Welcome Everyone

I am currently in my tenth year of teaching.  In that that time I have looped with my class from second to third grade.  I have looped from third to fourth.  I have had a traditional classroom (one class for one year).  Next was team teaching with two separate classrooms.  Following that was single gender classrooms with team teaching.  Another year of mixed gender with continued team teaching.  That leads me to this year when I moved to a double classroom with team teaching and co-teaching.  One aspect of my classes has remained the same every year.  Each year I have students with special education Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and teach them through a push in or inclusion program.  And yes, I have asked to be an inclusion teacher every year.

Now please don't get me wrong and picture me as a serene person who does not stress out about this professional choice.  Every year I want to pull my hair out and every year I question my decision.  Every argument that Karen Agne makes against inclusion runs through my mind on a regular basis (Agne, 1998).  I question if I am giving enough attention to the students who struggle yet do not qualify for an IEP.  I experience anxiety wondering if I am challenging those students who already know and can apply the knowledge I am delivering to the class.  And then the mom in me comes out.  And I wonder, what if it were my child?  And this question is on every level.  Not just, what if my child were the one with the IEP, but what if my child is the one who needs to be challenged?  Or, what if my child were the one that struggles but not enough to get support?  Every year I draw the same conclusion.  I believe that all students are better off with inclusion.

Agne argues that little education can take place when there is a "disruptive, emotionally disturbed child" in the classroom (Agne, 1998, p. 250).  She also quotes a teacher expressing the frustration that a brain damaged child has never expressed any sign of learning, yet by law is required to sit in her class every day (Agne, 1998, p. 250).  I would argue back that there is an education going on.  Just not the one that the curriculum is creating.  The education that goes on with inclusion is one of awareness and acceptance.  The scenarios Agne portrays are very different than what occurs in my classroom.  I have support.  As Jean B. Arnold and Harold W. Dodge acknowledge, inclusion on any level is a team effort (Arnold and Dodge, 1994, p. 248)  When you are in my co-taught classroom, that means a certified special education teacher comes in for the content areas that students have IEP goals in.  Currently, that means we have three certified teachers for Math and our Language Arts block.  Our special education teacher also has the flexibility to pull small groups for reteaching or further instruction if the lesson that we are doing does not fit student needs.  This is the way we help ALL students make progress, no matter the educational starting point (Agne, 1998, p. 252).
Our classroom also discusses openly and on a regular basis how each student learns differently.  Because of the number of adults we have, I am able to run small groups that focus on our gifted and talented students.  We have numerous class conversations on how that gifted and talented group is flexible due to each individuals' strengths as a learner.  Talk of all of the support our class has to offer in regards to the number of adults is also routinely brought up so the stigma of working with our special education teacher is dispelled.  Often, students see it as a privilege to work with her in a small group setting versus it being a punishment.  The power of classroom conversations with the purpose of creating acceptance for all learners was clearly absent in Agne's argument.

Now, I do not live in a bubble and realize that my situation is unique.  The question is, does it have to be?  If we are required by law to give each student access to all curriculum as designed by parents and school officials, why can't we all have an inclusion utopia (Arnold and Dodge, Agne, 1998, p. 242)?  I feel it is because it is a lot of work.  Arnold and Dodge understand that inclusion does not mean putting a student with special needs in a general education classroom and leaving them to his/her own devices.  They communicate that you design an educational program that is best for the student with special needs and consider all student needs as well (Arnold and Dodge, 1994, p. 244).  In my class if there is student or behavior getting in the way of the education of the majority of class, it is dealt with immediately.  This goes for students with special needs and those without.  My main priority is to provide an education to all students no matter of ability, race, gender, interests-nothing.  If there is something or someone getting in the way of that education, a plan goes into action.  And even though that plan might take me away for the lesson written in my plans, all students are still getting knowledge.  They are seeing first hand that not all students learn the same way but all students have value and deserve the right to access education.