Turning on the Lights: Transforming Teaching Through Technology: August 2017

I am spiritual, a wife, a mother, a friend, a special education teacher, and visually impaired. As my lights are starting to dim I get to experience the lights turning on for the young minds entrusted to my guidance and care five days a week, nine months a year. Technology has a way to excite, engage, and enhance learning for all students. But for those with special needs it has opened a whole new world of possibilities that didn't exist that long ago. I'm excited to venture deeper into that world so that I can help my students and other educators experience the breath of possibilities available to them like never before.

OK, I'm done with the sappy stuff!

Hi, my name is Bonnie Mattson. I have been an educator for 20 years and am currently a special education teacher for ECHO Joint Agreement. ECHO is a special education cooperative and I have worked for the district for 9 years. I am a teacher with the Communication Development Program commonly known as CD. My program services children with language processing disorders.

On a personal note..... I am from Cincinnati, Ohio (see the video below). My husband Bob and I have been married for 21 years and we have 3 kids. Lindsay (a sophmore) and Shaun (a senior) both in high school. We recently sent my oldest daughter Abbie to Indiana University in Bloomington. Shaun has a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Emery-Driefuss and he had to get a pacemaker at the age of 10. He has worked very hard to combat his disease and is currently playing high school soccer.

As i mentioned above, I am going blind. I have a rare retinal disease called Farvre'-Goldman Syndrome. The disease causes night blindness and progressive vision loss. I currently have lost a considerable amount of my peripheral vision. I am grateful that I can still see and can function quite normally with a few modifications on my part.

Now, I am really dating myself. This is an awesome TV show from the late 1970's