accommodating special needs

Do some reading on this site under “Inclusion” in the”for teachers” section of “LD In Depth.

Equal is generally not fair. (Would it be fair for you to have to wear an equal size shoe as me?) And if you’re a lifeguard at a pool, you can give lots of good attention to kids — but when one of ‘em is going under, you give that one more, fair or not.

You can only do the best you can, and in different settings that will be easier than others. You’ll also be just a better match for some kids than others; you can only recognize that other teachers will hopefully “match” the ones you don’t.

It is sometimes hard to find a balance between learning disabled children and non-learning disabled. My feeling (my feelings only) is that some disabled children can manage greatly with me making some accomodations/modifications in their work,assignments, tests, etc., but some children that are placed in a regular classroom are really not inclusion ready or in my opinion should be inclusion at all. This is where problems sometimes occur. If a child is majorly learning disabled, then that child requires one on one attention the majority of the time in a classroom of 20 kids or so. When this happens, I feel it is so unfair to the regular ed children that are in my classroom to learn and grow as well. I teach high school children and my hope is that I make a difference in ALL of my kids…learning disabled and regular ed.

Sue, I love your analogies for inclusion. Katie, As a special education teacher I find it crucial that children be included.. What is equal anyway? One child may need very little direction and one may need a lot more doesn’t it all end up equal?? I would hope that instead of looking at children as taking away valuable time from the rest of the class teachers will see diversity and challenges that make our jobs as teachers special. We are not all alike not even “the regular kids”. Most likely in an inclusion setting there is extra support from either a paraprofessional or a special education teacher to alleviate some of the so called “guilt “of not providing the rest of the class with whatever the whole time.
One thing I struggle with is that my job would be so easy if I could pull all my students out of the homeroom class. Instead I have to go into classrooms where I may not always be welcome or comfortable to do what I would like and most of the time feeling like a teacher’s aide but I know it is what’s best for the child. I am determined to find a happy median.
I taught a self-contained class for four years. I watched my students become more disabled because they were separated from the rest of the school. Socially my students could not make it because they were not given the chance. I cried when one of my students received an award and out of 600 students no one clapped for her because no one knew her. I feel horrible and blame the system (and myself for not recognizing it sooner)for destroying these children. They have moved on to middle school and I know they are all stuggling because they don’t fit in… sure maybe some of their needs were met in the small class but the stigma that it created was not worth it! We as teachers, Elementary or Special Education have to make our jobs a little (maybe a lot ) harder so that children come out on top. I look at my class pictures of those years where I had 5,6 no more than 10 students in a class and think how sad it is for them to look back on their school career as being in that special class… Always outside never in. I do not have the answers, I get just as frustrated with inclusion as anyone else, but I have seen what not being included can do and it is devastating. I hope your class really does not take this subject lightly. Make it work!! Cynthia

Cynthia, Sue J, and Leigh,
Thank you so much for replying to my message and helping me with my question about accommodating the needs of students. Your responses made me realize how important it is to include everyone and make sure no one feels like an outsider. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Katie

Cynthia,

I agree with you these poor kids of course they know they are being treated differently. All they have to do is look at most year books where there class is 10 and everyone elses is 25. They don’t even have the decency to list them at a grade level with the picture. They list the name of the title of the sped class.

How far have we actually come as a socieity? Now all kids can go to school but, the kids with special needs are still being isolated. My ld 9 yr. old has only spent 3 mos. of his school life in his own district.

Here in Pa the mantra of the sped teachers I have known is to just keep telling me my son could never keep up with regluar ed class. So!!!!!!!!!! I hate to tell them there are kids in the regular ed class that can’t keep up too.

If inclusion is to ever be successful class rooms must have more than one teacher present in the class. The sad thing is it is not the other kids that would care if sped kids were in their class it is many of the teachers. I see my son all the time helping other kids in his class not giving it a second thought. If teachers would try some new techniques of group teaching it would help not only the sped kids but the kids in regular ed who are behind. The advanced kids may be able to explain something to a sped kid that the teacher didn’t think of.

When will people learn that school is not just about books kids can learn alot from participation and exposure it is supposed to be preparing kids for real life.

All the “professionals” in sped I have met sure spend alot of time telling me what my son can’t do. But, I have ultimate faith in him and I know he can fly if they would only let him.