You have a paraprofessional who is older than you and more e

You have a paraprofessional who is older than you and more experienced. She has been at the school for the past 15 years and this is your first year there. As you set up the classroom and begin lesson planning, she challenges you at every turn, stating that, \"this is not how it is done here.\" When your students arrive, she begins undermining you and dismissing your comments, even when you are managing classroonm behaviors. On two occasions, she refuses to comply with your classroom management plan and instead sends students to the office for minor behavioral infractions. What will your plan of action be to gain control of your classroom, maintain professionalism, and address the paraprofessional\'s actions?

Solution

In order to gain control over the classroom and maintain professionalism following steps should be taken by the teacher:

1) Create an environment of mutual respect: The teacher should try to maintain healthy relationship with the students by making lesson plans which are more engaging and meaningful that requires active participation of the students. By giving value to their contributions, the teacher can make students feel respected, to which the students will also respond positively.

2) Properly handle discipline issues: Handle all discipline issues with a clear mind and always maintain your professionalism. Don\'t wait for too long to deal with discipline issues because this may lead to loosing your temper and control which is not a good sign for a teacher. A teacher needs to handle all situations with calm and composure.

3) Engaging lesson plans should be designed: When students are engaged, they are less likely to act out or be disruptive. A busy, active learner does not have time for mischief - he/she is too engaged in the task at hand, and behavior issues become a minimum.

4) Set clear expectations: A teacher should clearly mention the rules and regulations which the students must follow in the classroom like no talking, not using foul language, concentrating during the class, etc.

5) Hold students accountable for their behaviour: If the expectations are clear, and the students know the rules are created in their best interest to create a safe environment where their minds are open and ready to learn, students begin to hold themselves and each other accountable for their behavior.  

For addressing the paraprofessional actions, the teacher should take the below mentioned steps:

1) Communicate effectively: There should be effective communication between the teacher and the paraprofessional, so that the teacher can easily convey the responsibilities for which paraprofessional will be held responsible. Also, the teacher should undertake weekly meetings to convey what is expected from the paraprofessional so that there is no confusion.

2) Plan for your paraprofessional: At the beginning of every session teachers have some specific plans, it is very imortant to include paraprofessionals while making such plans. By specifically planning activities and groups for them to work with, you are best utilizing their expert skills.

3) There should be no space for arrogance between the paraprofessional and the teacher: An environment of mutual respect should be created in which there should be no space for competition about who has the most qualifications or seniority in school. Both of them should work as a team to comprehensively improve the teaching environment in the class. Their aim should be to enhace the knowledge of their students.

4) Adequate information should be shared with the paraprofessionals: Teachers should share resources and results with paraprofessionals. By providing your paraprofessional with the latest results and test scores you are equipping her with a good baseline to start her individual work with students. This will help the teacher to work in the best interest of the children.

I hope the above mentioned steps will definitely help the teacher to properly address the various issues that he/she is facing.