University of Miami/Nova Southeastern University

Kendra Abi Khalil, Broward County
Mailman Segal Institute’s Baudhuin Preschool
CARD Staff: Lori Wise & Marlene Sotelo

Kendra Khalil is an ESE teacher in an autism spectrum disorders classroom at the Mailman Segal Institute’s Baudhuin Preschool in Ft. Lauderdale. She completed graduate studies in exceptional student education at Nova Southeastern University and is currently working on doctoral studies in instructional leadership. She has worked with students on the spectrum for a total or 6 years, 4 of which she has been a teacher at Baudhuin.

Currently, she has the privilege of serving as the head teacher for ten students that have autism, alongside three wonderful aides. Her duties include accommodating each of her student’s individual needs, developing their IEP's, and meticulously tacking the progress on each of their annual goals through intense, systematic data collection. In addition, she trains her staff and ensures that they fulfill the program goals effectively.

She is also a Certified Clinical Educator for intern teachers and students who have interest in this field. Her eagerness to train and teach adults working with students on the autism spectrum has also developed into a regular flow of interns and practicum students into her classroom each semester. As she works with her preschool students throughout the school day, she simultaneously teaches graduates from a variety of education and psychology programs, by having them experience their philosophy of education and by offering the graduates supervised hands on learning opportunities with their pre-kindergarten learners. In addition, she had the exciting opportunity to co-teach in a Clinical Educators’ training course this past August.

Proposed Project:

The purpose of this project is to visually engineer the teacher’s preschool classroom as well as to apply the use of visuals to curriculum instruction. The effectiveness of using visuals to teach skills in the areas of social skills, communication, independent functioning, and curriculum will be explored and a web tutorial about how visuals were used will be created. The web tutorial will be accessible to students' parents as well as to all teaching staff to promote the use of visuals throughout the students' lives."