I continued my interviews for the paraprofessional project this last week while on spring break. One school had a very kind SPED teacher that provided 12 paraprofessionals for me to interview. It was a good mix of ED, LD and ID paras. I also interviewed two more later the same day at an elementary school. The total interviews stands at 20 and I am happy with that number to provide a basis for my greater survey.
Something that got me excited about the interviews was seeing a pattern of what paras expressed by department. I interviewed them all individually and in private so they were free to say what they wanted. No names were attached to the interviews. The ED paras were pretty much begging for more mental health training. Many of their students have horrible home environments which have contributed to their disability. The paras wanted to know more about bipolar disorders, sexual abuse and trauma. Many times they are unable to reach their students academically because of their mental health issues and yet the only help that is provided to the paras to help the student is within the academic arena. They want more skills to help the student turn to be able to focus on their academics. ID paras also had, unknowingly, all similar requests... they wanted to know more about other disabilities, not just their student's disability. Many paras in the ID arena have been working with their student for years and they are quite knowledgeable about that one disability but they expressed they knew nothing about any other disability. They are very aware that they will not have their student forever and want to be a little more prepared for their next student. Also, I think it's a great sign that paras want to learn, why not have a small workshop about other disabilities, like autism, or cerebral palsy, or down syndrome? LD paras, as a whole, mostly asked for more techniques to be able to use with their students regarding academics. One group of LD paras that worked in the same school expressed that the students have many family issues that the paras are completely unaware of and the students end up sharing these issues with the paras. The paras have had no training in how to redirect the student to someone they could speak to about the family issues and also when, or if they should report certain issues, that are not criminal, but are definitely affecting the student. Due to these needs I feel strongly that paraprofessional training, such as in-service days, should be given by department. All LD paras come together for middle and high school, all ED paras join for specific training that they need. For example, LD paras did not care about how to perform proper lifting techniques and likewise ID paras wanted training in sanitary techniques and disposing of briefs. All paras expressed that they desired training from real professionals, such as nurses, SLPs, police officers, psychologists. Nearly all paras wanted to veto using outdated video training as a mode of learning. I value every one of the views expressed by the paras and am so thankful the SPED teachers allowed me to interview them. The next phase of the project is to develop an electronic Likert survey to send to all the paras in the district.
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A larger project I just started is to find out whether paraprofessionals in our district feel they have sufficient training. The project proposal was approved and today I began the first phase. I completed five, 10 minute interviews with ID, ED, and LD paras. I had specific questions to ask that would help frame the larger future survey that will go out to the district.
Our school district is known for its great school and great teachers. However, paraprofessionals are left to fend for themselves to learn more about their job. The two ID paras expressed that they have only received information regarding the student they work with and his/her disability. The ID paras have a desire to learn about other disabilities but there is no other training provided. The two ED paras expressed that the students they work with bring an immense amount of baggage into the classroom that the para ends up triaging the students home life filled full of trauma, abuse and neglect, that their students are not able to focus on academics. Many of their students are labeled as homeless. All the paras expressed that the most favored training mode was having a guest speaker come that has real life knowledge of situations their kids are experiencing. These issues vary from medical to sexual abuse. They want to be able to learn and ask the speaker specific questions. One para expressed in seven years she only received a paper module training, at the beginning of her employment, and CPI training. The last question I asked the paras was whether they would consider a teaching profession. Only 2 out of 5 expressed they would. One of the two paras was not interested in a special education degree, but preferred an elementary teacher license. The reason the three gave for their firm no was they saw SPED teachers as overworked and underpaid. I am hoping to conduct a few more short interviews before moving into the next phase, which is producing a longer, electronic survey to disseminate to all paras in the school district. The results of the longer survey are two-fold, first to reveal what mode of training paras have received and what kind they would most like to in the future, and secondly, to provide my university with reason to look into offering a SPED program that would bridge the gap for paras already in the SPED field to attain a teaching license. |
AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
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