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S12E37 Sam Drazin_MASTERED

Tim Villegas47min

Tim Villegas

00:00

Tim, Hi friends. I'm Tim Villegas from the Maryland Coalition for inclusive education. This is think inclusive, our podcast that brings you conversations with people doing the work of inclusion in the real world. This week, on the pod, we have my friend Sam Drazen, a nationally recognized educator and change maker, founder and executive director of changing perspectives. Changing perspectives, mission is to strengthen school communities through social, emotional learning, disability, awareness, empathy, development and inclusion. Sam was born with teacher Collins syndrome, a rare congenital disorder resulting in both facial anomaly and hearing loss. His experiences, both as a student with a disability and a teacher working in an inclusive classroom, helped him recognize the importance of supporting students in developing the essential life and relationship skills that underpin equity, inclusion and social change, Sam and I discuss the increasing priority of inclusive education in schools. Sam shares insights from his travels, illustrating the rising demand for Inclusive Education guidance in states like Maryland, Massachusetts, and even internationally like Cambodia, changing perspectives support schools through professional development coaching and site visits, emphasizing the importance of having a clear, inclusive education vision with specific goals. Before we get into my conversation with Sam, I want to tell you about our sponsor for this season, IXL. IXL is a fantastic all in one platform designed for K 12 education. It helps boost student achievement, empowers teachers and tracks progress seamlessly. Imagine having a tool that simplifies what usually requires dozens of different resources. Well, that's IXL. As students practice IXL adapts to their individual needs, ensuring they're both supported and challenged, plus each learner receives a personalized learning plan to effectively address any knowledge gaps. Interested in learning more, visit I excel.com/inclusive, that's ixl.com/inclusive, all right. After a short break, my conversation with Sam Drazen, catch you on the other side. You music.

Tim Villegas

02:55

Sandra, tell me what's going on, what's happening in your world?

Speaker 1

03:00

Well, that's a big question. How much time do you have? Because I don't have much time,

Tim Villegas

03:06

whatever, whatever you can fit into. How much time you have? How about that?

Speaker 1

03:10

There's a lot going on. I feel like this work around inclusion and inclusive education and practices continues to grow exponentially in what schools are talking about and how they're prioritizing this and building it into strategic planning processes and budgets. So I am kind of running around like a crazy person these days trying to help everyone in this work.

Tim Villegas

03:43

Yeah. Now, I know you're based in California, but have you been traveling, you know, to Maryland, or to any other states,

Speaker 1

03:53

right? I am heading to Maryland on Sunday, actually. Oh, really. Okay, yeah, next week, doing some site visits. We are changing perspectives. Have hired some new folks as program specialists, so they're going out into the field. So that's relieving a little bit of my travel, and really looking at ways we can scale up the work that we're doing to really meet the need of all the schools that are interested in kind of engaging in this work with us. So I will be, I will be in Maryland next week, then I'll be heading to Boston, and it's just in San Antonio. The big trip coming up is to Cambodia for, I mean, oh, what's conference there for senior,

Tim Villegas

04:47

right? Yes, too, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Lori ball, yeah,

Speaker 1

04:53

doing a key out there. And also a pre conference day really focused on I. Social Inclusion and recognizing that international schools bring together students with and without disabilities, but also from countries across the globe. And so how do international schools really intentionally think about crafting social experiences, whether those are extracurricular activities, recess, lunch, school, dances, etc, in a way that is inclusive not just of disability, but all other kind of facets of one's identity as well. So that's coming up in March. There's a lot. There's a lot going

Tim Villegas

05:36

on. There's a lot going on. Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1

05:39

Kind of finished the season of the back to school. PDS, because, you know, everyone wants to fit those in, and now, know, figuring out what's next, right? Like, I remember being a teacher, and, you know, sure you remember that too, right? The first day back, they bring everyone together in an auditorium, and, you know, they say, like, this is our initiative this year. And some teachers are fired up, and other teachers kind of roll their eyes, like, Yep, and next year it'll be something else, right? And so I finished up my tour of those, and now I'm, you know, really working with and having to push some, you know, district leaders on the case. So what's next? Like one, PD, at the beginning of the school year is not going to build capacity or sustainability, or, you know, affect any sort of exponential change in your systems and practices at your sites.

Tim Villegas

06:37

Well, I know we talked about this last time, you know, because Sam, I should say, you know, actually, welcome back to the think inclusive podcast. This is, you know, you're a two timer now, Sam, so I the last time you were on, you talked about, kind of the structure of changing perspectives and how you have, like a subscription type based or monthly or like, some sort of agreement with a school district and they there's resources on the website and stuff like that. It sounds to me like you are doing or expanding the role of, like coaching and consulting. Is that? Was that part of that before, and I just didn't realize it, or is it like an intentional part of growing changing perspectives?

Speaker 1

07:29

It's been a part of changing perspectives for a while. However, I think our curriculum ends up being what people think about, because it's like tangible and so I really think about, you know, those schools that we support, we always have a percentage of schools that are just engaging with our curriculum. That's what they're looking for. They're looking for resources that teachers can use with students to have meaningful conversations, engage in learning activities, to support students development of empathy and kindness and recognizing differences and being inclusive change makers. But the other portion of our work is really about working in partnerships with schools and districts hand in hand through kind of direct service and consultation. Now what does that look like? Well, it varies school by school based on need and time and bandwidth, but oftentimes it's a combination of three things. Really, it's a combination of those traditional professional development trainings that we think of when we think of PD in the education space. And I really see the value of PD when it comes to like, how do we build common language? How do we provide a large group of people with the same skills, practices, probing questions around mindset? But in addition to the professional development, I think two other services that we offer that really kind of hope to cement the change are our coaching hours, which is where we work, you know, one on one, or with a cohort, or kind of like a PLC model, to really provide that ongoing technical assistance, right? So, for example, yesterday, I led a training at a school around inclusive morning meeting practices. So when we think about our students who receive special education services, oftentimes the moments that they're pushed in are times like morning meeting, lunch recess. So I did a training yesterday with Gen Ed teachers on how do you intentionally craft an inclusive morning meeting experience right now, next would be the coaching right meeting with these gen ed teachers, either one on one or grade level teams periodically to go, okay, like what strategies from that? PD, have you tried? What barriers are you up against? What supports do you need? What success is, can we celebrate? Then the last kind of component of the work is what we call site visits. So that's when we're in the school in person, when kids are there, because often times when you're doing a PD, the kids aren't there, right? And so when I go and I do a site visit, for example, that would be going and sitting in on some of these morning meetings, watching what's happening and then providing that ongoing support. So it's really like professional development allows us to share common practices, common language, common ideas, to a large group. The coaching allows us to provide individual or small group technical assistance, and then the site visits allows us to see what's happening real time in person with the students.

Tim Villegas

10:51

And oftentimes those are all they're happening at the same time, like together, those those three services well,

Speaker 1

10:59

and it's kind of a cycle, right? Because we may go to a few site visits and go, Oh my gosh, there's something that's happening consistently. We need to do a PD to get that message out to everyone, or sometimes I'll do site visits, and teachers want to set up a pre meeting and a post meeting. Could have through that coaching model. It really is about supporting teachers and recognizing that inclusion is not a box you check. Like, I describe inclusion as a journey, and I think maybe some, like superintendents, don't like that, because I always say, like, inclusion is not a strategic plan. People like, inclusion might be in your strategic plan, but the problem with the idea of thinking inclusion is a strategic plan is they go, Oh, it's 2025, that's the end of our strategic plan. Like check, we did inclusion. Now we're moving on to the next thing, right? So I like to describe it as a journey, and that, you know, sometimes we're going really fast, we're on the freeway, other times we have to maybe take a detour, other times we hit some speed bumps. But you know, there's no finish line to this work.

Tim Villegas

12:12

Exactly,

Speaker 1

12:14

yes, no, it's great job security for you and I.

Tim Villegas

12:18

That's right, that's right,

Speaker 1

12:21

that's the that's the job. That's the teachers in the VD. Everything that that I, that we strive really hard to do at changing perspectives, is help every school that is engaging with us through kind of that model of services. Is think about what is their vision for inclusion. And a lot of times, the vision that schools have is given to them from a board or given to them from a district. And even with districts where we're working with more than one school in a district, there's a district out here, we're working with eight schools within the district. Each school has their own vision statement for inclusion, because the reality is, each school has its own community. It serves its own unique population of learners, and so really working with the school to think about what does a vision of inclusive education, look like, sound like and feel like in your school, and that that vision statement is like your North Star, right, right? That's just like our guiding light. And then after we have that vision statement helping schools go, okay, what are your goals for this year? We're not going to complete your entire vision statement in a year. It's unrealistic. So our vision statement is kind of that broad North Star we're working towards and then helping schools identify. What I recommend is one to three, no more than that, goals for the year. What are the specific things that we are going to achieve this year that fit within the vision statement, and then next year, we'll work on other things. Can

Tim Villegas

14:05

you, without divulging any specific information about a school district, is there a goal that comes to mind that a district has is working towards as an example? Because I'm imagining maybe there's some district leaders that are listening and going like, I'd like to have an inclusive vision. But what does that look like? What what would be a goal move like a realistic goal that a district is moving towards?

Speaker 1

14:33

Yeah, it's range. I had one school district the whole the whole year was to set goals for the next year.

Tim Villegas

14:43

Goal set goals because some schools

Speaker 1

14:45

aren't even sure where to begin, right, and so that the goal was we need changing perspectives to come and interview our teachers and interview our students and be present at school and make observations to help us grab what are. Goals need to be right. So that's like one end of the spectrum, the school district that I mentioned, or the school I mentioned about yesterday that I did inclusive morning meeting. One of their goals is to increase the number of days hours times that students who receive special education services from more of a self contained classroom are a part of morning meeting, right? So that's like a very quantifiable metric. Another school that I'm working at, their goal is around inclusive language, thinking about what is the language that is currently being used in written IEPs, in written five oh fours through talking in email. And what language do we need to change? You know, starting to think about not saying sped students, right, but students who receive special education services, thinking about using person first language for our friends, if you as the adult are not someone who identifies with that disability identity. So we're doing a lot of work with some districts just around language. Another school I was working with the goal was around recess and specifically what we call diversity of play. So if you go out and observe a recess, in my experience, odds are there's three things that kids can do. They can play on the play structure at the jungle gym, whatever you call it. They can play sport, usually involving whatever, whatever materials are available. So if your school is basketball, has basketball, they're all playing basketball. If you have soccer balls, they're all playing soccer balls. Or the third option is they hang out and they walk around and do nothing beyond that, right? And so I worked with the school, and it was like, we need to provide more structured diversity of play opportunities for students. So that was the goal, and so through that, we did some trainings with the yard supervisors on how they can facilitate inclusive play. We started a bubble station where kids could come and blow bubbles. We started a dance station where there was music playing and kids could dance. So those are some very like, concrete examples of goals. Oh,

Tim Villegas

17:27

I love that idea. I mean, great examples all around. The last one you talked about about having different stations in at recess. It comes like I'm remembering going out with my class at the in the playground, at the playground, and especially students who are who want to interact socially, but maybe not, don't have the skills or are still learning having like this facilitation of play would be so helpful, like, yet, what a wonderful idea. Yeah,

Speaker 1

18:10

I worked at with another school last year, and their goal was around inclusive time during lunch. So the way that they had done previously is the students who received special education services were eating lunch with their Gen Ed peers, but they were at their own table at the back of the cafeteria, right? And so we did a lot of work to figure out logistically and from a mindset standpoint, how they could actually with their Gen Ed pips, and so we changed the whole kind of schedule and model of lunch to make that happen. Yeah, yeah. But I think a lot of times what, what, what the struggle is, is that schools go, Oh my gosh. We have to do Dei, we have to do inclusion, but it's so big and vague and not tangible that it ends up not resulting in the tangible examples that I just gave you. Tim, right? Yeah, and so that's why it's changing perspectives we're really about, all right? First thing, what's the vision? Second thing, what are your goals? Now, let's now, let's make it happen.

Tim Villegas

19:27

Yeah, I'm reminded of on a previous conversation I had with a guest, and they were talking about how some schools feel like they need to be inclusive, fully inclusive, like overnight, or like, you know, within one year, and that that can that in its, in and of itself, can be a barrier because you don't, you haven't set up the infrastructure, you haven't equipped the educators, um. And so these, these small steps, can be a way to move towards, like, fully inclusive practices. Is that what you're seeing like, let's say, let's just take the the lunch example, right? You have a district who is, you know, let's figure out how we can make lunch time more inclusive in your experience. If, if a school or district is seeing success with that, do they want more? Or is it more like? Well, that worked, and I'm not sure you know, what do we do next?

Speaker 1

20:37

Oh, no, they definitely want success, right? Success brings success. This work can be really challenging. It's triggering, it's scary. It's pushing people to go from perhaps the fixed mindset of what they believe their school is and how it functions to a growth mindset. And so I really recommend with schools, especially in the first year, let's pick goals that are like the low hanging fruit, the things that are not going to put up walls of defensiveness or push people to a point of exhaustion, but let's find those low hanging fruit but high reward opportunities and make those happen. And once they see it, they go, Wow, I get it this work is also scary. What I find is that sometimes special educators are afraid to let go of their kids a little bit, right? Because for so long we've had this very siloed system, right? And you become very protective. And our Gen Ed educators are afraid of how their students are going to respond, but in fact, kids are actually pretty naturally empathetic. They're naturally kind, they're naturally curious, they're naturally inclusive. What happens is, the longer we separate kids, the more ignorance kind of grows, and we know that fear, oftentimes, is tied to ignorance, right? It's like that whole saying ignorance is bliss. Well, Ignorance isn't bliss. If you don't know something, you're afraid of it, usually. And so what do you do if you're afraid of something? You either ignore it or you combat it in a negative way. And so what I find is, if we can help schools identify these specific, tangible goals that then help to unveil for certain adults, like, oh, this did work. I remember I was coaching this school, the lunch school. I was coaching them for a while, but it was funny. They actually didn't tell me that they changed everything in the cafeteria. And I went for a site visit. And I went into the cafeteria during lunch time, and I was looking around, and I'm like, something's different, but I cannot put my finger on it. And then I realized what it was, and I thought, Oh, my God. Like, that's true inclusion. Like, true inclusion shouldn't be you walk in and you're like, Oh, I see it right. Like, it should be so subtle and natural that you're just like, something's different.

Tim Villegas

23:15

Yeah, yeah. I remember visiting this, this inclusive school in in the state of Washington, and it was like, I can't remember. I think it was just like when I was talking with the leaders, and there were some other people visiting the site, it was, it was like, the general consensus was like, Okay, well, where are all the disabled kids, right? But the principal and the leadership were like, that is actually by design. Like you, when you walk into a classroom, you don't know who the general ed teacher is, the special education teacher, the paraprofessional. You don't know who the student you know on the autism spectrum is. You don't know who is getting what accommodation, what modification. It's like everyone, like everyone's getting what they need, right. But it's not like this very obvious thing, because everyone is getting something right. Well,

Speaker 1

24:21

I always like to say a true sign of a fully inclusive school is one where all students view all adults as their teachers, and all adults view all students as their students.

Tim Villegas

24:36

And

Speaker 1

24:39

I intentionally use the word adult because it could be the janitorial staff, it could be an interventionist, it could be a para educator. It could be the secretary that sits at the front office. It could be the people that work in the cafeteria. It could be our duty, etcetera. But that, to me, is like, always a really significant. Sign of an authentically inclusive community.

Tim Villegas

25:04

Yeah, I love that. Um, yeah, and I love that. You you talk, yeah, you mentioned adults, right? It's so it's not, it's not. This is your kid. This is my kid, or anything like that. I really like that. Sam, could you say that one more time? Sure,

Speaker 1

25:26

sometimes I say brilliant things, not very often, but the sign of a truly inclusive school is one in which all students view all adults as their teachers and all adults view all students as their students. Now I intentionally say all students view all adults as their teachers, because from the students perspective, that's what they're seeing an adult as in the school building, a teacher.

Tim Villegas

25:58

That's so true. I'm even thinking about, like, bus drivers, right? Yeah, yeah, it's adult. Is an adult,

Speaker 1

26:08

right? And, like, you know, one of the things that I've been working a couple schools that I'm working with this year have goals around helping students who have one on one support gain more autonomy and gain more independence. And one of the things that I find when I've been going on some site visits recently is that those one on one, paraprofessionals with good intention and good hearts, you know, are kind of are always sitting right next to the student. They're always walking right next to the student. And not only does that kind of sometimes cultivate a sense of learn helplessness from that student, but it also combats that amazing statement that I just said, which is, now students don't see that adult as their teacher. They see it as you know, just Sam's teacher. Oh, that's just Sam's teacher. Yeah, yeah,

Tim Villegas

26:58

yeah. Exactly like, okay, yeah, this person is assigned to this person, so yeah, and that can be a real problem, especially like with like, implementing fully inclusive practices, because if you have that one on one relationship, it's really Easy. I think it's really easy for the adult to want to help too much and constantly be on top of their work and constantly be trying, you know, to intervene. And, you know, it's not because they're trying to the the it's like, not bad intentions, it's, it's a good intention, right? They want to help, but they're like, helping too much,

Speaker 1

27:43

right, right? Yeah, yeah, it can be a really challenging situation, and sometimes doesn't always perpetuate the inclusive model that we're working towards. So there's several schools I'm working with this year that are really focusing on that as their goal. There's another school that I'm working with this year is really focusing on universal accommodations in the classroom. So really thinking kind of through the lens of UDL on you know, what can I provide to students that everyone has access to in order to ensure more students have access to the curriculum, are able to fully participate and demonstrate their knowledge. So that's a much more sort of academic focused goal, but there are a handful of schools that are really looking at support from that lens. That I've been doing a lot of training. It's interesting. This year alone, I've been doing lot of training. Was just like, What is the difference between an accommodation and a modification? Because even That in itself seems to be very blurred. And again, just like every school has their own vision statement, it seems like every school interprets that something somewhat different.

Tim Villegas

28:56

How do you interpret it? I'm putting you on the spot. I'm sorry. Well, no, I

Speaker 1

29:03

have a way I interpret it, but I'm just like, thinking, oh gosh, people are going to listen to this. They're going to be writing and like, that's not

Tim Villegas

29:10

correct. We don't, you know what then, no, that's right. We don't have to. We like, we can cut like, no, no for the audio and the video. We don't have to include this. No,

Speaker 1

29:18

no. I can tell you how I interpret it. So I think of as accommodations, as things that provide more universal access opportunities to participate and or demonstrate your knowledge without altering the learning objectives and or the curriculum. So when I describe it to teachers, you know, I go, Hey, do you have a number line going around your classroom? That's an accommodation, right? Any student can utilize that number line to help them in math class, you're not changing the curriculum, you're not altering the learning outcome, but you're providing a tool to support. Right? A word wall is a universal accommodation. We know how on the desk they have those name plates with the multiplication charts, that's an accommodation. Closed captioning on a video is an accommodation, right? It's not just something that is going to be used for the student with the hearing impairment. Studies show all kids benefit from closed captioning, especially if they're asked to take notes while watching the video. Yeah, now I just kind of have a modification of when we're direct, directly altering the curriculum and or the out the objectives for a student. And so the idea here is, if educators can think about, how do we provide universal accommodations for all the number of modifications we should do? Should be sub right? I always say to teachers, like, if you're doing more modifications than you are doing accommodation, right, we should have a conversation, because doing more modifications than accommodations, you're going to burn yourself out, right? We should be providing more accommodations and just modifications for those really tier three students who really need something different. So an example of a modification would be a student who is given a test, let's say, and that they are able to go with a para educator to a separate room and dictate their answers, and the Para writes it down right, like that's altering something. An example of a modification is, you know, your simple things, like, you know, some students are doing five questions, other students are doing two. A modification could be, I'm providing this reading at this grade level, but I have a student who's at a different grade level, so I need to provide a reading at a different at a different grade level, right? So really thinking about accommodations are universal for all. Now, as a teacher, you may highly encourage some of your students to utilize a specific accommodation. And as a teacher, you may actually dis encourage some of your students not to use an accommodation if you feel like they need to challenge themselves, but it is as horrible, whereas a modification is more of that, direct altering of the content, direct altering of what you're asking students to demonstrate At the end, direct altering of the learning outcome or expectation, right? So maybe you're a science teacher and you're doing a unit on photosynthesis, a modification might be for a student that they're not learning photosynthesis, they're just learning the parts of the plant, right, which the component of photosynthesis, but we're modifying the curriculum and changing the learning objective for them to meet, right, right, right. Yeah, that was sort of a long reamble. I

Tim Villegas

33:11

hope that makes sense. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm thinking of when I was in the classroom. I so I skipped over what I was what I was going to say. I think the where it gets confusing for some educators is some modifications may not actually be technically modifications. If they're not changing the objective, they're just changing like, when you're thinking about universal design and you're thinking about like expression, right? If you're changing the way a learner expresses what they know you know, whereas some student may give a verbal explanation of an understanding of a concept, whereas some student is writing out the concept, the concepts they're fulfilling, the they're fulfilling the objective of the assignment, you know, fulfills the standard. But that isn't a modification, necessarily. It could be if the, it could be if, the, if the standard relates to the actual, you know, whatever the output is, does that make sense?

Speaker 1

34:25

Yeah. And the way that I think about it too, like, there are times where the lines get a little blurred, and I'll do a TV and teachers raise their hand. They're like, all right, let me do like, is this a modification and accommodation? Now, the example I gave, I view it as a modification, right? Because all the students are sitting in the classroom handwriting the answers to their test. One student is leading a classroom with a one on one to dictate. So I would see that as a modification, something we're changing for one individual student. If the teacher gave an assignment and said, Okay, your assignment is to. You, you know, write a report about x topic or record your own podcast about x topic. That's an accommodation, because that's open to voice and

Tim Villegas

35:11

choice for all, right, right, right, right, right, right, yes, yes. In a way that I

Speaker 1

35:15

think about it too, is like teacher bandwidth and teacher energy, if you have a student that is leaving the classroom with a one on one to dictate their answers to the test. The teacher needs to make sure there's a space available. The teacher needs to make sure that Hera is there to do that. So there's a little more, like, individualization. Way done,

Tim Villegas

35:36

I think too, there's, there's a there was even the subtext when I was, like, like, kind of, when we're talking about this, this, like, what do you call it? Unconscious bias against modifications. Like, modifications are bad, accommodations are good. Like, there's no, like, no. Like, it's just what the kids need. You know, I know you only have a few more minutes. So tell let everyone know how they can find you and changing perspectives, if they'd like to to work with you all.

Speaker 1

36:07

Yeah, we are always looking for more interested schools that want to partner with us in this great work. You can find us on our website, which is www dot changing perspectives now.org because this isn't something we're waiting to do. We're doing it right now. You can also shoot me an email. My email is on the website. You can also find us on all your social media platforms, changing perspectives now, at Facebook, LinkedIn, I guess it's not Twitter anymore. X Instagram, we're all over the place, but changing perspectives now.org. Would be your best starting place.

Tim Villegas

36:49

All right, Sam, we have, let's do like a lightning round mystery question, okay, all right, I'm ready. Let's do it. Okay, nope, that's too long. Nope, that's too long. I'm looking for the lightning around here. This may be a good one. What book do you think everyone what book do you think should be mandatory for everyone to read? Do you have a one off the top

Speaker 1

37:16

of your head, like adults or kids or what are we talking about it. Well, it

Tim Villegas

37:21

doesn't say it too, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1

37:25

Um, all right, so for my, one of my favorite picture books is enemy pie. And when I was a teacher, I read that every year. I love enemy pie. It's a great book. Uh, I really, really like it.

Tim Villegas

37:43

That's good one. Yeah,

Speaker 1

37:44

great one. Another one of my favorites is out of my mind. Really like out of my mind because, you know, focuses on a student with an with a physical disability, but not a cognitive disability. And I think we often make assumptions that because the student has a physical disability, that they have a cognitive inability as well.

Tim Villegas

38:12

Great suggestions, and that is made, it been made into a movie it did not know, and it's coming out on Disney plus, in November. I don't remember exactly when this is going to air, so that's a nice little segue. So I'm reading a book right now called happiness falls. I'm not done with it, so I'm not sure if I'd necessarily recommend it to everyone, but that's the one that's coming to my mind right now, and it's about, it's a mystery. It's kind of like a mystery with a family, and it takes the setting is like 2020, 20, you know, during the pandemic. So it's just really interesting, like the height of the pandemic. I mean, and, and so there's a character that is a non speaker, and the sister is the narrator. And as it goes through the book, the sister is saying like realizing maybe what the like presuming competence, that they weren't presuming competence of the of her brother, that's a non speaker, and realizing he probably knows a lot more about the mystery than than they thought. So I thought that was a really interesting book, so I recommend it now, so we'll see. All right, Sam, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for being on the thank you podcast. We always love having you. Thank you. Tim,

Unknown Speaker

39:41

happy to come back for round three. Whenever you're ready to have me.

Tim Villegas

39:59

You. Music. Welcome back. It's the time of the podcast that I give you three reflections from our conversation and two calls to action. Here we go. Number one, inclusion isn't just a checkbox. There are a lot of buzzwords in education, and inclusion is one of them. In fact, it's one of the ones that is getting a lot of negativity right now, in particular in this time, February 2025 but it is a real game changer that deserves our full attention. And Sam Drayson has noticed something interesting, and it's something that I've noticed too. Inclusion is having a moment. Inclusion is something that everyone is interested in, despite some people who want to sweep it under the rug and completely dismiss it, Sam says something really interesting. He says inclusion is not just a box to check. It's a journey, and every school's journey looks a little bit different. You know, something that I've said before on the inclusion stories podcast series is that we need a lot more people, 1000s and 1000s and millions and millions of people doing inclusion imperfectly. And so that really resonated with me. Number two, success brings success. So when a school has clear, achievable goals, you can really see some awesome changes. Sam talked a lot about creating inclusive spaces in different areas of the school, like recess, lunch, morning meetings. Is this full inclusion? No, we know that. Sam pointed out about how inclusion feels, and he said something like real inclusion is so seamless that you might not even really notice it's there, because it feels like it's always been that way. It's a natural part of the school, and that's been my experience too. When I visited school, schools and districts where inclusion, inclusive practices have been the norm for years, it just feels natural. There's a there's a certain way that you experience that Sam said that he is seeing these really small wins turn into even bigger wins as he and changing perspectives are working with that school district. Finally, number three, all hands on deck, inclusive schools are really about everyone pitching in teachers, yes, administrators, yes, any classified staff, yes, paraprofessionals, yes. All hands on deck. Sam puts it this way, in a truly inclusive school, all students see all adults as their teachers and all adults see all students as their students. And this idea just really, it really shifts how we should be thinking about inclusion. It's not just a few people's job. It's not just the inclusion facilitators job. It's not just the inclusion coach or the inclusion teacher. It's a team effort from every everyone, from the janitors to the cafeteria staff to the to the bus drivers to the principal to the teachers. Everyone should be involved in creating a welcoming and inclusive school. And I just love that. It's a journey. It's a journey for all of us. So will you go on that journey with changing perspectives, or MCIE, or somebody, go on that journey and experience what you can experience with making your school inclusive? So here are my two calls to action. Number one, go to changing perspectives now.org and check out everything that changing perspectives has to offer. In fact, if you want to make me and Sam happy, I would love it for Sam to tell me that someone reach out to them because of listening to this podcast, you can go to their contact page and just say, Hey, I listened to Sam on think inclusive and great work. Keep up the good work. Or maybe, let's get started with with one of your services. So that's number. One. Number two is sign up for MCIE email newsletters. We have two ones called the weekly ish that is published on the first and third Monday of the month, and it is written by me, and it goes over just whatever is on my mind in the field of inclusion. And number two is what's up with MCIE. It's published on the last business day of the month, and it just explains what's been going on. What are we doing that month? Where are we? And hopefully you'll get some benefit of those. I would be very appreciative if you sign up for those. The link will be in the show notes, but you can go to B, i, t, dot, l, y, slash, MCIE Dash newsletters. There's also going to be a link to donate. Please donate to MCIE so we can keep putting out these resources, key providing services for districts who are having a difficult, difficult time paying for them, it's very important that we keep up the work. Okay, that's it for this episode of Think inclusive time for the credits. Think inclusive is written, edited, designed, mixed and mastered by me Tim Villegas and as a production of the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education, Original Music by miles, credits, additional music from melody. Thank you to our sponsor, IXL. Learn more at ixl.com/inclusive we appreciate each and every one of you that listens, and we'd love to hear from you about how you are using our episodes. Maybe you're using for a class you teach, or perhaps you're sending them to a school administrator or a colleague. Let us know you can always reach out to me at tvgas@mcie.org, thanks again for your time and attention and remember, inclusion always works.

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MCIE, you.

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