As a technology paraprofessional (a fancy word for an aide) at an elementary school, I see my fair share of problems – many of which involve technology and its implementation while others deal more with the day-to-day dramas and politics that are inherent in any sort of organization.
One problem, which falls under the later group, is that I often feel treated like a second-class citizen by certain members of our staff and administration. While I am man enough to admit that this feeling may be due in part to a rather large chip on my shoulder thanks to what I perceive to be the hand that life has dealt me as well as certain decision I have made in the past that have led me to this situation, the fact still remains that I feel largely overqualified for the job I currently have and underappreciated in the work I do.
This all may seem like fairly petty ramblings thus far to you, the readers of this entry, but it does come in to play with a larger problem currently faced at the school I work at and deals with the first sort of issue that I mentioned: technology and its implementation. One recent and on-going example stands out…
This past summer, thanks in large part to a generous gift from the PTA, the school that I work at received SMART Board interactive whiteboards for all grade level classrooms and the majority of specials classrooms as well (the lone classroom not getting one was the Art room, which had just received an LCD projector a few months prior and I believe declined the offer for a SMART board). While the installation of the SMART boards went relatively smoothly over the course of the summer, the training and technical support that followed has been, in my opinion, less than stellar and not without some serious headaches for those using and, in my case, troubleshooting the issues that have arisen.
The issues have varied and been widespread: some pertain to hardware problems; some are related to the SMART software, while others seem to be due to particular teachers’ laptops and accounts. While not affecting everyone, there have been enough issues to make me question the way in which this initiative has been implemented and followed through.
Hindsight being 20-20, I can come up with an abundance of ways that some of these issues could have been prevented, or at the least, alleviated. First and foremost, going back to the more personal type of problem I spoke of at the beginning of this entry, I wish I were more involved with the training that was offered to the teachers and staff. Granted, as it turned out, the training that was offered was fairly minimal, but still my training was all done in a trial by fire sort of way even though our district’s technology website claims that “Technology Paraprofessionals receive on-the-job training in troubleshooting” and should be “well-versed in the specific problems and solutions to common problems in their building.” (http://www.wilmette39.org/techmedia/features/featuresupport.html).
A more collaborative approach would have been much more beneficial and I believe this to be true for all teacher’s aides and paraprofessionals. Having done a good deal of research on interactive white boards for my Master’s degree, I believe I could have offered much insight into their implementation at our school.
Yet no one asked.
Should I have been more assertive and contacted the higher-ups that were making these decisions? Perhaps, but again there is the whole second-class citizen complex that I deal with.
Looking at the clock, I see that my midnight deadline is fast approaching and I have yet to really tackle the meat of the blog entry’s prompt. So in the interest of cutting to the chase, I suppose a district-wide initiative would have to be instituted in order to look at the attitudes of and towards paraprofessional. Surveys would be done, data would be collected, taskforces would be formed, and the support staff union would get involved. Eventually a conclusion would be announce, small alterations would be made in job descriptions, and the issue would fade away or the cycle would repeat itself. In all honesty, I do not expect this to happen, nor do I think much good would come of it if it did.
Such is the life of a paraprofessional.
Further reading:
The Invisible Elves of the Inclusive School: http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/15/aa/17.pdf
The Paraprofessional Perspective: http://www.eric.ed.gov:80/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/27/ff/6f.pdf
The experiences of teacher aides who support students with disabilities and learning difficulties: A phenomenological study: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/25910/1/Patricia_Bourke_Thesis.pdf
Building Effective Inclusive Classrooms Through Supporting The Professional Learning Of Special Needs Teacher Assistants: http://www.ala.asn.au/conf/2003/broadbent.pdf
Teacher's aides filling growing gap: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-07-13-teachers-aides_x.htm
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