Some supervisors have great relationships with their paras and value them. Other paras are never asked to attend an IEP meeting, are not given any new training, and feel undervalued. Recently I was in a small elementary school and the general education teacher suggested I follow a little girl to her reading group to see if I could figure out why she was having difficulty. After watching her for a full hour, seeing her squint and put her face close to the page on numerous occasions I suggested to her teacher that she may need to have her eyes checked. Little did I know that the para who works with the little girl had suggested this a while back. After I said something the teacher felt horrible and went to talk to the para. She apologized for not listening. This student's reading issue made it to the RTI process without anyone checking her eyes.
She had arrived mid-year after the hearing and vision tests had taken place at the school, but the para saw it. The para did not complain to me but definitely let me know that she felt like no one was listening to her. The teacher met with her privately and apologized, it ended up being a really great scenario and hopefully forged a better relationship between them both. Although paras most likely do not have a teaching degree they are in many cases with students more than anyone else at school. They should be asked to come to the IEP meeting. A fluid communication system should be in place for paras to express concerns about students or ask questions. The para research study we are conducting shows that paras only real training in our district is Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) training and some outdated paper modules, all the while a greater percentage of students needing a para are coming to school with trauma. Why are paras not being provided training to meet this need? If the para cannot get the student out of the corner of the room there is no learning. In short, paras are indispensable and we should treat them that way, say thank you often and provide them with more training to help them do their job even better than they do. I feel this quote is so true and I hope that every para feels this way because they have a great supervisor: A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected
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AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
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