Inclusive Environment


February 24, 2018


Quote of the Week

"A strength-based classroom is a place where students with all sorts of labels come together as equals to form a new type of learning environment" - Thomas Armstrong

Inclusion: Doing Our Best For All Children

"What Is Inclusion?
Inclusion is an ideal that mirrors a question we have been asking for millennia: "How do we live with one another?" Inclusion is about learning to live with one another -- including those with special needs and limitations. Preschools, parent-and-child groups, and daycare centers are the earliest (and best) places to start the inclusionary process, a process that will continue into higher grades and into the community at large.

Inclusion is not a single event but rather the process of educating children with disabilities in their neighborhood school; the same school they would normally attend if they did not have a disability. It refers to the commitment to educate each child to the maximum extent possible, as equal participants in a society in which all children are given the same opportunities to reach their potential." [read more]

Reading Corner

Title: Just Because
By: Rebecca Elliott
Ages: 4-7

"My big sister Clemmie is my best friend. She can’t walk, talk, move around much, cook macaroni, pilot a plane, juggle or do algebra. I don’t know why she doesn’t do these things. Just because.

A younger brother describes all the fun he has with the big sister he loves so much—just because, in this heartwarming picture book about being perfectly loved, no matter what. He is enthusiastic about just how loving and special she is, and delights in telling us about all the fun things they do together. Only as his tale unfolds does the reader begin to realize that his sister has special needs—and by then the reader just accepts, as he does, all the wonderful things about her. Teachers and librarians will appreciate this book for its sincere and convincing treatment of children with special needs, while parents will use this book to encourage sibling friendship and to read with children who are beginning to ask why a particular child they know is "different." - Publishers

Be the Change

Inclusivity is not only limited to a physical difficulty. Inclusion is also about welcoming all that is 'not' visible to the eye. We are all limited in one way or the other. With that in mind, how can we encourage conversations with our kids and ourselves to be more patient, wholesome and joyful towards each and every person that crosses our path? Can we learn to look at each one as whole instead of incomplete?

Reflect on one practice that you would like to embrace in order to be more inclusive towards your community, family or neighborhood.