FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q1: Is My Port Space a School?
A1: No. My Port Space provides supplemental support services designed to enhance students’ learning. However, should a school partnering with us need a student to receive makeup coursework, we will collaborate with the organization through a proxy agreement and provide the instruction with the partner school curriculum. This generally involves internships, capstone projects, or other research projects designed for credit recovery. Once the agreed-upon project has been completed, the sponsoring school will issue academic credit.
Q2: What is a Help Coach?
A2: My Port Space Help Coaches (HC) provide young people with coaching, motivation, and support. They also help remove barriers and connect young people to resources, tools, and training and help prepare them for successful entry into adulthood. Our HC's operate as student mentors and coaches, functioning primarily to support young people with their academic, personal, and professional goals, ensuring persistence toward graduation and next steps.
Q3: What is Social-Emotional Learning?
A3: My Port Space defines social-emotional learning (SEL) as the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.
Q4: What is Restorative Practice?
A4: Restorative Practice is about learning to listen deeply to one another and to truly see those around us. It is about sharing our own stories and perspectives and attempting to understand the perspectives of others.
Q5: What is Simulation-Based Learning?
A5: Simulation-based training is when students learn how to perform certain tasks or activities in various real-world scenarios so they will be better prepared should the event actually occur. Simulation-based training usually involves interacting with a technology and organized role playing.
Q6: What is an E-Portfolio?
A6: DDYM’s e-Portfolios are designed to provide a rich resource for students to make connections among disparate parts of the curriculum, gain insights leading to improvement, and develop identities as learners or as facilitators of learning. Our e-Portfolios demonstrate student mastery of transitional goals so that parents, administrators, and other district support staff can witness the student’s learning.
Q7: What does "supplemental services" mean?
A7: Supplemental services are additional opportunities for instruction designed to increase and reinforce the students' educational experience and performance.
Q8: What is secondary transition?
A8: Secondary transition is the process of preparing students for adult life after they leave high school. Transition can be thought of as a bridge between school programs and the opportunities of adult life, including higher education or training, employment, independent living, and community participation. Recognition of difficulties--combined with discouraging statistics on the employment rates of people with disabilities --led the federal government to mandate transition planning as part of the IEP.
Q9: What is secondary transition plan?
A9: Secondary transition is the process of preparing students for adult life after they leave high school. Transition planning begins at age 14, or younger if determined appropriate by the IEP team. In transition planning, students consider their future goals after graduation through career awareness exploration activities.
Q10: What is an Individual Education Plan (I.E.P.)?
A10: An Individualized Education Plan (or Program) is also known as an IEP. This is a plan or program developed to ensure that a child with an identified disability who is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives specialized instruction and related services. The IEP is developed by a team of individuals from various educational disciplines, the child with a disability, family members, and/or designated advocates.
Q11: Does My Port Space create or change goals in the IEP?
A11: No. My Port Space is designed to used as tool to help the student achieve goals specifically related transition. The Transition tool is designed to help the student create a road to achieve the goal, and provide resources so the student is successful in achieve the goal.