Thank you for watching our Doing the Math with Paraeducators video. We have just completed the first full year of our exploratory project, and were delighted by our enthusiastic, thoughtful group of paraeducators. We welcome your comments and questions, and we are especially interested in learning about your experiences providing professional development to/and or work with paraeducators.

Can't see it.   Thanks for .... 

Supporting the para educators to boost their math skills in the classroom seems to add up to a win-win for everyone involved. Thanks for sharing this video.

Wow -- the paraeducators' excitement about learning math and supporting their students' learning is palpable.  I especially loved the teacher who noticed parallels between their own (the paras) mathematical thinking and that of their students ("we said, I did it this way and I did it this way, and the kids do the same thing!").  They are clearly listening to and recognizing the mathematics in their students' talk and activity.  It made me wonder whether you are starting to get solicited and/or unsolicited feedback from them about the impact they think the pd is having on their practice?  Are they hearing or seeing anything differently?  Are they doing anything differently?  Thanks for sharing this very important and inspiring work!

This work highlights the importance of providing support, quality professional development focused on doing math and learning about how students learn math. Paraeducators need time built into their work to plan and reflect with the classroom teacher(s). http://videohall.com/p/1095 #STEMvideohall

Thanks, Cynthia. You have raised a very important point. We had buyin from principals and teachers, essential for this work.  Judy

Working with the Educational Support Personnel in our schools is so important for just the reasons that you articulated in the video:  They often work with our students who need the most support and the most skilled teaching and yet they rarely have the time or the opportunities for that.  And I think that being in a group of other Paraeducators/ESPs must feel supportive.

Judy et al.,

    Thanks for the interesting look at the work of a paraeducator and for pointing out the challenges they face. Can you pass on any suggestions for effective means to introduce programs similar to this in other places? Is there anything like a "guide" to what is found to be most of interest to the educators you've worked with that might entice other places to emulate what you've done? 

Cheers,

        Lou

Hi Lou,

By the end of our project, we intend to share a framework for para PD and ongoing support that should be helpful for schools and districts who are eager to establish programs for paras.  Based on our research so far, there seem to be some key ingredients that enhance the para experience and their learning.

1) Paras need opportunities, over time, to immerse themselves in mathematics activities that help them to develop their mathematical thinking. Often, they have not had positive experiences learning math themselves, and so as part of this process, they are developing their math confidence.  Many have become quite excited about doing math!  

2) Our paras (and other paras we have spoken with) can identify the ways in which math instruction is quite different than what they experienced as students--but since many haven't been involved in a teacher education program, they aren't always sure about what it means to instruct with an inquiry-oriented curricula or resources. Understanding the goals of such curricula and experiencing inquiry approaches within their PD have been important to them.  Also, they have been eager to learn and try out instructional strategies in their classrooms (e.g., how to listen for student thinking, asking questions that provide students with new challenges within an activity, asking students to re-tell the story problem), and then return to PD to debrief with each other and us.

3) Follow-up activities have also been helpful.  Through our project, the paras have had opportunities to plan with their teachers and reflect on their students' math learning and struggles. 

4) And last, but not least, the paraeducators have created a math learning community where they provide each other with support, encouragement, and new ideas.  They are incredible resources for each other!

Thanks for such a good question.  I expect my colleagues may have even more to add!

Karen

Thank you for your questions.  Lou.  We have just finished our first full year. Thus far dissemination efforts have gone to conferences (our ppt. s posted on NCSM website) and to this showcase. Our partnership with the Boston Public Schools and the outreach we have done with principals and teachers is crucial to successful implementation of our program. The teachers in the project are excited about the initiative the paras have taken in the classroom, in their ability to ask questions that foster students' math thinking, their knowledge of a range of strategies, representations, and tools to solve problems. The paras appreciate being treated like professionals and spending the time learning math.  Best, Judy

Karen and Judy, Thanks for the detailed responses. It is great that you are thinking ahead for dissemination and I really like the outline you provided about what has been helpful. Fostering learning communities is something that some projects have been doing using at-distance methods (e.g. QUBESHub.org for faculty mentoring networks) and may be not as costly (but perhaps also not as effective) as person-to-person interactions.

Cheers,

          Lou

Great program and very much needed.  Sometimes teachers assume that adults know how to help their students. This is a crucial program for the paraeducators.

Molly: Thank you very much for your right-on comment. There are too often not any structures or upports available for paras--and as a result they are frequently underutilized--confined to passing out materials, correcting papers etc.  This is especially unfortunate, since many are from the local community, they could provide a valuable connection between students and their community.

Judy

How wonderful that you are working closely with paraeducators to learn from and with them! I see the excitement and energy in the paras' engagement in the mathematics. I understand that the  participants gain knowledge and perhaps find joy in mathematics that will inform them as they support students. Is there any other way to offer them something for their time? Paraeducators have such an important role in our school and already give beyond the hourly wages they are paid.

Carol: We have been able to pay them through our grant, and they do get release time for the school year PD.  However,  I do worry about sustainability. You are right that they give above and beyond their hourly wages. I am hoping that if principals, such as the ones we are working with, see the value of this, they will at least find release time for PD.  Judy

A moving and very meaningful experience. Had no idea that the paras were such an integral part to salvage threads and peices of an educational system that is crumbling before our very eyes.

These paras are exerting maximum effort with minimal support. TERC provides invaluable guidance, leadership, and support to help the fulfill their mission and make their dreams a realit.

Bravo!

Love the way you explain what was going on through out the workhop there should be more, continuous with those  that participate in the program and get new members on board ,so they will learn like everyone else that was scared to work with math curriculum changes all the time.

Thank you for sharing your project with us! I agree this is often an overlooked group of educators who play such an important role in the classroom. What successes and challenges have you had so far in the project?

This video was interesting, inspiring, and uplifting. The project seems like a wonderful idea that will benefit students, paraprofessionals, and teachers. Keep it going!

Judy, Myriam, Karen, and the rest of the team,

Very interesting and exciting.  I think this is wonderful and something of high need.  I see in reading comments that you have buy in from the administration.  I wonder about the connections and collaboration between the teacher and the para educators. I think it is not uncommon for students who are developing their mathematics with para educators to focus on skill or rote memorization rather than building their conceptual foundations.  This would seem to need to be a shared focus between the teachers and para educator on the appropriate work of the students.

Keep up the great work.
Dave

Thanks, Dave. Offering paras an opportunity to build their own conceptual understanding is one of our major goals. Many of the paras were only familiar with the standard algorithms.  The mental math work and sharing of strategies was eye opening for them as you can see from the para on the video who says that she saw children doing the same strategies that they did in PD. We also tried to build on the PD by asking paras to write reflections every month, answering questions such as " What is a question you asked that led to a student's mathematical understanding?" or "Describe an example of when you used a student's mistake as a learning opportunity?" We asked teachers and paras to complete a planning protocol every month that asked them to describe their work with students, both successes and challenges.

This is a terrific initiative, and an important way to improve student achievement in math.  Years and years of neglecting PD for paras has been a missed opportunity to capitalize on the critical role that paras play in our classrooms, especially for students with disabilities and young children.  Investment in PD for paraprofessionals will pay big dividends for kids and perhaps open a pipeline to teaching for many paras with tremendous capacity.

This is such a necessary and powerful project. Thank you all for taking it on. Too often paras are given students with math challenges to work with away from the classroom. They tend to focus on memorizing algorithms and math facts, believing these will build success for their students. In strengthening paras own understanding of mathematics, this project gives them more tools to help students. It may also increase the amount of para/teacher collaboration so that struggling students can be supported in the regular class and be part of the richness the whole class has to offer. Paras are such a valuable resource that is often underused.

What an amazing project! Thanks for sharing this great math work!

For years I have been aware of this need to train our para-educators in the math behind the math, moving to each for understanding not for just the right answer.  Many of para-educators stay with us for years and are learning from what they observe in the classroom, from the teachers, but also from the students.  They are open to learning more.  They are eager to be treated as professionals.

This year we had an afternoon session for our K-4 para-educators during the first week of school, the focus was "Teaching for Understanding, a developmental approach."  The response was positive.  One of the biggest take-aways was "ask more, talk less".  This was a first step, I'd love to do on-going sessions as you are doing.  

Judith

Judith,

Thank you for your comment - what a great 'first step' you had in your school. We have found exactly what you said, paraeductors are open to learning more and are rarely given the opportunity. Your 'ask more, talk less' take-away is one we also had, in addition to 'listen, listen, listen!'

We hope that districts see this as the benefit that it is for all, and include paraeducators in PD. We're curious to see how year 2 goes for us, with a new cadre of paraeducators.

Best luck to you.

Myriam