PS Academy Instructional Assistant Binder PDF

Instructional Assistant Binder Teacher’s Name: Room: Table of Contents Contact Information Important Information Expectations for Classroom Professionals Para vs. Teacher roles Social Media Policy Confidentiality Meaningful Inclusion Start of Class/Day Routine End of C...

Instructional Assistant Binder Teacher’s Name: Room: Table of Contents Contact Information Important Information Expectations for Classroom Professionals Para vs. Teacher roles Social Media Policy Confidentiality Meaningful Inclusion Start of Class/Day Routine End of Class/ Day Routine Behavior Management Self-Care CBI Expectations Professionalism Student Snapshots Forms - Extra Copies  Contact Information Name: Name: Cell: Cell: Name: Name: Cell: Cell: Important information The school day for Secondary students is from 8:00- 3:00 and for Elementary it is 8:30-2:20. You are expected to arrive on time at your designated shift. If you are going to be tardy for any reason, please text Kay, Mary and your classroom teacher as a courtesy. If you are on transportation and/or BA, you must also text Jett. You are responsible for ensuring that your hours are correct and approved each week, for assistance with your timecard please reach out to Ms. Kay. Kay Stockdale (602) 549-5273 Mary Barkley (480) 695-5405 PS ACADEMY REQUIRES ALL EMPLOYEES USE THE FOLLOWING ATTENDANCE PROCEDURE BELOW IN THE EVENT YOU WILL BE TARDY TO WORK, ABSENT FROM WORK OR WHEN YOU LEAVE WORK DURING NORMALLY SCHEDULED HOURS: 1. When you are not going to be at work during your normal schedule whether it is preplanned or not the school requires you to send an email at least one (1) hour prior to your scheduled start time to: [email protected] and include an expected return to work time/date AND add the missed time to the payroll system (Paylocity). If the absence is unplanned you will need to add the absence to the payroll system within 24 hours. 2. If the absence is planned, you must first contact your supervisor to discuss your request, then submit an online request for time off through our payroll system at least one (1 ) week in advance. 3. PS Academy Arizona reserves the right to request a physician's note prior to your return after three or more consecutive days of absence. Violations of this procedure may result in disciplinary action. Expectations for Classroom Professionals What I expect from you... Be Prompt - You are expected to arrive on time each day. Belongings, lunch, etc. should be put away prior to you clocking in. Please return promptly to our room when returning from other classes/lunch/etc. Be Present - You should not be on your cell phone when we are working with students. It’s ok to quickly check your phone every now and then, but please don’t be scrolling through Facebook while we are supposed to be working with students. Remember that we are here to provide them a service! If there’s a situation where you need to be on your phone, please just let me know. I also expect that you are active (circulate) in the classroom at all times. I don’t want to see you sitting behind a desk away from students completely unengaged. If we are in a “lull” in our learning, take the opportunity to build on relationships. Communicate - Please communicate with me as much as possible and take advantage of our meeting times. Remember that I am here to support you - if a strategy isn’t working, let’s find a solution together. Collaborate - I expect you to collaborate with each other, myself, teachers, and other staff throughout our building. We are all working towards the same goal - providing the best education that we can for our students. It’s critical that we collaborate as a team. If you need support or additional tools/resources for collaboration, please let me know. Respect Confidentiality - This is not just a classroom expectation - it’s the law. See the “Confidentiality” section of this notebook. Build Relationships - IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS! Students can’t learn from you if they don’t trust you. Be sure to take time every week to intentionally build on a relationship with our students. Get creative with your relationship building strategies! Hold High Expectations - I expect you to hold high expectations for me, our students, and yourselves. Expectations should be held consistently in our classroom regardless of the time of day or who is in the room. Our students depend on this consistency. Please make sure that you are engaged and understand our classroom routines and procedures to make this possible. What you can expect from me… Be Prompt: You can expect me to be on time every day and return promptly to the classroom from breaks/meetings/etc. Be Present: I will be present in the classroom and available to support students and IAs in the learning process. I will not be on my cell phone when working directly with students unless necessary for work. Communicate: You can expect me to communicate with you as much as possible. I promise to communicate changes in my schedule and absences with as much notice as possible. You can also expect me to communicate my expectations clearly and effectively. Collaborate: You can expect me to collaborate effectively with Instructional Assistants, students, and school staff. I promise to model these collaboration skills across the building. I will also encourage you to join the process and will collaborate with you on lessons, activities, etc. if you so choose. Respect Confidentiality: I promise to uphold confidentiality laws within our classroom and school. I promise to give you the knowledge and resources you need to successfully uphold confidentiality as well. Build Relationships: I believe that building relationships is one of the most important things we do as educators. I promise to actively build a relationship with you, our students, and school staff. Hold High Expectations: You can expect me to hold myself, you, and our students to a high standard. I have high expectations for our program and want our classroom to be the very best that it can be.  Instructional Assistant vs. Teacher Roles and Expectations Task Roles of the Teacher Roles of the IA Planning Plans weekly schedule, activities, and lessons Implements plans as described by the teacher Classroom Classroom arrangement, seating charts, classroom design Keep the classroom organized and clean. Implement start of Organization day/end of day procedures. Assessment Not Applicable N/A Teaching Teaches the whole class, small group, and individual instruction. Reinforces and supervises practice of skills with small group and individual instruction.. Behavior Observes behavior, develops individual and whole-class behavior Observes behavior, carries out behavior intervention plans, Management management plans, implements records data. behavior management strategies. Records and interprets data. Working with Meets with parents in conferences and ILP meetings. Initiates contact with Completes daily logs with teacher’s approval. Parents parents through phone, email, and communication logs. Building a Creates schedules, shares goals and objectives, organizes job duties, Shares ideas and concerns, carries out job duties, shows classroom promotes a collaborative learning flexibility, “see a need, fill a environment, facilitates team need”. environment meetings.  Social Media Policy Simply put, our students do not belong anywhere on your social media. PS Academy has a zero-tolerance policy for this and will not tolerate any involvement of our students on any social media platform including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, etc. These posts, regardless of the presence of a filter, etc. are not appropriate and violate confidentiality laws. Should you choose to take photos of our students during activities that can be used for school use (i.e. end-of-year slideshows, classroom decorations, etc.) please send those photographs to my school email so I can forward them to the appropriate party. Those photos do not belong anywhere else.  Confidentiality Because we work with students who are receiving special education services, we have strict confidentiality laws that we must follow. To avoid breaking these laws, our classroom has in place the following policies: IA’s should not be having direct contact with students’ families through phone/email/etc.. During pick up/drop off times paraprofessionals should provide limited information and leave any conversations of concern (behaviors, personal issues, etc.) between the teacher and the parent/guardian. Any other direct contact between families and Instructional Assistants should take place on the communication logs. IAs are not permitted to give their personal contact information to students or their families. Do not place yourself in a position that could be considered a conflict of interest, such as babysitting, etc. We do not speak about our students to anyone who is not on their ILP team. This includes providing any information about the student including their name, disability, or any content of their ILP. You are not permitted to speak about our students to friends, family, etc. If a staff member or teacher has a question about a student’s academic or behavioral needs, disability, please refer them to me. Follow the social media policy - there is a zero-tolerance policy in our classroom. Do not post pictures/videos of or talk about our students on social media. If you take pictures, send them to my work email to be saved for school use. Those pictures do not belong anywhere else. They should not be sent to friends or family or posted anywhere online. Do not share information about our students to parent volunteers or visitors in our building.  Start of Class/Day TEACHER LIST AND/OR DESCRIBE EXPECTATIONS.  End of Class/Day TEACHER LIST AND/OR DESCRIBE EXPECTATIONS.  Behavior Management Every student in our classroom is different and will require different strategies for behavior management. However, this is a list of constant standards that we will uphold for EVERY student in our classroom. Use of positive reinforcement strategies before anything else. Students are expected to follow the “Big 5” as can be seen on a poster in each classroom. 1.) Be respectful. 2.) Be responsible 3.) Be cooperative. 4.) Be safe. 5.) Be a good citizen. Please refer to whichever of these apply when addressing a behavior concern. The use of physical restraints should ONLY be used in the event that the student is posing an immediate threat to cause physical harm to themselves or others. We do not use physical interventions for any behavior, no exceptions. It is the teacher’s job to relay behavior concerns to the Behavior Team, unless you are directly asked for input. You should consult with the teacher whenever possible when relaying these concerns. Do not talk about student’s behavior in front of them. They can hear and understand you regardless of their language skills. Be respectful. NEVER discuss medication with a student in any capacity, even if the student brings it up. The front desk keeps a daily medication log and will be aware if a student has not received medication at school. If a student tells you they have not received daily medication at home or school, you must discretely bring that up to the teacher, who will relay it to the front desk. [Not sure if this should be in a different section…] We will follow the students Action Plan as it is written (If applicable - not all students require an AP). You will receive information and/or instructions via email that may apply to students you interact with (i.e. student needs extra  monitoring, student A should be separated from student B, etc.). That information is to be kept confidential as not all staff may be privy. We never tell a student that they are “naughty” or “being naughty”. “Naughty” cannot be operationally defined, is unproductive, and does nothing but pass shame and blame to the student. We are teaching skills to growing adults. We are not raising “good kids” or “bad kids” or “naughty kids”. IA’s should implement behavior management strategies as they have been taught by the lead teacher. The functions of behavior are Access to Tangibles, Access to Attention, Escape/Task Avoidance, and sensory seeking. Notice how “control” is not a function? Challenge yourself to see the function of behavior beyond “they just want to do whatever they want”, “they’re just messing with you”, or “they want to show you who's boss”. Don’t assume the worst from our students. Students do well if they can. Self-Care Please take good care of yourself! Sometimes our work can become stressful. Here are some things you can do at work to practice self- care: Drink your water! Take a walk or a “mental health” break (1-5 or so minutes) if you need it. This is not related to your allotted 30 minute and 15-minute breaks, this is just “take a minute if you need it”. We get passionate about our work and sometimes need to stop to regulate ourselves. Communicate! Need a break from a student? Is a certain part of our day becoming more stressful than it needs to be? A strategy or routine just not working? I understand. I promise to support you as much as I can. Eat! Bring lunch and snacks every day if you can. Hangry teaching just isn’t the same! I will keep a supply of snacks for us as long as I can. ADVOCATE FOR YOUR NEEDS!! Professionalism Because I have high standards and expectations for our classroom and program, I have the following expectations for maintaining professionalism within our classroom: Dress: Dress in what you will work the best in as long as it follows our school guidelines. Clothing should not include inappropriate text or imagery, etc. Maintain Confidentiality - Again, see the “confidentiality” page of this binder. Healthy Communication - Please communicate as effectively as possible with myself and the other members of our team. Take advantage of communication logs, the para notebook, and participate in our team meetings. Positive Relationships - My goal is to create healthy, positive relationships amongst our staff. You can support this goal by treating each other respectfully, communicating effectively,  avoiding gossip and drama, and setting boundaries in your professional relationships. Present yourself in a professional way that speaks well to our program. CBI/Outings Expectations 1. Make sure all your students use the restroom before outings. A head count MUST be done before leaving the lobby and as students are loading the van. Head count MUST also be completed before securing the van, to make sure no students are left behind. 2. Students should walk in a single file line while navigating a parking lot. One staff MUST be in the front of the line helping to facilitate watching for all safety concerns (vehicles, etc.) and a staff member should be at the back of the line. 3. When loading the van with students, the driver should be the only staff in the van, while the other staff is standing outside of the van to ensure the safety of all the students, as well as directing them where to sit. 4. IF you have any seizure students riding in the van, they MUST sit next to a staff member to monitor any potential triggers/be available in the event of a seizure. 5. When in a store if students are making purchases, make sure that a staff member is present to help the student facilitate the purchase as well as monitor the importance or determine if it is a necessary purchase. 6. When in a restaurant setting be sure to help facilitate, the student ordering their preferred item, as well as facilitating the payment process. Make sure that you are also modeling appropriate/expected behavior in a restaurant setting. 7. Students should not be spending any dollar amount over $25.00 8. Make sure that you and your students are representing PS Academy Arizona in a positive light while out in the community Student Snapshots Forms/Important Info