Do you remember being in elementary school, playing on the playground, and seeing a student with special needs playing alone? I aspire to be the type of teacher to promote inclusivity with our special education students, so one day you will not see a student with special needs playing alone. During my senior year of high school, my school started a new class, called United Phy Ed. This was a class where students in grades 9-12 could do PE with students with special needs. This class was a great start to promote inclusivity not only in the classroom but in the school. Not only did we have fun engaging in the activities with the Special Ed students, but we also created many great connections. We enjoyed playing games with the other students and helping them to feel more included in our school. One of my favorite parts of being in this class was when we would go into the Special Ed classroom and the students would get to show us what they were doing and what they were interested in. It helped us to get to know them more and be able to talk to them about what they liked. Having had many experiences communicating with students with special needs, I have realized how important it is for them to experience a sense of their own presence. They need to know how valued they are and how they can make an impact in their school community. One way to achieve this is by integrating special education students into the classroom more. Having and offering classes where all students can be together and participate creates a sense of inclusivity in the school. It not only helps students become more compassionate but also helps students with special needs build more social skills outside of their special ed classroom. The quote by Professor Harold Bloom means that the true purpose of teaching is for the teacher to make sure that their students understand their purpose, identity, and abilities. My mission as a teacher is to help students with special needs feel they have a place in their school, while also helping them know and harness their abilities. How I would help my students experience a sense of their presence, is to help them understand and identify what they are capable of. Students sometimes do not realize what they are capable of. It is our job as educators, especially special education teachers, to help them see their true potential. When I work with kids with special needs, I always try to assess what they know depending on what we are learning or doing. For example, during the unified PE class, we played some catching games. Some were played in a large group, and some were played in small groups or pairs. There was a student who I was playing a throwing and catching game with, and from observing him playing the other games during other classes and from talking to his paraprofessional I learned that the student was not able to catch a normal medium-sized dodgeball as easily as other students could. So, what we did was switch the type of object we used to throw and catch. We switched it to a bean bag or a smaller ball that was easier to grasp. By making these subtitle changes we still ensured that the student could participate and know that they were still capable of playing the game. For the last 4 summers, I have been a lifeguard and have had the opportunity to lifeguard something called adaptive swim. Adaptive swim was a 2-hour chunk of time where kids and adults with disabilities and their families could come and swim. This was a great time for families to connect and also for kids to interact with kids with similar or different disabilities. During my most recent summer lifeguarding, there was a girl who wanted to jump off the diving board but was too nervous to do it. I talked to her about why she was nervous and told her we could start small and work our way up to it. We first started by jumping off the side into a part of the pool that was about 5 feet deep. Then we worked our way up to jumping off the side into a part of the pool that was 12 feet deep. Once she felt comfortable jumping into the 12-foot end of the pool, I had her jump off of a diving block which is a couple of inches shorter than the diving board. By the last day, she was finally ready to jump off the diving board. I jumped off first to make her feel more at ease about it and stayed in proximity to the board so I could help her once she jumped it. With lots of reassurance and encouragement, she walked to the end of the board and jumped off. She was so proud of herself that she could do it and felt very accomplished. It was great to see how she lit up and was proud of herself after she jumped off the diving board. It was rewarding to see the confidence she gained after accomplishing her goal. To help my students feel a sense of their own presence I will create a set of goals for them to work up to accomplishing. Then I will create steps that work up to them accomplishing those goals. I will also do everything in my power to help my students to feel that they are being seen. A way to do this is to meet them where they are at and help to achieve those higher goals that you know they can achieve. As a special education teacher, I will help my students accomplish and meet their goals while also integrating them into their school community. I will also help my students feel that they have a strong and positive support system surrounding them. No student should ever feel like they have to play alone on the playground, nor should they have to.