges in that, thank you.

Elena North 23:15
Thank you for having us.

Maddy Schnabel 23:17
Yeah, thank you.

Katie Olmsted 23:18
If you're interested in creating assistive devices for your students, Maddy and Elena are happy to share what they've learned along the way so far. There's an email address in the show notes for this episode, for anyone who wants to contact Maddy and Elena to pick their brains about the process. My email address is also in the show notes, and I would love to hear from you with your feedback on the podcast or ideas for future episodes next week on the podcast, we're diving into the difference IDEA has made in the 50 years since that federal law took effect. Remember, that's the law that guarantees students with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate education. We're getting a first person perspective from an educator who was working in Ohio, both before and after students with disabilities were welcomed into our public schools, and we're sharing resources to support all Ohio educators who work with students with special needs now, and really that's just about every OEA member in one way or another. You don't want to miss this discussion or any other conversation we're having this season with the people who are shaping our public education landscape every day, because in Ohio, public education matters.

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