Ongoing paraprofessional training is essential to working with students with special needs. While the foundational skills you have when you start working in schools can prepare you for success in tackling the first days or weeks, these skills must be refined over time as you gain experience in supporting your students.
As educators, we embrace this growth mentality. No field of work better understands that there's always more to learn!
Unfortunately, many school districts lack the resources to help paraprofessionals with their development. That's why Kelly Education has created an online training program along with many other free resources to help paraeducators grow.
In this article, discover how to invest in yourself to achieve greater success for both yourself—and your students.
At Kelly Education, we refer to this role as a paraeducator. Like “paralegal” and “paramedic,” this term highlights the professional nature of the field of work. Note that school districts often call this role a paraprofessional, parapro, or teacher’s aide.
Paraprofessionals support both students' academic and social success. Your skill set can directly translate into how each student progresses.
As you encounter diverse learning environments or get a better understanding of your students’ unique challenges, growing your capabilities in these areas is essential:
Investing in paraprofessional training will build more confidence that you are handling every situation with established best practices. You'll get more job satisfaction as your skills directly translate to improved outcomes for students.
Investing in yourself via ongoing paraprofessional education training can also work to advance your career as supervisors and administrators recognize your growth and commitment to your work.
Paraprofessionals have access to a variety of training opportunities designed to strengthen their skills and support their career growth. The following are some of the most common types of training available to paraeducators in schools.
In special education environments, there are countless ways to improve your skillset. We recommend that you do a bit of self-evaluation about where you’d like to grow first.
At Kelly Education, we have a skills assessment to help our national team of paraeducators to determine where there are gaps. You can also ask for recommendations from those with whom you work or from a supervisor. In addition to the list at the top of the article, these are just a few more paraprofessional training topic ideas to explore:
Kelly Education takes pride in providing well-trained paraeducators to hundreds of schools across the country. Using our national LEARN standards, developed by our Ed.D.-credentialed educators and instructional design team, we are offering foundational training to support paraeducator growth.
The Paraeducator Path covers such important topics as:
Paraeducator 101 - Role and basic responsibilities across social, behavioral, physical, academic, and safety. Understanding IEP implementation and legal foundations.
Foundations of Instruction - Techniques for differentiated instruction, explicit teaching, multi-sensory learning, modeling, and using adapted tools to support diverse learners.
Supporting Behavior - Student and personal safety, Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) implementation, and supporting students' emotional intelligence and self-regulatory skills.
This online program outlines practical applications for encouraging knowledge retention and includes assessments to ensure you're comprehending the material.
Learn more about our interactive, self-paced training.
If you or someone you know is interested in paraprofessional or substitute teaching jobs, please fill out our brief interest form, and one of our recruiters will reach out to you to answer your questions.
We also have an entire library of helpful articles for paraprofessionals and school educators. Here's just one to get you started: