 When building an inclusive learning environment, it is important for all stakeholders to have a clear understanding of what inclusion means and to be committed to making this vision a reality. This requires a clear communication of values and the establishment of a culture of inclusion within the school and throughout the community. Within an inclusive learning environment, all students are the responsibility of all staff, no exceptions. There is no distinction between my students and your students within an inclusive environment and this should be made clear at the beginning of each school year. An inclusive learning environment depends on a community of educators and parents working in collaboration with each other and this cannot be accomplished if only a few teachers or parents are included in the conversation. I think one of the first things that's really important is to set that tone with all the students so that every student in the classroom knows that there is an expectation that everybody can be successful and that we all are different and everybody will come in at different entry points and just differentiating lessons and allowing every student to be successful. I think it's just part of the climate that we set with students. The vision of inclusion starts with the administrators and how this vision is demonstrated will determine the culture of the school. This environment often depends on the support of experts and parents within the school community and it is up to the administrators to build these relationships and establish these connections. It may help to plan one or two parent meetings throughout the year to discuss the inclusive model and answer any questions that parents may have. I think part of it too is if people are being successful, if all of your learners are being successful, the culture establishes itself because everyone is just, everyone is thriving and doing well. Now that looks different, the success is different for each student but certainly the culture of people, well a great example is we had one student up very nervous doing a presentation and oral presentation in front of the class because that was something that they wanted to try and when they finished one of our other students raised his hand and we said, yeah, what a stand-up job you did, he said. You're very quiet most of the time and I just wanted to point out that was stellar and it's just a point where people are celebrating what each other can do and we model that and we live that, we fail in front of them. I mean, I've taught a lesson to you guys, you didn't get it and it was my fault. I tried this, I thought it was going to work and it didn't. So I think that's part of it. I think it's also an attitude that comes from the top down, like our administration has set the tone that this is a school-wide directive. We've had time in the school for everybody to work on their figuring out what their intelligence is and what sort of strengths they have and what's the best way for them to learn and then we as teachers model that through our programming and what sort of projects we make up and what we expect from them. Students should be active participants in conversations around inclusion and should feel like they have a voice in selecting what supports are most appropriate for their learning needs. Teachers should take the time to discuss learning styles, share information about the different supports that are available, showcase technologies that may assist in learning and establish learner profiles with their students. Building an awareness within the classroom that every student is unique will help establish student advocacy and eliminate the stigma that is often associated with requiring support. Building an inclusive learning environment with the students, I wouldn't use the word inclusive when I speak to them to begin with. I would use words like everybody here learns differently. We do the survey up on our bulletin board has our smarts and on each poster has the names of the people that scored highly in whatever section. So right away they're seeing like oh wow we are different and oh that's neat I learned like that person. So getting the kids to know everybody's different and that's okay but then trying to highlight, you purposely will highlight certain learners once in a while so that they can feel like they're the special ones that day. So just making everybody feel like they're supposed to be here, we need you here, we need your expertise, then it just becomes an inclusive learning environment rather than telling them well this is what we are so this is what we have to be. They already know that. We had open conversations in our classroom at the beginning of the year in our home class about what learning disabilities are and what does that mean and how people learn differently and we did multiple intelligences surveys and a number of different things like that when we were classroom profiled. We did projects around our interests and our needs and our strengths and and shared that and we spent a lot of time in open discussions about that and kids talking about well you know what I'm really not good at I hate talking in front of people and that's coming from some of the smartest kids in the class you know or what they perceive as the smartest kids in the class and them saying oh I'm I'm not good at that I don't like it and other kids going well I'm really good at that but you know what I'm not good at is writing down what I know and really encouraging them to share that sort of thing. I guess one of the other things that I like to see in this building is that the kids don't feel like they're part of one program or another that when they're out in the hallways we were commenting that over the past two or three years since we started this program here that the kids feel like they're just part of the school they're not a segregated part they're included not just in what we have what we're trying to run but with other students socially which I think is really important as well. Sharing the vision of inclusion is a critical step in establishing inclusive learning communities. Administrators have the responsibility of driving the vision of inclusion for all staff parents and students and without this clear direction it can be very difficult for teachers to provide the required supports for all students. Inclusive learning environments are the responsibility of all teachers specialists parents and students and it is up to the administrator to share this vision and drive this new direction.