In appreciation of our customer’s support and confidence throughout the year Benchmark will be gladly making a donation to the Uhlich Academy and High School's Tree of Knowledge Foundation. This is our second donation to Uhlich. Please find more information below about the important work this organization does in our community. Thank you, and Happy Holidays!
Uhlich Academy partners with Benchmark Imaging & Display
Uhlich Academy is a private therapeutic day school for students from kindergarten through eighth grade and is part of the UCAN network of youth and family programs. UCAN’s network serves over 10,000 Chicago children and youth who have suffered the trauma of abuse and neglect. The Uhlich Academy and High School is located in Chicago’s Humboldt Park community. Students attending Uhlich are placed there by the Chicago Public School system. Each has been designated as a special education student with an emotional disturbance as a primary disability. Their placement is part of their “Individualized Education Plan”.
Emotional disturbance is one of twelve disability categories specified under IDEA and is defined as follows : a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to such a marked degree that it adversely affects a child’s educational performance
- An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors
- An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers
- Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances
- A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems
Our goal at the Academy is to strengthen students’ academic and behavioral skills so they may rejoin their peers at their neighborhood Chicago Public School in the future. So in addition to teaching the necessary academic skills based on the Illinois learning standards and the student’s Individualized Education Plans, the Academy focuses a lot of effort on teaching students the appropriate and expected behaviors for the classroom and other social settings. We maintain small class sizes, staff crisis intervention specialists, and offer social work services for all students.
Incorporation of technology in the classroom and the curriculum is one of the means we use to achieve our goal. Benchmark Imaging’s donation to our Tree of Knowledge fund in the 2008 – 2009 school year helped to update our student computer lab with ten student computers and a printer. This lab allows students to learn basic computer skills, utilize educational software, and conduct research in all academic areas. Students have computers four times a week and may also select computers as an option during their privilege time once a week, as part of our behavior management level system. The technology generates a great deal of interest among the students.
This year we are hoping to purchase a Smart Board. The Smart Board will allow staff to liven up the classroom and lead interactive lessons that will be visually displayed, saved, printed and much more with the touch of a finger. Students will also be involved in learning to use and manipulate the various functions of the Smart Board throughout the lesson. Smart Boards also help visual learners sort items by color or the use of graphic organizers. Type may be enlarged for students with visual difficulties and printed for students who are absent. Thanks to generous donors such as Benchmark Imaging and Display as well as our other funding sources, we are able to add technological enrichment activities to the daily routine of our students.
Christy Miller
Uhlich Academy Program Director
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