Showing posts with label classroom aide. Show all posts

During elementary school, middle school, and parts of high school I had various classroom aides. For the most part they assisted with recess, P.E. class, navigating crowded hallways, and as I got older helping me lug those two ton textbooks. My classroom aide - regardless of whether they were my absolute favorites or not - came to know me well. They saw a side of me that my parents didn't get to see, that my teachers didn't get to help with, and saw me in a way that my friends did not. In other words there is an attachment between a student and his or her classroom aide, one that at the end of the school year can be difficult to move on from.

I've said it before but I'll say it again: I really lucked out with the quality of classroom aide's I had. Though I had my rough moments where the line between fulfilling needs and providing assistance got blurred - for the most part I didn't have any traumatizing horror experiences. With that said, when it was time for me to move on to another grade I always wondered "will Ms. K still be with me next year?" And you know you've got yourself a real keeper when classmates ask the same question - "will you still be around next year?" or "Will you be helping Sandy again next year too?"

At home my parents tended to worry over me every second of the day, they saw me at my worst and at my best. Among their many other responsibilities as parents, I saw them as the gatekeepers between What You Can Do vs What You Cannot Do. At school, my teachers had the responsibility of showing what exists through their patient explanations of how the world works. My friends were my peers and field-trip buddies on that adventure of understanding. My classroom aides, I saw as the people who stood by to make sure I knew what was possible. They were the folks who let me know that climbing ropes, going camping in the woods, and picking apples at the orchard were all activities that I could do alongside everyone else.
Some classroom aides stood in the background more frequently than others who, like helicopters, flew low and loudly above me during school hours. It depended on my age, the dynamics of the classroom, the grade level I was at, and of course whether or not I had a broken bone -- they were like chameleons that shifted in color and tone depending on the scene in the classroom, and even the student's mood that day.

When all is said and done, this position is by no means an easy job. If you take nothing else from this blog post, leave with this: much respect for all the classroom aide's and other one-on-one special education professionals!!

Every child and his or her aide will likely be a different relationship. Always there will be room for improvement, things that students will wish their aide next year will do the same, and other things that the student will wonder if the aide could just disappear during. As the school year comes to a close and whether your classroom aide will be staying or leaving, the above are some of the things that might be helpful to consider as we move on. Below I have listed a few more tips that I hope will be helpful!

Transitioning from One Aide to the Next:

• It's always helpful to keep a list of awesome things & things that need improvement. For younger kids parents may not realize that when your child is telling you about his/her school day - notice the things they mention about their aide. Jot those down, they come in handy for I.E.P meetings or 504 meetings!
• Sometimes for various budget/career/personal reasons a student's favorite classroom aide won't be transitioning with them to the next grade. This was the case with me when I moved to a whole new school in the 6th grade - going from elementary to middle school. I was incredibly saddened, but what made it easier was incorporating that transition with the natural moving on of everything else. The idea that my aide isn't a part of me but instead a part of the school and the classroom experience I had in elementary school. I was moving to a new school, a new grade, a new experience, new friends, and with that meant a new aide who would work with me. 
• What about terrible experiences with an aide? Probably the student and the student's family is relieved that someone else will become the classroom aide. But that doesn't change the fact that when we move on we should take the time to thank them, to tell them what you enjoyed and what you wish could have been done differently. This isn't just helpful for the student but for the classroom aide as a professional!
• If it's possible or if you think it would be helpful - see if your aide from last year could meet with the classroom aide that will be assigned next year. 
• It may also be helpful for students to meet their aide one or two days before the start of a new school year! Already there needs to be much to adjust to when the bell rings in a new year, it might be an easier transition period if a student already has a familiar adult face in the crowd.   

Do students with a hearing-loss still use F.M. systems in classes? Or is there an app for that now these days? I am only half-kidding with that remark!

For those who may not be familiar with it, this is essentially how an F.M. system works: There is a transmitter and a receiver. On the receiving end is the student who usually wears a little add-on piece that attaches to the hearing-aid. On the transmitter end is a device that can can resemble a microphone and is either clipped onto the teacher, or is placed near the area where people are talking.
Some people may be wondering, well if you have a hearing-aid isn't that enough? Ultimately what is considered to be 'enough' will depend on the student's hearing-loss. For me it wasn't enough because in a classroom setting there are chairs squeaking against tile floors, there are lights humming, radiators blasting, pencil sharpeners churning, lockers slamming, and of course -- other students making their own thousands of noises! (It's really shocking how much noise one 7 year old can make if you give her a pencil, never mind a classroom of 21 others!) A hearing-aid will pick-up on all of these sounds and it goes into the student's ear; so by the time the teacher speaks, his or her voice may be all but drowned out or muffled at best.

With the added use of an F.M. system the voice(s) that need to be most 'focused' on is then better able to be funneled directly to the student via the transmitter. But of course when you give a child any piece of technology or adaptive equipment... in the eyes of a child/student its uses can transmit much much more than just the voice of a teacher, or that group discussion. Here are a few things to NOT do from my own wonderful life experience:

1. Don't leave it in the bathroom. 
In middle school was the time when I first experienced classroom changes. For each subject we had we would have to go to a different classroom, and during that 4 or 5 min transition girls would gab in the bathroom together. I was, of course, barely responsible enough to remember my own homework so giving me the responsibility of taking the microphone from one teacher to the next was a lot. Often I would absentmindedly leave the microphone on the sink in the girls bathroom and then go off to Social Studies class, then suddenly be terribly embarrassed when I heard a toilet *swoosh, flush*

2. Don't ask your teacher about that private conversation.
A common happening with the F.M. system is that it forgets to be turned off. I can't even begin to tell you how many private conversations I accidentally was 'looped into' because my teacher forgot to turn it off, or take off the microphone. Does she really think Stephen peed his pants? Does he really think that Megan's mother is the most annoying ever? Does the lunch lady really despise watching the classroom? Was the bus driver really smoking on the playground? Avoid repeating these stories if you want to avoid awkward moments... for everyone involved.

3. Don't say "said" when the teacher says "Repeat what I said." 
Unless of course you have a teacher who has any sense of humor! I may have mentioned this before but paying-attention is not my greatest strength.. which of course doesn't really help the whole hard-of-hearing-student bit. Often teachers weren't sure if I had just not heard what they were saying, or maybe the F.M. system was malfunctioning, or maybe ...I was just spacing out again and chatting with my friends. I even had lots of crafty teachers who had caught on to my ability to lipread, so to test the F.M. system functioning they would turn away and whisper quietly into the mic so only I could hear, "Sandy if you hear this and if you're paying attention you can have a gumdrop from my desk.." Then they would turn back to the class and call on me "Sandy, repeat what I just said." And 7 times out of 10 I was probably not paying attention and would guiltily say... "...said?" 

If you've been following the blog for some time you may remember that I have had various "helper persons" from pre-school till 9th grade. At the start of 9th grade I got all teenager-y and stubbornly wrote off my aide and won the case for my independence; from that point on I was deemed capable / responsible enough for my own well-being and have not had an aide in the classroom since.

Fifth Grade, I think?

When I think of the aides I had in elementary school one thing immediately comes to mind: they were all involved in the education of the entire classroom. Though much of their time was spent one-on-one with me, I remember my aide in third grade taught math lessons and my aide in the fifth grade would often read aloud to the entire class. I didn't consciously realize it then but I appreciated and even liked this aspect of their job quite a bit. In many ways, I believe having an aide who was accessible to and involved in every student's education made my integration into the mainstream classroom a lot easier. In elementary school I was rarely without friends and more importantly was never ashamed of needing the extra help; it also helped my friends and other classmates better understand what I was all about in a more seamless way.
In middle school I had several aides throughout the three years. I'm not totally sure what the school was thinking but when I was in the 8th grade my aide was a man. Already that fact alone made it difficult for me, as an awkward 13 year old girl, to connect with him. Not only was he not involved in the learning that went on for each student, but he was also a one-on-one aide for a student in my year who had a learning disability. From what I remember though, during the IEP meeting at the end of fifth grade (as my parents and teachers met before my transition to middle school), it was decided that my aide would help me with things like going from class to class, getting heavy binders and books out of my back pack, fire drills, and in the case that I had a fracture would help me take notes. Since I was now an 'older kid' the focus of my aide was a lot less on the social aspects of my school day and more on the academic learning aspects - no doubt my parents had a lot to do with this decision.
But in all honesty I vividly remember how much I was annoyed by my aide in the 8th grade. I found him to be utterly useless, boring, and more or less wanted nothing to do with him. In fact I remember how my friends and I would race into the elevator before he got there, quickly slam the door close button and giggle hysterically as we watched him try to chase after us, struggling to get through the messy crowd of pre-teen back packs. Yep I was that dreaded pre-teen girl every adult loathes, I'm quite sure that I was that devious 8th grade girl. Another time, during shop class, my friend and I decided to mess around with some horribly boring sounding book my aide was reading (he had left it unattended on top of a desk). Not only did we think it a good idea to turn the book to a random page so he would lose his place, but we also decided to draw a happy face on one of the pages with super glue. I told you, devious. 


Throughout my experience with having an aide I was fortunate that most of my aides were not like the one I had in 8th grade. Their personalities ranged from being very quiet to the ones who would joke around with me, or to the ones who just shrugged in exasperation every time I zoomed down the halls with a friend standing on the back of my wheelchair. None of my aides were ever flat-out mean or unaccommodating. Many of them quickly realized that I was going to do as much as I could, regardless of whether or not it was a potentially terrible and injury-prone idea. For instance, climbing ropes in gym class. Or trying the monkey bars during recess. I think one year we tied the rope to my wheelchair during tug-of-war and I was finally allowed to participate in the school-wide competition. My aides let me jump and skip in my walker even though I was really only supposed to be walking. They would listen to my complaints about having to wear my long leg braces all day, and every now and then I was allowed to take them off. My aides respected the times I wanted to try something, and although they probably weren't always sure whether or not I could handle it - they encouraged my curiosity and development by letting me do it. Of course this meant that they were always right there with me standing by, and most times it meant that they were physically holding on to me for dear life!

So with all of that said I have compiled a list of characteristics that I would include in my ideal classroom aide:

• Have a sense of humor that's like mine! 
• Be involved in what's going on in the classroom
• Have a fun personality but also know when an authority figure is needed. Secretly I do expect my classroom aide to keep me safe when one of my seemingly "good ideas" is not so good.
• Back-off when friends are around
• Allow friends to help me as appropriate. The truth is that as young kids grow-up they will increasingly realize that they will be the ones who need to ask for help, and many times that person may be their peer or colleague. Starting this early-on is only planning for the long-term!
• When I am hesitating about doing something that involves physical activity, help talk me through the decision process
• Trust me enough to have some time alone; my aide shouldn't be a literal shadow!
• Respect my curiosity
• Respect and help me during uncomfortable situations. No kid willingly wants to admit in front of his or her friends that they need help going to the bathroom or getting changed for gym class
• After a certain age, let me tell you when I need help
• Help me explain my disability to my friends in an appropriate manner and when the time is right
• Realize that if I want to do something that my aide usually does, this is not a sign of my trying to offend you but instead I am just trying to learn. Help me realize what it is I need help with, and what I can do with assistance
• Never assume that I just can't do it. Allow me to take the first steps in trying and then assist me as needed