With fall firmly in place for the Northern Hemisphere, school has been the focus of much of North America for over a month now. There are new students to help with routines, and there are new teachers to help with learning the process of being inclusive. “One more thing to do.” some grumble. And it […]
Read More More Than The Sum of PartsFor each voluntary self-advocate, we provided several questions to help have them focus their answers about their education and experiences. Jacob Lewis is a self-advocate I’ve had the pleasure of reading a variety of his work. I was excited that he agreed to join us for July. -Renay H. Marquez A little about yourself (State […]
Read More Jacob Lewis, One Advocate Voice“Come get me when you don’t know what to do,” I tell the students who have known me longer who I know are able to move from their desk to find me. Except for the fact that line I have said time and time again to my students with disabilities (and sometimes to their peers […]
Read More How to Teach Self-Advocacy Skills in Schools
Early in my teaching career, I didn’t believe that inclusive education was the right thing to do. I distinctly remember having a heated respectful discussion with a professor in my teacher training program about how they just didn’t understand that students with autism needed to be educated with students just like them. Instead of debating […]
Read More 3 Ways to Guarantee Inclusive Education Will FailIn September 2015, two Federal Government agencies – The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Education – issued a ground-breaking statement: “…ALL young children with disabilities should have access to inclusive high-quality early childhood programs, where they are provided with individualized and appropriate support in meeting high expectations.” https://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/earlylearning/joint-statement-full-text.pdf […]
Read More Preschool + Kindergarten: Ground Zero for InclusionWith inclusion comes questions, both from parents of students with disabilities and from parents of students who don’t have disabilities. Here are some of the more common questions we’ve heard and some answers through both an educator and parent lens. Nicole Eredics, an experienced full inclusion teacher, answers the questions from a teacher’s perspective. Amanda […]
Read More Inclusion FAQs: A Parent and Educator GuideYou already know we’re all here because we want to answer the question, “How do we start schools that aren’t already inclusive?” We all come from different backgrounds and entry points, but share the mission of creating a more inclusive world. It’s a lofty goal, and yet it’s one I’m willing to spend my whole […]
Read More Making the Case for Not Having to Make the Case for InclusionNicole Eredics and Renay Marquez Renay: As soon as a student moves into the age where teachers pass out a syllabus, grades become a ‘thing’. Concretely, grades are broken out usually by percentages. An example of grading might look something like this: Classwork————————-15% Homework———————– 10% Quizzes —————————-20% Tests ——————————–20% Projects —————————-30% Participation/Citizenship —-5% This probably […]
Read More Making Grades–Secondary