Inclusion

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Home : 2004 : August : 3

Inclusion
By Debbie

Do you have paras to help? I'm in charge of inclusion at our K-2 school. This year we are using my para and "borrowing" other SPED paras to work as part-day or all-day assistants in the regular ed classes where we have
"podded" our inclusion students. That's the only way we can serve everyone. I will float all day this year between all of the classes. I'm tired already just thinking about it! Some of the problems I face are (1)I have several multi-disability students who need extra, extra help; (2)a couple of our sped paras are lazy and don't want to work, but nothing is done about it; (3)a lot of

our reg ed teachers think "those" children (even LD) should be in self-contained classes; and(4)students are constantly added to my roster all year long for service and not assigned to one of our "podded" classes, making my job almost impossible.

I understand how you feel. I'm in the same boat. I'm luckier than most, but still find it a tremendous challenge. We all want to make sure the kids get the help they need, but sometimes I feel like I've been asked to make water run uphill--an interesting, but highly challenging request.

I've just read a book you might be interested in. It's called "Teachers' Guides to Inclusive Practices: Modifying Schoolwork" written by Rachel Janney and Marthe E. Snell. I'm going to use some of the adaptation forms and practices in our inclusion program this school year. It gave me a clearer picture about what a "full inclusion" school could be.