Total Inclusion

I thought I had posted this topic last week, but can't find it. My rural k-12 school is going to total inclusion and team teaching next year. I am wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this and how it went. We have heard from some teachers in our area that have been doing this, but I am looking for ALL responses, not just the success stories. Any tips, stories, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Lynn

Tags: Inclusion, collaboration, teaching, team

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Permalink Reply by meL on June 15, 2009 at 9:05am

We went to inclusion several years ago - but in name only. This year it was "for real". The degree to which it worked varied greatly between the various teacher combos. (I am in two middle schools and am a technology integrator so my view is different from a classroom or sped teacher.) Each sped teacher basically followed his/her students to their core classes meaning the sped teacher co-taught with four different teachers each day. Some pairings worked better than others and I think a great factor was how each partnership was laid out. In the best scenarios the two teachers planned together and decided who did what part of the lesson, and both teachers worked with all students no matter IEP status. The worst scenarios were those where the sped teacher became the gopher/aide unless they knew ahead of time an observation was made then the classroom teacher suddenly relenquished control of the room. During tests most sped teachers and students went to their resource room since most students had "small group testing" as part of their IEPs. I know one teacher who does not allow a sped student in the classroom unless the sped teacher is present - needless to say, it is not a good relationship.