This was a great reminder, and also a great read for reflection now that we are coming up on the end of a school year. I have dual certification in Special Education K-12 and Elementary Education K-6. I spent 10 years as a self-contained special needs classroom teacher, 12 years as a learning support teacher in an inclusive school, and am currently finishing my 9th year as a 3rd grade inclusive classroom teacher. I use differentiated instruction, and teach all of the children using the basics I was given as a special education teacher - to meet the needs of the individual child. With everything that we are now held accountable for, this has become increasingly difficult. But, as I reviewed the specific suggestions in this article, it made be feel great to see that many of the suggestions were ones that we have in place in my classroom. I am fortunate to have a teaching assistant with me every afternoon who helps not only with the learning support students, but adds to all of my instruction. It is also a timely article, as we are completing our final unit of study in Science on the solar system - which are the examples given in the reading.As a left brain technique, we discuss vocabulary words often. We have created both a crossword puzzle and a word search on the Solar
System. We use Idea Maps to review concepts after each lesson, and the students are creating booklets from these to use as study tools.
For meeting the right brain demands we use the white board daily. As we read about or discuss new topics, my classroom aide illustrates them using colored dry erase markers (she's definitely right-brained!) That way there is a great visual for everyone to follow. We take digital phot0s of the drawings to use in later lessons.
I think that my experiences with special needs students, as well as my experience with my own right brained children have given me a great understanding of the need to balance instruction to create a more level playing field. Using this information can make learning easier for students, but also more exciting and challenging for teachers as well. It certainly helps to keep my attention, and feeds my need for life-long learning.
I have often felt that those who have a certification in Special Education have truly benefited from a perspective that those of us without that backgound have had to arrive at through experience (sometimes taking years) and many times in a rather haphazard way. I give Kudos to all the Special Ed teachers who have shared and helped me a(Regular Ed) develop a more inclusive perspective. I have learned much from very helpful Special Ed.teachers.
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