Inclusion Starts Now

Now that it is summer and I have made this huge move hundreds of miles away from the Bay Area, I have started reminiscing. It started by watching all of these videos of my former students and I came across one of my faves (they're all my faves), Jeremy. Jeremy is diagnosed with Autism and has the best personality in the world. He is always smiling, unless he's not, and seems to have no control of the volume in his voice, which makes me love him even more. SO, I am watching my

They can be so fun. You are with all of our students, in a new environment, learning and playing. You get to bring them on a bus and into a new place in their community that they might have never gone to before. However, field trips are also tiring. Organizing transportation, tickets, money, parent chaperones, clearing parent chaperones, snacks, lunch, and then you have to worry about safety. Have you EVER lost a child??? IT. IS. THE. WORST. FEELING. IN. THE. WORLD. And I hat

I have now been with my students for 6 months and I can finally say that I like my students. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them before too, but we FINALLY bonded. If you work in Special Education, or just with children.. you have to go through some stuff to really get to know each other. You need to have some good days, some bad days, some great days, and some terrible days to really get to know a person. After 6 months with my new class, I have officially gone through these da

As I sit in my 4th year of school meetings, district collaborations, and general education conferences, I had that thought cross my mind that all special education teachers happen upon, “why do I have to be at these meetings?!?!” It’s funny to me how we special education teachers can fight so hard on inclusion for our students and then dread the extra meetings we sit through that don’t seem to have anything to do with us. Small Vent Sesh: My most recent staff meeting we discu

This year I have a new class full of first graders and two new students who have never done participated in any sort of mainstreaming. I haven’t been put into a situation like this since my first year of teaching and I forgot how hard it is. Recently, I had our wonderful Buddy Class teacher tell me that some of the students don’t know how to communicate with all of my students successfully. Which fills my heart knowing that they want to form relationships with my students! Bu

Inclusion makes me think of the quote said by Eleanor Roosevelt, “do one thing every day that scares you.” Because lets face it, inclusion can be scary. You are asking another teacher if you can bring your wild card to their nicely organized room with their 20-25 students who raise their hands to speak and don’t scream periodically. You are adding a challenge to your day as a special education teacher and a lot of work goes into the 30 minutes a day you want this one student

This year has been the most challenging year I have ever had in my classroom and it’s only the beginning of November. I leave almost every day feeling defeated, one challenge after the other. I finally figure out how to get one student who refuses to do math to work for 10 minutes, while another student is running out the door. We finally have a 15-minute circle time with no screaming or hitting, but transitioning to the library takes 20 minutes. The student who loves to stem

Recently during a staff meeting, Katy and I heard the best news. Our new principal (happiest damn woman in the world), had us go around the circle and say something positive that happened at school today. *Quick Note: Katy and I have been practicing Buddy Class for three years now. Our students who were first apart of Buddy Class are now 5th graders!!* The 4th-5th grade Special Day Classroom (SDC) teacher 👩‍🏫 started talking about PE, she mainstreams with the 5th grade clas

Kayla and I have some pretty amazing stories to tell. Stories of hope and love and friendship and acceptance. However, we have plenty of stories to tell that are messy and confusing and hard. Today, I’m going to tell you one of those messy and not-so-put-together stories. Kayla and I had volunteered to be a part of the students versus staff kickball tournament, which I thought was hilarious because I knew the students would be better than me. The students practiced every rece

Ok, so lets get down to business. For many people who are not familiar with students with disabilities (or different abilities), inclusion can seem scary, impossible, and not affective for anyone. However, from experience, it is only scary.. at times.. mostly in the beginning. First, lets discuss the positives about inclusion. You are giving every student the opportunity to be a part of their own community (and isn’t that what we all want?!). You are teaching all students tha