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Inclusiveness: Its a beautiful thing!

One of the things I like best teaching school students is watching all the creative ways that teachers in our schools engage their students in learning – both about their chosen curriculum, but also about life. In this particular school, one teacher had a small white board outside of the classroom, near the door, where she posted notes with affirmations she had written. The Note Board said something like “Positive Thoughts: Take one if needed. Write one if you’d like.” I noticed the board because the post-it-note colors were bright, and the messages were short and positive — like a daily affirmation.

Each time my student would practice locating this classroom, we would take a minute for me to read a few notes out loud to her. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that maybe there should be a few notes on the board made especially for my braille reading student! The goal of our next weekly lesson was to travel around the school delivering “brailled love notes” that she had made to people who had gone the extra mile for her: the nurse, her parapro and the custodian (who we just adored!). My student had asked if we could end the lesson with a visit to the Note Board, so she might post a few of her own brailled notes to help her classmates. Imagine her surprise, she found her own special note, already up on the board! It doesn’t take much to go the extra mile to help ALL of our students (and members of our community) feel like we belong. Take a minute and reflect on the many little ways that you can make such a difference!!