1st BTSA Meeting

BTSA October Meeting

October 23rd, 2012

Went to my first official BTSA monthly meeting (orientation didn't really count). There were introductions and presentations on expectations about professionalism and meeting logistics. Also, there was talk about the benefits of BTSA (units and professional development opportunities). They also were able to explain Module A and Module B, both having to be completed by the first review session. The last half of the meeting was for collaboration. My fellow coworkers as well as our wonderful support providers make an excellent team together; we all work well with one another and are able to support each other out. Let's make the best out of this and get this over with! Yatta!

Paraprofessional Training - Foundations of Best Practices

The Irvine Unified School District offers training for paraprofessionals (aka instructional assistants) on all of the following subjects:

• Foundations of Best Practices
• Classroom/Time Management and Instructional Content and Practices
• Autism and Social Skills
• Challenging Behavior and Positive Behavior Supports
• Effective Reading and Math Instruction
• Cultural Proficiency / Competency and ELL Students
• Data Collection and Health Care

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Paraprofessional Training

Module B: Foundations of Best Practices

Friday, October 19th, 2012

Notes / Information taken from the training:

What is a paraprofessional?

A special education worker who is not licensed to teach, but performs many duties both individually with students and in the classroom (Terri Mauro, About.com Guide)

The Role and Responsibility of the Paraprofessional:

- To assist the teacher and students in achieving individualized IEP goals and objectives that are set up through the IEP team.

- Observe the students to give input.

- Assist in maintaining a safe and healthy learning environment.

- Provide input to during an IEP when appropriate.

Role and Responsibility of the Supervising Teacher:

- To assure that the students are moving toward achievement of individualized IEP goals and objectives.

- Plan and prescribe the learning environment and instruction for the student.

- Train paraprofessionals in the specifics of the instruction.

- Evaluate student progress and monitor the effectiveness of the paraprofessional's implementation of the instructional strategies.

- Provide input to administrator regarding paraprofessional evaluations.

Categories of Disabilities:

- Autism (AUT)

- Deaf- Blindness (DB)

- Deafness (DEAF)

- Hard of Hearing (HH)

- Intellectual Disability (ID)

- Multiple Disabilities (MD)

- Orthopedic Impairment (OI)

- Other Health Impairment (OHI)

- Emotional Disturbance (ED)

- Specific Learning Disability (SLD)

- Speech or Language Impairment (SLI)

- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

- Visual Impairment (VI)

- Established Medical Disability (EMD)

Movie: Won't Back Down

So, on October 5th, 2012, I went to watch the movie, Won't Back Down, by myself (well, there was one more person in there with me). According to IMDB.com, the movie is about "[two] determined mothers­, one a teacher, look to transform their children's failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children."

The movie started out with one of my biggest pet peeves within the American education system, a teacher who has lost her passion for teaching just because she was tenured, a teacher who reeks of apathy. Not only that, she made exceptionally more money than the other teachers within her school, those who were passionate and those who do a better job educating than she does.

Other than that, there were moments throughout the film where I got emotional and teared up.

Overall, I do wish the movie was a little better developed. It did a great job of presenting the flaws in our education system nowadays, but the message it portrays is that if we want to change our system for the better, it is going to be easier said than done. It takes the actions of not only the parents, but the school/teachers, and the community as well. But in the end, it could be done.

Let us hope for a better future for our students.