Tag Archives: paraprofessionals

Paraeducator Central: Our New Blog

     All aboard!  We now host a new blog by, for, and about paraeducators:  Paraeducator Central.      We only slowly came to recognize the amount of interest there has been on posts about topics relating to those non-teacher personnel who serve our special needs kids, whether we call them special education assistants, paraprofessionals, classroom aides, educational [...]

Paraeducators need to speak for ourselves

By Richard Finegan. We contribute to this acceptance of us as professionals when we stop letting the conversation, both in the schools and on the web, be ABOUT us and start being WITH us. We need to speak for ourselves.

Writing rules for a kindergartner with autism

By Richard Finegan Just when I thought I knew what I was doing after years as a paraprofessional working one-on-one with children with autism, life teaches me a hard lesson:  it is a different world in kindergarten! I mean, kindergartners are barely socialized!  And I’m not talking about the ones with autism.  They have to [...]

Why I object to the term shadow

You may call me a paraeducator, a paraprofessional, a one-on-one aide, a special education technician, even a teacher’s aide…but please don’t call me a shadow or describe what I do as shadowing. The term shadow suggests that the aide never leaves the side of the child. That describes a bodyguard, not a paraeducator.

FAQs about anaphoric cuing and reading comprehension

Q: What, briefly, is anaphoric cuing?
A: Anaphoric cuing involves teaching the child to identify the anaphora and to pause to relate them to their reference words while reading. In this way, the student begins to connect the parts of the text to one another.

Role of the classroom aide: To help the child toward independence

By Richard Finegan This blog is a collaborative effort between my wife Sara and me.  She does most of the writing.  I do all of the editing, formatting, illustrating (mostly clip art), layout, etc.  Since neither of us had ever blogged or had a website before, it has been a new and rewarding experience. I [...]

Paraprofessional/aide as facilitator in partner/group work

…you must give the child with autism a chance to learn cooperation skills. You don’t help the child who has social interation difficulties by imposing a resolution on every partner or group dispute in which you find them.