So two weeks after Renay said our blog for summer would be early, this is still quite early. We had anticipated talking about the upcoming release of “Finding It in the World: World Geography Level 2, 2nd Edition”, as of this morning, there were another twenty edits to the publishing process. Even with the errors, there has been a green light from the publisher since last week, so the small edits aren’t challenging too many issues on the publication front. We will hopefully have a publication announcement soon, but there are more important things at hand this very busy summer.
Renay has been busy, not just with the publications that are listed for creation. Renay has been networking with many of the special education bloggers and professionals across the country in both Google Hangouts, and then just yesterday an international conference of special educators.
As of yesterday morning, the hashtag: #BetterTogether is linking up Ollibean, Think Inclusive, Kids Included Together, 30 Days of Autism, The Inclusive Class, National Catholic Board on Full Inclusion, SheryZ , AmandaMorin , JewishSpecialEd , and ParaEducate. We hope to add more groups. Collectively, we’re trying to answer the call to continue to promote inclusion and part of that step means finding people who see the benefit of inclusion who may not be parents or relatives of someone with a disability. And depending on the group you are speaking with, “inclusion” does take on different meanings, but the goal is the same. We all live, work, go to school in, take care of, participate in, our communities: church, political, societal, educational, or otherwise. Our communities benefit when we work together. Our communities grow and strengthen when we are together.
The #BetterTogether cover photo
Well why do this? While all of our focus seem to be Inclusive Education, or at least with Kids Included Together, inclusive community participation, we are really great at circling and sharing our messages together. We’ve shared great stories of things we see in our lives with people with disabilities or within schools, or within the world that we see as our community. It’s going to take a real level of inclusive community to reach out and build those in roads not just within and for people with disabilities but around all our communities. And we’ve all spoken about this in different ways. I think Beth Foraker, National Catholic Board on Full Inclusion, says it best, “There aren’t special grocery stores for people with disabilities.”
Between all of the participants of #BetterTogether, we have endless resources even within our own corners of not just the United States or Canada, but within our own lives. Our readers who may or may not overlap but their worlds are bigger and easier with the advent of social media.
So how do you help? Well, when you see natural inclusion with your children use #BetterTogether if you elect to share a picture or status on social media. Yes, using the hashtag does draw attention, but that’s the point of social media. Because together, we can show the benefits of inclusion and step forward away from the things that are perceived or assumed problems.
So #BetterTogether: we are pooling our resources, sharing our materials and ideas, and connecting. We have hopes of participating in an Inclusive Summit proposed by Nicole Eredics from The Inclusive Class, and Beth Foraker. More details coming soon because, let’s face it, we’re #BetterTogether.
ParaEducate will return August 13th with regular blog posts. Do you have any comments about this week’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, here, here, and here. ParaEducate is company interested in providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published weekly during the academic school year on Thursdays, unless a holiday. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
