What Makes a Good Paraprofessional?

A paraprofessional is a teaching aide who can help with the day-to-day duties in an inclusive classroom setting. Paraprofessionals may also work in a special needs classroom or in public areas such as the lunchroom, bus area or playground. When a teaching aide is assigned to a regular classroom, she can be a huge asset to the classroom teacher. What makes a good paraprofessional? This article describes the qualities of a great teaching aide.

Teaching Aide Job Duties

The teaching aide assigned to a special needs or regular classroom will be required to take on many daily duties that will support the classroom teacher. At the beginning of the school year, a paraprofessional should spend time familiarizing herself with the expectations of the classroom(s) to which she has been assigned.

Some of the regular duties for a teaching assistant many include the following:

• Helping a student with reading, writing, spelling and math
• Organizing and/or supervising groups of students during special projects or work
• Pre-teaching new academic concepts
• Supporting a student during recess or lunch
• Working on life skills (tying shoes, for example) with a student with disabilities
• Diffusing tantrums
• Supporting sensory needs
• Establishing/maintaining reward (token) systems for behavior or academic achievement
• Escorting students in the hallway
• Helping students with transitions
• Monitoring/tracking a student’s academic, behavioral or social progress

Other general responsibilities for the paraprofessional may be:

• General playground duties
• Bus duty
• Lunchroom duty
• Administrative tasks in the classroom

What Makes a Good Paraprofessional? Tips for the Teacher Aide

In addition to all of the regular responsibilities that may be assigned, the paraprofessional should possess certain qualities in order to be successful at the job. A very important trait for a paraprofessional is punctuality. Paraprofessionals should always arrive in the classroom on time, and offer to stay and help with clean up at the end of the day.

A paraprofessional should spend the first day or two gathering as much information as possible about her classroom(s) and students. Ask for written details about the classroom. The aide needs to learn all of the routines and rules of each classroom that she will be working in and follow them thoroughly, even if the classroom teacher has to step out for a short period of time.

It is also a good idea if the assistant is as consistent as possible with the children – using caring language, consistent discipline techniques, etc. Children with special needs will come to rely on their aides, and a compassionate and consistent personality will be a plus. Having lots of patience is also a key trait for the paraprofessional.

There are also several things a paraprofessional should never do, and here is a short list of some:

• Gossip about the children or classroom teacher she works with
• Being late to class
• Not interacting with the students
• Not cleaning up after oneself during a student craft time or snack time
• Complaining about assigned duties
• Ignoring teacher requests
• Yelling at students, and not following classroom policies about behavior management
• Outwardly displaying a bad attitude about the job, school, students or teacher

Good paraprofessionals possess many qualities. They are eager to learn about the child or classroom to which they are assigned. They are patient, tidy, and follow the rules. They offer to help even if the task at hand is not officially in their job description. And they generally adapt to the culture of the classroom in which they will be working. A quality teacher aide will be a welcome addition in any classroom setting.

 

How Will Online Learning Evolve in the Future

There was a time not too many years ago when online learning was viewed with suspicion. That’s no longer the case today. Online university courses like FutureLearn by the BBC has hundreds of thousands of students enrolled from 153 different countries today, participating in interactive free courses as diverse as Forensic Psychology from the Open University to Start Writing Fiction and a beginner’s course in Robotics offered by the University of Reading. Students engage in discussions, take quizzes and can even obtain a certificate of participation.

This is just one example of what has come to be known as the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses).  In the US, Harvard joined this eLearning trend by opening up online videos of real-life lectures to over 36,000 students.

But this is only the beginning. In the future, things are likely to evolve with changing technologies. One thing is for sure. If you’re looking for an investment option, invest in online learning. Informal learning is bound to grow in the coming years. Let’s take a look at some possible scenarios of the future.

Online learning will no longer be free

Of course this is the first and natural prophecy anyone will make about the format. As of now, it’s possible to provide free courses because the word is not out there yet. The majority of people aren’t aware of these courses. When they do become aware and demand grows, it will no longer be practical to keep many of these programs free. The fees will go towards paying for instructors, technology and so on. Content providers will eventually have to enrich their courses with discussions, wikis etc.

There will be more open educational resources

There are a lot of learning resources on the internet for everyone to access. There are open libraries where you can sign up for free and check out books using the excellent and free Adobe Digital Editions   or similar checkout software. A lot of the authoritative documents and media that is available in databases like JSTOR and other institutional libraries have user restrictions on them. In the future, it is likely that more Open Educational Resources will be available freely as the role of the educator will no longer be restricted only to college classrooms. This will apply not only to resources for school and college-level academics but also corporate training and customer service training etc.

Mobile devices will facilitate learning as well

Very soon, undoubtedly, people will be able to access online courses via their mobile devices. Tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices offer not just mobility but access to cameras, compasses, apps and more that students will be able to utilize and even learn on the field. In 2017, the distinctions between formal and informal learning is still there but slowly blurring. In the future, there will be little to no difference between the credibility of online courses and classroom courses as technology gets more advanced.

Virtual technologies will have a huge impact on eLearning

One of these advanced techs that we’re already finding a lot of potential in is the VR glasses. Offices are considering replacing office monitors with VR glasses to make work fun and immersive. Architects are using VR to better visualize their ideas before building. It won’t be long before the endless possibilities of virtual reality is utilized for more immersive learning experiences.

It’s time to get rid of all our preconceived notions about distance learning. If we are to keep up, we must embrace online learning as a development that’s here to stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to use twitter in the classroom?

Twitter is a platform which welcomes educational industry with latest updates and guides for teachers as well as students. Students are taking advantage of mere 140 characters to achieve better performance in curricular and non-curricular activities to the level of perfection.

There are many ways to use twitter in the classroom:

• Update about the assignments

Students and teachers can use this social media platform to update about the assignments which are ether completed or upcoming projects. For students who are not regular with their lecturers, will also be updated about the same.

• Updated News feeds

News feeds about your assignment or any lecture; can be posted by twitter and be heard to everyone. Twitter is a platform where students are heard harder without even physically standing and announcing an update on the premises stage. Digitalization helps in understanding and being updated about every relevant tag needed to succeed in their school or college.

• Connect with the group

With everyone addicted to twitters, it becomes an easier approach to be connected with your group of classmates or teachers. It helps in building strong networking and communication that helps in reputing their status in the premises. For students who are introvert to be heard in the premises can shine on the platform like twitter.

• Questioning

Students with queries about the assignments or lecture timing can use the platform of twitter by questioning about the same. Students can get all the updates regarding their subjects and lectures, what so ever.

• Sharing of notes

Notes sharing on twitters can help students in understanding requirement of assignment given to them. With hashtag about the notes, students get updated about the latest lectures and their importance even if they were not physically presents there. Such a use of technology helps in the betterment of the students grades.

• Career listing

This section is one of the most significant benefits of using twitter for student. Students and faculties can mention entire career listing relevant with their subjects and the updates analyzing the same. With the help of career listing, students can get a rain check on their statues and their position on sustaining a better career in future. For teachers and staff sharing career listing on twitter helps in better reputation and trust for the institutes and other premises.

• Hashtags

Usage of hashtags has been brilliantly resulting into popular searches answered in few seconds. Students can create hashtags for their respective assignments or news feeds. Such a technology helps others to track such hastags and get the required help for their assignments. With social media platform being shared using hashtags, it can solve queries for the students which help them to be updated with the feeds and assignments.

So, don’t be outdated but rather join twitter with all the updates about your assignment waiting for you. With every person from the twitting together can now help you with every possible section of your career. Be the player you always wanted to be. Make your presence on the digital platform! Tweet! As it will help you to hashtag your own life!

 

 

 

How to Write A Good Essay

How to Write A Good Essay: 5 Useful Tips That May Make Your Writing Better

Writing essays is the one of those things students have to do while studying in school or at the University. A badly-written essay can cause deduction of student’s grade as well as a perfect essay will increase student’s final grade. Moreover, students write more than only one essay during their study period. That’s why essay writing is an important part of study process that is involved in forming final grade because use professional custom writing services.

 Tips On How To Write An Essay

Well-written essay normally has some peculiarities and structure. Keeping those thing in your mind will allow you to write your essay really fast and correctly. What are those peculiarities? Professionals have designed some useful tips on how to write a good essay. Let’s see them.

1. Always keep correct essay structure. The structure can be different but this one is simple and good enough:

• Paragraph 1 – Introduction
• Paragraph 2 – Text 1
• Paragraph 3 – Text 2
• Paragraph 4 – Text 3
• Paragraph 5 – Conclusion

This is logically structured essay which is easy to read and easy to right as well. No need for complicated structure, just write the most important things in the simple way. So let’s look at these paragraphs a bit closer.

1. Introduction.  This Paragraph is not only for grabbing reader’s attention but also for the main statement of the essay.  Introduction explains why you are writing this essay and what this text is all about.      
2. Text. The body paragraphs are the main text of the essay. This is where you write the main idea of the text and all the facts, arguments and explanations. For the first body paragraph it’s better to use the strongest argument and or the strongest example. Use this rule every time unless you need to start in another way, for example, when you need to start with chronological explanations.
3. Always use transitional words or phrases. Their usage isn’t meaningless. Despite many can think that these words are using just to show that this text is written in academic style and this is a kind of tradition, it isn’t true. Such words as “moreover”, “furthermore”, “by contrast” are used for separating different sections of the text. Readers can easily see when one section ends and another starts.
4. Conclusion is something that sums everything you wrote in the text with one or a few main results of your reasonings. Don’t just rewrite what you’ve written before – write only the most important things in one or two small paragraphs. As bigger your text is, as more sentences and paragraphs you may need to use for the conclusion, that’s why there are no strict rules about the amount of words for the conclusion.