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AMA ESD, OPTIMISE team up to create videos promoting special education occupations

News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Larry Johns, a teacher at Pied Piper School in Alpena, gives a student a high five during class time on Friday.

ALPENA — Recently, special education staff members at the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District partnered with Opening the Pipeline of Talent into Michigan’s Special Education — also known as OPTIMISE — to create a series of videos highlighting the joys of working in a special education career.

The staff members featured in those videos were school social worker Kaitlyn Rousseau, school occupational therapist Jamie McClintic, Early On Coordinator and parent Jessica Bauer, speech-language pathologist Kimberly Wesaw, and Pied Piper School special education teacher Larry Johns.

Pied Piper is a school operated by the AMA ESD for moderately cognitively impaired, severely cognitively impaired, severely multiply impaired, and autistic impaired students from ages 3 to 26.

OPTIMISE was initiated by the state Legislature in 2021, according to the OPTIMISE website. The group develops action teams to study different aspects of the education system.

Laurie VanderPloeg, consultant at OPTIMISE, said that the group recently created a team to study workloads, for instance.

The main goal of the studies put together by OPTIMISE is to identify the barriers that impede schools from attracting and retaining special education professionals, VanderPloeg said.

The mission of OPTIMISE is to attract, prepare, and retain special education professionals to serve individuals across Michigan.

OPTIMISE also hopes to attract high school- and college-age students to special education professions through their social media accounts. VanderPloeg noted the particular success of the group’s Snapchat account in drawing interest to their website. Across all of the group’s social media platforms, the group has received close to 10 million impressions in 2024.

The video series featuring staff from the educational service district as well as other special education professionals across Michigan received more than 1 million views in 2024, VanderPloeg said.

The goal of the video series is to tell the stories of special education professionals all across Michigan, highlighting the positive impact of special education on both professionals and students.

“We want to change the perspective of what it means to be a special ed teacher,” VanderPloeg said.

Larry Johns, a kindergarten through fifth-grade teacher at Pied Piper, shared his experiences as a special education professional in the OPTIMISE video series.

At the time the video was filmed, Johns was employed with AMA ESD as an early childhood special education teacher consultant. He went to family homes and provided educational services to children from birth to age 5.

“You’re working with young children around multiple aspects of their development,” Johns said in the video. “It could be gross and fine motor skill development, social-emotional skills.”

With the videos, OPTIMISE hopes that someone might be inspired to either major in education with a focus on special education or consider a career shift to working with people in the special education arena, Johns said.

Johns switched from being a teacher consultant to a teacher at Pied Piper after talking with his supervisor and learning there was a need in one of the classrooms.

He has been at the school the last two months, working with elementary-age students who have moderate cognitive impairment or are on the autism spectrum.

“I’m wired,” Johns said. “Genetically predisposed. Raised by a minister who served people in the community, so I enjoy serving and helping others.”

Johns said he has found fulfillment in serving people with disabilities. He talked about his time in a previous role as the administrator at Pied Piper, which he served in for three years. After those three years, he realized he was ready to make the shift back to more direct involvement with children and families.

“I have skill sets and a personality that works well with partnering with families and children directly, and that’s more rewarding than administrating the building,” Johns said.

In the classroom, Johns is known as “Mr. Larry.” There were around eight students in his class on Friday, all seated at desks spaced apart at irregular intervals. Many of the students had objects or gadgets to fidget with sitting in front of them.

Johns brought a calm and collected demeanor to the space. He was gentle and patient with his students and rewarded one student with a high five as he began his lesson for the day.

To view the OPTIMISE videos featuring AMA ESD staff, visit the AMA ESD Facebook page or vimeo.com/showcase/10245367.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.

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