Leadership Activity 5

1. Leadership Activity 5 Juliann Greene Debra Yasutake Marta Yang

2. Objectives • Giangreco, M.F., Edelman, S.W., & Broer, S.M. (2001). Respect, Appreciation, and Acknowledgment of Paraprofessionals Who Support Students with Disabilities. The Council of Exceptional Children, 67 (4), 485-489. -Personnel thoughts and actions regarding respect, appreciation, and acknowledgement of paraprofessionals. Objectives: • Teachers will identify the effective ways to communicate with paraprofessionals to increase collaboration in the classroom. • Teachers will discuss the main concerns expressed by paraprofessionals about their profession. • Teachers will review “Special Education Paraprofessional Support Checklist” and evaluate the effectiveness of the checklist.

3. References • 1. Karen Lyndon. Directing the Work of Paraprofessionals in a Classroom for Students with Cognitive Developmental Disabilities. Creating Powerful Partnership. www.education.state.nn.us/mdeprod • 2. Mark Gilmore. Directing and Communicating with a Classroom Paraprofessional. www. Faculty.unlv.edu.directingtheactivitiesofparaprofessionals.pdf. • 3. Special Education Paraprofessional Support Checklist Source: French, N.K (2003). Managing paraeducators in your school: How to hire, train, and supervise non-certified staff. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, Inc. www. paracenter.org • 4. Giangreco, M.F. (2003). Teaching All Studetns. Working with Paraprofessionals. EducationalLeadership, 61(2), 50-53.

4. Creating Powerful Partnership “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” -Theodore Roosevelt The work you and paraprofessionals do on behalf of your students every day is hard but worth doing. Thank the people you work with every day!

5. Respect, Appreciation and Acknowledgement- main article • Main article: concerns expressed by paraprofessionals: • Perceived lack of respect, low wages, limited opportunities for advancement, lack of administrative support, low job satisfaction, lack of clear expectations, lack of training. “Paraprofessionals expressed a desire to have ongoing input about the educational programs for the students with whom they worked” Giangreco, M. (2001) Question: What can be done?

6. Creating Powerful Partnership • Step One: Accept that being TheInstructional Leader is the biggest most important part of your job. • Many teachers believe that working with students with disabilities is the hardest part of their jobs. • Have a plan to document the work you do with the paraprofessionals in your classroom. • It is important to consider the interests and skills of paraprofessionals when scheduling them to specific tasks

7. Creating Powerful Partnership • Step Two: Create the Positive Culture and Emotional Climate in the classroom. • You are a teacher and along with the other professionals create the culture and climate of your classroom • This is a process, it “does not happen over night”. You must be intentional about it. • Communicate every day. Working as a team must include face to face opportunities to communicate. • Expect differences in style, perspectives, priorities, backgrounds, temperaments, skills, and how to handle problems. Be patient in allowing paraprofessionals to learn new skills and become proficient.

8. Directing and Communicating with a Classroom Paraprofessional • When appropriate professionals and paraprofessionals should attend meetings/trainings together for greater collaboration. The paraprofessionals should have the resources/training available to be most effective. • Use the terms “we” and “us” instead of “I” and “you” to reaffirm that you each have a responsibility in the learning process and are both accountable • The classroom teacher should ask the paraprofessional for suggestions and ideas about content, process or evaluation strategies that would be useful in relationship to the participation of the students disabilities. Ask the paraprofessional what his/her expectations are of the teacher. Teacher’s expectations should be clear.

9. Special Education Paraprofessional Support Checklist • Teachers will discuss and review the checklist. • Teachers will assess the effectiveness/usefulness of the checklist.