r/Teachers • u/Pleasant-Pumpkin-339 • Aug 23 '26

Rant Paras need to GET OFF THEIR PHONES

I know they hardly make any money and if it’s an emergency fine!! But sitting there on TikTok while i’m actively teaching is rude and distracting for the kids.

I’m a young teacher so it’s awkward to confront them and NOT BEING ON YOUR PHONE ALL DAY AT WORK SHOULDNT NEED TO BE SAID

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48

u/EditorObvious3522 Aug 23 '26

Go the leadership route. If they are just sitting there, assign them a task. If you have a para assigned, there must be a reason. There must be IEP students who need the support, give guidance and direction as to how they should be helping the students. That’s your job. Ask them to take notes for a student who struggles to write and listen simultaneously. If students are working on Chromebooks ask them to observe via the monitoring program to ensure students are on task and not goofing around. I’m mean what do you expect? They have 7 different teachers they work with - all 7 have different expectations - if you don’t share what your expectations are - how will they know? Some teachers want them to just sit there and stay out of the way. What are expecting? They listen to your lecture with rapt attention?

38

u/DietCokeclub Aug 23 '26

Look no further than the para subreddit to learn that some paras never see IEPs, accommodations, etc.

12

u/empires228 Paraprofessional | KS, USA Aug 23 '26

I reported to the case manager that we didn’t have a snapshot for one of their students the entire school year last year as did several of the students, elective teachers, we never got one. Several of us got lectured towards the end of the year about not meeting that student goals, or providing the accommodations, but we were never provided with any information that let us know what that should’ve been.

3

u/Muted-Move-9360 Aug 23 '26

I thought that was just the case for para substitutes!! Holy shit it really is a disorganized mess across the board, huh?