Classroom Management

While I was reading this article - I was trying to think of a child that I have encountered that could be classified as an “EC” student and I couldn’t think of one until I thought back to when I was in elementary school and in kindergarten. I know… remembering someone from kindergarten?? I can remember ONE of my good friends from kindergarten that I did everything with… and this one kid Jason. He had some behavioral issues – I just remember him being loud and he wouldn’t like to work with other students at the centers (like the sand and macaroni table). Because it was so long ago – I can’t really remember whether or not Jason would have been considered “EC” or not. Other then Jason, I don’t think I was ever in classes either as a student or a teacher that would have been an inclusive classroom. Inclusion is really important not only to the development of the individual student but also to the development of the student’s classmates. I really liked the section about promoting membership in the classroom. I think that’s really important to ALL students – every child wants to feel like they belong in their classroom and in society in general. A lot of students tend to shut down when they do not feel like they have been accepted into their classroom by their classmates and their teachers. My cooperating teacher talks about her student’s safety as being her number one priority which creates a very safe environment for the students both physically and emotionally. Students with disabilities feel different already, when they are in a classroom with students that they see as “normal,” then they REALLY feel different and if the teachers and the students in the classroom don’t work hard to create a classroom that promotes membership (like the one talked about in the article) the students won’t feel as though they belong and feel even more different then they already feel and they are liable to shut down even more and fall even further behind.