Nikki Heiman Talks Inclusive Practices and Mindset ~ 608

Nikki Heiman:
I am Nikki Heiman, and you are listening to the Think Inclusive Podcast.

Tim Villegas:
Recording from my office in beautiful Marietta, Georgia, you are listening to the Think Inclusive Podcast, Episode 23. Today we have Nikki Heiman from MyCreativeInclusion.com. We talked about the biggest barriers to inclusive practices in schools today. We also discuss what has been the most effective strategy for helping change educators’ mindsets about inclusion.

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So without further ado, here is the interview. All right, I’d like to welcome Nikki Heiman to the Think Inclusive Podcast. Thanks for being here and taking the time out to talk with us today.

Nikki Heiman:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m looking forward to talking to you.

Tim Villegas:
Absolutely. For those of you who are listening and don’t know, Nikki has contributed to the Think Inclusive website with some fantastic articles. She is also a veteran special education teacher and mom to Trenton, who’s 14 and has Down syndrome. She started the blog MyCreativeInclusion.com, which has fantastic resources. She’s also been very busy providing professional development to educators about increasing their inclusive education practices. She’s a speaker and provides keynote speeches around the United States regarding inclusion and mindset around disability.

So what has been new in your world, Nikki?

Nikki Heiman:
Well, we’ve been busy with all the things you listed. Trenton is starting high school this year, which is a big deal. I’m excited and nervous about it. I also started a new position with an education service center. I’m excited about that because I’ll be able to work with teachers from all around the state of Kansas. I’m looking forward to the new challenges that brings.

Tim Villegas:
Awesome. So the professional development that you’re doing right now—is that part of your job with your district or the state?

Nikki Heiman:
Yes, it is. The education service center I work for supports over 100 school districts. We work with them to provide professional development for staff, among other services. But professional development is the area I’m working in.

Tim Villegas:
Okay. Just because I’m not sure if we’ve talked about this before—in the districts that you serve, would you say that the majority of them are inclusively minded and practicing inclusive practices with fidelity? Or is it still kind of a work in progress?

Nikki Heiman:
I think that depends greatly on the school district. In Kansas, we are doing some great things. We have what are called Gemini Schools, which are schools that are really working toward changing education. We have a fantastic Commissioner of Education—he’s one of the most motivating, inspiring speakers I’ve ever heard. He’s really motivated to change education for the better. It’s super exciting.

We also have a lot of rural schools and funding issues in Kansas, like many other states. So it varies a great deal. If there’s a building that is well-funded, inclusive practices are more likely to be followed than in one that is constantly cutting just to keep the doors open. So I would say there’s a wide range.

Tim Villegas:
That makes sense. From your experience working with schools and educators, what do you think is the biggest barrier to achieving inclusive practices?

Nikki Heiman:
I would say 100% it’s the mindset. It’s the mindset of the parents and also the mindset of the staff and teachers working with students. I think the number one thing we need to talk about is moving away from a deficit-based approach to special education and into a strengths-based approach.

When we’re writing the IEP, a lot of times we’re thinking about all the things that need to be addressed—all the gaps we have to fill in—and that can become overwhelming. Once we change our mindset and it becomes a habit to first look at what the student is really good at, it becomes easier to move past that overwhelming feeling. Instead of thinking, “How are we going to get all this done within this IEP period?” we can think, “This kid is really talented in these areas. How can we build them up in those areas?” I think inclusion will be a lot easier once we start thinking about it in those terms.

Tim Villegas:
Is that something we need to work on as far as the tiers of support? I’m not an expert on RTI at all, but from what I understand, there has to be some sort of deficit or discrepancy in learning in order for students to receive special education services. So how does that work with a strengths-based view? It seems to me like it’s already leaning toward a deficit model.

Nikki Heiman:
Absolutely. We can’t look only at strengths—we obviously have to consider deficits as well. But if we think about, for example, Trenton—his reading is significantly behind his peers, but he is very social and learns very well from his peers, from conversation, and from group work. So while he may not be able to read a ninth-grade text, he can participate with his peers and learn very well that way.

When we’re looking at strengths in terms of how students learn best, if we put them in situations where they can be successful from the beginning, filling the deficit becomes a much easier transition.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah. So you talked about mindset. Do you think that’s really the mindset of the educators—to shift from looking at all the things a student can’t do to the things they can do?

Nikki Heiman:
I think educators, but also parents. I think we all struggle with that from time to time because we all get frustrated. Nobody’s perfect. We’re always looking at, “Oh my gosh, look at all these wonderful things that are happening,” but sometimes it’s like, “Why can’t we just meet this goal?” It can be very frustrating.

I’m sorry, Tim, I totally lost my train of thought. I hope you can edit that.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, no problem. Go ahead, take your time.

Nikki Heiman:
Can you repeat the question for me?

Tim Villegas:
Sure. I was saying—about educators—you talked about mindset and changing to a strengths-based approach. Since educators are so used to working with deficits and thinking, “How can I close the gap for students?” what’s the best way for them to change their mindset?

Nikki Heiman:
That is an excellent question. When we look at how education has been structured over the years, it’s been very standards-based. With No Child Left Behind, every child was supposed to meet the same idea of mastery, which we know isn’t possible.

I think moving toward things like project-based learning helps. When we think, “What could be a meaningful activity for this student to do in this environment that they’ll be successful in?”—that’s a good start. Practicing looking at success and being very metacognitive about it is key.

Instead of saying, “This activity isn’t possible because of all these reasons,” change the activity so that it is possible. Just like with students, when teachers experience success, they start to think, “Oh, I can do this. And they can also do this. This is great.” That positive builds on the positive, and it makes you feel better as a teacher too. When you’re seeing success, rather than being caught up in the negative of “We have so much work to do and so little time,” it makes teaching a lot more fun. When you have that mindset of restructuring the activity to make the student successful, and then build on that, you’ll address the deficits.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, absolutely. Coming from the classroom and knowing the pressure that’s on students to make progress on their goals and objectives, it’s easy to focus on filling those gaps instead of looking at each student’s strengths.

But from experience—and I know you’ve had this experience too—when students feel like they’re able to learn and have those positive experiences, it keeps the momentum going.

Here’s a question you might be able to draw from your experience with your son. You mentioned he has some gaps. How have you encouraged him as a parent when he’s given things that are difficult for him? How do you help him keep going and not lose steam with his education?

Nikki Heiman:
We break things down for him into smaller pieces. But we’ve also been very fortunate to have educators who are willing to adapt for him. His favorite activities are all things he’s done in the general ed classroom. I love being able to tell the teachers that because I think there’s always that nagging feeling of, “I wish he could do this. This is so much lower than his peers. I don’t know if he’s getting enough out of it.”

I mean, the periodic table—that’s really hard to learn. And in terms of life application, I don’t know how valuable that is. But just this morning, we were going through some things in his room, and he was so proud of his interactive notebook from science class. He was flipping through the pages and telling me about things he did all year in science last year.

So I think having teachers who are willing to adapt and work with you on breaking things down is huge. If he brought something home that was just impossible, I’d pick up the phone and call the teacher and say, “Can we think about how this needs to be restructured so that he’s capable of doing it?” I’ll help him at home, of course, but that relationship between parent and teacher has to be very positive and supportive. This is a team, and we’re working through sometimes uncharted territory.

Tim Villegas:
Right. And it sounds like you’ve been very fortunate having educators who were willing to change up their mindset and work with your son to help him access the curriculum and modify it for him. What kind of advice would you give to parents who maybe don’t have educators who are either willing or maybe just don’t know how to modify the curriculum?

Nikki Heiman:
I think those are two very different situations. We’ve actually had situations with teachers who were unwilling, and that was the reason we switched schools a couple of years ago. Being unwilling and not having the knowledge are two very different things.

Not having the knowledge is something I think is easy to work with because that’s something we can problem-solve together as a team. But not being willing is a whole other situation. That relationship piece between parent and teacher has to be there.

You do have the least restrictive environment and legal rights. I don’t want that to be the first avenue for problem-solving, but it is something we do have if we need it.

Tim Villegas:
Right.

Nikki Heiman:
Legal acts.

Tim Villegas:
Right. What advice would you give to educators who are willing to modify the curriculum or promote inclusive practices, but maybe they’re in a district where that just isn’t a priority?

Nikki Heiman:
That can be hard. But I think as long as you model what you’d like to see, you’re going to impact some people. When we’re talking about system change, we have to think about how there are always going to be certain groups.

There are early adopters who look at something new and think, “This is great! This is the answer to all my problems.” Then there’s another group that says, “I don’t know. I need to see you try that first before I jump in.” And then there’s another group that says, “No, this is how we’ve always done it. This is how I’m going to stay.”

If you’re an early adopter and you want to spread the excitement of something great like meaningful inclusion in your school, then continue to model that. Model that strengths-based approach. If you have a student who is really struggling, model talking about their strengths. Of course, recognize the deficit, but also recognize how you’re going to address the deficits through the child’s strengths. Those who need to watch you do it first—they’ll catch on. It might take some time, but that’s just their personality. They need the comfort of having seen someone go before them before they’ll jump in.

Tim Villegas:
What do you think is the biggest challenge when providing professional development to teachers?

Nikki Heiman:
It is hard. If we can get past the mindset piece and have teachers who say, “Okay, I want to try this,” then the next challenge is, “I don’t know how.” Also, there’s the juggling piece—when you have 20 or 30 kids in your room, how do you adapt for a few who have significant challenges?

That takes teamwork. It takes a lot of collaboration between the special ed teacher and the regular ed teacher. Every team is different, and you have to figure out what works for you.

Tim Villegas:
Right. Do you have any tips or strategies for making it work in your building? I remember when I was a classroom teacher in self-contained classrooms, I would try to buddy up with the general ed teachers and just become friends with them. That way, I could include myself in the building and develop relationships so that when they saw my kids or when I wanted to do a co-teaching lesson, they already had a relationship with me. Do you have any more strategies for teachers in that situation?

Nikki Heiman:
I agree. That relationship piece is really important. Time is often a challenge. There’s rarely a time in the day when you can meet and neither of you have kids. So I made a point to meet with every teacher and scheduled a time at the very beginning of the year to meet with each one weekly and just check in on how things were going—if they needed help modifying something or if there were behavior challenges we needed to work through.

That way, I knew I always met with the kindergarten staff on Mondays and first grade on Tuesdays. As long as it was on the calendar, the meeting happened. If it wasn’t on the calendar, it was really easy to go extended periods without touching base. I think that relationship and consistent communication are key to making it work.

Tim Villegas:
Fantastic. What else is on your mind as far as inclusion in general—either for your son or just when you’re looking at the educational landscape?

Nikki Heiman:
Well, I’m in Kansas, and we really do have some great things we’re talking about and working through here. I don’t know about other states as much in depth, but with Trenton entering high school, he’s got some really cool things going on. It’s that mindset piece—I think we’re finally getting there in so many places.

We’ve gotten to the point where every student in high school, IEP or not, has an individual plan of study. Every kid is thinking about, “What do I want to do when I graduate high school? What classes do I need to get there?” Trenton actually has two career paths that we’ve picked with him—I don’t want to say “for him” because he really chose them.

He wants to own a horse ranch. He found this beautiful picture online—it’s probably a six-million-dollar horse ranch—and that’s what he wants to do. We’re working through that. He’s also very interested in babies and loves going to the nursing home. So one of his paths is family sciences. He’s taking classes on child development and things like that. His other path is in agronomy because he’s very interested in animals and horses.

We talked to him about how he doesn’t want to live with us after he graduates—which is great, we support that—and we talked about needing to have a job. He actually started his own business this summer with a friend of his who also has Down syndrome. They were selling snow cones together. It was a great opportunity for him to learn some entrepreneurship skills. All of his friends have jobs, so we felt like it was perfectly appropriate for him to start working.

I just love that when we’re talking about individual plans of study, Trenton’s world is not necessarily different from all of his peers. They all have career paths they chose when entering high school. We didn’t really have to do anything different. Of course, the curriculum is modified, but I love how it wasn’t different at enrollment.

Tim Villegas:
Yeah, and that’s how it should be. That’s awesome. I love that. Well, good luck to Trenton with his high school career as he gets into that. I want to make sure people know where to find you. Are you on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and all that?

Nikki Heiman:
Yes, I am. I’m @creativeinclusion on Instagram, @HeimanNikki on Twitter, and Creative Inclusion on Facebook.

Tim Villegas:
Fantastic. All right, I want to thank Nikki Heiman for being on the Think Inclusive Podcast. Thank you for your time.

Nikki Heiman:
Thank you, Tim.

Tim Villegas:
That is our show. We’d like to thank Nikki Heiman for being a guest on the Think Inclusive Podcast. Make sure to follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and look for her work on MyCreativeInclusion.com.

Follow Think Inclusive on the web at thinkinclusive.us, as well as on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Instagram. Today’s show was produced by myself using an SM58 USB Logitech headset, Zoom H1 Handy Recorder, MacBook Pro, GarageBand, and a Skype account.

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From Marietta, Georgia, please join us again on the Think Inclusive Podcast. Thanks for your time and attention.