A Change in Scenery, A Change in Practice

In August 2018, ISKL is moving to a new, state-of-the-art, world-class campus. The current campus has been the home of ISKL since its creation. The laughter and moments, 62 years of moments to be exact, will soon be a memory as we transition to our new home. Of course, we will take the stories with us, but there will be a huge shift in so many ways. Certainly some of this change will be warmly accepted, while other changes may take some getting used to. We hold on tightly to our past , so tightly, that it sometimes causes us to fear what the future holds. My future is about to change, but I honestly couldn't be more excited.

With a growing inclusion program at ISKL, so comes a new title for me. I will be ISKL's first-ever high school intensive-needs teacher, or as they call it, The Life-Centered Education Teacher. Students with mild to moderate needs have been in the high school for years, but the school's newly adopted push for full inclusion, means change is coming. This literally means the high school faculty will adapt a whole new way of thinking and teaching. We will have students that will require a level of differentiation and modification that many teachers have never designed. We will have students with disabilities that much of our faculty has never come face-to-face with. There will be so many questions coming my way, but I know this future is bright. As a faulty, I believe we will require an entirely new way of thinking and if we don't grow, we could get stuck in the past.

At moments in life, I certainly feel stuck and unsure of how to proceed. I put so much time and effort into brainstorming ways to approach my obstacle, but need something greater to push me forward. When the going gets tough, I meet this challenge by standing up and putting one foot in front of the other. Moving around for a change in scenery helps to get the creative juices flowing. To be honest, I've been taking a lot of walks lately, as my life has recently been full of change. As ISKL moves forward in our journey to full inclusion, I'm going to remain optimistic with this new challenge. My hopes are high for our flexible faculty, for we are going to stand up from our current campus and go for a walk, be surrounded by a new environment, be engulfed with change and newness to such a great degree that the changes in our student body will come with ease and open minds.