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When I was in grade 10 I had work experience for one week as part of my curriculum. The place I choose to do this was local Autism Center in Dubai. The experience was breathtaking and heartbreaking however, I had never felt more helpful. I met a student there who was remarkable good at math and honestly my math skills are not that great for an individual with who was on the disability spectrum he was so smart. He found my painted nails very pretty and we struck a friendship and each day I would help him with his tasks. I wouldn't really say I'm an agent of change but he taught me how I could be a better person and honestly that experience taught me so much more about inclusion and how yo be better advocate for it. Years later when I started working for an Early Childhood Organization we had a little 3 year old with Down Syndrome come in for admissions and we made conscious decision to to accept and support this child so he could be a part a normal ELC experience and I think my time at the autism really helped me to be more capable of helping him in every way I could.

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I am working as a directer of education in Sri Lanka. My job is supervising schools and their activities and progresses and providing instructions. According to my experience, most of the teachers and principles tend to separate children according to their intelligent levels based on term-test results. But i didn't agreed with them and i advice them to mix all students without any considerations to share knowledge and experiences as different peers in the same group. I think that method worked well..
cheers
Niranjala

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I used to commence a professional placement experience with pre-school children 2 years ago. One of the children

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In my current workplace I have a child who has been recognised as on the spectrum. Unfortunately we are unable to get funding support for this child as the family has not been able to apply for citizenship at this point in time.
At first the child had very challenging behaviours in which we were trying to work through including absconding. Slowly but surely the child has managed to begin to build relationships with other children in the classroom and become more aware of the routine.
It has been hard work but absolutley worth it. I even had to have discussions with some of my educators whom were ready to give up on the challenging aspect of the behaviours and remind them that this child has every right to be a part of our classroom despite the difficulties we face every day. Who else will speak for this child if we do not?

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In my classroom, a student asked for a skin coloured pencil. I asked “What colour is skin?” As a class we explored the many variations of skin colours in our racially diverse class. The students found that, no two skin colours were the same. We discussed how asking for a skin coloured pencil could result in a large number of different coloured pencil being offered. Finally the students decided that ‘skin’ was not a colour.  However, pink, cream, light brown, olive, dark brown, and white were colours that could be used to colour areas of skin in a picture.

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I was working as a casual educator in an early learning centre and joined the kinder room on that day. During outdoor play time, I saw a boy with autism running after  other children and wanted  to join their play. However,  the group of children ran away from this boy and hid from him. I heard this group of children said that  they do not want this  boy to join their play. I believe that if as a teacher we can teach the concept  of inclusion to the  children we teach, then we may able to reduce such situation that happened to this  boy with autism.

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As a Behaviour Technician I work in family homes very closely with children and their parents; the majority of the kids I see have an ASD diagnosis and are between the ages of 3 and 5. I felt like an agent of change in sessions with one of my newest kids who is non vocal when I spoke to his mum about the programs we are implementing in his therapy program to encourage him to vocalise as well as implementing PECS. This mum has been struggling with other service providers to have a communication protocol in place and was delighted when she knew that we were doing everything in our power to help her son better communicate to her. This mum and son now have a significantly better relationship as he learns how to best communicate what he wants his difficult and self injurious behaviour is decreasing and so is mum’s stress levels.

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I had worked with this particular family and their lovely son for many years. Within Australia, the NDIS can make it extremely hard for families of individuals with a disability, and this family in particular felt the stress of their impending plan review. The whole process was extremely stressful, but throughout that time I offered this family both my emotional and mental energy to assist them in anyway I could. After this process my lovely clients mother cried and gave me a hug and thanked me for all I'd done for them over the past few months. I felt like those little instances of providing her with an ear to listen was transformative for her mental health as a parent of a child with a disability. It meant the world to me to know I'd helped her, even just a little.

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I was placed in charge of a year 2 group of students. One student had a reputation for causing trouble and not being able to complete any work. I worked alongside a ES. In the first weeks we just concentrated on building a relationship with the student. No matter how frustrated we felt we never gave up on him. The student slowly began to take part in the learning activities and by term 3 he was at the expected level in all areas of the curriculum. The ES and I had not listened to the negatives that had been spoken about this student. We had always allowed him to tell his side of a story and also allowed him a voice to choose rewards and consequences for his actions. We allowed him breaks from his learning when it became too much but challenged him also. I think the person who was must surprise was his mum. I still remember her face at parent teacher interview when I said what a pleasure it had been to teach her son and watch him grow both academically and socially. Two years on and this student no longer has a reputation as a trouble maker and is continuing to learn.

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I never really believe that as a teacher in a rural area can create a significant change and impact for the society. Therefore, when one of my students cried and thanked me for the support and spirit, I delivered during her middle school made me realise that I have such a power to create a change. She was a girl from a blended family and living with her grandmother. She was very highly motivated student and dream of continuing her school into a more higher degree. Therefore, socio-economical level of the family did not support her to reach her dream. I suggested her never to give up her hopes and keep focusing on her study. Then, one scholarship for her to continue her study in high school was available, but her big family were restricted her to be far away from family. Helping her by reassuring her families that everything will be fine and I will take full responsibilities for her for one month eventually made all her families gave her permission. Recently, she won a STEM Olympiad as one of her school ambassadors made me proud and never regretted to even take full responsibilities for her.

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I have always been a strong advocate for equal opportunities. My favourite example was last year when teaching in a year 5/6 team I advocated for one of my students diagnosed with ASD to receive a leadership role regardless of his diagnosis. He was passionate about sport and was such a caring, committed individual. He was selected as a leader and he shone. His social skills improved, his connection to the community and dedication to helping others was outstanding. That role made him feel so valued, a 'leader'. He cherished it and was one of the best leaders I have ever witnessed in a primary setting.

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Once a student of mine told me I had been one of the reasons he hadn't dropped out of university because I always encouraged him to continue. Me, always trying to find purpose for my life, felt good about making another fellow human being feel good because well, life is hard, no need to make it harder on people. I love listening to people who need me, and help whenever I can, not because I think I am a hero, but because I have had many lows regarding my self-esteem and confidence and I take it very personally to help people not feel the way I have felt.

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When I was working at an early childhood setting only for the day as a fill-in, I was told by the permanent staff this particular girl (3yo) was "selective mute". Not knowing what exactly that meant and if that was a "thing", I attempted to communicate with the child regardless. For me, it only took a few hours of one-to-one attention and a lot of "reading" her expression to get a verbalised word out of her. This part, however, isn't the part I felt like an agent of change. My challenge laid in communicating the process and outcome to the other educators. How would they feel if an "outside" staff told them this child isn't "mute" and I talked to her? I had to put in more thought and effort into the communication with the staff than with the child and the majority of time, it is still the same in my day to day work life. We can be an agent of change for children and students and also for adults and other educators around us. 

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When I was working at an early childhood setting only for the day as a fill-in, I was told by the permanent staff this particular girl (3yo) was "selective mute". Not knowing what exactly that meant and if that was a "thing", I attempted to communicate with the child regardless. For me, it only took a few hours of one-to-one attention and a lot of "reading" her expression to get a verbalised word out of her. This part, however, isn't the part I felt like an agent of change. My challenge laid in communicating the process and outcome to the other educators. How would they feel if an "outside" staff told them this child isn't "mute" and I talked to her? I had to put in more thought and effort into the communication with the staff than with the child and the majority of time, it is still the same in my day to day work life. We can be an agent of change for children and students and also for adults and other educators around us. 

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I don't have the experience of a teacher, but as a student, I have had a similar experience. When we were in junior high school, there were several disabled students in our school, and one of them was in our class. She was my same table. The classmates didn't understand her situation at first. After a period of study together, we all understood her situation. Fortunately, no one regarded her as a special student. She has many friends, including me. Although there is no special experience, as a student I think it is very important to have a potential inclusive awareness.

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I feel like an agent of change each time I interact with my students' families. It makes me realise I am a small, but influential part of each student's life. Last year I had a child with ADHD in my class. I learnt a lot from him, but having him in my class highlighted for me the importance of relationships. Once we got to know each other he could trust that I would handle the situation and this meant that he could enjoy being at school. I felt very much a part of his journey in his first year at school, as well as part of his family's journey.  At the end of the year his mum spoke about how anxious she had been 12 months earlier, worrying about how her son would fit in, how he would learn, what his teachers would be like. I felt like an agent of change simply because I cared and made the student and his family very aware of the fact that I cared

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I feel like an agent of change each time I interact with my students' families. It makes me realise I am a small, but influential part of each student's life. Last year I had a child with ADHD in my class. I learnt a lot from him, but having him in my class highlighted for me the importance of relationships. Once we got to know each other he could trust that I would handle the situation and this meant that he could enjoy being at school. I felt very much a part of his journey in his first year at school, as well as part of his family's journey.  At the end of the year his mum spoke about how anxious she had been 12 months earlier, worrying about how her son would fit in, how he would learn, what his teachers would be like. I felt like an agent of change simply because I cared and made the student and his family very aware of the fact that I cared

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Catherine

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I was the in-charge of sailing program and we aim to use sailing as a tool for promoting inclusion for 3 months. We partner-up typical students and those with special needs. Everyone is so scared at first when they get into the sail, worry about the water, have no idea how to control the boom and so on. After we taught them some basic skills, they started to work together to get control the sail. One of the participants who had Down syndrome  mastered the control of boom and he tried hard to working with his partner. After three sessions, he demonstrated his skills during practice. During the tournament,  he shows his confident in sailing and so proud of his achievement. I believe that every child is unique as they are strong enough to inspire others. What they need is a platform for them to shine only.

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other so worried about her and she called me, but I have no idea where will she go. I called her many many times and nobody but c

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Teacher is the key factor for children to learn and grow

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Teacher is the key factor for children to learn and grow

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Teacher is the key factor for children to learn and grow. Last summer, I taught a music course in a training institution. There were about 10 children in the class. We had fun at that time. A little boy seldom talked with other classmates and teachers. I tried to communicate with him alone and found that he was not  introverted child. After school, I had one hour of communication with his parents. Her mother told me that his former music teacher told him that he had no talent for music and let him give up music. Since then, he has been particularly reluctant to speak, especially in music lessons. I tried to encourage and help him. He changed a lot during the summer vacation and began to talk with us. His mother was not worried, either. I think teachers are very important in children's learning and growth, because children will care much about teachers' evaluation of him.

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Just this year I had a child join my class who has been home schooled since Kindy. He is a child under guardianship and lives with his Grandmother and Grandfather full time. His Grandmother had enrolled him at his local school and he had only attended there a few days when the school contacted her and told her that he would be better suited at another site and that they would not accommodate him. She then went to a private fee paying school who did accept his enrollment but would only let him attend school for a few hours a week! Eventually she was referred to my class and agreed to give us a chance (due to her experiences she was not expecting us to be successful and was quite resistant to us). This student had only been with us for a few days when she came back into the class to tell us that he had gone home for the first time ever and told her that he had a friend to play with. She was quite overcome with emotion that he was making friends, happy to go to school and to top it all off actually learning and progressing in his education. I have to say we have done nothing special with this child except to accept him as he is and to make learning achievable for him. His 'Mum' still emails me at least once a week to say how amazing we are and how we have changed not only his life but hers as well.

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I was once working as a before and after school care in one of the school in Sydney. It was my first experience encounter to witness and learn the education system in Australia. During this work, I am simply supervise the kids at the center, watch them play and often play together with the kids until the school time starts in the morning, or before they are picked up by their parents/carer. One day, I see this young man playing on his own. This first time I look at him, he was acting differently than most of the other children. He often play alone. I tried to interact with him. However, he was quite introvert and hard to make connection with the new people. as I notice every single day, he sometimes use a particular expression or words during his playtime such as whooppa whoopaa. Then, I tried to play with him using some of the phrases that he often uses. I feel the connection, then he and I often play together, and during that time, I often teach him how to do simply tings like play with the play dough, interact with other kids, etc. it has been 4 months later before I am moving back to my country, I have seen some positive progress with the way he act and behave. It was really amazing back then to realise how I can interact with him and how his social skills develop.

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S is a very outstanding and smart girl and she is always the top student in her class. She is the only child in her family and her mother is very strict. She felt a bunch of pressure on her shoulder and very afraid of failure because she doesn’t want to disappointed her mom. However, she failed in the College Entrance Examination that is the most important exam in China. She is so depressed and doesn’t know how to face her mom. She run away alone and took a train to another city.

Her mother so worried about her and she called me, but I have no idea where will she go. I called her many many times and nobody but couldn’t contact her. We went to police station to report the case but the stuff told us that we could not report the case within 24 hours. Her mother broke down when she heard that, I can’t do anything but sent her mom home and comfort she that S is ok and she will be back soon. At that time, S ringed me and told me that her wallet was stolen and she can’t come back, she is so tried and hungry. Her mom took my phone and talked to her with depressed voice. She told S that babe, it is ok and I won’t blame on you. S cried loudly at the other side, she said sorry to her mom.

We dived to that city and picked S up. S tried to share her feeling to her mom and ask her mother to give her more freedom to choose her own life and suddenly her mom realized that a good and health relationship between mom and daughter is more important than many other things, and her daughter is an adult, she has the right to choose her own life. I really happy for them to find each other back.

This matter reminds me that family education is also an essential part of education system, parental educational backgrounds, their occupational choices and opportunities, and their relationship with children had a significant impact on the development of their children.

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I received a call one morning on my way to work. J was sobbing. She kept saying "Ms Eugenia, I have thoughts about hurting myself again. I really want to die."

J is an undiagnosed student but clearly suffering from depression. She has shared with me previously how she has a low self esteem and thinks herself as ugly and irritating and that the world would be a better place without her (she is honestly one of the sweetest girl I've had in my classes). She also shared with me how she conducts self-hurt acts. She has a penchant for buying blades. Whenever she feels low, she would cut herself in places where people would not easily see, such as her waist.

It was really stressful receiving that call from J, but thankfully I was not driving. I talked her through to get herself to a public place and assured her she would be safe once she is in our class. I would be there and she would be safe. I stayed on the phone with her. She fell asleep when she was on the bus. Eventually she reached the school bus stop and I sent one of her closer friends to get her from the gate.

I alerted the school counsellor and also her mentor. We worked together to make sure J receives as much emotional support as she could get from us. One of the stress points J get is the lack of financial support from home. There is also abusive history from her family but apparently the actions have stopped, thanks to the work of social workers who checked on J periodically. I managed to find J a home tutor job for a 7-year old (kid of a friend) and was glad to hear the arrangement somehow seems to bring about empowerment and distraction to her. J's self hurt incidents have reduced last semester but we are constantly keeping a watch over her just in case.

I was just really glad she decided to call me that morning before she decided to hurt herself again. It saddens me to think such a lovely student could be in so much pain at such a young age.

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R was a very talented and highly motivated student. One day, his mother had a stroke. He came from a low-income family and the loss of one additional income source was a huge blow to the family. R has 3 more younger siblings. His father later had a stroke too! It was so unfortunate. R decided to quit school so that he could enlist earlier for national service (it is compulsory in Singapore and servicemen get a small remuneration monthly) to enable his younger siblings to stay in school.

I helped R wrote many recommendation letters, so that he could be eligible for bursaries. 3 years later, I received a text one day. It was R. He told me he has returned to school! I was delighted and touched. He shared with me how my words to him was the constant motivation for him to never give up on schooling, though financial situation was still very difficult back home. He had to work as a car lashing worker after school and that was a graveyard shift. Many people think Singapore is a first-world country and there are no 'poor people' here. They are wrong. It pains me to see R work so hard for so little money and tried to recommend him for other work. I was glad he maintained his focus for his studies and that my affirmation for his potential helped him stay focus on getting his diploma.

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In our school, there is this system of a 'Daily Grade', where students are awarded a grade every day for the module they undertake. This forms part of their continuous assessment grade. For many students, it can be extremely stressful as many of them have conformed to keeping quiet in a traditional and didactic-styled classroom for at least 10 years of their schooling experience. Suddenly at tertiary level, they find themselves having to speak up actively in class and be highly responsive, in order to earn for that desired A grade.

With the increasing pressure to deliver a bell curve in our assessment (which I deeply detest), many lecturers often identify those quieter students as the potential C graders, no matter whether they themselves, as the lecturers, have made the effort to accurately collect evidence of the students' learning process for the whole day (we have a One Day One Problem pedagogy model - Problem-Based Learning).

However, this is deeply unfair to students who simple have a real fear of speaking up in public.

I came across a strategy a teacher once offered to a student. It was a story circulating on social media. The teacher offered the students an option to write to him/her instead of speaking up. I thought that was an excellent idea.

I started offering that option to the quieter bunch in my classes. One particular student really took to the idea, and she started to actively email me snippets of her thinking process after each learning phase. I really enjoyed reading her thoughts. Being a millennial generation, I think she thrives better in writing than talking face to face as well.

Eventually, what was most heartening to see was that she started to open up in class and share more! Those were the ideas she had penned down to me earlier during the lesson breaks :) I think the timely replies I gave her was also one of the critical reasons that helped. She started being more vocal because I think the writing helper her formulate her thoughts better.

I strongly urge anyone to give this strategy a shot, and to my colleagues, I have been urging them to stop dishing out Cs so loosely, and not to give in easily to the pressure of a bell curve. It is NOT fair to students who clearly want to learn, and are making strong efforts to participate but just experiencing some difficulties one way or another.

Cheers, EK

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The school where I went to conduct my teaching practice as a part of my postgraduate studies was a school for underprivileged and orphanage children. The first week was an observation week where the regular teacher of the school used to teach and we had to observe. During that observation, I identify some students with special needs like difficulty with writing, reading and understanding numbers but I am sharing a story of a little girl named Shazi, who did not have a visible special need but had behaviour problem. She did not like her teacher as she sometimes pulled her hair or wandered in the corridor during the lesson. The teacher labelled her ill-manner child and use to abuse her verbally. The school principal at the beginning briefed us that they never give physical punishment to their students but, children were abused verbally and sometimes physical punishment was also given.  When I started planning for the lessons I was so scared thinking how I can motivate Shazi.  I made colourful worksheets to make the students to work in pairs. During my lessons when I divided students into pairs and handed the worksheets the girl demanded that she want a separate worksheet as she did not want to share with the other child. Luckily, I had extra worksheet so I gave one to her. Every day, I was very respectful to her views and request and build a good rapport with her. I was amused to see her involvement in teaching and learning. By the end of the two weeks she was a well behaved and motivated student. On my last day in the school I received many presents and cards from the students. When I opened the cards from Shazi, I saw a beautiful painting of a pound and a duckling swimming beside a duck. On the duckling, it was written Shazi and on the duck my name was written. When I was leaving Shazi hugged me and whispered, “Can’t you be my teacher forever”. This story reminds me that how understanding children’s needs, building relationship, and respecting their views make a huge difference in the life of the students.
Regards
Farman Nisa

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When I was volunteering at Special Olympics Games, I met a 14-years-old girl who was isolated by her peers, volunteers and even staff. I was assigned to look after her for the 20 days trip during the Games. In fact, she looks like ordinary person, and she is just so sensitive and aggressive that making others feel annoyed and hurt. At the beginning, I felt difficult to communicate with her because she always complained others or asked strange thing. For instance, she suddenly looked at my face closely and asked me why I stared at her in a very rude way, but I did not do anything. During the trip, I tried to listen to her patiently and understand her feeling. She started talking to me a lot and trusted in me.  One day, she asked me a question "Why do others hate me and ignore me, except you? I can talk to you but not others.., even at schools, nobody talk to me neither teachers."  When I heard that, I felt happy that she likes me but at the same time I felt so upset for her because she was so lonely. Although she is studying at inclusive school, nobody accept her even her teachers. Me, as a volunteer, I also tried to change my perception and be friend with this girl. But her teachers do not care about her and make her feel isolated. I shared this story because it reminds me that as educators, we should be patient and open up our mind to all students. It is no doubt that some students may be challenging, but as long as we build up a good relationship with them, they are good students.  

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When I was volunteering at Special Olympics Games, I met a 14-years-old girl who was isolated by her peers, volunteers and even staff. I was assigned to look after her for the 20 days trip during the Games. In fact, she looks like ordinary person, and she is just so sensitive and aggressive that making others feel annoyed and hurt. At the beginning, I felt difficult to communicate with her because she always complained others or asked strange thing. For instance, she suddenly looked at my face closely and asked me why I stared at her in a very rude way, but I did not do anything. During the trip, I tried to listen to her patiently and understand her feeling. She started talking to me a lot and trusted in me.  One day, she asked me a question "Why do others hate me and ignore me, except you? I can talk to you but not others.., even at schools, nobody talk to me neither teachers."  When I heard that, I felt happy that she likes me but at the same time I felt so upset for her because she was so lonely. Although she is studying at inclusive school, nobody accept her even her teachers. Me, as a volunteer, I also tried to change my perception and be friend with this girl. But her teachers do not care about her and make her feel isolated. I shared this story because it reminds me that as educators, we should be patient and open up our mind to all students. It is no doubt that some students may be challenging, but as long as we build up a good relationship with them, they are good students.  

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Cheers
Si Ka Wong (Brigida)