As a secondary Life Skills teacher, it has always been important to me that my students with disabilities feel included and a part of the school community.
When I first started teaching, it felt like what happened in the Life Skills room was almost a secret. The staff didn’t know who my students were, let alone know their names. Many times, if they knew anything, it was from glimpses of my students on their worst days. When a colleague whispered to me at a staff meeting: “So, like…what do you do in your class? How do you teach them?” It became abundantly clear that I had some work to do.
Featured Guest Blogger: Michela Laverty, Secondary Life Skills teacher @lifeskillswithlaverty
If you are working to create a more inclusive environment in your school and are wondering where to start, here are my 5 best pieces of advice for fostering inclusion…
Start a Peer Tutor Program:
One of the things I am most proud of in my teaching career is starting a peer tutor program. This allows general education students the opportunity to take my class as an elective and work with my kids. Depending on the class period, peer tutors can be working 1:1 with my students on our goal work, or in group activities working on adaptive skills. I have found that my kids who have the most behaviors can often work the hardest for my peer tutors. They are my secret weapon! Peer tutors also get credit for completing journal reflections and participating in class discussions where we cover disability 101 topics. I hope to equip them with the tools they need to fully advocate for their friends with disabilities.
I could not imagine teaching without my peer tutors. Their engagement and influence on our Life Skills program have been immeasurable, and we are all a “hot mess” when they graduate. Luckily many of them come back to visit, years after they leave us.
Use School Jobs to Get Out There:
Allow your students to build job skills, while sneakily creating opportunities for general education staff and students to interact with your kids. We started providing mail delivery and recycling to staff who signed up for the service. I send an email at the beginning of the year, asking for staff who were interested to sign up. Then I have a small group of students goes around to classrooms on our list picking up recycling, while another team picks up mail from the staff room and delivers it to those staff members.
These jobs are curated opportunities for staff and students to have positive interactions with each other. I make a point to get to know many Gen Ed students and staff in the school, and facilitate conversations between the two until they get comfortable with each other on their own. A lot of times I feel like a matchmaker for friendships, and I credit that to the time I have taken to get to know the people I work with and the students who make up our school community. Jobs opportunities we have offered in previous years have included cleaning the staff room and car detailing!
Create After School Opportunities:
In 2014, we started a Special Olympics, Unified Sports Club. This club has expanded from having basketball and soccer teams to adding after-school activities such as movie nights, jogging groups, bowling outings, and more. Many of my peer tutors also participate in our club, and we have grown to have 40+ active members throughout the school year. Every year, we have a Pack The Gym basketball fundraiser, which oftentimes brings in more fans than a varsity game.
I have too many stories to tell about my experience with our Unified club, but I cannot adequately express the impact it has made on both my students with and without disabilities. I have seen my athletes (people with disabilities) make their first real friendships. I have seen them stand and cheer in the student section at their first high school football game. I have seen one crowned homecoming court, and another hit a game-winning 3 pointer. On the last day of school, I watch my athletes comfort their unified partners (people without disabilities) and peer tutors, as they say, goodbye to each other.
Our club takes the time to teach the school and our community as a whole through our R-Word Campaigns, and disability awareness activities during Unified Spirit Week. These experiences create both advocates and self-advocates, and it’s awesome to see. Click here to see our R-Word PSA Video.
If you are interested in starting your club or sports team, go to www.playunified.org.
Get to know your students, staff, and the community.
You have the opportunity to help build and facilitate the growth of a network of people who have your students’ backs. When they age out, make sure they have a foundation of relationships that can expand when they leave your classroom. Building a solid culture of inclusion and community is my ultimate goal as a special educator. While we have a long way to go, I have witnessed how the relationships between my students with and without disabilities have set the tone for my future unified generations in my program.
Final Thoughts: Let Them Be Teenagers
Creating an inclusive environment includes making time for your students to bond. Recognize the things your kids with and without disabilities have in common, and celebrate them. Foster opportunities to create inside jokes, and have dance parties. Let them pull out their phone in class and take selfies when it’s appropriate. Give them room to grow and do crazy things. If a kid wants a piggyback ride while you walk to the field, and the other student WANTS to give it to them let them do it! Whether you realize it or not, you have the opportunity as their educator not only to expand their academic knowledge but to expand their world through the power of inclusion.
Follow my journey as I navigate my seventh year of teaching by following me on Instagram @LifeSkillsWithLaverty
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Blog Cover Photo Clipart by: Over App – Darumo Shop
