# data[].attributes.body
I think I fall somewhere in the middle in terms of agreeing or disagreeing with the golden rule of supporting others (i.e. our students) in the way that I (or any teacher) would want to be supported. When it comes to education I never want to take a firm yes or no stance on something because all of our students are unique and their needs range greatly depending on the student. The article made a point of saying that when a student has a para the teacher(s) tend to give that student less one on one attention despite the fact that these are the students who typically need greater support from a trained educator. This was not something that had occurred to me until reading it, but it is absolutely true for me. A student in my SC class has a para, and I do spend less time alone with him because I assume the para is addressing these things with him. "Reducing support promotes independence, interdependence, and interaction with peers (p.41)." I think this is something we need to be aware of. In my SC room there are 6 students, 5 of whom actually show up, and 3 adults. While it is wonderful that the students have so much support, I wonder if this is preventing them from becoming self reliant? I think we need to be cautious of this "over-supporting" our students. However, I do not think that I or anyone should approach support solely through their own eyes, because what works for me may not work for my students. It comes down to a balance, which we as special educators must find.

# data[].attributes.body
Of course I agree with the golden rule, it should be the base of our civilization in everything we do. How do we/I want to be supported though? I believe based on our strengths. The question the becomes how do I recognize the strengths of my students and how do I play off of that? I believe that one to one conversations should guide a teacher as to what t;he strengths of each student's are, also the IEP should play a big part. In an inclusive classroom there are many different students you should attend to, gifted, average, below average...we have a responsibility to differentiate for all our groups of learners, how do we do this? This is a question that modern education is struggling with. The answer is simple, yet difficult to follow, it is called, in one word, preparation!
In reality, each student needs a separate lesson plan, but that would drive a teacher "crazy". The first thing we need to do is to explain to students the difference between equal and fair, the second thing is to prepare lessons and materials for all levels in the classroom. I try to do these two for all my lessons, I can say that it does not work always, but when it does I feel like a good teacher. The biggest problem I encounter is the use of paraprofessionals; many times the students will only accept help from the designated para, most of times the para does not have the content knowledge necessary to teach, so I have to pre-teach the para. The problem here is that paras do not want to be bothered, or admit they don't know. The only way to ensure that the golden rule is enforced in my classrooms is to explain to both, students and paras, the assigned task, and to also remind them that each person is different and has different needs. Finally, I need to remind everyone in the classroom that they need to be focused on how to better themselves and not to worry if they have more work than others.

# data[].attributes.body
The article introduces this Idea of the "Golden rule". The author Theoharis claims the golden rule is "to support others as you would wish to be supported", I agree with this 100% because of my situation at my school. Too many teachers at my school are not helpful and often let their pride get in the way of what is good for the students. When I first started, many of the content teachers did not want me to use their materials which made it difficult for me to get my foot into the door. While supporting others is something that I Believe is one of my redeeming qualities, its frustrating to be in an educational environment and not have that support.  Even though this has been issue with the teacher at my school, i have been trying to get my students to support each other in class which i feel has led to better camaraderie with my students. I have my students helping each other spell, students editing, and support each other socially.

# data[].attributes.body
In the article, "The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms," Theoharis describes the golden rule as "to support others as you would wish to be supported." I would agree with the idea behind the golden rule. However, in actuality I would find it difficult to truly put it into works in my classroom for various reasons. For one, I do not completely agree with the aspect of allowing children to decide if they want the support or not. I don't agree with this aspect because, I have encountered students who will refuse help even when they desperately need it. I find it difficult to find the balance between letting go and letting students fail or fall short of truly accessing the material. In that sense, if a student who I know needs further super opts out of the support when asked, should I simply let them go and struggle?  This also adds to another level of difficulty when it comes to allowing the supports to fade when necessary. I know this is an essential step of special education I just do not know how or when to achieve this goal of lessening supports when students still need them to access the given material. On the other hand, I think it is important that adults in a classroom spend the necessary time together to plan to meet the needs of the students.

# data[].attributes.body
"The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms " written by Julie N. Causton Theohari'ss states that you should "support others as you wish to be supported". I totally agree with this Golden Rule. "Consider for a moment that the school system paid someone to be with you—supporting you 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Now, imagine that you had no say over who that support person
was or how she or he supported you" (Causation-Theoharis P 37). This opening line really put things into perspective for me, and made me think back to how I was as a student in all my classes. In some of my classes I wanted more support and others, little to non. I think it is important to reflect on our own education experiences when dealing with our students. All of our students may not want or need the same type of support. In reading this article, I plan to figure out what ways to best support my students, but by also doing so from a distance so that they do not become dependent on me. "Invasive adult support has had inadvertent detrimental effects on students with disabilities" (Causation-Theoharis P 38). Often times I find myself going in a million and one different directions to help my students because they call me. I have and will continue to implement more group work into my lessons so they students can rely more on the help of their peers and not the teachers in the class. It has and will continue to take some getting use to with not catering to every raise hand or every "Ms!", but it can and will get done in order to ensure the success of my students in my class, and after the leave me.

# data[].attributes.body
In the article "The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms" the author defines the golden rule in following way: "to support others as you would wish to be supported."  I agree with this in principle but it could prove to be difficult because individual students reactions to supports vary. I do agree that whatever supports that are in place should be faded over time.  In order to take students in need of supports and create independent adults, supports and modifications must be faded over time.  Students must be prepared for the real world of independence.  Continued supports without a plan to scale back those supports creates an “Unnecessary dependence on adults” and reliance on others for assistance.

As students mature, the presence of paraprofessionals should fade as well.  Students are trying to assert themselves and don’t always want a hovering presence near as they make connections to and build relationships with peers.
While supporting others as you would wish to be supported is easier said than done. Meeting the academic needs of students should be balanced with being sensitive to their need to grow and mature. Both should play a part in how support is given.

In my classroom I will suggest para's take a step back and encourage students to be more independent. Teachers along with paraprofessionals can monitor student progress from afar as supports are slowly withdrawn.

# data[].attributes.body
In Causton-Theoharis's, The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms  “The Golden Rule” refers, “to support others as you would wish to be supported,” In theory I like the way that it sounds but this of course will vary from one student to the next. I have paraprofessionals in both my self contained and ICT classes and they vary in their approach to supporting students. Some are very hands on and treat them almost as if they are their own children. I often wonder if it's too much as many of the students are in my opinion being lulled into believing someone will always be there to coddle them through life. I'm not a fan of the learned helplessness many of them display because they know their paraprofessional will do the most mundane and tedious tasks that they can do themselves. I'm all for support but I would like to see the paraprofessionals empowering the students to show more initiative and not be so reliant on every one of their every needs. I can't say I have the answer to this as many paraprofessionals have been doing this job for decades and know their jobs better than I know mine. So I just remain grateful for their presence in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
When reading the article "The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms" by Julie N. Causton-Theoharis I found a few takeaways that I will implement in my classrooms, such as "Plan to Fade Your Support".(pg.41) In my 7th period class there are two paraprofessionals in my room along with my co-teacher and I. Sometimes, the support can be overbearing and I totally understood when the author stated scenarios that nobody would be comfortable with. When comparing those actions to the support we give our students I became adhesive to the point that maybe we are teaching or students "learned helplessness; that is, behavior resulting from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation (pg.38) However, I can't fully agree with the philosophy behind The Golden Rule- treating our students the way we want to be treated. A lot of our students need invasive support in inclusive classrooms in order to not only stay on track but complete there work and actually LEARN. The high school I'm working in is involved with a D75 program. There are a few students in my classroom who has never been in an inclusive class before this. Without the rigorous support they receive form a Setts teacher present in our room, two paraprofessionals and my co-teacher and I, these students will absolutely not make it in an inclusive setting. Maybe in the upcoming months we can think about fading out the level of support provided. Yes, I agree, we don't want to make things weird for our students and point them out. We want them to feel like they are one with there peers, because they are. But not one philosophy goes for all students. You have to know who your students are. Especially when working with students with disabilities.

# data[].attributes.body
In the article the author talks about the negativity a para-professional can caused a student, the answer to the problem according to the author is "support others as you wish to be supported"  Although this article was interesting and I can see some of the negativity about a student having a para-professional I still can't fully agree with the golden rule, only because some students not all need more support than what they would like to lead on. For example some students are embarrass by their inability to get something done, being seen around the school with a person all day can discourage the student and they (Student) want to "pretend" they don't need the help but in reality can actually gain so much from the assistant of the paraprofessional. The Golden rule should be support the student to only what they need help with and not what you (Paraprofessional) feels like they need help with. It should be an open communication, the relationship between student and paraprofessional should be open dialog where the student can be able to say, "hey I got it from here"
In my experience I do notice that the paraprofessionals often do more than they should or have to.

# data[].attributes.body
The article The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms: Support Others as You Would Wish to Be Supported provides a look into what adult support for students should look like. Theoharis states that effective support requires subtlety (Causton-Theoharis, p. 37). I wholeheartedly agree with the golden rule that we need to support our students the way we would want to be supported. Providing students with constant support and takes away from the inclusion we are trying to provide and it breeds learned helplessness in our children. Adult support should be something brief and meaningful, so that the student knows the support is only there when they truly need it. We do not want the student(s) to feel that they have to depend on adult support to complete anything in the classroom. A student needs to be allowed the think on their own. I would ensure this in my classroom by opening a discussion with my paraprofessionals . We will discuss how we can better support the students without holding their hand every step of the way. The 1 to 1 paras are important because they know their student's strengths and weaknesses; that information can be use to provide and withhold support at certain points to allow the student to enforce their areas of strength and show growth in areas of need. In my ICT setting, my co-teacher and I are constantly grouping students differently to see what kind of outcomes we will get regardless of the student's IEP status. We have slowly gained an idea of what kind of support system we can provide to the struggling students. This can of experimentation is important for us to figure out how to best help our students to the best of our ability.

# data[].attributes.body
In the article "The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms" by Julie N. Causton-Theoharis, the author emphasizes the importance of supporting “others as you would wish to be supported,” (p. 37).  The article goes on to outline the drawbacks of 1:1 support and dependency and outlines a plan to create more independence for the student by giving them agency in deciding what their support would look like.
I absolutely agree with the author as I have seen what some 1:1 support can do to students in my classroom. At the offset of the year, in my classroom of 12 special needs students, I had 4 paraprofessionals in the classroom, along with me. This created an environment in which adult support, rather than peer was the norm. This not only created distractions from instruction (such as when a paraprofessional would address their student loudly, or would jump into instruction that was completely off task and derailed the lesson) but also allowed my students the opportunity to be lazy because there was always an adult jumping in to do the thinking for them. I have one student that at the start of the year had 1:1 support, but I noticed that the student wasn't not capable of doing the work, but was just lazy since they relied on their paraprofessional to direct every move in the classroom. I realized that this was why I never received homework from this student, as they had no incentive to actually pay attention during lessons. When I noticed this pattern, I went to my administration and explained that I do not think this student needs 1:1 support as it was actually hindering their success in the classroom. When it came time to do his IEP I removed his 1:1 and in the months time since that occurred, they are like a completely different student. This student not only regularly does their homework, but often takes on leadership roles in certain content areas (math and science) and pays attention and on task.
I think of this as actually living the Golden Rule; I know that I would not feel good about myself if I required complete adult supervision as a 14 year old. This student knew what they were capable of, but did not think anyone else saw this in them. The increased participation of this student leads me to believe that a renewed sense of confidence is what's driving this students success. Since then, two more paraprofessionals have been removed from my students leaving me with 1 paraprofessional in the classroom. We work very closely together to ensure that we're giving all students the support they require, while also requiring them to do the heavy lifting.

# data[].attributes.body
In the article The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms by Julie N. Causton-Theoharis, “The Golden Rule” mentioned is, “to support others as you would wish to be supported,” (Causton-Theoharis, p. 37). The article suggests best practices for how teachers and paraprofessionals should go about providing support for SPED students in an inclusive classroom. Causton-Theoharis elucidates her suggestions for support through Plan to Include, Ask and Listen, Step Back, and Plan to Fade. She emphasizes these steps as a way to help prevent a sense of learned helplessness, lack of peer interaction, and interference with creativity often seen in students that receive consistent adult support within the classroom.

I agree with Causton-Theoharis. I think years of too much consistent adult support within an inclusive classroom for a SPED student can lead to detrimental effects. I know I have seen it with my own students. I had one student, he has since transferred due to him not needing my English class, that had a para with him every time he was in class. The student participated and was a naturally outspoken person, but I believe that because he had a para always present and physically close to him, it caused a lack of peer interaction. I think it is beneficial to the student if the teachers and paraprofessionals are on the same page to provide support but from a temporary standpoint like the article suggests.  However, that is not to say that students shouldn’t have adult support at all. I have another student now that has a para that doesn’t consistently show up but needs that support. When his para is there, he doesn’t really seem to know how to aid him in learning so he doesn’t help him that much academically—which he needs as well. He just keeps him quieter. This student would benefit from having more adult support and then having it gradually withdrawn at a later time.

Treating students the way we would want to be treated is a question that I ask myself every day when I plan and execute my lessons or tasks. I always try to imagine myself in my students’ shoes so I can be sensitive to how certain situations, tasks, or lessons might make them feel. When Causton-Theoharis said that, “Effective adult support requires finesse, subtlety, and elegance.” I highlighted it and agreed. This is exactly how it should be executed within an inclusive classroom to help our kids continue to feel equal to their peers, build their academic and social confidence, and have more peer interaction.

My co-teachers and I purposely group our SPED students with our gen ed students and make sure everyone works together on mini projects. We try to reinforce an environment where it is ok to make mistakes and we remind the entire class that we all learn differently. As teachers, we also take turns helping different students in the class, so it isn’t obvious that I am a SPED teacher that works exclusively with the SPED students.  It seems to be working for the most part, but we still have a way to go to improve our class culture.

# data[].attributes.body
Background: The Theoharis article discusses the Golden Rule of Inclusive Classrooms.

1. 1. Do you agree/disagree with this Golden Rule? If you disagree, what should the Golden Rule be? If you agree, explain how you would ensure this occurred in your classroom.