The main challenge I faced in my school was that, since I started teaching, I have never taught in an inclusive school. It was very difficult at the beginning meeting the needs of every learner in my classroom. I had to learn about inclusion and how to implement it. One year, I was given an IEP of 2 students in my class. This made me very confused because, firstly, I had never seen an IEP. I went forth to do some research. I learnt a lot about it, but implementation remained a problem until I came in touch with free Teach2030 online workshops talking about differentiation and inclusion in which I received post-event materials on how I could adapt lessons to suit the needs of all my learners. It was very helpful; I now prepare my lessons using the proposed strategies to support learners in my classes. These strategies were:
- Start every lesson greeting students; this has helped to enhance my students’ sense of belonging, and made the classroom environment less tense.
- Consider classroom space and arrangement; this too has helped to strengthen peer relationship, reduce noise level, mixed ability grouping. My lessons are now friendly and movement around the classroom has improved.
- Evaluate all learner voice; every learner in my class is considered and cherished, all my learners answers count, everyone is free to express him or herself and all their points are taken into account. I now prepare differentiated worksheets with the same content to meet the needs of the different learners in my class.
- Compassion and sensitive to all learners; here, I learnt to respect all my learners individually taking into account that they are coming from different backgrounds and cultures. My learners also respect me for that; they became very open with me, increasing trust, and I am always ready to give them a hearing ear.
This has really helped to shape the way I interact with my learners during lessons and out of classroom.
All feedback now counts, by making it specific to what went well, could be adjusted, done in a different way or need improvement.
Changing words changes your mindset.
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So, log in online to Teach2030.com using any connected digital device and use the code ‘nacameroon’ to improve your TPD journey. Alternatively, sign up for the next set of free workshops and gain a certificate on completion!
