Reflection

This blog has allowed me to learn more about inclusion and find different resources to use in the future. At first I dreaded having to blog because I didn't know much about it, but now I am glad I was able to learn more about blogging and inclusion.

Mary-Charles

I interviewed Mary-Charles who is an education major with an emphasis in special education. She believes that there are students that should definitely be put in regular education classes but there are also students that would not be a good fit for regular education classrooms. She talked about how she has seen a little of both sides and this is the conclusion she has come to.

Avery

This is such a precious video of Avery and how she is included in school

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8TnKi_YblQ

Relationships

This is a good website that talks about relationships between students and relationships between teachers and students in the regular education classroom and in the special education classroom

http://xruffrydr9.tripod.com/inclusiontherightanswer/id20.html

Books

I found this link to buy this book with great inclusion strategies

http://www.valorebooks.com/textbooks/inclusion-strategies-that-work-research-based-methods-for-the-classroom-second-edith-edition/9781412979375#utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=NextagFTP&utm_source=NextagFTP

Ben's Experience

I have a very good friend named Ben. He has autism but is very high functioning. Ben has become like a brother to me over the years, so I knew I could sit down with him and discuss his feelings about inclusion. He didn't know exactly what the word meant but when I explained it to him, he made it very clear that he knew and could tell when he was being included. I asked him how it feels when he is being left out. Ben said "you know, sometimes I like to be by myself but sometimes it really makes me sad when people don't invite me to things because I wear hearing aids and sometimes clap really loud." Ben is very into sports (every sports team and different type of sport actually) and he gets VERY excited talking about them. He we on to tell about a time that the high school football coach at his high school invited him on the field and let him wear the coaches uniforms. He began clapping and talking extremely loud about this because it was something he is very passionate about. Even though this is not inclusion in the classroom, this is a great example of how inclusion in other areas affects people with disabilities.

This is me and my best friend/basically brother, Ben. 

Info

This website was very informative. I think this is a great resource to use to show people that don't know exactly what inclusion is.

http://www.weac.org/Issues_Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_one/Special_Education/special_education_inclusion.aspx

Gen Ed Meets Special Ed Blog

I found a blog by a lady that teaches special education in Los Angeles. She shows all about her data binders and different ideas she has in the classroom. I really like the way she worked everything together.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/inclusion/

Judicial

I found this blog that updates on different places in the US and how they are in the special education world.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/inclusion/

My opinion

I personally think inclusion is great….when the child's abilities have been considered and they have planned accordingly. Right now, I currently help run a respite care program for families affected by disabilities. We give the parents three hours on a Friday night to themselves. The children, affected by disability and those that are not, are brought in and we play games, eat dinner, have a worship time and a Bible story. The children that have a disability are usually paired with a buddy for the night allowing them to feel as included as possible. Their buddy knows how self-sufficient they are and tries to allow them to be as independent as possible. I think that if you have the right education on disabilities and if the student is evaluated and inclusion is the best decision for the child I am all for it.

This photo is from one of our weekend long camps. 

Mrs. Betty

I spoke to one of the special education teachers at my high school to find out her opinion on inclusion. Mrs. Betty was very strong in her beliefs that she does not like inclusion. She has had many experiences with children being shoved into a classroom and no one there to keep an extra eye on this child, and the child ends up hurting himself or someone else. She recalled one student she had that was put in a class with 30 children and one teacher. It is hard enough to keep 30 students, but on top of that having a child that needed extra help was just too much to ask. The child began to grow anxious and attacked the student next to her. Mrs. Betty explained that this would have never happened if the student would have been in special education.

Inclusion Studies

There are many long writings about inclusion and the studies they have done to try to move education towards inclusion. Here are a couple of links to these:

http://www.stangelas.nuigalway.ie/Downloads/Departments/Education/SEN/Phenomenological%20Case%20Study.pdf

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/publications/measuring-social-inclusion.pdf

What is Inclusion?

Many people probably don't know exactly what inclusion is, so I looked in the dictionary and found a definition.

in·clu·sion
noun

1.

the act of including.

2.

the state of being included.

3.

something that is included.

4.

Biology . a body suspended in the cytoplasm, as a granule.

5.

Mineralogy . a solid body or a body of gas or liquid enclosedwithin the mass of a mineral.

Introduction

I am going to blog about Inclusion, my opinion on inclusion, others' opinions on inclusion, different way to allow for inclusion and different areas of inclusion. I made the background of me and my very good friend Michael. I did this for myself as a reminder of how great inclusion can be and how terrible it can be. I am going to tell Michael's story and also probably a few others. This is something I am very passionate about and love to share with other people. I'll start off by saying that I love inclusion in situations and I hate inclusion in other situations. I'll explain both sides throughout the semester.