reflection 7 | portfolio

Week 7: How Do You Know You Are Being Inclusive? What Would You Do in Your Teaching Practice to Ensure that All Students Feel Included in the Learning Experience?

June 20, 2017

One of the best classes I took in my undergrad was a course called Inclusive Education. This course has not only taught me to look through a different lens on how to be inclusive but it also helped me be aware of the alternative physical activities that I can present in my own practice that will help me build the value of being inclusive within my students. Some of the activities that was taught was sit volleyball where the height of the nets was modified so that it was the same height as the tennis nets. Students still played 6 vs. 6 but instead of standing everybody had to sit on their bums and only allowed to use their core muscles to get to the ball, and instead of a regular volleyball we used a beach ball or a rubber ball. This put all students in the same level and eliminated the separation of being athletic to not which is a “label” that still exists today in many physical education classes. In addition, it provides the students with the experience of the difficulty of having the unique function of not being able to utilize your legs. In a way is provides students with empathy by putting in someone else’s shoe. We also did was goalball where all students were blind folded and played by just listening to the bell that was inside the ball. Lastly, we had simple activities where the objective was to get everybody from one end of the room to the other, the only problem was some of us were blind folded, some weren’t allowed to speak, and some had their hands taped up.

Aside from having extensions and modification in your lessons which is as equally important to have to be inclusive, why not plan for activities in the classroom like the ones I have described. For example, during a lab to strengthens the student’s ability to observe what is happening, why not have a partner be blindfolded and get the student to describe the phenomenon. They can then share and compare the actual phenomenon to what was described and therefore feedback can be given to the student on how to strengthen their ability to describe their observation. I don’t only want students to be included in my class, I want to teach them and have them be aware that all students have unique functions and have them value each other’s and their own unique abilities.

Some of the other key strategies I want to implement to ensure that all students feel included includes being flexible in both time and in my teaching. There are going to be students who need to time, patience, and practice in their learning, and instead of penalizing them for it I would continue to encourage and show support. Secondly, remove as much barriers I can possible remove. This includes making sure that I am incorporating all types of senses into the lesson such as seeing, hearing, and feeling. In addition, we also need to become aware of the language we use in our classroom and practice on utilizing inclusive language such as unique instead of disabled.

To answer the question how do I know I am being inclusive? I am not a 100% sure whether I really know how to answer, but I feel that I am being inclusive when I can make an environment where all my students feel safe, where students are not afraid to speak their minds in the class, and where students are able to make an open conversation with me as well as with their fellow classmates. It maybe that when all students are experiencing flow in my classroom in the activities that they do is when I know that I am being inclusive.

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