Reflection

As I reflect on this journey that this blog has taken me on, I’ve learned much about myself as well as being able to understand both sides of the different issues of classroom inclusion. Being a special education teacher for 14 years, it’s easy to become biased. My goals have changed tremendously since taking this course. I can honestly say that I’m more aware of my approach in the inclusion classroom in regards to the students and other teachers who may need my support through this process. Many think that teaching is so easy, but that isn’t always true. Depending on the children within your school, teaching can be challenging. The main focus is to keep pushing through and remaining positive whether the kids are self contained or being co taught. When I was first given this project to create a blog, I was rather frazzled. I have read many blogs but never actually created my own. At first, I was focusing on choosing a topic and gathering information through different sources such as the library and other online resources. This type of research typically is what I’m accustomed too.

Writing this blog has been an intellectual and emotional journey for me. Special education has been a passion of mine since the beginning of my teaching career so naturally classroom inclusion is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.  I think that by researching the different components that surround inclusion it has changed my perspective on quite a few things. When it comes to particular issues and debates, there are always two sides and it helps to be able to understand the opposite side and not just your own so you can develop an informed opinion about the issue.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this project; it has been fun and interesting. The blog has allowed me to not only provide facts about inclusion within the schools, but I have been able to actually give personal input. As a teacher, I come across these issues every day so it has been an outlet to be able to express my opinion and thoughts on the topic. This has been a new learning experience for me in that this project wasn’t a typical research paper in the format of a document but rather a fun environment in which to post research facts and personal thoughts. By using a blog format it allows a person to represent their ideas in a different format and you can learn much about your topic and yourself in this non-traditional format. Also, using visual rhetoric to represent your research and thoughts allows others that are viewing your blog to think in different ways about your topic.