Inclusive Education needs to come from a place of empathy. I started my practicum with an activity in empathy as a way to get to know my students. I asked them to take a picture of a shoe I had given them, and write three things about themselves that people might not know about them. This task was met with a lot of resistance. As I reflected on why the students were so opposed to completing this task for me, I realized that it likely had to do with the fact that I had not opened up to them. The next time we met to work on this, I showed them my shoe. I told them three things about myself that people don’t know just by looking at me. Then I sang for them. I told them that completing their shoes would be optional but that I wanted them to reflect on the idea that we don’t always know what people are going through by just looking at them. I did end up receiving lots of shoes and I learned a lot about my students.
If we are going create inclusive environments in our classroom, we need to have a trusting relationship with our students. I learned that I need to open up if I am to expect my students to do the same. For so many of them, this involved a quick check in first thing in the morning to let them know that I cared about their well being and that I was open to talking about something other than school work. This made negotiations with some students much easier later on in the day.