This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to Episode 56 of the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast.

In this episode, I talk with Ms. Jam Gamble about how regular ED teachers can create a welcoming classroom for special ED students.

I can remember the first time I taught students with special needs. It was six grade and 12 students with IEPs had been placed in a single class period with me.

Despite the fact that I'd had a whole three credit college course devoted entirely to special education, I was absolutely clueless.

I mean, I had seen their IEPs, but I didn't really know how to interpret them. I was introduced to Kathy, the resource teacher who would accompany these students to class every day, but I wasn't sure what her role was or what shape our relationship was supposed to take.

And needless to say, that year with that class period was an absolute train wreck.

This is already a long episode, so I'm not going to go into detail here, but let's just say it was really, really hard.

I know I didn't serve those kids well. The 12 who had the IEPs and the remaining students also suffered because I knew nothing about how to manage a class with such a wide range of abilities and needs.

I can only imagine how different that year could have been if I had known someone like Jam Gamble.

I just discovered Jam, which is short for Jamila, on Periscope a few weeks ago.

She was talking about how she dealt with a student's behavior one day and just listening to the love in her voice and the careful way she handled the student's feelings, not to mention the breakthrough she experienced with him.

I knew right away she was the kind of teacher I absolutely loved.

Once I realized her work focused primarily on special ed, which is an area I haven't given nearly enough attention to on Cult of Pedagogy, I knew I had to have her on the podcast.

Miss Jam is a developmental services worker in Toronto, Ontario.

She supports students with disabilities, holds workshops, consults and hosts her own TV show called A Voice For All, which focuses entirely on promoting disability awareness within the greater Toronto community.

When discussing possible topics for our interview, Jam and I talked about how so many regular ed teachers feel inadequately prepared to serve the needs of students with special needs.

But every year more and more teachers are likely to have these students in their classrooms.

Because Jam spends every day doing this kind of work, we decided to have her share some ways regular ed teachers could make their classrooms more welcoming for special ed students.

Honestly, it was hard to squeeze it all in one hour.

And this interview certainly doesn't cover all of the things teachers can do.

But it offers some really smart, thoughtful advice teachers can start applying in their own classrooms right away.

Before I play the interview, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this episode, My Simple Show.

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