paraeducator.info

Another good news story! Andrea Melendez of Des Moines has her hearing restored after many, many years.

Congratulations to Abbey Jones! I really wish I saw more of this type of news while doing searches. Too often it looks like this. I’m quite sure the good out weighs the bad a hundred fold, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like it.

Open Mic

All Topics Considered - Welcome Aboard!

This article is about a school I consulted for a few years ago. I taught the ParaPro assessment and did some course work there as well. I learned a lot from the paraeducators in Barre as it was one of the few times I didn’t teach Online - I visited them at their own school. The reason I bring this up is that the story is so very typical that I think that paraeducators should be familiar with the give and take of school budgets as they are so often on the knife’s edge. They are also often in the unfortunate position of feeling the pinch of rising school taxes.

A three percent increase these days, especially with out of control health insurance costs, is not bad at all. I hope that there is little trouble passing this budget. I misread the article - last night a four point two percent increase was adopted by the board. This seems about average from the news I read locally, but, most importantly, in its wake leaves behind another paraeducator - making a total of six being let go.

I just can’t help but think that these cuts are unacceptable - but on the other hand, as a taxpayer I know that I am stretched as far as I can go. The thing that upsets me the most is that our our priorities are so misaligned. Special education under IDEA has never been fully funded, nor has Head Start. Meanwhile we are spending over a trillion dollars on a misguided occupation of Iraq. It’s really too much to bear to think about at times…

There is no entry for Paraeducator in the Wikipedia. I wonder if it’s a worthwhile addition and if so, who should start it? What do you think?

My fish died yesterday.

I have to admit that my grief was short lived. Greta the Betta was a good fish, never seemed to complain about much, and never resented the fact that I preferred to take the dog for walks over her. Now the question is whether to do the whole thing all over again, find another easy pet, or stop right here. Could anyone suggest a replacement?

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed, it has never been done otherwise." - Margaret Mead

Kudos to the Baltimore School Board for "dropping plans to transfer 150 of the most qualified teacher’s aides citywide to other schools." It looks like a small group of activists (backed by a powerful stakeholder) delayed the transfer mentioned in a previous post. As pointed out to me earlier, this is a mistake more of administration than NCLB and I hope that the "knobs" work thoroughly to alleviate this situation next year, I’m glad to see that the transfers have been put on hold; children require a consistency to perform well.

On the third of this month I wrote a post about MySpace wondering whether I should have a presence on it to further the mission of this blog. It turns out that a paraeducator in Falmouth, MA, may have wished he didn’t - or certainly wished he had taken greater care with his content. It may not be fair in some ways, but school personnel have always been held to a higher standard in the community and to not be aware of the need (or not caring) to protect your reputation is very dangerous indeed.

Your Turn!

Yes, NCLB strikes again…this time in Baltimore. A perfect example of how NCLB can cause havoc without need. Really, couldn’t this have waited until June?