The Inclusion Podcast with Dr. Julie Causton is one worth listening to! In episode 24, she sits down with Becky Anderson-a middle school English teacher and is a college teacher working with preservice and in-service teachers, to talk about how teachers can lead inclusive change in their classrooms to create a true inclusive classroom community. She makes mention of the importance of making real relationships in the classroom. That the bare minimum is that students feel that they matter to the teacher, but in a truly inclusive classroom community, every student feels like they matter to everyone else. She suggests that we start each year focusing on “doing the real raw work” of talking about who we are, and why we matter. Having a sibling with special needs, she emphasizes the need for general educators to embrace the mindset that education, and the experience of learning, looks different for everyone. She offers practical suggestions for the classroom teacher to facilitate the growth of an inclusive classroom community starting with doing community building and team building as a foot in the door to the what she calls the real work-which is the stopping, and intentional processing, and reflection, about the experiences the classroom has had together and individually. Growing the self-awareness of the student, of the smaller group, and then as the whole classroom allows the connection of the “event or experience” to “what does that mean for our classroom”. She makes note of how educators must understand how difficult it is for students at first to answer simple questions regarding what they notice, what they need, and what they felt-because it is not a right or wrong answer, and even from very young, they have learned that schools have a lot of right and wrong answers. She stresses the importance of the role of the classroom teacher to encourage the mindset of “lots of answers” over right and wrong-because we don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience. She also discusses the importance that students feel part of their classroom community through representation-in curriculum, in books, in conversations. The strength of having books and discussions that represent the huge diversity of students she says is key to a student feeling that they belong in the school environment and classroom community-and teachers need to feel empowered to make the changes they need in their classrooms in pursuit of an inclusive environment and USE their mandates and policies and frameworks to feel safe in making changes to get the inclusivity and representation needed in the classroom that may cause some pushback. And to remember that through classroom community and team building, and true representation within the classroom and school environment, an inclusive classroom community is obtainable!