KIC S1E4 Educating All Students: A Call for Action to Create More Inclusive Schools Featuring Kevin Baldus

Karten's Inclusion Conversations S1E4 Featuring Kevin Baldus
Toby and Kevin's conversation centers on the challenges and successes of inclusion in special education. They discuss several themes, including the importance of building relationships and connections between students, staff, and families. They also highlight the need for early intervention and planning to support students with special needs, as well as the value of providing all learners with opportunities to succeed. However, they note that more funding and resources are necessary for special education and that staff would benefit from additional training on working with students with special needs. Additionally, they suggest that greater understanding and acceptance from the community is needed. Despite these challenges, the conversation is ultimately positive, emphasizing the power of inclusion and the importance of ensuring all students have the chance to succeed.

Websites mentioned in the conversation:

Riverside Brookfield High School

Developing Effective Learners

Navigating the Core Curriculum

#TobyKarten #KevinBaldus #Karten’sInclusionConversations #KIC #Inclusion #InclusiveConversations #DiversityMatters #EmbraceDifferences #RespectInclusion #Equalityforall #GrowthMindset #InclusiveEducation #BreakingBarriers #CelebrateDiversity #InclusionMatters #EmpowerInclusion #BuildingBridges #AcceptanceandBelonging #UnityinDiversity #CreatingEqualOpportunities

For more information please visit https://inclusionworkshops.com/

Transcript

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I have the good fortune of being collaborator with Mr. Kevin Baldus, who's the Director of Special Services at Riverside Brookfield High School in Illinois. And welcome, Kevin, I am so happy that you're here because your great knowledge will help our podcast listeners to understand more about some of the variables and the dynamics involved. So, if you don't mind, could you just tell me a little bit about yourself that our listeners should know? Absolutely. So, Riverside Brookfield High School, near the west suburbs of Chicago. For myself personally, this is about probably my 22nd to 23rd year of working in special ed in multiple different roles. Went out of the Therapeutic Day School for kids on the artistic spectrum and ran and worked in their high school program for about five years. Then went to a public high school that I led the multi-needs program for a district at another high school in Chicago west suburbs for about four years. Left that school, of course, getting off our tenure and leaving was kind of a pattern for me when I'm, you know, offered new challenges that I, you know, like to take on and went to a farther west suburb to actually the high school I attended to work as a special education case manager and teacher in a different role and different challenge that I enjoyed more when working with kids with specific learning disabilities. Then got another opportunity at a back tour of Chicago in a near west suburb here at RB where I, of course, the school bell rings behind me when I'm talking. That's part of working in a school that people haven't forgotten. Reality. Reality. And came to RB about 10 years ago and been here since in multiple roles that started out with being a co-teacher, running a study skills program for kids that struggled in the classroom due to different, you know, learning disabilities and then became the instructional coach in the special education department. And then now the director of special education here at the high school for the last three years worked in multiple different environments within the special education spectrum of support services. So lucky to have that experience for myself and working with all those different types of populations of kids. Well, I think that the lucky people are the people at RB now who are recipients of that wealth of knowledge and the different roles that you've played with multiple schools. And you said a word there that I heard more than once and as a strong proponent of inclusion, I would always say that it's not perfect, that there are always challenges. And we met actually online during the pandemic. And we were having a little bit of a conversation earlier before the podcast started about some of the challenges that you in the high school are facing because of some students who don't want to attend. Attendance is an issue with all students, especially high school students. Would you agree, Kevin? Yes. I think it's not necessarily just a special education thing, but when our kids are at such well-rounded services that often already are identified with emotional disability or just struggling learners for given disabilities, that return back to school has been a challenge. And I think we as a district, and I hear it from other districts, other schools, we're a high school district, so we only have kids in 9th through 12th and in transition as well. But I'm hearing it in the middle schools and the elementary schools about kids just not coming to school. And the reasoning behind it is just a plethora of reasons. I try to stay away from using excuses for not coming to school, but sometimes it is some push. I got to be careful, but some push from home to get kids back into an environment they haven't been in in a while and kind of getting them back out of their comfort zone of being in their house. Right. Especially, and I think to be honest, I think part of it is true. It used to be, I'm not trying to go off on a tangent here a little bit, but it used to be wonderful for podcasts. But we have a lot of teachers that in the past, people that are non-education feel like, well, you get the whole summers off, right? Like you guys get all this time to recharge, be home, which there's a hundred, I could argue that too. And it's a separate podcast probably, right? But now we've got it. We could. Yes. Yes. We definitely got it flipped now where we have a lot of people that used to be going into the office do not do that anymore and they're home and they enjoyed having their kids home and they can work from home. And the parents are like their routine in the morning is just kind of get ready for their work day in the house, getting the kids out the door because they had to leave. Now is part of the challenge that we're seeing. If mom and dad are home, the little more likely the kids are going to stay home too. That's my personal opinion on that, but no, no, that's good because what you're doing right now for listeners who are facing similar challenges is that you're putting that conversation out there. And that's part of the reason for, you know, cartons inclusion conversations is that we're trying to figure out, okay, nothing is perfect. Nobody has a halo on occlusion, but together we figure out how to make it better. And there's always rays of sunshine. So even with the pandemic and some of the things connections can still happen, even online connections can still happen no matter if the child is in preschool or high school. And I think that's even more important as well, but I always think about those rays of sunshine. And remember I was doing my website and my website designer said, what do you like? And I said, sunflowers, she goes, let's put them on there. I said, really, you could do that. So it made me happy to see that. So I know you're very involved in immersed in your field, but what's your ray of sunshine? Do you have some rays of sunshine that make you smile as you're going through this as well that you want to share with our listeners? I do think that one that coming back in the building and being around the staff that shares those kids that are back, kids that are doing stuff that we did not think they were maybe capable of, going above and beyond, we always challenge, but always structure it so that's not overwhelming. When you hear the good stories about kids now working in, especially our older kids now are working in job situations that we were really skeptical about maybe if it was going to be too much and they're flourishing and doing great things. I think the other part is this month in January, what we do to bring in our students with IEPs and our diverse learners as eighth graders to have individual meetings. So the team at RB can get to know the kid and the team perspective from the feeder schools to have them all in a room to get them as comfortable with us as possible. So they can ask questions, really connect with us on a face-to-face basis as opposed to doing those on Zoom. And then first time they kind of come to our school is when that first day of school and developing a system that supports the parents, the parents feel comfortable about sending their child out of their home again back to school in a new building where you might have three to four times the number of kids that they had in their feeder school or the middle school. Just those connections. I mean, that's what I think we all get in education is to connect with people and as teachers and educators that was taken away from us by COVID and now that we're allowed to do that. To me, those are those sunflowers is that those face-to-face interactions and, you know, I think this morning I had a young man who's in transition, he's about to age out and go into a job. He came in the building a little early today and I just say, hey, come sit down in my office. And he's not a traditional kid that's going to have a conversation with you, but just have him sit down and say hello to me and just connect with them a little bit. I love that relationships, relationships with students, families, colleagues, you know, I love when I was actually on your campus 3D. I mean, it was nice to connect with everyone online, but that personalization and you just brought something else across, which is, which is wonderful. And it's one of the inclusion principles that my, you know, my shoulders are yay big, so are yours and we can put everything on them, but we have experts in the field, whether they're related service providers, case managers and communications and connections, which you just said from eighth grade, you're not waiting for the kids to come into ninth grade. You're doing that planning and prep. So that is a huge part of that. You're valuing that. And you know, we turn those opportunities into better things, you know, for our learners. So you've had such a diverse experience in the field of special education, just like I've worked on a continuum with many learners and you have a passion for it. And that is evidenced right away. And I also want to know how do you treat the person in the mirror? What how do you react to that person to make sure that I know we did this activity like a paper plate. We divided up. How do you spend your personal and professional day? So, you know, I find sometimes, okay, this is silly. I can't believe I'm admitting this on a podcast, but I do binge watch Emily in Paris without my husband. But nothing's better than that for me to take like 40 minutes in a bowl of chocolate popcorn. And that might be how I take care of my person in the mirror before I go ahead and do personal, you know, more professional. That makes the professional better. So I spoke too much. So you want to share how you take care of that person in the mirror or you could pass your option. No, I'm fine with that. I think this is interesting. And I don't know, Toby, you may not know this about me if I ever share this with you that outside of my role as a director of special education and like, I don't know, I used to have a kid, a student tell me like side hustle, but I actually am a part owner of a brewery in Chicago as well in the suburbs of Chicago. So there's a big part of my life outside of education that I kind of my outlet to turn it started with a hobby in the home and then it just kind of took off and gain a couple business partners and it's been going. But I also have an eight-year-old and a wife that's very supportive, obviously, to allow me to do these two full-time jobs and kind of have my outlet there. Avid outdoorsman, I do like to spend times outdoors, a very tactile person. I love to build and use my hands, which is a big part of that brewing process, building things, home improvement projects, just kind of like reset myself. It's kind of a family thing too. I've come from a family of educators that are similar to me and that building, creating things and just being involved, you know, hands-on has been a big part of who I am. You know, no, I didn't know that about you. It would have been nice to share when I was in the Chicago area, but I will be returning and I think that half those things that you mentioned make everything stronger. It's one doesn't supersede the other, but from what I've seen from what you're doing, you're recommending that people compliment their work with other factors that make the days go quickly and better and have different roles and that compartmentalization. When I think about that, thank you for sharing that with our listeners because that's a model that sometimes I know in the field of special ed, we have some days that aren't as pretty as others to put that mildly. A lot of our kids work and experience trauma and so many circumstances they cannot control, but if they could see a future that involves other things and using the knowledge in school to get those kids who aren't coming to school to come back, I think that that would be totally, totally amazing. So thank you for your doing that. Are there any hoops that you would recommend to the listeners who might be in similar positions that, you know, you have all these ideas and then you have hopes, you have to do this. You have to make sure that each I is dotted and each T is crossed and it's within this space, this size font. You get my gist here, Kevin. I mean, you're good at analogies. You're literally and figuratively building things, you know? So how would you recommend dealing with the things sometimes you don't choose, but you have to turn the challenges into growth? I think, especially within special ed, I have a very dynamic and experienced set of colleagues in my department, also the other administrators in my building that I think, you know, I would never make a decision or tough decision based on what I feel only. I always include my support group around me. We also have a great group of other directors that are possibly going through what we go through, and I always run my ideas and thoughts by some great, well seasoned and new thinkers as well when it comes through. And I think for me, being in special ed and being in education for a long time, that I've always been somebody that's, I don't make knee-jerk decisions. I don't take one side and make a decision. I've got to open myself up to alternate ideas and alternate ways of thinking and different lenses that I'm taking account and use my colleagues and my people around me to make the best possible decision to move forward no matter what it is. And it's probably the way I would recommend it, right? Absolutely. Without supporting each other as professionals, families, students, a lot of teachers, they think that they close their door and they're doing their own thing. And that brings us to what we were working together with, that co-teaching aspect of collaboration, gen ed, special ed, they're not so separate. I mean, I have special ed in my blood, but I have a lot of gen ed in my blood as well. And I love the ideas of, you know, one co-teacher I work with, she taught me how to do an outline in a sixth grade world history class. I will never forget her lesson, and I helped others do it. So I learned from her, and I helped her communicate with parents in a way that I guess she kept her job because half the things sometimes it's how we say it, what we say. And I didn't have experience with outlining. She didn't have experience talking to families. But I think what you are saying, if you agree with me or not, I think you would, we capitalize on each other's strengths to make each other grow and be stronger in special ed because it's not separate. It's not, it can't be, right? No, it's not. And I think it's very vital to the success of co-teaching or to support that you bring those different people together. Often when we talk about pairings for co-teachers or support people, even using paras into classrooms, like what dynamic can they bring to a pairing or a group of three sometimes, we have co-teaching with paras in there as well. They're an important role in that. They have their own lens. Most oftentimes, you know, those paras are people that have retired and are doing something else. They got wealth of knowledge from someplace or young people coming in with energy and wanting to figure out that want to go into education to kind of use those pieces to hit all those needs in that room and to, again, collaborate different ideas and perspectives and ideas when it comes to supporting those diverse kids and all those classes. And it's not just special ed kids. I think it's kids that we have the tweeners that aren't identified with the struggle, and then the other kids, the high flyers, too. Like, I don't want to forget about them, right? I'm not necessarily responsible for them in my role here at the building, but what else can we do to supplement maybe some stuff that they need to move ahead and keep going on? So many thoughts are racing through my mind with a lot of the things you said. And foremost is the planning and prep, even with the bridging that you're doing from the younger grades and also thinking about how we...I had this vision in my head. I'm here in New Jersey by the Hudson River, and I always see the geese flying by in formation. Sounds like you have a wonderful flock of staff there, and I've met them, 3D, and I can attest to that. And sometimes people are hungry for ideas. I don't have to have the best idea, but together, that pronoun, we, like we were talking about with the co-teachers and the paras. I'm doing a PD coming up, and it's entitled, We Love Paras. And everyone knowing we all have a role, and we're all a vital part of the process of inclusion. So thank you, Kevin, for coming in. But I have one last question, if that's okay. Sure. Okay. I know you didn't know this, but I have now made you the Emperor of Inclusion for the country, not just for the state of Illinois, but you have that power. We...okay, the crown. Okay, it's on you. All right. So now, how do we as a country move forward with inclusion? If you could talk to people around the country and have the power to improve inclusion, and I love when you're talking about people working and kids connecting with us in LinkedIn. And how do we make sure that the high school kids are prepared? What would you suggest to other people as the Emperor of Inclusion, Emperor Ball? Oh, boy, that's on the spot with that. You didn't know the coronation happens, right? It's fine. This is off the cuff from the top of my head. I think that term inclusion would mean that we would have to look at all components of our kids from ethnicity, race, religion, their background. You know, right now, diversity is a big part of inclusion, that diversity doesn't just mean skin color, that seems to be very popular right now, that it's got to include all these other factors. But within that inclusion, we need to have an understanding and embrace everybody's differences, acknowledge the differences, find the needs that those differences cause, then have an open mind to the possibility that different techniques and different strategies, even this extreme or small, are going to be required to meet those needs of those kids so that they can, you know, I want to use the word flourish, but get out of education what they want to get out of education. And sometimes we have to have some agrees to disagree. One of my things is I'm really upset, saddened by the status of people not, you know, civil discourse is not common in the United States right now. And it's okay to disagree as long as you have a similar common path for all people within our country and outside of our country, that that's inclusion to me is taking all those factors in. And I'm not saying it's not an easy thing, as we all see is not an easy thing. But an understanding of those basic concepts, I think is where it would have to go. I love your answer. That was pretty deep, Toby. That was pretty deep. I know, but that was wonderful. It was wonderful. And you know, the thing is that I made you the leader, the emperor of our country, but you took it international. So I absolutely love that. And we have to be cognizant of what you just said here. And differences are not deficiency. It's diversity. We respect each other. That happens all the time. I love when I was at your campus and, you know, someone said one thing, someone said something else, and then it became better. I'm going back to, you know, adding sprinkles and cherries to what you said, because thank you. Just thank you. It was just from the heart. And it was also something that I think could benefit listeners who might be overwhelmed by so many challenges that we face as a nation. But having that can do will do approach and planning and prepping and respecting inclusion for how it is today and what it could be tomorrow if we have a kind of respect for not what kids can't do, but what they can and will do. That growth mindset. So kudos, Kevin. Thank you so much. You gotta have that equal playing field for everybody. Yeah, right. Gotta be there. But wait a minute. Let's stay on that a second. How about the weather? All right. Planes take off in different weather. Sometimes there's a delay. Okay. I've been there at a few airports, right? But that delay is for a reason. And then we take off and we get to those destinations, maybe at a different time, like our kids do, right? I think. Yeah. So that's it for cartons, inclusion conversations. And something tells me we're going to have more conversations, and it would be my pleasure as a resource for you as well. Any queries, let us know. Kevin, thank you so much. Appreciate the time. Oh, I appreciate your time. Stay tuned for the broadcast. Bye. Yep. Thank you. Thanks. No, they never really knew. The kid with the different point of view. Copyright MMXXIII Karten's Inclusive Conversations. Thank you for listening. Check out other episodes on all major platforms.