Even though it is really hard to come back after a holiday break, I always like January as a teacher because it feels like a second chance at a fresh start. Maybe some things hadn’t been going well in the classroom for the first half of the year- like behavior management or data collection. January is the perfect time to overhaul and try new systems. If you work with paraprofessionals in your special education classroom, you know it can be hard to continuously communicate expectations. If you’re looking to overhaul your special education paraprofessional management in the new year, here are some of my tips for you.
- Start a classroom newsletter. I started this last year and got really positive feedback from it. Some of my paras indicated that they don’t love getting feedback in the moment because they forget what the teacher said in the busyness or they wanted to be able to reference and review what we went over later. In response, I started emailing out to all my paras a newsletter I called “5 Minute Read.” I created a template on Canva and every week I would update the sections with encouragement, sharing some best practice tips, and some classroom reminders as needed. It only took me half an hour to do each week! I have a template for your own classroom newsletter in my free resource library which you can access here.
- Review expectations. January is a great time to review expectations with your students AND the special education paraprofessionals you work with. Setting aside 10 minutes as a team to review your goals for the year, expectations for classroom responsibilities, and reminders that will make everyone’s job easier and more effective can do a world of good for classroom culture and efficiency. To help facilitate this process, it’s a good idea to come to your team time with a poster or paper prefilled with some of the expectations you have for the paraprofessionals you work with, and then allow the rest of the team to help share other ideas they have to help the classroom run more smoothly. It can feel overwhelming to find the time to do this, but I have never regretted getting coverage for my classroom so that we can start the new year off on the right foot. Email your principal as a start- the worst they can say is no!
- Collect survey information. I started doing this years ago, and it is my favorite classroom management tip. I create a short, simple Google Form Survey, email it out to all my paraprofessionals, and collect responses about how things are going in the classroom. In this survey, I’m looking for information on how I can better support my paraprofessionals, what systems are working well in the classroom, and if the staff-student pairings are working. I usually do a staff survey 3 times a year- the beginning, middle, and end of the school calendar- to make sure I can be responsive to any issues before they become a bigger deal. I have a previous blog post where I talk about how to make this, it’ll take you less than 10 minutes!
- Try new trainings. You don’t have to carry the full weight of training your special education paraprofessionals by yourself! Some of my paraprofessionals’ favorite trainings didn’t come from me, they came from watching videos. I’ve even “assigned” podcast episodes that I’ve vetted and thought would help further everyone’s understanding about our students and best practices. Youtube is also full of training videos that range from a few minutes to 2 hours for when you need a longer training. I also have some in my Teachers Pay Teachers store that you can download and play. As a bonus, each training comes with its own handout to reinforce the ideas from the videos.
- Rearrange the Room. It sounds silly, but sometimes refreshing your classroom space, especially the spaces your paraprofessionals use, can infuse new life into the classroom. I’m not talking about doing an August-style refresh. This is a great time to evaluate how you can get each of your paraprofessionals their own space in the classroom, give them space to personalize it, and set up their ideal teaching environment. Paraprofessionals teach right along side us, and making sure they have a space that reflects that is important!
If you end up choosing to do any of these tips, I’d love to hear how it went! You can always email me with feedback or questions- I’d love to hear from other teachers like you!