When I think of inclusive education in my EDCU 491 practicum, I think of Miss N. N is one of the sweetest, funny, and overall wonderful students. She is on the autism spectrum and is also hearing impaired. Like I stated in the “Standard 3” section of my e-portfolio, I had the opportunity to wear an FM system, as well as learn a handful of ASL signs to use in the classroom. I was able to really cater some of the learning to her by using these signs to reinforce what I was saying (even though I knew she could hear me). For example, if I asked her to “sit”, she would typically just fold her arms and look at me with an unwilling look (sometimes yelling no). However, if I said “sit” while using the sign at the same time, she would usually sit down without a second thought. I was quick to realize that because of her autism, she needed that second reinforcement coming from the sign. This seemed to help with most things which had me quite excited. I feel like I learned a lot from Miss N and her bright personality.

Another student in my class that comes to mind when I think inclusive education is Miss S. S has a physical impairment that forces her to use a walker all the time. I was really nervous about this when planning Physical Education lessons or body breaks, etc. However, it is incredible to see how resilient she is and willing to participate and try. Often in gym, when the V.I.P. for the day would be leading the stretches, I would show the class another way to do this stretch that made it more accessible to her. One thing that I did while in my practicum was create a recess/lunch time play schedule for the winter while there was lots of snow and ice. The school that I had my 491 practicum at had an amazing school grounds BUT the playground/swings were on the top of a hill. Normally, prior to all the snow, the EA would help her get up hill on her walker so that she could play with her friends. Once there was a lot of snow and ice, it was just impractical and therefore my CT would just allow her to pick 1 friend and have the V.I.P. and 1 other friend stay down. I began to notice a lot of students didn’t want to be picked and often shook their head mouthing the words “don’t pick me”. This wasn’t because they didn’t want to play with S, it was because they wanted to play up top. This was always very disheartening to me and therefore I had decided to make this schedule. Every week, each student would be picked for 1 lunch and 1 recess to play down the hill with the balls or chalk (they would also get first dibs). No student would have both on the same day and there would always be 4-5 student playing at the bottom (including S). This worked really well because we didn’t fall into the trap of the same student getting picked by S everyday to play down, as well, the students all understood that they had 1 designated lunch and recess period. I am so glad that we implemented this because S never felt like a burden on the other students. However, now that there is no snow, S can play up top again and is incredibly happy to be pushed on the swings by her EA all recess long!

I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to work with both Miss N and Miss S this practicum. The have taught me so much about inclusive education and I feel so much better equipped to head into my own classroom in September!

References:

What is Inclusive Education? – from Inclusive Education Canada
https://inclusiveeducation.ca/about/what-is-ie/

What is Inclusive Education? – From Inclusion BC
https://inclusionbc.org/our-resources/what-is-inclusive-education/

Inclusive Education Resources – BC Ministry of Education
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive-education

Special Education Policy Manual PDF – BC Ministry of Education
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive-education

Teachers of Inclusive Education (TIE) – British Columbia
http://www.tiebc.com/

SOGI 123 – British Columbia
https://bc.sogieducation.org/