As a new teacher preparing to embark on what I hope will be a long-lasting and rewarding career in education, I want to create an inclusive, challenging, and collegial climate in my classroom. I plan to ensure that all of my students feel valued and actively contribute to the class's shared knowledge, interactions, learning, and interests. However, I appreciate that as a new and inexperienced teacher I may encounter or unintentionally create barriers that undermine my vision of an inclusive classroom. While systems will work in any school context that may help or hinder inclusive practices, I believe it is my responsibility to ensure that every student in my care has high aspirations and experiences success in school regardless of school context. and my students the best chance for success in the classroom. I will try to find out as much as I can about each of them before setting up the learning environment. Current and comprehensive information about students' likes, dislikes, experiences, abilities, understanding, and development is critical to creating the best possible learning environment (Daniels & Perry, 2003). Communicating openly and often with stakeholders to help gather good information requires positive collaboration with families, staff and, most importantly, the students themselves. Frequent, targeted assessment before, during, and after learning also provides data that supports the design of teaching and learning experiences that provide every student with opportunities to be challenged and progress (Koppang, 2004). While it takes time and effort to obtain this information, this can help prevent mismatched or misdirected instructional efforts that waste valuable resources, contribute to ... middle of paper ...... amer, S., & Stivers, J. (2007). Don't give up! Practical strategies for stimulating collaborations. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39(6), 6-11. Daniels, D. H., & Perry, K. E. (2003). "Student-centered" according to the children. From theory to practice, 42(2), 102-108. Koppang, A. (2004). Curriculum mapping: Building collaboration and communication. Intervention in school and clinic, 39(3), 154-161. Mc Tighe, J., & Brown, J. L. (2005). Differentiated instruction and educational standards; Is détente possible? From theory to practice, 44(3), 234-244. Munro, J. (2008). Educational systems and services. In A. Ashman & J. Elkins (Eds.), Education for inclusion and diversity (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.Pisha, B., & Coyne, P. (2001). Smart from the start: The promise of universal design for learning. Remedial and special education, 22(4), 197-203.