Brooklyn Public Library Staff Training

As the culmination of my workshop series with Brooklyn Public Library's Inclusive Services, I gave a presentation to library staff on strategies for making reading, events, and programs more inclusive.

Donnie Welch, a young white man, stands smiling at the front of a room in business casual attire. Behind him on a large, computer monitor is a presentation title slide reading, “How to Read Literature like an OT, PT, or SLP” in white lettering on a blue background.

Donnie Welch, a young white man, stands smiling at the front of a room in business casual attire. Behind him on a large, computer monitor is a presentation title slide reading, “How to Read Literature like an OT, PT, or SLP” in white lettering on a blue background.

I focused specifically on ways to bring movement and sensory play into reading by finding opportunities in the figurative language, themes, and imagery of the texts you’re working with.

I’ve shared the slide’s publicly on SlideShare so feel free to check them out and if you do, then let me know what you think!

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Young Child Expo 2019

Yesterday I presented with my Rebecca School colleague Allison Johnson at the 2019 Young Child Expo here in NYC!

Allison is an occupational therapist who works with me in one of my younger workshops and has helped me integrate movement into those sessions. More than that, she’s been a teacher, taking the time to give me a deeper understanding of movement and the body’s sensory system.

She has such an amazing sense for what will help each poet in our workshop. I often find myself referencing her for what movements we should do. It’s truly a super-power, this seemingly innate sense that “oh, yeah, bear walking right now will help this poet regulate.” I can’t gush enough!

I’ve put up our slides on SlideShare. As a note, we had a fairly video heavy presentation culminating in a twenty-minute case study of one of the poets. These had to be removed for confidentiality so there are some blank slides and slides that just have titles.

That said, the SlideShare presentation still contains great information about the movements we use in the workshop and why we use them.

Give the presentation a view and if you find the information useful, feel free to share it around with your friends, colleagues, and admin!

If you enjoyed the read, help me keep content like this free and become a poetry Patron!

University of Alabama Guest Lecture

Earlier this week I had a chance to speak with a group of aspiring theater educators at the University of Alabama about ways to ensure arts education spaces are inclusive and accessible for all learners.

After smoothing out and working around the technical blips that always accompany this sort of a thing, the lecture went well and the students asked a lot of great questions afterwards.

I’ve shared my slides publicly for people to visit. While the information itself is fairly short and really more a guideline for my conversation with the class, I thought it’d be nice to keep the content up for the students to reference and share as well as for anyone else who’s curious! Click the linked title slide below to check out the presentation for yourself!

Title slide of powerpoint presentation.At the top is the title, followed by a center is an image of hand painted stars, yellow finger paint on black construction paper. Below that is the presenter name and information.

Title slide of powerpoint presentation.At the top is the title, followed by a center is an image of hand painted stars, yellow finger paint on black construction paper. Below that is the presenter name and information.

If you enjoyed the read, help me keep content like this free and become a poetry Patron!