 Building inclusive learning environments requires a number of essential supports for both students and staff. While not every student will require the same supports, there are a few key elements that should be in place in order to effectively provide an inclusive learning environment for all students. While resources such as technology and access to specialists are vital to the success of all learners, the most important area of support comes from a teaching staff that is knowledgeable and has meaningful relationships with students and parents. Well, the most essential support is obviously the teachers in school. We're lucky at our school to have some of the most experienced, most creative teachers that you could possibly want for a program like this. The things that we're able to do in this school are frankly very little limited resources, just using sort of the own interest and creativity of the teachers that are in the classroom in order to provide personalized learning experiences is just fantastic. Our parents are our best advocates and they actually, it's something that they believe in and that they want for their school and their community. And we use them to actually help educate each other. And then it's conversations on an ongoing basis, especially with parents who are new to our school community who may not have had the same experience. We show them how we work, why we do what we do and give them the details that they need to know so that they feel that their kids are going to have the same success and the same opportunities as everybody else has. Working within an inclusive school environment can be a challenge for some teachers as they try to meet the needs of all learners. For many schools, the creation of teaching teams has been an essential component of their inclusive learning environment. Working with a teaching partner provides the support and extra help that is often required when working with a diverse group of learners. Number one thing for me is having a team partner. A team teacher in the classroom has been huge for the two of us with the diversity in there and the complex cases that we have in there. It allows us to pull out kids, not pull out, but work with kids in a small group. We don't have to explain to each other what needs to be done. We both know since we're both teachers. It really allows us to give the kids the attention that they need when they need it and it's not necessarily kids that are in L&L. It's any of the students and how we group kids and how we move through the classroom. In integration without people support is far more difficult. Having an extra teacher, for example, in our L&L program in the classroom being able to meet the needs of the kids as they arise. They are there all day and every day. That's an integral part of the program. It takes two teachers to really do this kind of environment effectively. So you have to include all kinds of learning and represent it ourselves in different ways all the time. You can't just stand and deliver. You have to do your lessons differently so that you're not always teaching to one group. Most importantly for teachers, the administrative staff must be at the forefront of setting the vision for inclusive learning throughout the school and providing teachers with the resources and time necessary to meet the needs of all students. I think the administration needs to be on board really quickly. I think that's a very important piece. I think when we have the concept of team, that there are different skills needed to support this. So when we have technology support that's offered as well, I think that was very key. I think you also need strong administration that is supportive. This is a process. We are continuing to evolve and get better and better and it is a big challenge to teach such a diverse classroom. You need administrators who say, I see what you're doing. I see what you're trying. It didn't work. This part didn't work. That's all right because everything isn't going to run smooth and there's going to be days and moments when you're pulling your hair out. But it can be done as we've evolved as it's gotten going. The success has been just, it's been moving to see students who came into our school and said, I hate school to now leading class conversations because they know how smart they are. What is considered an essential support for students depends on the unique learning needs and strengths they bring with them. A wide variety of supports may need to be in place to provide the choice necessary to create a welcoming and engaging environment for all learners. That being said, there are certain elements that should be in place within all inclusive environments regardless of individual differences. The most important element within an inclusive learning environment is for teachers and students to have a deep understanding of the strengths and needs that exist for each student within the group. Without this awareness, the needs of each student cannot be effectively met. In order to establish this understanding, many inclusive school environments incorporate learner profiles into their regular teaching practice. 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. So 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. The way that looked in our classroom at the beginning of the year exactly what Marilyn was saying was a lot of class meetings, a lot of sharing, a lot of not this is what you're going to be doing, a lot of who are you, how do you learn? Before we did, we've done several surveys in our class, but before we even did those, we talked a little bit about how they learned and we highlighted different things and we gave them a lot of very open-ended kind of assignments at the beginning of the year so that Marilyn and I could see as well, without any kind of instruction, what do they do? What do they bring to the table? Do they represent things pictorially like through picture? Do they verbalize it really well? For many students, access to technology can make a significant difference in how they understand the course material and demonstrate their learning. The tools and technology may look different for every student depending on their needs, but it is important for students to have access to appropriate supports when they need it. In general, this day and age is technology. It seems to be something that isn't, that is progressing and we need to have the support of the hardware to put in the kids' hands in sufficient numbers so that not just LD students can access it, but all students can and then we as teachers are allowed to change the way we teach so that we can incorporate that technology into our teaching into the way we approach not just our L&L program students, but all students. Well for us it's been key that the program that we're involved with, the L&L program, the students have a literacy disability. Thank you. And so they have all been given laptops which essentially in a lot of ways has kind of leveled the playing field for them. They use the program Read, Write, Gold so they can hear what they're writing. They can correct their spelling, it gives them predictions that they have been really successful with that and they print out their work and their work looks like everybody else's. So if we have the book on the iPod and it can be listened to in an audio version that not just the L&L students or the LD students get to access that but there are times when the other students can as well so that they see that it's technology to enhance the program, it's to enhance the learning, it's not just set aside for one group of kids. So I think the benefits of the technology have been to it takes those barriers out and they say, when people just say, oh they get a laptop, well the laptop is only as good as the person who knows how to use it. Same with the calculator, right? We give them a calculator but it's only as good as the person who knows how to use it but in building those tool belts that we say are tool belts of learning give them one more strategy to be able to write something down or to use speech to text. So I'm really good verbally so I'm just going to use a dragon or a Mac dictate speech because I'm really good verbally and I can record my ideas. Recently we just did a social studies test and the kids were just recorded their answers in audacity and just linked it to their tests and that's one more way that they can show their learning without having the stress of being able to compose text. Regardless of the technology provided or resources accessed by the students, many teachers within inclusive learning environments emphasize the importance of students being able to advocate for themselves. A really important thing in this kind of environment is getting the children to advocate for themselves, what kind of learning they require and how they would like to represent their learning. The better you know the child than as a teacher you will also learn some new things from them as to how to plan things for them, what works for them. There are different learning styles being aware of that. Having the visual learner, the auditory learner, being aware of all of those different things to deliver your lesson I find is essential. 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. Building an inclusive learning environment is only possible when a supportive administrative team is in place to lead a dedicated team of teachers who know their students strengths and needs and are able to work collaboratively with their colleagues to build an environment that supports all learners. Students should know their own strengths and needs and have access to resources and support when they need it but they must also be able to advocate for themselves within any learning environment. With these supports in place an environment that provides for the needs of all students can be achieved.