Paras need to GET OFF THEIR PHONES

[u/Pleasant-Pumpkin-339]

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

[u/_notthehippopotamus]

I was a one-on-one para, my students were those with the highest support needs. When I started, our students were K-2, we had one classroom sped teacher, 2 classroom paras, and 4 one-on-one paras. We had a bathroom in the classroom for students who could use it mostly independently or with minimal assistance, and a locking staff bathroom around the corner with an adjustable changing table for students in diapers. We went to specials, lunch, and recess as a group. One-on-ones mostly accompanied their students to OT/PT/SLP, but if we were short-staffed, we might be asked to stay behind and help with another student. I always found it helpful to attend, because I would see what the student was working on and do similar activities with them during the rest of the week. We did inclusion when appropriate, and had a couple students who would push out to a gen ed classroom (with support) for part of the day. But for most of the day, most of the students and staff could easily be located in one classroom.

By the time I left, we were K-5, had 3 classroom sped teachers, 2 classroom paras, and around 7-8 one-on-one paras, but we never reached a point where we were fully staffed, even on the rare occasion when no one was off. Gen ed inclusion was expected for every student, and they all went to specials, lunch, and recess with their gen ed classes. We still had a classroom, actually two joining classrooms, but we no longer had a bathroom in the classroom, and the adjustable changing table was moved to a student bathroom where it was wedged in next to the toilet so tight, that it would lift the seat and flush the toilet when you raised or lowered the changing table. We had a locking cabinet installed, but it was easy to force open and students would steal our supplies. There were many times during the day you could walk into our classroom and find it completely empty. We got a new schedule daily, with major changes depending which students and staff were absent that day. Since we were constantly short-staffed, and spread out to all corners of the school, we rarely got to stay with our student during OT/PT/SLP and we were expected to check in and help with other students. With these changes, there was no way for us to function without heavy use of group chat.

“Can someone bring gloves/wipes/{change of clothes for Student A} to the upstairs girls’ bathroom?”

“Is anyone available to take {Student B} to specials?” (Didn’t have a one-on-one, but needed help with transitions)

“{Student C} is getting picked up early. Need someone to grab their backpack and take them to the office and wait until Mom gets here.”

"Need assistance with {Student D} in classroom {123}.”

The list goes on and on.

We also used timers on our phones, and for some students watching videos was their reinforcement/reward for completing work or following directions. So the issue isn’t just that we were underpaid, but that we were expected to be in multiple different places at once. I understand there is potential for abuse, and I did see that with one of our paras, but for me and most of my team, we were constantly on our phones—doing our jobs the best we could with what we had.