Think Inclusive

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!We talk all the time about the whole child. We almost never talk about the whole teacher. Angela Watson is a National Board Certified teacher, instructional coach, and the founder of Truth for Teachers. She started teaching in Prince George's County, Maryland, and her work now reaches millions of educators through her podcast, books, the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek, and the Finding Flow student engagement curriculum.Angela explains why a scripted, standardized classroom is hardest on students who learn differently: it treats difference as something to accommodate instead of something you build in from the start. She makes the case that teacher burnout is a systemic problem, not a personal failing, and that self-care has turned into one more demand on teachers. Her alternative is practical. Make your thinking visible, treat focus as a lifelong experiment you share with students, and when a student isn't focused, ask whether it's cognitive load before you call it behavior.She also shares what restores her, from a 25-minute e-bike ride to forest bathing and retreats for teachers, and why "I am not a teacher, I am a human who teaches" changes how you show up. We close with Awake Among the Stars, where Angela plays Bolt, a painfully literal maintenance robot who finds a choir of creatures singing in a ruined cathedral on an ash-covered planet.Expanded show notes and transcript: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/a-human-who-teaches-burnout-flow-and-the-whole-teacher-with-angela-watson/Sponsors:IXL, the all-in-one K-12 platform that adapts to each student: https://www.ixl.com/inclusiveBehavior 360 from Inclusive Schooling, professional learning that treats behavior as something to understand rather than manage: https://inclusiveschooling.com/mcie-behavior

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!"We're not raising children, we're raising adults." That is how parent advocate Karen Ford Cull starts every IEP, and it changes the whole meeting. Karen is an inclusive education advocate, parent coach, and mom of a 21-year-old son with Down syndrome. Through Plan4Inclusion she helps California families build IEPs that lead to meaningful inclusion. Before any of that, she was a political theorist.Karen asks a question we can't stop thinking about. In the rest of education, family engagement is called the number one thing that makes a difference for students. So where is that conversation in special education? She explains why so many IEP meetings run on conflict, why parents sometimes ask "What's the catch?" when the team finally agrees with them, and why districts should take the labels off their segregated programs.She also gives case managers a playbook: meet the family before the meeting, share a draft of the goals, and book two hours instead of 45 minutes. We close with Awake Among the Stars, where Karen plays a painfully literal robot who rescues a baby bird on an ash planet and names it Ketchum.Expanded show notes and transcript: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/were-raising-adults-building-trust-at-the-iep-table-with-karen-ford-cull/Sponsors:IXL, the all-in-one K-12 platform that adapts to each student: https://www.ixl.com/inclusiveBehavior 360 from Inclusive Schooling, professional learning that treats behavior as something to understand rather than manage: https://inclusiveschooling.com/mcie-behavior

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Kids have to feel safe before they can learn. Child psychologist and parent educator Dr. Emily King returns to Think Inclusive to talk about her new book, The Neurodivergent Learner: A New Approach to Your Child’s Success in the Classroom and Beyond. It is part brain science and part her own story as a mom, starting with her older son’s hard kindergarten year and ending with his high school graduation.Emily explains why every classroom is already neurodiverse, why she ignores test scores when families pick a school (she looks at the building, the noise, the transitions, and whether teachers like working there), and how joining her PTA board taught her what parents of neurotypical kids can do for everyone else. She also says we use labels to get kids access to support, but the label should not decide where a child goes.Then she calls behavior “the last thing that happens” and gives educators a step they can take tomorrow: email every adult who works with a student and ask whether they have ever seen the child do the thing the team is stuck on. We close with Awake Among the Stars, where Emily plays an anxious space botanist who names a volcano planet the amygdala.Expanded show notes and transcript: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/safe-before-ready-the-neurodivergent-learner-with-dr-emily-king/Sponsors:IXL, the all-in-one K-12 platform that adapts to each student: https://www.ixl.com/inclusiveBehavior 360 from Inclusive Schooling, professional learning that treats behavior as something to understand rather than manage: https://inclusiveschooling.com/mcie-behavior

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!When Elana Meyers Taylor won gold in women’s monobob at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, the first thing she did was find her sons and sign “Mommy won.” Both of her boys are deaf, and her older son, Nico, has Down syndrome. Sign language is the main language in their house.Elana talks with Tim about why her family learned ASL when doctors said not to bother, what an IEP evaluator missed because she didn’t know a single sign, and why a six-time Olympic medalist wants everyone to know they are not defined by what they achieve. She is honest about school, too: what inclusion looked like for Nico, what didn’t work, and why her family homeschools for now.Her starting point is the same as ours: ask what inclusion looks like for this kid first, then build from there. Plus, Elana plays Awake Among the Stars, our micro role-playing game, and discovers “grass fruit” on a world of floating mountains.Read the expanded show notes: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/mommy-won-elana-meyers-taylor-on-sign-language-worth-and-inclusion-1405/SponsorsIXL, the all-in-one K-12 platform that adapts to each student: ixl.com/inclusiveBehavior 360 from Inclusive Schooling, professional learning that treats behavior as something to understand, not just manage: inclusiveschooling.com/mcie-behavior

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!We say “inclusion” all the time. Michael McSheehan, owner and lead consultant of Evolve & Effect, says it’s time to say what we mean. He and four co-authors set out to write guidance about paraprofessionals and ended up writing the Five Features of Student Experience in a Continuum of Supports for Inclusive Education.The five features are location, accessibility, participation, affirmation, and agency. Each one is measured by what the student experiences compared to classmates without disabilities, not by what the classroom has. Michael explains why a student doing the same content with a para off to the side is not participating, why affirmation starts with “Is my name on the roster?”, and why special education and general education run on theories of learning that mix like oil and vinegar.After the interview, Michael plays Awake Among the Stars, our micro role-playing game adapted from Alone Among the Stars by Takuma Okada, and names a planet after his childhood dog.Expanded show notes and transcript: https://mcie.org/think-inclusive/say-what-you-mean-michael-mcsheehan-on-the-five-features-of-inclusion-1404/SponsorsIXL, an all-in-one K-12 platform that adapts to each student and builds a personalized learning plan: https://ixl.com/inclusiveBehavior 360 from Inclusive Schooling, professional learning that treats behavior as something to understand rather than manage: https://inclusiveschooling.com/mcie-behavior