Assignment #2 Disabilities in Your Classroom

While I view the changes from isolated education towards and into inclusive classrooms settings as having many obvious benefits, I cannot help but have some great concerns and questions as well. I feel that an isolated school setting has the advantage of having specialized teachers working in a community of students with similar exceptionalities, and thus needs. Therefore, I feel that the students are given a better oportunity to have their exceptionalities dealt with by someone who completely understands the 'ins and outs' of them, while they are in an environment of people like themselves, so they do not have to feel uncomfortable about their learning needs. I do see how these teachers, and students are not really interacting with the rest of the social world, and definitely miss out due to this.

Mainsteaming then? I like the idea of a resouce room, and have seen them work very well in both my PSI and Ed. 2500 placements. The coming and going of students never seemed to create a disturbance to the rest of the class, however I'm sure it took much orchestrating to get to this point. I think that as a teacher, you have great control over how much attention is drawn to this, and should always try to work it so that students are not missing out on their favourite or obviously more enjoyable activities.

I agree that all students, with all exceptionalities have the right to be included in a regular classroom, but will admit that as a teacher the inclusion method is a bit daunting. While I will strive to model an inclusive community environment in my classroom, I am worried about how many adaptations one lesson can handle, and just how to do it. I am sure this will come through further experience though.

We are living in a diverse society, and so I feel we need to embrace that diversity on all levels in schools, where people spend so many of their foundation years. I am especially fond of the tolerance in students, that an inclusive classroom tends to build on, as well as respectful and responsible behaviors. I do not feel that I can make a clear list of the ways that I plan to implement the inclusion model in my classroom, until I have had more experience with students of varying exceptionalities. However, I can say that it is my intention to accomodate all students in the best way that I can, creating a sense of community in a classroom where students are both independant of others as well as interactive and accepting of one another.