What is your educational background?
I have a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and a Masters degree in Early Childhood Special Education.

What other experiences, or staff development has prepared you for inclusion?.
Personality training, to identify each personality type represented in the room and what each person needs in order to function in this group. I have also had training in conflict resolution and lots of trials and tribulations.

What is your job role?
ECSE teacher in the classroom.

What is your role regarding the inclusive component of the program?
As a classroom teacher my role is to make sure all students are being included in the program. As a special educator it is my role to meet needs and goals of my identified children.

How has your role changed or have you adapted your role as it relates to the inclusive program?
I had to accept that I am not the only teacher of this classroom. I need to take responsibility for all the students. The children don't know the difference in the staff and their roles. I have to pick and chose what I am willing to live with and what issues or philosophies I can personally change.

What were your biggest concerns about participating in an inclusive program?
I wondered how I could meet the needs of ECSE students in such a large, diverse setting. I also wondered what it would be like working with a staff that has such a diverse education. I wanted to make sure that support staff was included in all decision.

What were your experiences related to these concerns once inclusive services were implemented?
The student's special education needs can be met by preparing developmentally appropriate activities just like the peer models need. You may have to give prompts to some of the children.

Communicate with staff, don't take anything personal and keep the child's needs as your focus.

Make a conscience effort to invite support staff to meetings. Listen to their suggestions.

What do you see as the benefits of moving toward inclusive services?
The environment is least restrictive. It is more natural. It resembles the population of the world as far as percentages of people (children) with special needs verse people (children) without special needs. The peer models do half the work for you. . . children are naturally inclined to follow and listen to other peers.

Can you offer one or more anecdotes that you feel illustrate the benefits of inclusion?
My first year I had an inclusive classroom I had a boy who was mentally and physically disabled. He would crawl around the room. We would sing a song called "Funny Clown". The song requests a funny trick or skill. Each child would take a turn and do a trick. At first this boy was put through a trick such as clapping hands. A lot of other children were into doing somersaults. After watching this for three or four months this little boy heard his name sung and he attempted to do a somersault by himself. All this time we thought he wasn't paying attention to the other children, but he was.

I also had a child with PDD in my classroom. At this time we had a dramatic play center where we were acting out and role playing what would happen at a grocery store. We had pretend money, groceries, cash registers etc. This boy, "Joe," loved the cash register and that is the role he always played. After role playing this for four days, we walked to the grocery store to purchase fruit which he had to find. With assistance from a teacher, he picked out his fruit, went to the cash register, and handed the lady his money. He said, "money," the clerk took it and replied, "thank you." He grabbed his bag and walked out. He initiated and carried out this interaction by himself. I believe by watching his peers and pretending in the classroom he was able to do this interaction all by himself.