Inclusion and Innovation: An Inside Look at Special Education with Lori Pollett

🎤 Welcome to the FAST 15 Podcast
Welcome to the FAST 15 podcast, your go-to source for game-changing tips, advice, and motivational tools designed to transform your special education classroom in a quick 15-minute format. Proudly sponsored by Specially Designed Education Services (SDES), publishers of the Functional Academics Program.

🎤 Introduction of Guest: Lori Pollett
In this episode, Barb Beck and Darien Watson have the privilege of interviewing Lori Pollett, an influential figure in the field of special education. Lori, with over 40 years of experience, shares her insights into the evolution of special education, the significance of inclusion, the impact of technology, and the positive changes she has witnessed over the years.

⏰ Lori's Background in Special Education8Lori Pollett began her journey in special education as a teacher before transitioning into administration, driven by a passion to support teachers and ensure students receive a high-quality education. Her focus on providing resources to motivated teachers who lacked support has been a driving force throughout her career.

🎤 Positive Outcomes and Evolution of Technology
Lori highlights the positive outcomes she has witnessed over the years, especially in the realm of technology. The shift from paper-based systems to advanced technology has significantly enhanced the ways educators can reach and support students.

⏰ Inclusion in Special Education
The conversation delves into the transformative power of inclusion. Lori discusses the drastic changes from segregated classrooms to inclusive settings, emphasizing the importance of fostering inclusive opportunities for all students.

🎤 Hopeful Vision for the Future
Lori shares her personal journey with a family member with Down syndrome, expressing her hope and vision for a future where individuals with disabilities are fully included and can pursue their post-school dreams.

⏰ Encouragement for Teachers and Leaders
The episode concludes with a discussion on the importance of hope, vision, and leadership in the field of special education. Lori encourages educators and leaders to remain hopeful, embrace a vision for positive change, and continue supporting students to thrive in inclusive environments.

🎤 Closing Acknowledgment to Sponsors: SDES
A heartfelt thank you to Specially Designed Education Services, sponsors of the Fun

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Fast 15 Podcasts offering gain-changing tips, advice and motivational tools for special educators. Design to transform your special education classroom in a quick 15-minute format. Our podcast includes authentic stories from amazing educators like you and is proudly sponsored by the publishers of the Functional Academics Program specially designed education services. Join us as we endeavor to transform the landscape of special education.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Listeners. In this episode, we have the privilege of interviewing Lori Palette, a bright light in the field of special education and my very own deeply admired former administrator in the public schools within the Seattle area. A fun fact Lori is the first administrator to adopt the Functional Academics Program for her district in its first edition back in 2009. Here today, with Darian Watson and myself, Barbara Beck, in the S-D-E-S studios, Lori discusses her experiences and perspectives on special education. She talks about the evolution of special education, the importance of inclusion, the impact of technology and the positive impact that she has seen. Let's jump into this great and meaningful discussion. Hi, Darian.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Hello you're the star.

Speaker 2: 1:20

An amazing guest in with us today, lori Palette and Lori, we've known each other I don't know how long, but I'm so glad you came to visit today and it's really a gift to me that you're here, because we have a lot of history together we do. We met each other in the public school setting. You were a district special ed coordinator, leader, administrative, really supporting teachers like me, and the foundation for me in learning some skills in the classroom and how to meet the needs of my students. You helped out so much with that and I'm just really grateful for you.

Speaker 2: 1:55

Thank you for joining us today and we really wanted a chance to find out a little bit more about you and for our listeners, from an administrator's perspective and just personally, how you came into the field of special education and the kind of who, what, where, when, why, how about your experience. That would be great. If we can ask some questions, darian, you can help me with that. So can you just tell our listeners or our viewers about a little bit about yourself in the special education world or context?

Speaker 3: 2:27

Sure, sure Gosh. This is going to age me, but I have been in the world of special education for about 40 years, professionally. Okay, yeah, 40 years.

Speaker 2: 2:37

That's incredible.

Speaker 3: 2:38

Yeah, that's a memory lane moment.

Speaker 2: 2:41

Right, there you go.

Speaker 3: 2:41

Yeah, yeah, as a teacher special education teacher, okay, and I was in the administration and, like Barb you said, supporting teachers, which was really my passion all along because, it's those teachers that support students and I thought how can I do that at a really high level and make sure that our students get a really great education?

Speaker 2: 3:06

When you say high level, what do you mean by that? What were you seeing and what did you want for, as a contrast, to really provide more quality or a value add to what you were seeing?

Speaker 3: 3:18

As a special education teacher, I was able to provide direct support to the number of students that were in my classroom, but I could see around me that there were so many of my coworkers that needed more support because they were so motivated in wanting to teach and teach effectively, but they didn't always have those resources to do that, and so I thought how can I help without feeling overwhelmed?

Speaker 2: 3:43

So it which is such a common theme in a. I don't know any teacher currently that I'm working with. I actually work with seven school districts, 35 high schools, lots of different classrooms and exposure to teachers who are just overwhelmed, absolutely, and feel disconnected or isolated, feel alone in their practice and just needing a community around them and to feel I think that's what I felt from you is. I felt so much support, just from your presence in the classroom to show me oh, this is what data collection looks like, oh, this is how you can use wait time with students, oh, this is how I can stay organized so that I don't get overwhelmed and ultimately burn out, which is what happens with so many teachers, sadly. When you say you've been in special education for 40 years, that is incredible and incredibly rare and thank you for just being such a faithful participant in that space, in that world and touching so many yeah a blessing to so many others too.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Thank you, do you have any questions, darian, as far as the career pathway that Lori has chosen, and why do you have any questions that kind of would lead to helping us understand more about her pathway?

Speaker 1: 5:09

I most certainly do. So what are the great results that you've seen out of what you're doing and with the special education in general?

Speaker 2: 5:17

Yeah, I was wondering that too. Are you thinking about what are the?

Speaker 1: 5:20

outcomes that you've seen, like the changes what has happened throughout this journey that you're on 40?

Speaker 3: 5:26

years. Such a great question, darian. The first thing that comes to mind is because we're all sitting here with some really advanced technology and being able to communicate. What we're talking about right now to many people is just that idea of at the very beginning we didn't have technology and everything was paper pencil.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Triplicate forms and IEPs yes.

Speaker 3: 5:51

And overhead overlays to communicate to students, and so all of those things were just so basic and I think about now what we have available and how I could have reached students at a much grander level, and so I love seeing just the evolution of this, and the work that you guys are doing here is really incredible because you keep moving forward with all of that advanced technology and that's just really exciting for me to see that I think that's really something that I want to help participate in is bringing to life the boredom in the classroom.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Absolutely, we have fantastic curricula at our fingertips and we also have technology that a lot of times is difficult for the world of education to keep up with because there's so many barriers to accessing lots of different things, and technology is something that businesses can get further along because they don't have all of the. Thankfully there there are review committees and things to keep students and information safe. That has to be but there are also really exciting tools that are coming along to safely use and carefully and thoughtfully engage with, and I'm excited about that. As far as what we're doing, we were talking earlier today about how amazing it is to have all of our launch buddies, our launch crew. Darian, you're one of our leaders and having you be the one to say hey, I want to encourage you teacher, I want to encourage you student keep going, because the outcomes are really positive. Look at Darian. Your experience was in special ed. You do have, as you've stated, a disabling condition that you struggle with anxiety.

Speaker 3: 7:48

Yes.

Speaker 2: 7:48

You did share, that you have autism and that impacts the world of work. When you were in school, you had a certain experience that that was a lot of good and a lot of a lot of barriers as well, some struggles, and so when you have teachers like, like Laurie, who goes into administration and wants to bring forward the best possible applications and technology or curriculum or whatever to support students like you, darian, look at the great outcomes, because you did have great teachers and you did have media production classes that helped you with things like this right and that this all goes down to show that it takes a village along the journey of life, during life challenges, whether it's ups and downs, whether it struggles yes, like we just mentioned or whether it's support needed in certain areas.

Speaker 2: 8:39

it takes a village, yeah and one of those people that come to mind for me. I think having students in general ed settings is so important, very critical Inclusion is really important wherever it's most beneficial for the student. And one of the things that I think was really beneficial for you, darian, is that you didn't stay in the special ed classrooms, you did go out to media production classes and then you become the announcer for the school to do the pledge and do the announcements over the loudspeaker and things like that. So there are just ways to enter in and be included and to support. Like you said, it takes a village, it takes a lot of teachers and leaders to say, oh, this can be done, we can do this together.

Speaker 3: 9:27

It's that shift in mindset, isn't it Right, yeah, that everybody really does benefit from being included and learning together.

Speaker 2: 9:33

I think that's one thing, too, when you ask that great question. Over those 40 years, what have you seen? Change, and technology has changed. The content that we're delivering has changed. Our quality of teaching education programs, teacher education programs has changed. But one of the great things that has changed is inclusion, and we had very segregated classrooms when I started. We didn't send students to general ed settings very much and we did have institutionalized experiences for people with disabilities. And I know you have some personal stories in your background, just in your own family.

Speaker 1: 10:15

I do.

Speaker 2: 10:15

And what that looks like, and I don't know if you want to share about any of that, but I think that's one of my big questions for you is how have you seen inclusion change over the 40 years?

Speaker 3: 10:28

See, I think first of all I've always felt hopeful, and that's one of my really key emotions has always been hopeful Because early on with my family unit, my oldest sister had Down syndrome and that was over 65 years ago where it was encouraged that they were not to be part of the community, that they would be served somewhere else in a residential facility, because at that time they really felt like that's where those individuals would receive the most love and support, and so there was nothing wrong with what they were saying. But they were so misunderstood and so I look at and that's one of the big things that prompts me to getting into education- Because I was hopeful that I could change the way we looked at people with disabilities and within my own family unit.

Speaker 3: 11:20

I was always hopeful, and I was surrounded with so much hope and love that we supported my sister to be her very best self, and so when I went in to education, I felt like there were always snippets of growth that led me to believe that one day we would be able to see all individuals being included in the system and all learning and all realizing their post-school dream, and so this is becoming more and more of a vision of so many districts and leaders that they're really able to believe that, and their minds have shifted because they've seen so much success in young people like you, Darian, as a perfect example of my gosh. Provide that inclusive opportunity and you will thrive.

Speaker 2: 12:13

Right. There are so many key words that you just brought up. One for me is hopeful, and I know we have a lot of things in common, but there are some very specific like that word, specific ideas and things that we kind of anchor to. I do go through my day saying I'm hopeful that something will change. I'm hopeful Having that in my vocabulary on a day-to-day basis as I'm working with teachers and coming up with struggles and trying to figure out how to get beyond the barriers that we're facing. Let's get creative on how to navigate those things Right.

Speaker 2: 12:52

Being hopeful is so important. And then also vision. You talked about having a vision for what it could be, and good leaders have great vision and I thank you for having that kind of vision and I thank you for being so relatable and being able to share with us today, and so I just want to continue those themes with our Launch Buddies crew, with any of the work that we're doing together. Let's be hopeful and let's be good leaders who ask good questions and also just have vision for the future, for people and help them along the way.

Speaker 1: 13:29

I'm ready for all of that.

Speaker 2: 13:30

I am too. I'm excited for your future, and so thank you for joining us. We're going to go into a quick break, and then we're going to be talking to some of our buddies.

Speaker 3: 13:39

Ok, Thank you for having me today. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 13:44

A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors. Specially designed education services. Publishers of the Functional Academics program, please take a moment to learn more about the only true, comprehensive functional academics program that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data driven, evidence based results. Visit wwwsdesworkscom to learn more.