Inclusive Education

I have learned that within the next years ahead inclusive education will become more and more relevant. Our job as teachers will be not only to teach the subject matter but also to transform the way we teach and put in extra time and patience to help teach children with learning disabilities. Included in inclusive education are I.P.P’s which may or may not be abolished by the time I am a teacher, as well funding for the student is required. I will have to make a long term, and short term goals plan for the student with a group of people directly involved with the student.

I come away from this scared and unsure if it is something I will be able to come to terms with in my teaching career. I am strongly hoping that by the end of the teaching program I will be comfortable and able to teach these students effectively.

I am very much so on the fence with inclusive education. Although I agree that every student no matter what there race, ethnicity, gender, or disability should be included in a normal classroom setting. However I feel strongly that these children with learning disabilities should have as much attention and assistance that they need, and depending on the severity of the learning disability they should have as much one on one help as they need. In a public classroom in Alberta every class averages 12-25 students, and if 5 of those students have a learning disability it will be very unlikely that the teacher will be able to give those students extra individual attention to help them through the subject. I think these children need to have an aid either in class or after class to assist them to understand the technology.

I would like to learn how I can teach these children as effectively as possible, in the areas of teaching subject matter as well as discipline techniques, and also as to how to get them the help they need to be successful.

I had a fellow student in middle school with a learning disability; I often got frustrated with that student because she took so long to answer what I thought were simple questions. The teacher would give her extra time and she would leave in the middle of class with other students to go into another room to get extra help. She always bragged about how the helper teacher would give her all the answers to her homework, and they also got to write tests in that other room. She would brag about how the teachers even answered questions on the test for her. But the bragging didn’t last long, eventually she wanted to get out of that special class to prove she wasn’t different. Now she is learning disability free and is attending an arts school for art and design.

Once I have all the techniques I need for dealing with people with learning disabilities I will do my best to be an effective helpful teacher.