Inclusive Education Journal

My main concern about inclusive education is... not knowing enough about student's behaviour problems and thus not knowing how to deal with inappropriate behaviours.

My plan for addressing this concern while on my practicum is...

Week 1: Talk to my teacher about which students need extra help in my classroom and read their IPP's to become familiar with their issues and problems.

Week 2: Read about any specific diagnoses discovered, such as autism or ADHD. Learn about the kinds of behaviours I can expect to encounter with these students and how to appropriately deal with such behaviours.

Week 3: Discuss with my teacher different approaches she takes to dealing with problem behaviours and see how they vary from what my research said. Decide on the best plan of action for myself for a variety of situations so I can be somewhat prepared (I realize I will have to deal with unexpected problems too).

Week 4: Ask what kind of support the school or school board offers for student's with IPP's. Speak to the person in my school responsible for supporting inclusion and ask for advice on how I can react appropriately to different behaviours. Compare this conversation to my research in week 2 and my discussion with my cooperating teacher and see if there are any differences.

Week 5: Ask the inclusion specialist for suggestions/advice on how best to work all students into my lesson plans.

Week 6: Have the inclusion specialist observe a lesson that we had previously discussed and then ask for feedback and areas where I could improve.

Week 7: Use the advice given to me by my cooperating teacher and others to try out new strategies that I haven't implemented yet.