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Home : 2002 : April : 7

paraprofessionals
By linda

I can definitely sympathize with your situation. I changed jobs two years ago because of the difficulties I was having with classroom assistants. (I have to admit that changing jobs worked out to my advantage - I am earning
a lot more money and have grown professionally.)
My main classroom assistant was a wonderful, well-liked, popular person. She was great with the kids, but she really prefered to spend her time doing anything but working with the kids. She spent an awful lot of time helping to organize school events, with the approval of the administration. I made the mistake of keeping most of my

complaints to myself, until I finally blew up! Afterwards, things got better, but they were far from perfect.

Don't let anyone take advantage of you! Stand up for yourself! I was far too nice!! I still feel very angry whenever I think about what I put up with! I should have addressed the issue at the very beginning.

Document everything. I wished I had written down every time my assistant was talking with a parent about the auction instead of working with the kids. (I was teaching preschool special education and I needed a lot of help.)

Talk with your assistant. Maybe she doesn't realize what she is doing. Give her a written list of duties or a schedule.

My gut feeling is that people don't change a whole lot. Can you request a different assistant for next year? Don't rule out changing jobs. I am a whole lot happier since I left.

My assistant also did not get along with another assistant in the classroom (who was a personal aide for one of my students). This part of the problem was really brutal. I pretty much ignored it, but it made life in the classroom unpleasant.
I wish I had learned some "adult management" skills somewhere in my education courses.