2.1 Creating an Inclusive Ethos

How the roles of different staff contribute to creating and inclusive ethos in any school?

Response:

Each individual role of each staff member of an inclusive school contribute to an inclusive school ethos firstly by their attitude and secondly by how they interact, communicate and deliver their service to the school population.  For example:

The Security Guard – he or she is aware of the students that may need a little help getting through the gate and into the school such as children with cerebral palsy, in a wheel chair, a blind or deaf student.  He or she must be able to communicate and interact appropriately when engaging with such students

Versus

The Physical Education Teacher who must be aware of each student’s abilities and design, plan and execute activities that equitably develops, instructs and assesses his/ her students’ abilities in the subject area

Each staff member must be knowledgeable and sensitive in responding and communicating with all students at the school; as well as, adjusting and making necessary accommodation to how they respond given the challenges presented in the environment

 Find out about some key factors that contribute to an inclusive ethos and culture in schools

Response:

Based on the video viewed 4 Key factors noted for establishing a strong inclusive school ethos are:

1. The importance of ‘leadership buy-in’ that is acceptance and support of implementing and practicing a strong inclusive school ethos starting from the principal and further reinforced by administrative staff and its teaching staff

2. Ensuring the full commitment in ‘attitude and practice’ that is the way staff interact, communicate and assess students and maintain the positive practice of an inclusive school ethos by ALL staff

3. Creating flexible ways to manage adjustments, modifications, accommodations and overall adaptations for all operations of the school from accessible infrastructure to accommodation curricula in the classroom

4.  Developing acceptable strategies and approaches to dealing with the challenges of promoting and implementing inclusion via negative attitudes and behaviour, inadequate training and infrastructure etc.

 Reflection Point:

There aren’t many opportunities to advocate given the fact that those in leadership have not accepted the initiative of introducing an inclusive school ethos.  However, as an inclusion advocate I will continue to create opportunities to inform and educate leadership and staff through informal talks, staff training workshops and modelling the practice in my classroom through differentiation, modification, accommodation in curriculum content, lesson delivery and student assessment.  Additionally, promote inclusion by creating opportunities to host inclusive based school events and celebrations.

 

2.2 School policies to support inclusive education

Policy #3. How they will monitor progress, share information and review pupils’ support needs

Select one of the point and describe a policy that is in place, describe the policy and how it supports inclusive practice

Response:

This policy is in place but not consistently enforced on a timely basis that would purport meaningful intervention. 

The monitoring of students’ progress ideally should be holistic, that is, academically, psycho-social-emotionally and physically.  Currently, teachers can barely monitor students academically let alone the other aspects. Class size, time to observe and make notes and an overwhelming volume of additional administrative work demands are major contributors that prevent effective monitoring of any kind of progress to take place and during this pandemic it has worsen to nil.

The sharing of information and review of students’ support needs can be but not often reflected through teachers lesson plans and evaluations.  Due to current stressors, teachers often neglect this area since it requires deeper thought in planning.  Additionally, this report stops at the principal’s desk who also is overwhelmed with the Ministry of Education administrative demands and rarely even reads such reports from their teachers.  Therefore, it can happen but there are too many stressors and distractions to meaningfully enforced and work this policy in school.

Observation, monitoring and evaluation are crucial processes that must be addressed with priority, full attention and a sense of urgency and care. A positive, advocating attitude towards the practice of inclusion must be upheld by leadership; and reinforced and supported by staff in order for this policy to work efficiently but for now, we are not there yet.

 Reflect on the case study about Luis and note:

What could be done to support Luis?

Response:

Supports for Luis will start with the following suggestions:

1.       Introduce Peer Pairing with Luis where he can work with a classmate that has a similar personality and shared interests during class activities as well as outdoor activities

2.       Deliver lessons that would include small group activities in class, this would also create opportunities for Luis to make friends and his peers to discover Luis’ abilities to do fun things with them as well

3.       Get a teacher assistant or volunteer to work with Luis in class for a longer period and not just to play games

4.       Create opportunities for Luis to present his work in alternative methods that are aligned with his interests and strengths such as delivering a report through a song or sharing in class through drama or dance

5.       Allow class to work in groups and collective create a “We are all Friends Here!” poster and display in class as part of their class ethos mantra

6.       Allow Luis to play football in a smaller group or play it virtually with  a friend via the tablet

 Note your response to the following questions about the Case Study on Luis’ school experience.

• What other strategies could the teacher use to ensure Luis is able to remember his tasks in the lesson? How could peer support be used?

Response:

 The teacher can have a prepared checklist note supported with pictures if needed ready and stick it on Luis’ desk for him to remember the order and sequence of the tasks required

The teacher can audibly identify the task, explain what is required in sequence by writing it on the board and doing a demonstration

If it is time sensitive, she can write the digital time on the board if the class have a digital clock or draw the analog version vice versa

 

• How could Luis be helped to make friends and feel included at play-time?

Response:

• • The teacher can introduce peer teams by assigning a student to sit and work with Luis
  • The teacher can integrate group activities into his/ her class lesson activities
  • The teacher can also include play stations as an incentive for those who finish their work
  • The teacher can also rotate peers in her peer support strategy for Luis
  • The teacher can also include peer play with games on tablets such as football and other sports in the event that Luis is unable to play physical games on the field

 

• How could the school support Luis’ social interaction and interests outside of the school curriculum?

Response:

The school can host school recreational activities and clubs that would foster social interaction and interests outside of the school curriculum such as:

Talent Concert/ Music Club

Musical Drama/ Drama Club

Dance Competition/ Dance Club

Poetry Day/ Spoken Word Day

Cultural Festival Day and more

(Please note these activities also align with Luis’ interests for singing and dancing)

 

List any ideas you have about systems that could be in the school inclusion policy to ensure that:

• • all children with disabilities have someone to play with at break time
  • all children with disabilities have extra help from peers in lessons
  • all children with disabilities have social activities after school

Response:

 Based on research (Eredics, 2021) some ideas that can apply to the aforementioned are:

Create Social Interaction Spaces in the classroom 

Example: peer seating, small group seating, play stations, reading stations

Celebrate students’ interests and strengths 

Example: show and tell, peer share, talent show etc.

Seat Switch

Example: change class seating plan a couple times in the school year, allow opportunities to work with different peers and experience a change of classroom setting

Peer Support

Example: students get an opportunity to work in pairs and small groups

Set Class Rules/ Language

Example: guide students in developing and agreeing to rules and language that social-inclusive, fair, respectful and accepted by all students and teacher of the class

Structured Recess Play

Example: create games that would randomly group students to play together such as “ Find some who is wearing red…”

Model/ Role Play

Example: Teacher as well as peers can role-play or model appropriate ways to communicate, interact and problem solve in and out of class

 

How school organization, policies or systems could support social relationships and peer support for       children with disabilities?

Response:

A school that is looking to transform and transition their culture to a more inclusive ethos; and develop their policies and systems in an effort to support social relationships and peer support for students with disabilities will need to do the following:

1.       Review school policies and managerial operations of the school that would foster flexibility to adapt to potential modifications and accommodations that may arise due to the diverse population they will be responsible for

2.       Include all students in classrooms and school activities making considerations for any modifications due to ability, race, ethnicity, language, religion, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, family structure etc. that would be required if necessary

3.       Acceptance of diverse needs, abilities and differences by all stakeholders involved

4.       Sensitization to response of students with diverse needs and abilities at the school

5.       Foster and encourage collaboration among all stakeholders that is, leadership, administration and teaching staff, students, parents and the community

6.       Get to know more about students’ cultures, beliefs, diversity and differences

7.       Teachers need to be more reflective in their attitudes, behaviours, teaching and discipline practice in the classroom

8.       Celebrate inclusion through promotion of diversity and differences through school projects and activities

 

Reflection Point:

Think about the resources available to teachers in your school to support learning.  Are there things that you could easily make for use or display, that might help a blind or deaf child

Response:

I can only speak for myself as an educator as well as being an artist and craftster.  I support recycling, so I am always creating some teaching or learning aid for myself or my students; ranging from blocks of wood, bottle caps to dried leaves and paper clips. 

For the blind student, I would look for items that are diverse in texture, smell and sound if possible. 

For the deaf student, I would look for items that are also diverse in texture, smell and rich in colour.

Some examples are: bottle caps, wood blocks, cotton balls, pine cones, coins, assorted fabrics, assorted bells, assorted beads, dried leaves, fresh leaves and flowers, lego blocks, pipe cleaners, toy cars/ robots radio, speakers, cassette player, magazines, clothes pins, paper clips and more.

It should be noted that it can be quite challenging for teachers who may not have that artistic or crafty skill nor the ability to see “the treasure in the trash” creating something new from something old.  Additionally, teacher do not have the time to create resources that would be both aesthetically appealing or appropriate for the lesson and their students.

2.3 What can we do about disruptive behaviour?

What can we do about disruptive behaviour? Write some bullet points to answer the questions about the Case Study on Eshe’s behaviour

Response:

What suggestions do you have to explain why Eshe is disrupting the lesson?

Eshe’s disrupting behaviour is attention-seeking for both her teacher as well as her peers.

Drawing from my past teaching experiences as an educator with similar multiple instances such as this was often because of the possible following reasons:

The student may be trying to escape from doing the activity because he/ she is probably hiding a potential challenge or deficiency in the area such as reading, writing, mathematics or even physical education

The set induction or delivery of the lesson may be considered disengaging or not interesting to the student who may having underlying challenges with attention and staying on task

The student may be struggling with an undiagnosed disability regarding attention and hyperactivity

The student may have consumed a high energy based meal which may contribute to the behaviour

There can be many reasons for her behaviour given more information and observation

 Write a list of any other ways that the teacher could stop Eshe from misbehaving.

 The teacher can get Eshe involved in the set induction of the lesson but allowing her to introduce the topic, read the passage or even distribute worksheets or books out to her peers

Have class rules prompts with pictures stuck on her desk, where it offers her an option/ action to take when she feels she wants to break a rule

Example: When she feels restless she can use a fidget spinner or relative gadget, this in turn will

Let the teacher know the level of attention Eshe is at and can offer supportive prompts where necessary

Use an Incentive economy strategy in the class for attention and compliance during class

Use Eshe as a helper at the board when teaching

Use positive reinforcing verbal prompts

Have an action or sing-a-long activity before the introduction of the lesson

Have Eshe listen for the mystery word of the day spoken in class and in return is rewarded with an incentive for her attentiveness

How could rewards be used to improve Eshe’s behaviour?

 Response:

The application of an incentive economy can be used for both for the whole class as well as for the student with some specific modifications.

Incentives/ rewards acts as a goal to be earned where the appropriate behaviour is the desired outcome of the teacher and the incentive/ rewards is the goal of the disruptive/ attention seeking student.

Some incentives/ rewards can be:

Catch the student behaving responsibly and give the student praise and positive attention for it

Model class appropriate ways to get attention such as hand signals

Assign student class job/ responsibilities

Choose any class job for the week

Allow student to sit with a friend

Choose a book to read aloud

Be Class Line Leader for the day

Get a homework pass

Keep a stuff animal at the desk

Teach the class a favourite game

Get extra computer time

Operate a piece of equipment for the teacher for a day

How might a school policy for behaviour management help the teacher to know what to do?

 Response: 

The purpose of school policy for behaviour management is to provide a guide that would inform and assist staff on how to respond the students, parents and fellow staff in positive reinforcing, supportive approach.  These guidelines promote a safe and secure environment in which to operate under potential stressful situations such rudeness, fighting, bullying etc.

 What other support would the teacher benefit from?

 Response:

Some additional supports teachers can use are training and practice in applying preventative and remedial interentions.

Preventative methods can range from developing positive relationships, having your classroom organized or introducing peer coaching and much more

Remedial interventions are like teaching positive social communication techniques to the class, practicing calming/ relaxing techniques in class, use positive language to reduce student anxiety, collecting behavioural data or even seek special assistance from external support sources like a counselor, motivational speaker or therapist. 

2.4 Positive behaviour management strategies

Read a resource about positive behaviour management and make a forum post

Response:

I believe that the implementation of positive behaviour management is comprised of a combination of different strategies that can be integrated and interchangeable as the need arises:

Ensuring that your lesson plan is aligned with Universal Design using the means of the delivery, engagement, representation and evaluation

Ensure that your classroom layout is engaging as well as flexible for adaptation to individual, peer and group activities

Have class rules and days timetable clearly visible

I use the CHAMPS Model see Activity 2.7

Brain Breaks – this is random breaks taken during class at any time where the teacher find in necessary for the students to take a break like if they are restless or getting noisy.  It is simply approximately 7 activities the students can choose via a volunteer to do for 5 minutes and then return to work.  This was very successful for my class.  Some activities were like real life story from me, singalong, game, kids yoga, girls versus boys trivia and more

2.5 Reviewing the behaviour checklist

Use the behaviour checklist to audit your practice

Response:

Based on the review of the Behaviour Checklist against my personal current practice, the rating of the aspects highlighted remains at a rating of 1. Securely in place.  When I was a class teacher, my classroom environment was very inclusive and conducive to students with all abilities; to the point that there were rarely any incidents of misbehaviour or non-compliance to report to the office.  However, my challenge was getting my colleagues to get on board with the approach and practice it throughout the class day.  My class environment unfortunately became intimidating for my fellow colleagues.

So, in response to how I can ensure that this become consistent in all classes and as school practice and not just in my class, what I did was model, support and write it down in short steps for my colleagues to try. 

Some of the areas that I would rate a 2. (This sometimes happens) that is more applicable to my colleagues were in the following areas:

Meet and greet students coming into class

Have a system in place to follow through with all sanctions

Have a visual timetable on the wall

Staying Calm in a stressful environment

I practiced all the elements in the checklist due to previous training in classroom management and inclusive education, so it is not a matter of starting but maintaining and creating new ways to engage my students so that compliance comes like second nature to them.

2.6 Using information about pupils

Video: assessing Progress and Performance 

Response:

How does the teacher use resources to help all pupils to access the learning?

 He used a variety of boxes, worksheets and flashcards as resources to assist his students with learning the mathematics topic of squared numbers

 How does his knowledge of pupils prior learning inform what he does in this lesson?

 He used the question and answer technique to get a sense of students’ pre-knowledge of the concept at the beginning of the lesson; and then placed them into groups comprised of those who understood the concept well as well as those who were still struggling.  This is like peer sharing where they worked together to figure the problem being  presented to them

 How and when does he gather ‘data’ about the pupils’ progress?

 The teacher collects data on his students before, during and after the class activity

What else could he record rather than ticking to show they have understood?

 Some alternative methods of recording that the students understood opposed to just ticking would be:

Rate the student from 1-5 where 1 represents least understood and 5 represents understands exceptionally

Write a short observation statement on where he thinks the student is have the challenge

Grade the student from A – C

Mark the students out of 10 marks

What do you do in your role to gather data about pupils and use it to inform teaching?

 As an Educator, I use a combination of the following methods:

Rating scales

Grades

Marks

Observation notes

Worksheets

Reflection:

Write a few notes about how information about students are gathered and passed on and how this process could be strengthened

Response:

Unfortunately, the culture in my country do not maintain the principle of good record keeping habits in all aspects of service to country, particularly in the field of education.  However, there are a few disciplined educators in the education system, some whom I have worked with and have practiced consistent data gathering; data collection and evaluation of such has been of great benefit to all relevant sta; keholders involved. 

Within the context of my country and its culture of inconsistency in data collection; this process can be strengthened by the following:

Clearly identify the available forms of data collection for educators

Train educators on how to solicit, record , store and evaluation data collected

Implement measures for data collection to be practiced for example, lesson plans, lesson felection evaluations, student evaluation reports, observation notes etc.

Enforce that these measures are being executed through deadlines and evaluation meetings between parties to discuss what was recorded and what is the corrective action to be taken moving forward

Develop measures of control that would ensure accountability and integrity

Establish and maintain monitoring and evaluation controls to measure consistency and quality of data being collected

The aforementioned requires a lot of planning, execution and monitoring but first, we must be united in have the appropriate attitude and behaviour towards implementing and practicing this approach effectively in our schools in my country.

 2.7 Planning for individual needs

Develop an individual plan for David

Responses:

How individual plans would help the teacher support that child?

What is the advantage of having a plan like this in place?

·Needs drives goals; Goals drives services and support; Services and support access appropriate education

The development of individual plans designed to give support to a child with specific needs:

Provides individual focus on the need and identifies the type of support needed

It creates a sense of structure to teaching instruction and student learning that is taking place in the class environment

It allows opportunities for other stakeholders besides the class teacher to get involved in providing support and service to the child such as other special educators, therapists, administrators, parents and even community organizations if necessary

It enables the student to receive and interact with quality education that would promote growth and advancement academically, socially, physically and emotionally

 

Compare these with any forms you already use, do they offer anything better/ different?

In comparison to the examples viewed, they share similar features in design, the difference is embedded in the practice of developing and implementing such plans for such students, this is not consistent and there is no accountability where corrective active is addressed in a timely manner

 How could you adapt them to fit in with your class/ setting/ role?

These individual plans can be adapted through the development of inclusive-based lesson planning; individual and group assessment/ evaluation; flexible design and layout of the classroom environment that can be easily modified, when necessary and have this included as part of the job description, roles and responsibilities of the job

Write an example of a strategy to positively manage behaviour that you have tried in a classroom

I use a combination of strategies that consistently interacts and modifies itself as needed some of them  are:

I write the daily timetable on the board supported by symbols and graphics for example:

Analog and Digital clock face showing the time for each activity

Interactive signs of the days of the week and months of the year for volunteer students to affix to the board through singalong or game each morning

Graphic visual outside class wall that helps with lining up and spacing

I use the CHAMPS Strategy throughout each activity of the class day

CHAMPS strategy modified to my class assigning numbers for different options

C – Communication (1.  listening to teacher, 2. Peer Talk, 3. Group Work)

H – Help (1. 1 finger for water, 2. 2 finger to go to the bathroom, 3. 3 fingers Need help/ don’t understand)

A – Activity ( Identify what activity is happening now)

M – Movement (1. Sit in chair quietly, 2. Working in Peers, 3. Group Work)

P – Participation (Raise your hand and wait for teacher to call you to comment, ask or answer a question

S – SUCCESS (Give praise and incentive/ Caught You doing the Right Thing!)

 

2.8 Teacher as a role model

Identify three behaviours that you do well and three that you would like to develop.

Read Chapter 2 of the TESSA IE Toolkit.

Response:

3 Behaviours that I do well in the classroom as an educator:

Integrate lesson activities to include multiple learning styles

Create new incentive economies that student value

My attitude and behaviour towards students are nurturing and open to listening when they need to talk

3 Behaviours that I would like to develop in the classroom as an educator:

To develop more effective ways to modify and differentiate lessons to keep special needs students engaged and inspired

To become more influential to get teaching colleague to adopt strategies being used in my classroom

To become a stronger advocate for inclusion among my fellow staff and parents

 Overall Reflection:

I learned a lot in this week through individual plans, lesson planning and the varying resources in the Tessa Toolkit.