Inclusive education means creating a caring learning environment where students feel safe to share their experiences, to explore their identities, and will be treated in a mutually respectful, kind and supportive manner. This is a challenging endeavor to achieve because it requires all parties to acknowledge, respect and be kind to each other. The teacher must lead the way, through modelling language and behavior, classroom management, setting up the classroom environment and designing engaging learning activities that reflect the diverse cultures found in and out of the classroom. During my final practicum, building the kindergarten classroom community was like starting over at the beginning of school year for the students. I had to set up the classroom expectations, and the way I taught was different from the host teacher in various ways. It could be as simple as the language that stumbled the students. I would say, “Come to the mat.” The students would promptly correct me, “No. Mr. Georges, it is called a carpet.” Learning the existing rules and expectations of the class was challenge for me, as much as it was a challenge for students to accept a new way of doing things. I imagine that at the start of the year, every teacher must be like Yoda, telling their students, “No! Only different in your mind! You must unlearn, what you have learned.”
To help students with their transition to having me as their teacher, we had to spend a few weeks getting to know each other. I was constantly being tested as much as I was assessing them. I soon realized that the class needed to first know how to self-regulate their emotions and show empathy and kindness to each other, before they could focus on their learning. As part of our daily schedule, I focused on teaching social emotional learning (SEL) to the class through songs, stories and discussions. I believe this is the way of teaching that suits me best. I think at the primary level, students need to review lessons these daily, as they help them self-regulate their emotions and create an inclusive environment.
Some students may suffer from trauma, social anxiety, or have undesignated ASD / ADHD. The family life outside of school greatly affects the mindset of children, and can limit or enhance their learning progress. In one case, I had an undesignated student with ASD who had suffered past trauma so severe that the child could not go to the washroom independently or use the school’s shared bathrooms. In class, he refused to participate in various learning activities and did not actively try to play with his peers. However, I noticed significant positive changes in his attitude and behavior whenever he had art therapy classes. We do Art class once a week, so I always ensured the activities could link to our SEL lessons or that they were open-ended to allow students to express themselves freely. I am sure the SEL lessons had an effect, because by the end of the practicum he was initiating play with others, and starting to join our class discussions. Even so, being comfortable to participate in one subject does not mean it applies universally. This child still refuses to join any Math activities, but during my practicum he would the class in counting the number of days in the month as I used a toy microphone that adds echo to your voice. That playfulness and sensory stimuli allowed him to engage when his mindset was open to it.
I was most pleased to see the SEL effectiveness after two weeks, as students began to self managing themselves. They were willing to share items more, and help each other independently. Empathy is a crucial factor in building an inclusive classroom. I wish to learn more deeply about teaching SEL to students as I hope we can instill this is our students while in they are in the elementary grades. I am sure it will help them greatly later in life. The following is a link to my cross-curricular Kindergarten Social Studies Unit which focused on Diversity and Social Emotional Learning (SEL):
http://egeorges.opened.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3572/2023/04/Social-Studies-K-UNBC-Unit-Plan-Feb-2023-ELA-EGEORGES.pdf
Inclusive education also means scaffolding of learning and providing supports to the students who need them. In my Kindergarten Practicum, I differentiated the Math worksheets based on students’ numeracy skills. For ELA, we worked on phonemic awareness so students who needed writing support had dotted lines to trace, where other more capable students would need to write independently. Labels on all pictures were provided to promote reading comprehension and word association with them. Designing the lessons required a lot of work to differentiate and the my expectations for assessment also varied. If students were still approaching in their understanding or foundational skills then providing supports and scaling back the number of questions they had to answer helped them to succeed. Meeting the curriculum standards is always the goal, but I found in my class the ability to learn was always contingent on our students’ ability to focus, emotionally self-regulate and be in a space where they feel comfortable to participate. I worked hard to achieve this, and found one secret weapon for students with cases of anxiety or emotional distress — a squishy stress ball ! Our class uses a “rest house” for kids who need a “time-out” to calm down. I think this is fine for extreme cases, but for minor cases, the box prevents the students from participating in the lesson. By using the stress-ball, students could physically release their frustration, and provide a sensory input for those who needed it. This helped kids to calm themselves, while still actively be part of the lesson. However, the stress ball as a fidget toy is still a toy. Care must be taken to limit its use for only a short time. One additional benefit of using the stress toy was because of the SEL lessons, students were improving on their ability and willingness to respectfully and independently share the stress ball with each other. One of the mottos I taught was, “Sharing is caring!”
Speaking of sharing, the following document is my Social Studies Unit Plan for Kindergarten.
You will find a number of useful YouTube videos that help teach SEL and are age-appropriate.
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Additional links to refer to for Inclusive Education:
What is Inclusive Education? — from Inclusive Education Canada
https://inclusiveeducation.ca/about/what-is-ie/
What is Inclusive Education? — From Inclusion BC
https://inclusionbc.org/our-resources/what-is-inclusive-education/
Inclusive Education Resources — BC Ministry of Education
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k‑12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive-education
Special Education Policy Manual PDF — BC Ministry of Education
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k‑12/teach/teaching-tools/inclusive-education
Teachers of Inclusive Education (TIE) — British Columbia
http://www.tiebc.com/
SOGI 123 — British Columbia
https://bc.sogieducation.org/