The new school year is upon us. Renay has spent the last few days unpacking from ESY and setting up projects for testing for ParaEducate. While it has been much longer than we all intended with regards to an updated publication, we are confident that we will soon see something that will be useful soon.
But new school years mean a whole host of exciting expectations. Whether or not this is your first year, your second year, or your twentieth year, the world has moved into a new style and schools are responding to these changes.
- The school districts are opting to collect student cell phones.
Okay, we know that social media has severely impacted students and schools. For all the things that are hard in the world and frightening about your child being somewhere, this may just be an initial step. However you feel about this change in the upcoming school year for students, it is ultimately the job of everyone on campus to enforce the policies that administrators are providing to students.
2. The things that need to be improved for the upcoming year.
There are ways to address the changes that can be prepared for the upcoming school year. Maybe it’s the role you served in a classroom with a teacher, maybe it’s the relationship you have with a specific student, or maybe it is just filling in the gaps of your knowledge. Pick two things to work on. Let a trusted coworker know and keep each other honest in making progress. The professional trust that can grow will help. It demonstrates a commitment not just to the students but to the process of being a paraeducator. Even if you only stay for the academic year—this is a good habit to form.
Maybe it’s the role you served in a classroom with a teacher, maybe it’s the relationship you have with a specific student, or maybe it is just filling in the gaps of your knowledge.
ParaEducate
3. The unexpected need to have a contingency.
Responding to emergencies at schools is still the highest need of the school. And while the most heart-stopping emergencies are hopefully infrequent and not going to happen, there are other types of emergencies that occur in schools. The most common are health-related. Students with emergency plans for their health, unexpected events like school evacuations, individuals coming onto campus bringing unsettled arguments to campus, and the uncontrollable emergencies of natural disasters all have specific responses by school staff. Knowing the protocol and expectations will help everyone have a successful moment when this is stressful.
4. The hope of a brand-new school year.
New school years are amazing. Even with the meetings explaining what students are coming in or staff and the things that could have changed for them over the summer. There are new staff to meet and get oriented. There are new students to get to know. You might even have a brand new campus or some campus improvements that went in over the summer. All of these changes just move the needle into uncertainty and that is what the promise of hope is and brings excitement. Whether it will be your first time on campus or your twentieth year, this is always the chance to remember the importance of hope.
New school years are amazing. Even with the meetings explaining what students are coming in or staff and the things that could have changed for them over the summer. There are new staff to meet and get oriented. There are new students to get to know. You might even have a brand new campus or some campus improvements that went in over the summer. All of these changes just move the needle into uncertainty and that is what the promise of hope is and brings excitement. Whether it will be your first time on campus or your twentieth year, this is always the chance to remember the importance of hope.
ParaEducate
What is on ParaEducate’s Horizon?
Undoubtedly, we have not pressed out all the things we have spoken about in the last few years mostly because Renay has been very preoccupied with the demands of switching from being a paraeducator to a graduate student and now back as a special education classroom teacher. With those changes, we have slowed down our production and yet, we still have ideas.
For this academic year, we will continue to investigate addressing behavior interventions and positive supports, looking at the academic pieces of supporting students particularly those with the most support needs, non-academic support of students with disabilities, and how to build supportive teams. Building across the complexities of learning how to be in a school setting is the goal as is giving students with disabilities their independence within the world of their education.
We will continue to mentor and advise districts. We will continue to build our curriculum and post as we improve our offerings. The book publishing will return soon. We are working with our team to ensure the offerings are as accurate as possible.
If you start your school year in August, good luck to you when that first bell rings. If you were a district that started in July, may your climate control work to keep you and your students a functional temperature. And if your district starts in September, we are jealous of you all.
Why do we give our blog away for free?
There are dozens of blogs, especially about special education. But the one thing that remains: Paraeducate: the blog remains free. Too many districts are building training for paraeducators that remain at the entry-level. Too many districts rely on not training paraeducators. And far too many paraeducators do not know what to look for. By providing our insights for free, we have one pathway to connect to the country. By not taking in email—we provide a service to others who need information and may not want email about specialized classes.
ParaEducate relies on sales from our store, online through books, and at conferences. ParaEducate is a company training paraeducators to work with students with disabilities in K-12 inclusive settings. We publish a blog monthly and produce adapted curriculum to meet the needs of various learners.
Do you have any comments about this month’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Would you like to have an opportunity to pilot some materials at your campus? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, here, and on our website. ParaEducate is a company providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published once a month during the academic school year. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
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