ParaViews: An Interview with Andrea Loft
12/14/2006

Andrea is a paraeducator in Alexandria, Indiana. Andrea now works primarily with students with Autism, but she has experience with students with a variety of special needs. We truly appreciate Andrea taking the time out of her day to visit with Sarah last December.

S: Hello, Andrea. Thank you for talking with me today. I'm really interested in what led you to becoming a paraeducator.
AL: Well, originally I wanted to work with kids.  I wanted to go into teaching, but an opportunity presented itself to me when I was a senior in high school to work with pre-school children with disabilities.  I went to high school in the morning, and I worked at the pre-school in the afternoons.  I fell in love with it.  I did that for maybe a year or two, but then I got married and had children of my own.  So work went on hold for a while.  When my twins were in second grade, I wanted to go back to work again.  So I went back to what was familiar, and that was working in the schools.  I got a job as a para in a general education classroom for three or four years.  Then we moved Northwest Indiana.  One of the schools had an opening in a severe class.  I had never done that before, but I gave it a try, and I was there for four years.

That’s where I learned how to work with kids with Autism, and I gained some experience working with different kids with special needs – all different kinds of needs.  The teacher there was great and taught me a lot of things.  I was encouraged to learn some of the new ways of working with kids and to try different things even on my own, or she would say, “This is what I would like you to try with him.”  If I didn’t know how to do something, I learned how.  I got a lot of experience in that classroom, and I fell in love with it.  It’s stressful, but I enjoy working with the kids.

But then we moved again, but I was able to find another job in another special education class, and I’ve been in Special Ed. classes ever since.  I’ve not been back to a regular classroom again… mainly because it seemed that this is where the greatest needs were. 

S:  So what are you working on now?
AL: One of our goals is to get our students more integrated into the class and not so tied to me. We want them to be more independent.  That’s our main focus.  And when they’re in the gen. ed. classroom with all the other kids, I try to help all the kids as well.  I don’t just work with the students who are in special education.  We try to get them to be more communicative with the teacher and with each other.  We want all of them to learn to respond to her – not just to me.  In the beginning it was a lot of one-on-one. So there are a lot of close ties there.  But we’re trying to get them to branch out and be more independent of me. 

S: How do you think that's working?
AL: Many of the students have had problems communicating with other teachers in the past except for maybe the teachers that they were familiar with.  But now, I take them to the lunch room to the lunch line, but then I leave them there.  They’ve been going to different ‘specials’ without me.  And they seem to be doing okay with that.  There are times when they need the security of knowing that I’m around and then there are times that I think they wish they had never met me.  I think they’re handling it really well.

S:  You kind of answered my next question too, so what about the atmosphere? You said that you work with several students. How does that work?
AL: They are in a regular classroom most of the time, and we just pull them out for specific things.  Interaction is a problem in the gen. ed. classroom, though.  So the teacher does group activities, or she does board work, and she’ll call them up there and give them something she knows they can do like spelling or that kind of thing. She tries to include them in what’s going on in the class or in groups.  Social interaction is a problem for many of our students, so we try to keep them in there as much as possible. 

S:  How do the gen. ed. students seem to feel about you being in the classroom?
AL: They receive us really well.  They all encourage and cheer and yell for each other without being coached to do so.  They realize when our students do certain things that it’s a big deal.  For example: The students had a worksheet to do.  It was compound words, and they were supposed to color the compound words yellow and color the other ones blue.  I read that all out to them, and they got crayons out and sat them there.  Then I walked away and left them to work independently.  I came back and nothing had been done. I asked them why there was nothing on the papers and one of the students said, “No yellow.”  At that point it was a big deal for him to be able to be able to communicate what the problem was.  The other kids noticed, and you could hear them whispering about it.  Then they ran to the teacher and were all excited and told her that he had talked to me.  They knew that it was a big deal for him to communicate so clearly.  They were thrilled to death.  Some of the kids went home and told their parents.  And even they thought it was a big deal.  Overall I would say that they’ve been received very well and treated very nicely.

S:  That's great. I like that story.
AL: It was wonderful.  I have it all documented and written down.  It was a great moment.

Another time I had a group, and we were reading a story.  I had the students take turns reading.  One of our students was reading, and if he had a word he didn’t know, I’d help him with it and we’d go on.  Another girl started to read, and she got stuck.  When she hesitated, he read the word for her.  He was reading words they couldn’t read.

Sometimes because our students have trouble communicating, the other students think that they can’t do things like read.  And that makes it hard.  But I love it when you can see their brains clicking and you can see them processing, because you know that it’s going to come out – you just have to wait for it.  That’s what I work for.  That’s what makes it all rewarding is seeing that moment when something makes sense and they get it.  And they verbalize it.  So it’s all worthwhile.

S:  Based on what you do in the classroom, how easy would it be for a visitor to identify the students you were working with?
AL: Usually I am redirecting all of the students so it would be hard to tell from my actions.  I’m making a pointed effort these days to withdraw myself.  That’s something that we’ve really been concentrating on… withdrawing and leaving our students to work independently of us as much as possible.  So it would probably be pretty difficult to know who the students were who needed support.  In one-on-one situations we’re trying to get the students to respond to everyone, not just the paraeducators working with them.

S: Just a couple more little things.  Every year there are countless new paraeducators hired all across Indiana.  Remembering your first day and knowing what you know now, how does an actual first day on the job as a paraeducator compare to how you believe a first day should actually be?
AL:  I guess it depends on what kind of para you’re going to be.  When I interviewed at one place, they took me on a tour of the building and the two classrooms where they needed help.  And they watched my reactions in the classes.  They asked me questions and talked to me.  At this point I really knew next to nothing.  But based on what they saw and my responses and reactions, they decided which room I should be in.  Then they gave me a part time job rather than a full time job.  That was the best decision they ever made.  I really wish that everybody could have that opportunity to observe and kind of see what they’re getting into.  I couldn’t have coped all day long in that particular class.

So they gave me part-time in this one class, and then little by little I got used to things. I had a very good teacher who usually knew what she was doing, and if she didn’t, she researched it and came back and said, “This is what I’ve learned.”  That job later turned into a full-time position for me. And that’s what I did for four years.  I wouldn’t trade that for anything.  If they had just thrown me into either of those two classes, I don’t know if I could have handled it.  It helped to be able to see things first, to kind of know what they were expecting of me, and then have the chance to decide whether or not I could learn and cope with all that that was going to encompass. 

Sometimes I think that when new paras start work, they’ve never been taught anything, so they really don’t have a clue.  Some people can pick up with it and go.  Others can’t, and it leaves them frustrated.  I guess ideally it would be nice if they could have a day to observe, instead of just hiring them and throwing them in and expecting it all to work out.  Because I’ve seen that happen where they just didn’t understand what the responsibilities were going to be, and they couldn’t handle it. 

S:  That really segues into my last question.  If you could set up a brand new paraeducator for success, how would you do it?
AL:  I would tell them to investigate what they’re considering doing, and go in a classroom and watch, ask questions, and learn.  I think you have to be kind of a personable person, so that you can have a good relationship with the people you work with because that’s only going to benefit you and ultimately the students, too.  Be able to communicate.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  And be responsible.  You can take the job, but you really need to do your job.  If you try, then I think you can be successful even if you know little or next to nothing like I did.  I took whatever criticism or instruction or whatever they told me, and yes, sometimes it hurt, sometimes it leaves you feeling kind of embarrassed, like “Gosh, I should have known that.”  But I was able to roll with it, and pick it up and take it and learn and go on.  In every place I’ve worked, I left feeling like I made a friend.  I really did.  And it was difficult to leave – it was hard.  I would tell new paras to try to have a good relationship with the people they work with every day.  I think that is most important to being successful, because if you really listen and learn, then you can do just about anything.

S: Wonderful.  Is there anything else that you would want to share with other paras or anything that you want to say?
AL:  I’ve probably said about most of it.  I never expected to be in special education.  But I really love working with kids.  And once I got started, I couldn’t leave it.  I really do enjoy it.  I know that they say don’t get personally involved.  Well, I’m sorry.  Yes, there is a line that you have to draw, but I find that I make more of an impact if my heart is involved.  It’s just how I work.  Not to be inappropriate, not to cross any lines or anything, but I think it communicates something when you gain your students’ trust.  They feel secure and cared for.  Knowing you care gives them that sense of security. 

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