Throughout this article, I couldn’t help but think about my own student teaching placement in a 5th grade classroom. My classroom is an inclusion classroom with several EC students and ESL students. Several teachers including the classroom teacher, reading teacher, and EC teachers collaborate together to help meet the needs of not only the students with disabilities but all students. For example, my class often works in small groups instead of receiving whole group instruction which allows all students to receive extra individual help with their learning.
With this only being the second year of having an inclusion classroom, my cooperating teacher is learning quite a bit of what is required and effective for the inclusion classroom. This article presented several factors vital to a successful inclusion environment including creating a sense of community for all members, facilitating friendships, and collaborating.
I believe that my teacher has done a great job of creating a sense of community within the classroom and this can only continue to improve as we have classroom meetings and encourage students to collaborate with one another regularly. I look forward to reading and learning more about behavior management techniques to improve the sense of community in my classroom.
