A paraprofessional educator, also occasionally referred to as a paraeducator, is an individual who contributes to the job of the primary teacher by providing supplementary assistance. Through the contributions of paraeducators, primary teachers are able to conduct their core responsibilities with much more effectiveness due to having an extra hand to help them out. Though there are certain key responsibilities that educational assistants tend to share in all contexts, different states and countries do have slightly varied interpretations of the role.
Regional Differences
Should a paraeducator travel overseas to assist language educators in a country such as Japan, then they are referred to as Foreign Language Assistants or Assistant Language Teachers.
In England, the formal turned used to describe one who fulfills the role of a paraeducator is Teaching Assistant. In most circumstances, the primary teacher can assign a series of specific responsibilities for their teaching assistants to fulfill in order to keep things organized. With enough experience, a teaching assistant can be promoted to the status of a Higher Level Teaching Assistant, and once promoted, they are permitted to stand in for the teacher as a substitute if needed.
In Canada, educational assistants are primarily focused on providing extra support to students who have special needs. Students who suffer from certain conditions that affect their reading, writing and spelling ability oftentimes need a series of more deeply involved accommodations to facilitate the best chance of their success, which makes having paraeducators a very valuable asset for many primary special education teachers.
Supervision And Support Outside Of The Classroom
In addition to helping primary teachers carry out the standard task required in the classroom, a paraprofessional educator might also directly supervise students who require extra assistance in comprehending the lessons that they learned. Because certain students may not always be able to retain the core parts of the curriculum through classroom instruction alone, a paraprofessional educator can be useful for providing support outside the classroom environment.
Administrative Support
Another form of assistance that a paraeducator provides outside of the classroom is administrative support. Because teachers oftentimes have to coordinate with other teachers in order to develop their lesson plans effectively, a paraeducator can be highly useful for seeing that the top priorities for coordination that teachers agree on are followed through.
Specialized Assistance
If a paraeducator happens to have a fair degree of technical experience, and they may be employed in a more strictly technical role such as that of a school library technical assistant. Whatever supplementary skills that a paraeducator can bring to the table can be highly useful for supplementing a primary educator’s ability to deliver in areas that they may not have official credentials in.
Followup And Feedback
Once a primary educator has finished giving students the main lesson in the classroom, a paraeducator can help follow up with the students in order to determine exactly where each of them stand in terms their retention of what has been taught. The paraeducator can follow up with each of the students to make sure that what is being developed in the curriculum is being delivered effectively. By relaying the feedback from students that they receive to the primary educator, the classroom lesson plan can be optimized with respect to where the greatest areas of potential improvement are.
