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inclusion classes
Posted:
May 29, 1995 10:35 PM
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Do any of you folks have experience using paraprofessionals to assist in
your math classes that include Chapter One students? Teachers are used to
closing the classroom door and working with their students "in isolation".
Now we have been given paraprofessionals who are supposed to work alongside
of us and we are struggling with these roles? We suspect that we are not
fully utilizing these folks to work in the best interests of the students
who we are supposed to be serving. Some of our uneasiness comes from the
newness of the arrangement.
How can we design our lessons so that these paraprofessionals will make a
REAL difference in our classrooms? At the moment, the paraprofessionals
help with grading, xeroxing, and such clerical work. Their contact with
students comes during regularly scheduled classes when a task is presented
to the entire class and the Para and the teacher "float" around the
classroom providing assistance as it is needed. The whole thing seems sort
of "hit or miss" and doesn't seem a whole lot better than just having one
teacher in the room.
I am a consultant for a middle school (grades 7,8) and we are wrestling with
this problem. This is the end of the first year with paras and it just
seems as if there is more promise to this arrangement than is being
realized. We want to do better by our students than we are now. Any
suggestions? Thanks. Linda
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Linda Dodge
Math Consultant
Frontier Regional High School
South Deerfield, MA
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