Tracy Humphreys from BCEdAccess gave a fantastic guest lecture on a topic that I deem to be one of the most important topics teachers need to be familiar with: inclusive education. I hold the topic of inclusive education very dear to me because I have been a student that struggles with learning challenges in the classroom. From the start of my educational journey, it was an uphill climb, when I was in grade 2 I had a psychological assessment that resulted in me being diagnosed with ADHD, a specific learning disability in reading (dyslexia), and a specific learning disability in written expression (grammar). These challenges were present in my everyday classroom and I was lucky enough to have a majority of teachers that were very helpful in mitigating the most difficult parts of learning with my specific disabilities. Furthermore, technology played a huge role in my ability to learn. Sadly, I still faced a lot of the same challenges that Tracy suggests are still present in schools today, such as the majority of the technology is out of date and if I wanted to have the most beneficial technology my parents had to buy it privately. I believe it is so important to highlight the importance of keeping students in the classroom rather than constantly taking them out of the classroom. My personal experiences with that have been negative as were Tracy’s kid, Max. I believe this is because pulling students out of the classroom negates the idea of creating an inclusive classroom for students who face challenges. Last term I did an inquiry presentation centred upon creating an ADHD-friendly classroom and talked to the learning support teacher at Lochside Elementary who was telling me that they are trying to keep students in the classroom as much as they can. Hearing that students are not being pulled out of the classroom as much as they were when I was in elementary school is a relief.
March 9, 2021