How Come You Always Get The Good Aides?

Supporting and developing our paraeducators full potential.

Welcome Aboard

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Many aides don't come in to our classrooms with the same amount of knowledge, education, and experience as a teacher would. According to Brock & Carter (2015) many have no education past high school and most have never received in-service training on basic instructional stratagies. If teachers and parents continue to consider paraprofessionals an essential support for students with a range of disabilites (Stockall, 2014) it is vital that as teachers we are communicating with, training, and evaluating our aides on an ongoing basis.

Be a Leader

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As classroom leaders, general education and special education teachers must provide quality supervision and professional development for the paraeducator working in their classroom (Carnaha, Clarke, Sorensen, & Williamson, 2009.)

Training for Excellence

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* Communicate

* Demonstrate what you expect

* Have IA demonstrate understanding

* Have IA's practice in the classroom

* Make time for evaluation and feedback

Expectations and job demands should be made clear at the beginning of the school year. Work related communication should be kept "Nonemotional." Nonemotional communication should have written protocols, explicit concrete language, good and bad examples, modeling, and checking for understanding (Carnahan et. al, 2009.)

Where To Start?

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What was new and surprising is all the ways in which we as teachers can train and help our paraeducators develop.

* Side by Side coaching

paraprofessionals recevies individualized instruction with an expert teacher while engaging in the practice (Stockall,2014)

* Direct Instruction Training Model

Teachers themselves need to practice how to teach

The process has 6 six steps: establish training goals, interaction, demonstrate,guided practice, observe independent practice,performance feedback (Stockall,2014)

* Video Modeling Plus Abbreviated Coaching

Initial training of instructional practice

Watch instructional video of practice and discuss implementation

Conduct 1 hour observation of aide in the classroom

No matter how or on what you decide to train your IA always be sure to communicate clearly, model, check for understudying, and observe IA.

Okay so Where do I Start?

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How do we fit it all in? All the information and strategies are great, but how do I fit this into an already tight schedule. This was one of my main thoughts as I was reading through the articles, but as I read through examples, its not about when you can fit it in. Training needs to be embedded into the schedule. Be organized, develop agendas, and make weekly meetings happen with consistency.

Aside from that the only other thing in question is what would be that most effective way to implement the VMPAC in a push-in setting?

You're Doing It Wrong!

My principal told me that sometimes we learn just as well from observing "what not to do." At my placement I have an awesome aide. She came into the RSP classroom from an SDC and has over 25yrs as a special education aide, but even then she still has questions. She does questions somethings, but says she's not the boss to make changes If the RSP teacher would have done the initial job of establishing rapport with the her aide there would be clear and open communication which is critical to the success of the team(Stockall, 2014). When asked if she received any formal training she states she hasn't and she feels more comfortable asking the GE teachers rather than the RSP teacher and as Carnahan et al. had suggested, regularly scheduled meetings to discuss topics are important to the effectiveness of the team(2009.). Last week, the IA did some BAS assessment and the only training she received was 5 minutes prior to administering the assessment The RSP teacher has an amazing aide at her disposal, but it seems as though she has become her aid when she is in a crunch instead of the students aide.