MIA TANNOUS: The premise of UT Elementary is that we teach to the spirit of every child, and 11 years ago, they started this charter so that they can establish that all kids can learn and have the opportunity to have best practices. So they opened the school on the east side of Austin, which in the past had low scores, performing scores, and low social economically disadvantaged families. So they started the school 11 years ago. When the school was opened, they wanted to make sure that not only are the students diverse, but the teachers are also diverse so that we have a sense of community here at our school. And that has definitely been a great, I guess, a melting pot of not only the staff but the students and parent buy-in to this wonderful school. So if you think about all learners, there are best practices that engage all learners, and so when you’re thinking about English language learners, you have to go back and look at your core instruction. And if your core instruction is meeting the expectations of those English language learners, you’re not only benefiting them, but you’re benefiting everyone in your classroom. So there’s a lot of opportunities for vocabulary development and discussions and peer conversations that really help those ELL learners, and it really just is best practices across the grade levels. LISA SIGAFOOS: I think inclusion teachers are a special type of teacher, because a lot of them may go through a general education program, but they’re still working with students with special needs. And so for pre-service teachers who kind of are going to general ed but want to work with that special education population, I think it’s really important to understand the diversity of all students and that whether a student is a high learner or a low learner, individualizing that instruction and determining what level of support they need, and differentiation, in accommodations, and strategies. You really need a big tool box of methods and strategies to use, because every learner is different, whether they are classified as special education, GT or not, you need different strategies to work with different students and determining that. And I think being able to pull small group and manage small group within a large group is really an important strategy to learn. And it’s something that takes work and practice, and so I think that would be a skill I would think that pre-service teachers really need to understand. It’s how to work small group within the full classroom and kind of differentiate like per student and give them the instruction and strategies that they need to be successful.
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