In today's episode, I have a guest to help me discuss one of my favorite topics: supporting paraprofessionals. These unsung heroes play a pivotal role in our classrooms, and it's crucial we acknowledge their contributions.
Joining me is Lydia Hunninghake, an experienced teacher in special education, who shares my enthusiasm for this cause. As a passionate special education teacher and entrepreneur, Lydia is always excited to forge meaningful relationships and share her journey. Lydia's insights into the challenges and triumphs of working with paraprofessionals are invaluable, and I'm thrilled to explore this topic with her today.
Listen in as we discuss:
It’s clear that effective collaboration, recognition, and professional development are key to maximizing the impact of these essential team members.
Learn from Lydia:
For more resources aligned with today's topic, check out:
Scheduling Success Mini Course: 🌟 Elevate your skills in para schedule coordination, leverage staff strengths, and seamlessly collaborate with general education teachers. https://www.theexceptionalspace.com/digital-optin-mini
SPEDovation Course - Full Course: This full course goes beyond the basics; it's a comprehensive guide to mastering the art of effective Special Education teaching. https://www.theexceptionalspace.com/spedovation-full-course
To stay connected and access more resources, follow me on social media and visit The Exceptional Space:
Get your FREE copy of Impact Statement Mastery: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Personalized IEPs.
A must-have for every special education teacher and related service provider.
In today's episode, I have a guest to help me discuss one of my favorite topics: supporting paraprofessionals. These unsung heroes play a pivotal role in our classrooms, and it's crucial we acknowledge their contributions.
Joining me is Lydia Hunninghake, an experienced teacher in special education, who shares my enthusiasm for this cause. As a passionate special education teacher and entrepreneur, Lydia is always excited to forge meaningful relationships and share her journey. Lydia's insights into the challenges and triumphs of working with paraprofessionals are invaluable, and I'm thrilled to explore this topic with her today.
Listen in as we discuss:
It’s clear that effective collaboration, recognition, and professional development are key to maximizing the impact of these essential team members.
Learn from Lydia:
For more resources aligned with today's topic, check out:
Scheduling Success Mini Course: 🌟 Elevate your skills in para schedule coordination, leverage staff strengths, and seamlessly collaborate with general education teachers. https://www.theexceptionalspace.com/digital-optin-mini
SPEDovation Course - Full Course: This full course goes beyond the basics; it's a comprehensive guide to mastering the art of effective Special Education teaching. https://www.theexceptionalspace.com/spedovation-full-course
To stay connected and access more resources, follow me on social media and visit The Exceptional Space:
Get your FREE copy of Impact Statement Mastery: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Personalized IEPs.
A must-have for every special education teacher and related service provider.
You're listening to the Sped Prep Academy podcast. Your host, Jennifer Hofferberg, is an award-winning veteran special educator who shares her experience, knowledge and passion to help other special educators survive and thrive in this profession. Join her and other guests as they share tips and tricks of the trade for the ever-crazy, completely overwhelming, laugh-so-you-don't-cry profession of being a special education teacher.
Speaker 2:So hey there, and welcome back to another episode of the Sped Prep Academy podcast. I'm excited to chat with another guest today about one of my very most favorite topics how to support paraprofessionals. Today I'm joined by Lydia Hinehock, and she is just as passionate about supporting paraprofessionals as I am. So welcome to the show, lydia. Thank you so much for having me here. Well before we get started, can you just share a little bit about your journey in special education and specifically your experience with training and supporting paraprofessionals?
Speaker 3:Sure, so 15 years ago I started at a very large school in Kansas in a town called Manhattan some may or may not know and I had a very large caseload, just K through 3. I had about 28 to 30 students pretty consistently throughout this school year and just stepping out of college it was a huge shocker, I think, because I also had about 13 to 15 paraprofessionals that I had to supervise and they didn't teach you about that in college. I don't feel like I wasn't prepared for the amount of adult supervision that special education truly does require, so that was a shocker for me. My population in my elementary building was large and I was familiar with that, but that limited mentorship of how to supervise paraprofessionals, especially ones that were older than me and more exposed to teaching, it was intimidating, very, very intimidating to walk into that situation. So I was drowning in schedules, lesson plans.
Speaker 3:You know, if you're a Sped teacher, you have 12, 13, 14, 15 classrooms you're trying to manage people in. It's just a lot. So that really is where my passion started is there has got to be a better way to mentor, and not only just new teachers but veteran teachers too. There's so many different things coming out that can help us be more efficient and more effective. That's really my driving point of establishing that training for teachers. And gosh, what better way to collaborate with other Sped teachers who are in the same boat? So Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Wow, that was a. You had almost as many paraprofessionals as you had students, so that's a lot of pairs to try to manage in your very first year. And you said a lot in that introduction because, yes, it is stressful and we have no training. We're not given that background or that knowledge of how to do this, how to manage adults. We're taught how to teach kids, but we're not taught that aspect of it. So, yeah, I want to commend you, though, for how you've turned those obstacles into a learning opportunity. You kind of didn't let it defeat you.
Speaker 2:A lot of teachers are just going to give up and kind of step away because they can't handle it. So way to go on furthering your journey and being able to share your story with others so that you can help others as well. I know that special education teachers often complain that sometimes this might even be the most difficult aspect of this job is the pairs, but they have to be there and we need them. They are the unsung heroes of our classrooms and they play a very pivotal role in a special education department. So we need to be able to learn how to train ourselves to be able to support them better, because they wear so many different hats throughout the day and they're adapting to various needs and situations in our classroom, and those roles can vary so widely.
Speaker 3:Yes, they can.
Speaker 2:So, based on your experience, what are the key roles and responsibilities of the pair of professionals in a special education setting?
Speaker 3:And I think this it varies depending on. There's no right or wrong in black and white and special ed. There's so many different avenues of self-contained or resource or interrelated, or even our labels of our settings are various throughout districts.
Speaker 3:So I think the role of the paraprofessional can vary. However, I think what you said about they are vital to our job, but they also have, in my opinion, being a very type A person where I need things scheduled out and I need to know what my role is, I would not be a very good paraprofessional because they have so many different bosses. They have me as a supervisor, they have the general ed classroom, they have the principal, they might have the PE teacher, they might have the art teacher and it's all throughout their entire day. And I think that peethed when paraprofessionals are expected to provide the one-on-one instruction meeting with classroom management.
Speaker 3:Maybe if that's what the general education teacher or myself want Providing support for students with social-emotional needs. Their role often is not defined clearly for them and that in my experience that has made the most impact on why they don't come back the next year. General education teachers I really take the responsibility of supervising and training them. It's really my job to be the IEP case manager. I want to be the one that parents get upset to. I want to be the one to flag issues with kids or teachers or my administrator. I really want to be that person that they can lean on when things happen because they happen. I want to be that support for them and I also want to be able to lead them confidently.
Speaker 3:I think our role here is to provide strategies for students progress monitor. I need to be able to know that type of information when I have students who are not making progress and which ones are and what we need to change. My role is to be able to look at the interventions and see what needs adjusted. My general education teacher gosh. They are also such a vital role in this triangle of support for my students, specializing in their content.
Speaker 3:I know that sounds some people cringe about that secondary teachers they know their content. Kindergarten teachers they know their standards. They know what they're supposed to teach. Me, as a special ed teacher, I don't necessarily have every standard memorized for every grade. That'd be crazy Really. Leaning on those general education teachers to be the experts in their content and in their classroom, I think that helps give them the power to support that per professional in their classroom too. They're going to be doing the whole group instruction. They're supervising and developing parent-teacher conferences. It's just a triangle of support for our students all together, not to mention your related service providers and your admin and your specials teachers.
Speaker 2:There's a lot that goes into it. I liked what you said about you want to take the brunt of the stress for them, because I feel like if we don't do that, they're not going to stick around because they don't feel that support. I'm the same way. I'm very protective of the paraprofessionals. I want them to be happy all the time. I want to make their schedules as easy, I guess, as possible, because you want to keep them coming back year after year. If you don't provide them that support and those structures and teaching, giving them those trainings, they're not going to come back and they're not going to be successful.
Speaker 3:So right, Even you mentioned their schedules. You start out with just plugging in people wherever you can. But gosh, that's so hard on kids, it's so hard on the adults. Having chunks of time where parents can stay in one classroom with one teacher group of kids for a good chunk of time, if possible, is just going to be so much better for all team members involved.
Speaker 2:For sure. I do have a resource that I use to get all that information from parents, just like an interest inventory where I'm asking do you like math or reading or repeating your recess? I want to know as many of those things as possible so I can put them in those situations where they're going to be happy and they're going to be successful. I can definitely link that in the show notes. But you did mention working with general education teachers.
Speaker 2:And so how do you feel that special education teachers and the parents, how can we best collaborate All three? You called it a triangle. I think that's a really good word. How can we all collaborate to best maximize the support for our students?
Speaker 3:It might sound silly, but I really sit down with my team, so my general education teacher and my paraprofessional. Because the resounding complaints I'll say from my paraprofessionals are I don't know what to do in this setting, I don't, nobody gives me direction. And it's weird, for it's not as easy, I think, because as special ed teachers, I have Paris in and out all the time. We're directing, we're doing this type of thing. It just comes easier. For what, naturally? But for other teachers it's not necessarily just that second nature, so they don't know, maybe, how explicit they need to be with their Paris in their classroom, for example, during whole group instruction.
Speaker 3:What is my paraprofessional supposed to do? What are my goals for my student? Do they need support throughout the whole instruction time? Am I modifying as you teach? Am I roaming the room? Are you OK with me addressing students' behavior that are not on my caseload? So it sounds silly to sit down as a team and schedule each minute piece of instruction or activity that you might be doing in the classroom. But gosh, it is going to help your paraprofessionals feel more comfortable, feel more adequate to do their job, make them feel part of the team. That's also a huge thing is if they don't feel part of the team, then why am I showing up to work? Why am I working so hard when everybody is just telling me what I should be doing?
Speaker 3:So I think, that sitting down, having some sort of template that provides you with questions on. Ok, let's think about this time of day. Here are our students. These are my expectations, as the teacher in this setting, on what you should be doing.
Speaker 2:Everything that you said. It all goes back to communication. You have to clearly communicate everything, and it's not silly Like you said. It might be silly, it's not silly. I think if we don't do that, we're just setting them up to fail. I thoroughly agree with what you said. So what are some common challenges that paraprofessionals face, and what strategies or resource do you recommend for them to overcome these challenges?
Speaker 3:Well, the obvious is that they are the most important part of our sped world. I feel like we couldn't do our job without them. We can't be in so many places or support so many students at all the same time. So the obvious challenge for me is the turnaround sometimes is because of the lack of pay that they have. That's the biggest challenge that I see.
Speaker 3:They're not paid for what they have to provide in the training that they really truly need in order to support students. But I feel like continuing team strength of paraprofessionals. You have to feel like part of the team. You have to, as their supervisor, have a partnership between your paraprofessionary staff, your general ed teachers and yourself. You're really trying to provide that peace so they feel valid and they feel like they're not just a para. You know that stigma, I mean even students pick up on that. They're just a para, they're just my helper or whatever other names they come up with. When your staff feels like just a para, you're going to lose such great potential in great employees if you're not tailoring them to a team, positive team aspect.
Speaker 3:And it's hard Every day you know, every day is challenging and when you don't have that team, you can't lean on each other when things are really, really stressful and frustrating.
Speaker 3:So what I really like to do and we talk about this at the beginning of the school year and like what you had said, when I know their interests, when I know what grades they like to teach, what content they're comfortable with, that's when you can really identify and utilize their strengths for each para that you have.
Speaker 3:So not only am I thinking about my students, but I'm thinking about what are the strengths of my staff and how can I plug them in to be as effective as they possibly can be with the students that I need support with. And I think that you said it like I'm not going to walk in and do math for high school algebra, I'm not comfortable with it. I'm going to say see ya, I'm going to hit the door and go somewhere else to work for $11 an hour. You know like that's when nobody is going to want to do something they're inadequate with for all day, every day, for their job. So just honing in on their strength is a crucial, crucial piece, I think, and we're still worried about students, but sometimes we need to really reflect on our staff and it's okay if our first assignments or our first initial schedules don't work out. Our schedules are constantly.
Speaker 2:You just put a date on there. This is updated.
Speaker 3:And I think that was hard for me to get over to in my first few years of teaching. You know, I set the schedule and that was it. I don't want to change it because it takes forever. But you have to have that flexibility. If something's not working, if chemistry is not right, you have to be able to support your team members, your students, your teachers, your paraprofessionals, everybody on board.
Speaker 3:And you mentioned that lack of communication. Gosh, you're totally right. The lack of communication, like we had talked about earlier, having that explicit instruction for the adults, just saying what they want, what you want them to do in your classroom, it will save you so much time in the long run. And we talk about that all the time like, gosh, I just don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time, which is true, but then you need to carve something else out. So you do have time to make it for your staff.
Speaker 3:And I don't care who you are, who you support, if you don't have time for your staff, your ship is going to sink and you're going to be stressed and you're going to have turnaround of your staff all the time because they aren't going to feel prepared and they're not going to feel like they're part of your team and you're going to be spinning. You're going to be spinning constantly, yeah, your communication and making time for that training and review. You know they need to know their accommodations that they're supporting, and, gosh, wouldn't it be great if they knew why they had that accommodation for that student. We often assume things that we shouldn't assume that people know, and when you're in that hustle and bustle of the busy day, those things get overlooked sometimes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And if I feel like if you don't make the time for that, you're going to be making the time for addressing the issues that are going to come up later, so you might as well just make that time, like I said, carve it out, make sure it's intentional at the beginning of the year and throughout the year that you're hitting on all of those things intentionally, because if you don't, you're going to be addressing a lot of concerns later and not not. It's just human nature. They're going to get into a habit. So if you don't tell them what you want starting off, they're going to get into a habit that's going to be even harder to break in the long run. So, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:That's a great point, that is so true.
Speaker 2:So in your opinion I know you, you mentioned the pay I know that I wish we could do something more for them. But in your opinion, how can schools and districts better support and recognize our paraprofessionals because they, like you said, we, they have to be there, we, we need them so much, so we want to reward them to their contributions. How can we make them feel more than just a para?
Speaker 3:And you had mentioned earlier. Just the acknowledgement is a huge piece. Just the praise that we can provide to them is imperative. That would that's my first step is. Thank you for coming in. I appreciate you being here. I know your job is hard and we'll do it again tomorrow and I'm going to be here for you again. Just that reassurance with each other can lie such a strong foundation to support each other when things are hectic and when you really do need your team members to support you.
Speaker 3:I really, really love it's giving my staff a survey of some sort. You know, as teachers, as certified teachers, we often get you know what do you need for professional development, what do you feel like you need more training in, et cetera. But oftentimes our, our paraprofessionals, don't get that opportunity. So getting a survey, like you had mentioned, what, what ages do you like to teach? What content are you strong in? What trainings have you been to? Are you going into education or have you thought about becoming a teacher? You know why are you a paraprofessional? You know those types of insights can really help get to not only know that staff member, but it can also help with the strength of your team and how you, how you function as a team.
Speaker 3:And, of course, I love to reach out to my old district to see if, if we have a really awesome professional development coming up, can my paraprofessionals come and can they get paid for it? How can we make this happen, that they get paid for their time too, like we are as teachers? And my favorite week of the whole school year is my paraprofessional appreciation week. Oh, I love it. They get little. You know we we spoil them there. You know we get teacher appreciation week and there's, you know, lunch, staff week and admin day and all this. So we we really hone in on. Paraprofessionals are a piece of our puzzle that we need, so we celebrate with team treats and frequent praises and nominating them for some district awards so they can also get recognized not just in our classrooms within our buildings, but district wide too. They deserve that recognition as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are good ideas. I know that I've seen different places where they have just the it doesn't have to be something huge, big, but they had those little cards where you know they got those little cheesy sayings on them and just just the tiniest little thing just to let them know that you do appreciate them. And I know our funds can sometimes be short and we feel like we can't go above and beyond when we would want to, but really they just want to know that you appreciate them. They just want you to know that, that we see them, we appreciate them and we we couldn't, we recognize that we couldn't do our jobs without them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And yeah, they just you've said it, you've said it.
Speaker 2:Well, of course we wish we could pay our paraprofessionals more and if we had anything to do with it, we would. We sure would I would. I would rather check myself, but I feel like if the people who did have the ability to change that, if they had to come spend a day in a special education classroom and walk in those pairs shoes, I feel like we could solve a lot of the issues in education if they just came in and did what we do.
Speaker 3:So I know I agree, it is a tough, tough job and it's tough to collaborate with so many other adults too. You know different, especially if they're moving in from classroom to classroom. I mean you've got different rules and expectations for every setting you're going to, so they're amazing, they're amazing.
Speaker 2:I think we could talk about this for hours. I feel like you and I are on the exact same page on paraprofessionals. It's one of my passion projects. I love talking about it. I love seeing the relationships that I can develop with my staff. I still have friends that I talked to, you know, 20, 25, 15 years ago. We're still in contact and that's awesome to build those relationships Right.
Speaker 3:Right and I think it's important sometimes to point out that you know, not every paraprofessional is going to work out. You know we don't have the best, largest pool of people really fighting for positions to be paraprofessionals and I think, as they're supervisors, there are ways to support or maybe not as strong paraprofessionals in. I call it the coach them up or coach them out. Either you coach them up so they know that they can really do this job, or you tactfully coach them out and it doesn't need to be a sticky situation when it's just not working out. You know everybody has their strengths and everybody has their niche that they fit into. So helping your staff find what that is for them. And maybe that's not in a school being a paraprofessional, maybe it's elsewhere.
Speaker 2:But yeah, well, you're right, we all have our strengths. I definitely could not be a rocket scientist or a lawyer or a doctor. We all have our strengths. And yeah, you're totally right, I like that coach them, coach them out, make sure that that you're giving them that support and if it's not working out part ways gracefully, I agree. Well, our conversation definitely puts a light on a very important aspect of a special education's teacher's job, and that collaboration piece is so important. So, speaking of things that are important, essential resources and tools that can help, I understand that you've developed some different resources to support teachers within this role, so can you talk a little bit about what you have for us?
Speaker 3:Sure, sure, yeah, what I? I've really tried to think about what I needed as a just not even as a new teacher, but as I continue to work with new staff, what can I do to streamline training for them and how can I outline things in very clear, specific directions? So I built a course that teachers can work throughout, you know, their own time. There's no due dates, no quizzes, just templates and ideas that you can utilize in your classes accommodations, breakdowns between each different type of setting you know, if I'm in a virtual setting, am I in a resource setting? Is this a self-contained setting? What does that look like? So your paraprofessionals and really your general education staff can look at? Okay, I kind of know how I can modify this. Those templates are built for you in this course and you, you have access to all of that as well.
Speaker 3:I do touch base quite a bit on how to schedule, looking at IEPs that come in or ones that you've already written, and how to kind of puzzle piece that all together, and some tips on how to try to get those larger pieces of time in classrooms or within your SPED setting. That's it. That's a big chunk because it takes so much time, not just at the beginning of the year, you know if you have a somebody has a flat tire or sick kid, you are puzzling that piece together for just that day of support. So how can you make more of a fluid schedule and be able to make changes quickly? We review that as well and gosh, there's just so much in there. That sounds amazing and it's just really a way to to make that connection with your general education teachers, making clear directions for your staff in a way to just make things simpler so everybody's on the same page.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. And so where can we find this resource?
Speaker 3:You can find that you can head on over to my website at theexceptionalspacecom, or I'm on Instagram or Twitter or X if you will. Those are the best places to find me. Or you can always email me too. My email is listed on that course as well.
Speaker 2:Great. So the exceptional space. Well, I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. I, like I said, I feel like we could just talk all day, but I'll let you go for the evening. Thank you again. I'll list all of those contacts and all of the, the link to your course and everything in the show notes, that interest inventory, if you're interested in that. Thank you so much, lydia. It's been a great conversation. Thank you, jennifer. Thank you for being here.