Pioneer Recognition: Paraeducators enjoy creating student relationships
NV Media
NOTE: Each month Nooksack Valley Schools is featuring the work of a classified staff department throughout the district. October offers an opportunity to look at paraeducators. This focus comes in two parts, this post hearing from paraeducators and another on the role of paraeducators at NV Schools.
High school math teacher Charlotte Couto knows that sometimes students simply need another perspective. Paraeducators provide that in her classroom. And so much more.
“One year I had two Spanish-speaking newcomers in my class and 30 Algebra 1 students,” Couto says, offering just one example of how a Spanish-speaking paraeducator provided powerful support for students. “Having a Spanish-speaking paraeducator in my classroom was priceless. She helped all kinds of kids with questions and translations and there is no way my kids would have been successful without her.”
Martha Ozuna, a middle school Paraeducator, has spent over 20 years in the district, all as a paraeducator. She works with the special education program, but also helps students throughout the school with Spanish translating. “With struggling readers and writers, I was right there with them, having to learn a second language,” she says, “going to an all-English school. I can relate. I can relate to kids struggling with academics, I was right there.”
It is that life experience that helps Ozuna make connections with students, being able to understand them and their struggles.
Ozuna says working with teachers offers a critical relationship, all for the good of the students. “It is so important, it is needed,” she says. “It is almost like breathing air because you are on the same page. They value your opinion, they value your strengths and they trust you are complying with their goals and their academic setting. It is so important.”
Couto says that trust goes both ways and can, at times, become even more critical for a teacher looking to make a connection with a student. Because the paraeducator position isn’t quite the same, she has seen students quicker to make a connection with a paraeducator, seeing them as an ally. “Students see paraeducators rotate through classes with them, so it feels different,” Couto says. “But there is still a respect.”
Melanie Lunde, a paraeducator at Everson Elementary in her 20thyear, has an opportunity to build relationships others wouldn’t with her role working alongside teaches by supporting students individually and in groups in classes and by supervising in the lunchroom and at recess where she’s working to teach friendship skills.
“I love greeting the kids as they arrive in the morning, hopefully making them feel welcome and helping them know I’m glad they’re here,” she says. “I try to learn all their names, so they feel noticed and recognized.”
Being able to work with students in small group settings or one-on-one gives them extra support in academic areas. “It’s rewarding to see their progress in whatever skill they happen to be working on,” Lunde says. “Sometimes a student may need a little break from the classroom routine, and I can read a book with them or take them on a short walk before they join back in. This allows me to make good connections with them.”
Lunde agrees the connection with the teachers is important and says she has seen teachers really value and appreciate paraeducator support in their classrooms. “The teachers I work with have a plan and materials ready for me during my scheduled time in their room,” she says. “They seek our input on what is or isn’t working and we work together to find a better plan when needed. We have a respect for each other and work together for what’s best for the students.”
Lunde and Ozuna were both drawn into the schools by seeing the value they could bring, Lunde after volunteering in the classroom and Ozuna by knowing there was a need for a bilingual staff member. That bilingual help has allowed Ozuna to create even greater connections with students and families, whether in an academic setting or elsewhere around the school community.
Ozuna uses the language skills every day in every classroom, switching between Spanish and English to help a variety of students, a skill she’s able to use for the good of the entire school because of her role as a paraeducator.
“I have been asked if I would like to be a classroom teacher,” Ozuna says. “Maybe when I was younger, but right now I love the role I play. I love it and wouldn’t change it.”