Choice Board 10

Interview/Questions

• At the start of working with a paraprofessional or co teacher it's important to get to know them. To understand the basics of you co teacher of para professional you could simply ask them questions regarding how they go about certain things, their levels of expertise, and what bothers them. Doing this at the beginning of working together can make the time spent and working with them go much easier and reduce the amount of conflict.

Phone Calls

• Although you will see a paraprofessional or co teacher that you work with just about every day, phone calls may be a necessary form of communication between you and them. It might be a phone call on Sunday night before the week starts to discuss the lesson plans for the week or just to discuss certain issues or anything else. Phone calls allow for efficient communication when you are not able to meet face to face with whomever you need to speak to.

Conference

• Meeting and having a conference face to face with a paraprofessional or co teacher once a week can be very beneficial to your communication and ability to work together. A conference would be most beneficial at the beginning of each week, this way you can discuss and upcoming plans for the week and what you will be doing. Setting up a regular meeting time and place creates a stable environment, in which you and your colleague can discuss any questions and concerns.

Email

• Emailing with paraprofessionals or co teachers can be efficient when the topics you are addressing do not require a face to face meeting or even a phone call. This form of communication is very direct and gets what ever point you are making across right away without any extra side conversation or distractions that may come up in a conference or phone call. It's important to make sure that your conversations with your colleagues are all completely appropriate.

Grading sheet

• Having a grading sheet that evaluates a student through out the day is also another way to communicate with co teachers or paraprofessionals or even other teachers the students may have through out the day. This is efficient because it directly analyzes the student. I would use this with students that have IEPs. If a student goes through multiple classes a day with multiple teachers I would have the other teachers fill it out to get a better understanding of how that student is performing, and it also gives the student a chance to analyze how they are doing and brings up an opportunity to discuss that.

Sources

• https://faculty.unlv.edu/daniello/directingtheactivitiesoftheparaprofession...