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Our 36th Annual State LD & ADHD Conference was
held on November 5, 2010 in Carmel, Indiana, and
despite the economy, several hundred Indiana
special ed teachers, regular ed teachers,
administrators and school support staff from public
and private schools, as well as student teachers,
parents and a variety of other community support
service professionals filled the Ritz Charles
Conference Center for a day that was full of valuable
information, ideas and support, professional
development and opportunities to network with people
of similar interests who all share a stake in the
education and life-long outcome of students with
learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.
The conference opened with an absolutely awesome
presentation given by author, artist, comedian and
motivational speaker Mr. Ben Glenn from Indianapolis.
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Centered around a 6 foot by 8-foot canvas made out
of a queen size bed sheet, Ben amazed attendees with
his live chalk art presentation while sharing his own
personal story and experiences of overcoming the
obstacles of having a learning disability as a child, the
difference that educators made in his life and also
being diagnosed as an adult with attention deficit
disorder. With a hilarious sense of humor, he gave
attendees an insider’s perspective on what it’s like to
grow up “special” as he calls it. As he drew on the
canvas, the vivid chalk colors he used came to life as
he encouraged education professionals and parents
to discover that kids with LD and ADHD have
all kinds of abilities, and that it is up to all of us to help
them “find and use” their own unique talents to
help them succeed in school and life.
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Ben’s message of inspiration and hope was clearly
illustrated when he drew a black streak across
what seemed to be a finished landscape drawing.
As a loud gasp came from the attendees, he quietly
stated, “Sometimes life goes through confusing times
and ugly things are going to happen” and then
with several more strokes of the chalk, he transformed
that conspicuous blemish into a majestic tree.
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“Life is about … seeing these uglies as an opportunity
to move forward. Persevere through life's
trials and learn to live your life to the fullest by
developing your talents and pursuing your dreams!”
Click Here to learn more about Ben Glenn at:
http://www.simpleadhdexpert.com
In the morning and afternoon, attendees were able to
select from sixteen informative breakout workshops
presented by a great group of a multidisciplinary
professionals who volunteered their knowledge,
experience and time to help us round out a day full of
learning about innovative approaches
and best practices to educating and raising students
with LD and ADHD. We were excited to offer
two workshops each on the core topics of reading,
writing and math that addressed the needs of
not only elementary students, but also the
unique needs of middle/high school students.
Other workshop topics included assistive technology,
response to intervention, assessments, universal
learning, ADHD, visual strategy supports, suicide
awareness and prevention, and college transition
planning. Again this year, Barnes and Noble hosted
an on-site bookstore featuring the latest
books and videos for review and purchase by
attendee. The afternoon also included our
annual awards luncheon and the awards committee
was pleased to present the recipients of our 2010
Annual State LDA of Indiana Awards. Recipients were
honored for their hard work and perseverance in
achieving their academic, professional and life goals.
Click Here to read about the award winners.
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As many of you know, planning a conference is a year
long task. In order to put together the type of quality
conference program that LDA of Indiana
has become known for during the past 36 years,
hundreds of hours are lovingly provided by
volunteers and some financial support is provided
by donors, businesses and organizations.
We wish to extend a gracious “thank you” to the
Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Indiana Governor’s Council
for People with Disabilities for their monetary grants,
the Joles Family for donating a Netbook Computer for
the 2010 High School Student of the Year recipient,
the Educational Solutions Co. for supplying
several dozen CD copies of the conference handouts,
and the Indiana Wesleyan University Students for
serving as registration and room hosts, as well as a
thank you to the entire LDA of Indiana board members.
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