 An inclusive school community is one where all students are able to reach their full potential regardless of background and abilities. It is an acknowledgement that every individual brings their own strengths and challenges to every learning situation. Alberta Education recognizes that at the core of inclusion is the concept of making differences ordinary so that all students have a place, feel valued and welcomed, and are equipped for success. It is through this understanding that students are able to celebrate their successes and persevere through their challenges in any situation. Inclusive education to me means education that includes everybody. Regardless of your learning style, your ability, whether you have a disability of any kind, whether it be physical or with education, we make sure that you're included by giving you multiple points of entry, multiple points of representing so you can represent your learning in a different way. It's making sure that the way we teach it allows you to understand it and be successful. I think in large part it's the culture and we have that here. It's demonstrated so beautifully. It doesn't matter whether it's a play that's being performed or something happening in phys ed or anything in a normal course. The students all feel as if they're part of this family and everybody has opportunities to do what they need to do and the way that they need to do it. And the other students are very acceptance of that. We're one big family and I think that's a huge part of it. I think it's about celebrating success. I think it's about creating a culture of risk takers. I think it's about helping students to understand their strengths and their areas where they need to grow and it's helping them to get their voice across in their learning and creating the space where they want to do that. The ultimate goal would be to make every single student, first of all, be able to learn the curriculum and the program studies and secondly, to feel successful in their learning. I think the labels in our program are being dropped. I think that there was a time when students saw other students with special needs as special and now I think they realize that we all have special needs. We all have areas where we need help and where we're strong and that's really been a culture within our school that has grown and certainly in our classroom. Building inclusive learning environments brings with it its own set of challenges including planning for all levels of ability, accessing appropriate resources and changing school culture. It's a lot of hard work, especially at the beginning of the year getting to know 32 students. It's worth it though because that's when you see the successes. I have really had to advance my practice. It is difficult when you have a student in humanities that doesn't write very well at all and they're in your class and you're trying to look at what their strengths are and you know they've got cognitive ability but you're not seeing it and often I've had to re-ask questions or go to a colleague and say, I'm not getting this, is there a piece of technology that I can use, what am I missing? I've had to work hard to help the students to be successful and I've also had to let go of some of my preconceived notions of what all students should be able to do or think about it in different ways. Think about seeing their talents and seeing their understandings in different ways and letting them show me in different ways and it doesn't always align well to a test on this day or an assignment on this day. We really have to work hard at accurately assessing what they know and really digging deep and trying different ways to figure out what their understandings are because often that test just isn't accurate. Also sometimes a challenge is kids that are resistant, kids that don't want to, kids that have the opportunities to use things and won't use things, behavior plans, sometimes we put in place incentive plans and things to build up kids and really to try to build up their self-esteem and see themselves as learners, see themselves as readers is a big part of trying to overcome that challenge. Teaching within an inclusive learning environment means being prepared to teach students from all backgrounds and levels of ability. This can be a challenge for some teachers. Within an inclusive learning environment, a wide range of students' skills and abilities becomes a benefit rather than a hindrance to student learning. And it should be in every classroom about personalizing the learning for the student. That's, and letting go of those, you know, okay, today you must all know how to do fractions because I'm going to give you all the same 50-question test and if you don't know it, that's too bad because now we're going on to decimals. And it's, you know, and it's letting go of all of that. You know, where are you at? You get to go on. You're ready. You need some more help. So you're going to keep working on this until you get it. And it's having more of that free flow within the classroom, which makes it more difficult for keeping track of things as a teacher but much richer. You have way more success with all of your students. When you're first dealing with an integrated classroom, you think you have a lesson plan ready for all the needs and then you go and you realize part way through the lesson, it's not going the way you had envisioned it and that next time you remember, okay, I need to have more supports, more modification for certain lessons. And so the next time you do it, then you'll always have those experiences where, oh, that wasn't the best lesson. I maybe had half the class with me and the other half just I was running around trying to meet their needs and one-on-one or my team teacher and I and that shouldn't be like that. It should be really the kids are independent as much as they possibly can be. So when you can create a really great lesson, it's smooth. The kids are not putting up their hand every two seconds. They know how to use the technology they're given and they can follow the instructions that we've laid out for them. So that's always a challenge is to establish those really great lessons. In order to combat these challenges and barriers, there are a few key best practices to keep in mind. Number one, know your students. The better you know your students, the better you're able to respond to individual student needs. This includes knowing your students' strengths as well as their challenges. Establishing student profiles at the beginning of the semester may help in this work. When I think about it, I particularly work with the students who are learning in literacy. We've had a number of those students who have done presentations to parent groups and being very articulate at that. We've had parents come back and give us feedback that the self-esteem of those individuals is strengthening because they feel part of and they are able to show what they can do. It's not, as I think you said, the strength-based is the idea. They play to their strengths. About some of the cystic stories you've seen. I really think it comes back to the pictures of individual students when they're able to shine in areas that they're good at. It doesn't matter whether they're on stage performing a monologue or whether they're building a sound and light board or whether they're on the volleyball team or in cross-country. I'm hoping that kids leave here with an understanding of something that they're good at and a story of a place where they've felt really good. As a teacher, I think it's important that you understand who your students are and you help them to understand. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year doing classroom profiling. We looked at multiple intelligences and talked to the students and interviewed them and their parents about what their strengths were, how they saw their strengths, what their interests were, what they saw as their needs so that when we sit down to plan units or to plan activities, we can look at that and approach it in a way that best suits their style of learning. Number two, include your students in the learning process. It's not enough for you just to know your students' strengths and challenges. Your students must be aware of their own strengths and challenges as well. Including your students in the learning process is a critical step in building inclusive learning environments. Students who know their strengths and challenges are able to advocate for themselves and demonstrate their learning in ways that are best suited for them as learners. And it's about personalizing their learning so that we're helping them to be the best that they can be and helping them to understand what they need and advocate. That's a big thing that we've been talking to them about is you need to know what you need and ask for it. So we've really worked with the students on that so that they can go to a teacher and go, you know, I really need to use the computer for this and do you have an e-copy of that sheet that I can work off of? And for them to understand that and bring it forward to other teachers will help them to be successful in the future as well, not just within this program. And that's part of it to be a lifelong learner and carry forward a lot of this into their future learning. Every student is unique. A classroom of students who learn in a variety of ways requires different supports and students who uniquely express themselves require a learning environment that is dynamic and diverse. This requires teachers to use multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression and multiple means of engagement. And through flexible groupings through the use of technology, through the use of direct literacy instruction and other strategies like that, we're able to make it so that students who have particular exceptionalities are able to learn and be involved in the program studies in a similar way to other students. Building a learning environment that provides for the needs of all learners brings with it its own challenges, but the result is a rich learning experience that celebrates successes, supports diverse learning needs, builds student advocacy and prepares students for continued learning. Teachers who know their students' strengths and weaknesses include their students in the learning process and use multiple means of representation, expression and engagement to create dynamic and welcoming classrooms for all students regardless of their background or unique learning needs.