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TRAINING UNIQUE TO THE ROLE OF A PARAPROFESSIONAL

Paraprofessional Toolkit

The goal of our Paraprofessional Toolkit is to empower paraprofessionals and equip them with the skills and resources necessary to succeed daily.  These training modules are unique in that all the content is specific to the role of a paraprofessional, clearly delineating what the role of a paraprofessional entails in relation to that of certified educators.  These modules encapsulate every aspect of a day in the life of a para - from general roles & responsibilities to classroom and behavior management, from supporting academic instruction and understanding accommodations & modifications to improving communication and collaboration - we’ve got it all covered in clear, easy-to-digest and discuss modules.

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Our Approach

At Compass, we value time for reflection and discussion with colleagues.  While the Paraprofessional Toolkit has 3 days’ worth of pertinent content to cover, we also provide participants with plenty of opportunities to self-reflect and/or turn to a neighbor to discuss the topic at hand in their setting, what has worked for them before, and how they might try something new based on this new information.  Participants are also encouraged to ask questions and open a whole-group discussion.

The Compass Approach to Special Education

General Educator Training

Teachers working in general education deserve to have the resources, knowledge and skills necessary to support students with diverse learning needs within an inclusive classroom. At Compass, we can help teachers understand the laws and policies of Special Education, specific disabilities students may possess, how to collaborate with teachers in Special Education and assess their progress throughout training.

Behavior Management

One of the hardest parts of a teacher’s job is being able to manage the multiple personalities in student behavior. When you have a diverse classroom with a multitude of different abilities and skills, it can be a complex process to navigate everyone individually. Our team can help alleviate some of that stress with our behavior management trainings.

Paraprofessional Toolkit

Studies show that paraprofessionals are often the adults students will rely on and trust the most. But, with a shortage of high quality paraprofessionals, there brings a need to train others to step into this role. To help with this we’ve designed a Paraprofessional Toolkit that consists of fifteen tools to provide a foundation for success across any grade level and any content area.

What We Offer

1

Intro to Sped
Provides a brief overview of how students qualify for special education, how to support them, and the important acronyms to know.

2

Roles & Responsibilities
Provides an overview of the different roles & responsibilities a paraprofessional has, while also referring to district policies and procedures where needed.

3

Collaborating with Teachers
Covers common barriers to successful collaboration and how to overcome them, as well as an analysis that serves as a conversation starter for how to improve the specific teacher-para relationship in work.

4

Accomodations & Modifications
Clarifies the difference between accommodations & modifications, and examples of each and how to use them.

5

Empowering Students to be Independent
Covers strategies for empowering students to be independent and preventing learned helplessness from developing.

6

Academic Instruction
Discusses a variety of instructional strategies and how they work with different types of learners.

7

Monitoring & Managing Behaviors
Covers why behaviors occur and how to help intervene and teach replacement behaviors.

8

Data Collection & Modifications
Covers various types of data collection and the importance of utilizing both direct and indirect types of data to get the “whole student” picture.

9

Effective Communication
Participants discover their communication style and how to improve their communication with other styles, encouraging clear and concise communication.

10

De-escalation
Covers how to recognize escalation and strategies for de-escalation, as well as prevention.

11

Student Engagement
Discusses the ways to foster student engagement and support the classroom teacher(s) in keeping students engaged.

12

Social & Emotional Learning
Covers the role social & emotional learning plays in school and strategies to support students.

13

Student Management
Covers classroom management strategies and how to support teachers with managing the classroom.

14

Understanding the ABCs of Behavior
In-depth discussion of antecedents, behaviors, and consequences in the school setting.

15

Sensory Processing Disorders
Covers the different sensory processing disorders, what they look like in the school setting, and strategies for supporting students.

16

Executive Functioning
Discusses what executive functioning is and how to support students in building their executive functioning skills.

17

Functional Skills
Covers the different types of functional skills and how to support students in building their functional skills.

18

Supporting Math Instruction
Discusses why math instruction is important and how to effectively support math instruction in the classroom.

19

Supporting Literacy Instruction
Discusses research-based literacy instruction and how to effectively support literacy instruction in the classroom.

Resources

Disability Flyers
These fliers cover common characteristics of different disability categories, commonly helpful strategies for working with each, and some references / resources to access.
Compass Work Style Analysis
This resource enables a paraprofessional and a cooperating teacher to sit down and discuss their work style preferences, exploring how they might work more effectively together.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

  • This training can be done self-paced online, live in-person or virtually, a hybrid of self-paced and live, and can be done in one setting or broken up over time.

  • Yes, schools often choose to have SPED and general education teachers to participate. We also offer a training and supports called the supportive classroom. 

  • No, you can customize select what tools you want in any order.
  • $550 for ultimate users for a year. If less than 5 staff, price is negotiable.

Photo Gallery

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