Artful Inclusion

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Toby Karten

Inclusion is like a work of art-

  • It has texture.
  • There is perspective and various angles.
  • Its value appreciates through time.
  • Teachers are sculptors, painters,and photographers who creatively portray the value of their subjects.

 

Speaking of art…

Integrate art across the curriculum by allowing your students a chance to explore, appreciate, and create!

 

Here are some links to begin the journey:

 

Metropolitan Museum of Art

MOMA: Museum of Modern Art

National Institute of Art and Disability

American Art Therapy Association

Virtual Library Museum

VSA: The International Organization on Arts and Disability

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

 

 

 

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Staying Professional

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Toby Karten

Loved our inclusion chats and allowing the pages of my books to live your classrooms!

Teaching certainly involves more than the actual hours spent in the classroom. You report to a school at a certain time, but what you do before that bell determines the success of your lessons. Teaching is almost as complex as producing a Broadway play with a diverse cast of characters and quite a few critics! Teachers in inclusion classrooms collaboratively prepare lessons for their students based upon their individual needs and classroom dynamics. Student data and the educational research drives instructional inclusion decisions. Consequently, teachers need to consistently remain consummate consumers of the knowledge.

If you would like to experience an excellent professional opportunity in the field of special education, then attend a Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) National Conference. What fun at the CEC event at National Harbor this April! The educators inspire me to write more and consistently keep my pulse on the heartbeat of special education to truly make it special for ALL learners within inclusive classrooms. CEC advocates for students with special needs by sharing the knowledge in a forum that allows for friends and colleagues to network with each other, validate practices, and add a few more strategies and interventions to their repertoires. Thanks to Corwin Press and all of the sponsors who support and infuse the professional growth of educators. Each year that I attend,I am reenergized. Mark your 2012 calendars for the next CEC annual conference April 11-14 in CO.

 

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Inclusion Check!

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Toby Karten

Here are a few inclusion topics that you need to check out!

 

If you, your students, or your children enjoy this type of visual, check out this site and create your own!

 

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How is inclusion like yoga?

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Toby Karten

Breathe and be flexible!

Inclusion, like yoga, connects both physical and cognitive elements. Yoga approaches value correct styles and poses, with people at various levels of proficiency based upon prior experiences, teachings, and mind-sets. Inclusion too has a variety of poses with effective co teaching models, collaborative practices, preparatory steps, and curriculum choices. Inclusion, like yoga connects physical elements with other disciplines. Yoga and inclusion require depth, breadth, and flexibility. Yoga has existed for 5,000+ years, hopefully inclusion will follow that same longevity path!

Check out the Wonder Wheel, a Google search tool, for both yoga and inclusion to see the multi-faceted connections for both yoga and inclusion.

 

Breathe and be flexible!

Now, pick your own topic and research more with a wonder wheel!

 

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Inclusion Connections

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Toby Karten

Inclusion classroom strategies that are consistently implemented from the early grades and onward yield excellent educational and lifelong dividends for students. Curriculum examples include increasing students’ metacognition before they forge ahead. Read on for some ideas that connect inclusion to the students:

Asking students to rate their understanding of a math lesson involving fractions; e.g., is the concept easy, medium, or too difficult?

Having students self-correct spelling errors by using an electronic dictionary

Allowing students to graph daily positive social interactions with peers

Requiring students to paraphrase biology lab instructions before they participate in the experiment

Describing a person they know who reminds them of a Shakespearean character from a play they recently read

Relating an historical time period to a current global issue

Telling how consumer literacy affects nutrition choices

The metacognitive possibilities and student connections are endless! The point, inclusion INCLUDES the linking of the curriculum to the students!

 

Check out Inclusion Activities That Work! and Inclusion Strategies and Interventions for additional student-curriculum connections!

 

 

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Inclusion Definitions & Perspectives

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Toby Karten

An enthusiastic group of educators creatively and candidly offered the following responses to this open-ended statement:

Inclusion is________________

therefore, I am!

a work in progress.

sometimes challenging!

allowing students to find success at a level where they can feel safe to take risks.

giving each student a fair/equal chance to learn and succeed.

a learning process.

GE and SE teachers working together to meet the needs of all learners.

sometimes frustrating.

necessary to help students with special needs learn to be successful.

an exciting model for meeting the different needs of ALL learners.

teachers working collaboratively.

challenging, but worth it!

Your turn: Inclusion is____________.

 

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Beyond Physical Inclusion

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Toby Karten

Successful inclusion classroom practices marry academic, social, emotional, behavioral and communication skills. Inclusion in the classroom goes way beyond physical inclusion, if students are truly included. Inclusion means that we treat all students as integral members and honor their entering levels with respectful instruction and interactions. Maya Angelou poignantly stated: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It is the same within inclusion classrooms, since students will often remember how you treated them, long after they forget what you taught them!

Yes, the curriculum is important.

Yes, the standards are important.

Yes, the school policies are important.

And yes, physical inclusion is important, but not without the proper scaffolding to ensure academic, social, emotional, behavioral, and communication strides as well!

In response to Edutopia’s query on what a monument to teachers in Washington DC would look like, I thought that a heart-shaped brain would be an excellent choice!

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Gimme 5: Inclusion Rules

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Toby Karten

Inclusion, although never a generic program, has basic governing rules. Like snowflakes, no two children are alike, but all students, regardless of their abilities benefit from organized, prepared and insightfully rich environments with individuals who propagate learners’ potentials. High expectations in inclusion classrooms means that staff can visualize the successful outcomes. Each of the following inclusion rules or norms need to be in place to ensure that INCLUSION RULES!

Inclusion Rules:

1. Be professional.

2. Be compassionate.

3. Be structured.

4. Be aware.

5. Be reflective.

These rules are not complicated, yet their consistent implementation will yield excellent inclusion results for all students, staff, and families. The bottom line: Gimme 5!:-)

 

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Inclusion in the 21st Century

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Toby Karten

Inclusion has entered and prospered in the 21st century with research-based interventions, technological advances, and improved attitudes, yet it is also endangered if its pace is not adjusted to accommodate the needs of each individual student. We live in a fast paced world, where with the click of a button, we have the capability of communicating with someone who may be 15,992 kilometers away in a millisecond. How remarkable! However, we then grow impatient when the line at the grocery store is too long or we sit in traffic on the highway because we have an agenda to accomplish that day. We want to get to places at fast paces and then move on to the next item on our To Do list! The 21st century is filled with many promises when we visualize the successes that will follow in classrooms and beyond school walls, but please keep in mind that inclusion, like many things in life, is an evolutionary process! If one day is not the best, reflect upon that day, tweak your plans and look forward to tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

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Why the sunflowers, Toby?

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Toby Karten

A few people asked me why there are sunflowers on the site. Let’s begin with the obvious-sunflowers are beautiful and unique. Each sunflower stretches for the warmth, we as educators impart. As I stated in one of my books, Inclusion Strategies That Work!, a child with a disABILITY is a child first. He or she is not defined by his or her disABILITY or difference. The disABILITY is only one part or petal of a flower. According to ProFlowers, sunflowers come in a variety of colors and types, symbolizing warmth, brightness, loyalty and constancy. Inclusion is therefore a sunflower!

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