Sick of the battle...

Annie,
I must say that I and my students have had success with Inclusion. Let me describe my setting. 1. This is my second year doing Inclusion with 8th graders in a middle school setting. 2. I only selected 7 students to be in Inclusion. 3. I work with a four member team of teachers, a math teacher, a langauge arts teacher, a science teacher and a social studies teacher. 4. The math teacher places my 7 students according to their math pre-test at the beginning of the year. Then each student’s schedule is adjusted according to their math scores, but all on the same team. 5. I always follow the majority of my students. This year I had two in the Algebra one class, and five in the Pre-Algebra class. I specifically followed the five in the Pre-Algebra class, and I monitored the other two. This has worked fine for me for the last two years.

What kind of schedule did you have? If you were all over the building, then maybe that’s why it got frustrating. I suggest just a few kids at a time.

Joy[quote=”AnnieP”]I need assistance with changing the attitude of special ed in my school. Most of the teachers are fighting inclusion and the whole year has been a battle. At first I looked at it as a challenge. I provide as much support as possible and have a positive attitude. I thought my “actions speak louder than words” attitude would work and that that through our work together the teachers would realize that these kids are more alike than different and that it can work. Wrong. I know it’s the end of the year but I need some suggestions so I can help make next year work…My special ed administration is very supportive, but teachers close the door and do what they want…My building principal talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk…Anyone else sick of the battle? Anyone have advice?[/quote]

Joy, Thank you for taking the time to tell me about your inclusion programs. I am happy they are working for you. My problem is not with scheduling, but with attitudes towards special education students. It might help if I give a few short examples:

Me: Oh, I see that all the students have a new poetry folder. Johnny will need one.
Tchr: He’s not my student. I only bought them for my students.

Another class:
Me: Good morni…..
(Cut off by tchr)
Tchr: Just stay out til I’m ready for you.

I could go on and on…I smile because if I stop-They’d say I have an attitude. I work for it to work- They are working for it to fail…

It takes a lot of time and persistence to change the attitudes and prejudices. Consider the Civil Rights movement. It took more than a year of smiling in the face of rudeness for exactly the same reasons, and some peoples’ attitudes didn’t change — and laws can only enforce fairness to a point, but they do help (and they do at least make the people with the negative attitudes feel like their ideas aren’t universally accepted).
Document, document, document. When you have a teacher not providing supplies for students, figure out who has the authority to help and — ****being sure to include that teacher in anything you do, letters you send, etc… **** take it further. Find a way to squeeze in, “Would you suggest I see someone else about getting supplies for Kim and Karma?” (De’ending on my tongue biting skills, I might or might not be able to omit “even if you don’t consider them as part of your class? — but it would be best to act as if of *course* this teacher wants them included; just is struggling to have enough resources). And then actually *do* write a letter of concern — send the teacher a copy — about the need for all students in the class to have appropriate supplies.
Alas, I can truly understand teachers’ attitudes for some inclusion situations; if the students really don’t have the skills to be learnign from the activities, it’s frustrating for everybody. It’s also really tough — but worht it — to figure out ways to work with somebody who I fundamentally disagree with, in a positive way. Antagonism only makes it worse for everybody — tho’ you also want to be taking assertive action to make changes happen.

I’d like to ask some more questions to find out how much is prejudice, how much is other needs, and how much is just plain frustration with a system that is undercutting them.

The teacher who buys materials for “her” students: two things come to mind on money. Are these paid for by the school, or are they out of her own pocket? Or did she have to canvass parents for the money? Even if they’re paid by the school, did she have to jump through hoops and fill in forms in triplicate six months in advance? She could be getting defensive over issues that have nothing to do with special ed.
Then, why isn’t this student “her” student, anyway? If the child is legitimately in the class, the name should be on the official class and grading list. If the child is only sort-of there, not on the list, not provided with funding, not expected to attend on the same basis as others, well, it isn’t really inclusion, is it? More some kind of pretend world. The teacher may be reacting against a system of students who are both there and not there, where she doesn’t know where she stands and can’t apply any of her own organizational systems.

The teacher who rudely said to wait until they were ready: OK, she may just be an unpleasant person — I have met some. She may also be a nice person who was having a very bad day with a difficult class that she had just gotten settled and focused. She may be suffering from an administration that interrupts classes every two minutes with PA calls, messages at the door, visits to guidance, etc.
I kind of wonder what they had to be ready for. Can’t the child just enter, take a seat, and actually be included? If you had to introduce yourself, well, maybe class time wasn’t the best time to do it. If there are special arrangements that need to be made, definitely a calmer time when you can talk it would be better.

[quote=”AnnieP”]I need assistance with changing the attitude of special ed in my school. Most of the teachers are fighting inclusion and the whole year has been a battle. At first I looked at it as a challenge. I provide as much support as possible and have a positive attitude. I thought my “actions speak louder than words” attitude would work and that that through our work together the teachers would realize that these kids are more alike than different and that it can work. Wrong. I know it’s the end of the year but I need some suggestions so I can help make next year work…My special ed administration is very supportive, but teachers close the door and do what they want..

What is it they’re doing? That might help to know. From your post I understand they’re fighting inclusion but as it seems it will continue, how does their fight against it manifest? And you say the kids are more alike than different - are the reg. teachers treating them as if they’re alike or as if they’re different?

And what are your goals in the battle?

It appears that they either have preconcieved notions of special education children or maybe they believe your child is not really a special education and you are using this as an excuse for his inability to do things. (There are some teachers and school sites who truly believe that the children are willful and with just ‘a little extra push’ could do the things they need to do.) Part of this subculture could be lack of professional development and not understanding your child’s disability and how it manifests in the classroom and educational setting. What you could do is ask the special education director to provide some training. If the relationship appears to be beyond repair I would ask the director to move your child to a different school. You could say that the school does not understand your child’s disability and how it manifests itself and without that base knowledge he cannot obtian FAPE. It also does not allow you to be an equal member of the IEP team.

Thanks to all of you who posted replies, suggestions, and thoughts. I guess my bottom line concern is that I feel that most of the teachers are fighting against me instead of working with me. I only gave a few small examples in my posts.The basic philosophy in the school is that if the student is eligible for special education he/she should be put out of the room. It is a close the door leave me alone atmosphere. I realize that inclusion involves a change of thinking, with a focus on what the student can do in the class and I am not sure I totally agree with all aspects,but I choose to work in a positive manner, and feel like I am constantly hitting a brick wall.FYI all teachers have been trained, I have 3 assistants so there are plenty of supports, I have a small case load (K-4) and do some pull out instruction. Administration tells them to follow IEP’s. They say yes and then do what they want. I just wanted some ideas to change attitudes in case someone else had been in the same situation. I’m not giving up, but I AM counting down the days to summer for a break, (four days!) Thanks again to all of you.

Annie
I completely feel your frustration. Two years ago we started an iclusion program. I had to beg and fight to find one teacher willing to do this with me. I did find one teacher out of 10 willing to start this program. We had a great year. Our class even finished the math book 1 month ahead of the reast of the grade. We were able to do this because ALL of the students got more individualized attention. It really was a successful year. This year I had 2 other teachers volunteer to do this program with me.
It is great when you have administration behind you, but if they are forcing and unwilling teacher to do this program I am afraid that it will not be as successful.
My advice to you is to keep fighting, educate the unwilling, and of course GET PARENTS INVOLVED!
Hilda

Thanks Hilda. I will not give up, and will bring a new energy to my fight towards positive inclusion after a restful summer. :D

I know this is an “old” post, however, after reading the replies, the thing that comes to my mind is that, by law, inclusion must be considered with the proper supports, before ANYTHING else can be put on the table. Is is possible that there’s not enough support for the LD child(ren) in the classroom? I have found that most teachers are more than willing, if there is enough support in the classroom, however, the bottom line is still the portion of IDEA that states the reg ed classroom must be looked at first with the proper services & supports.

I agree about proper supports in the gen ed classes. Usually, when this situation fails, it’s because the proper supports are not there. With some sped kid’s disabilities, it takes pre- and re-teaching, modification of materials, sometimes a more multi-sensory lesson plan to make inclusion work. Most school districts can’t/won’t put in the effort and then it becomes the child’s fault when they fail. JMO

Often, inclusion is considered *as if* the right supports would be there, and then when they’re not, well, too bad so sad. “The Law Requires It” doesn’t have anything remotely to do with some of the realities out there.

I am so there with you. I enjoy great personal relationships with teachers in my building but when it comes to the philosophy about inclusion it is a closed topic with the administration. Our assistant principal hates the thought of the “regular teachers who work so hard having to deal with those students.” I teach midle school self contained students with EBD. Last year after trying all year to get my students mainstreamed and failing because evry IEP schedule change “up” must go through my assistant principal not my ASE. (who rarely goes to IEP meetings) After a year of kids staying self contained at 84%, I wrote them “out” for social studies and science with an elective. During the summer I was contacted by the ass. principal and she told me that the second she had a chance she would get those kids in self contained…..
We have no co-taught classes in our building and the only option is self-contained (our 8th grade language arts class has 23 kids in it) and the numbers aren’t much better in other classes, and an “O” level class which is a class for children who have IEP’s but are taught by a regular ed teacher. Approximately 80-90% of the students in these classes have IEP’s so essentially these classes are self contained but just taught by a regular ed teacher.
I feel your pain there. I have not a clue what to do. My ass. prinicipal is best friends with my ED liason for the county so I really cannot talk to her and the sped administrator (ASE) is just as frustrated as I am.
I am about ready to jump shipl