As Educational Assistants, your work is focused on supporting students with special education needs.
At times, this work involves:
1️⃣ Developing digital materials for students
2️⃣ Developing pre-recorded digital instructional supports for students
3️⃣ Synchronous Virtual Support (Interacting & Supporting Students on a Digital Platform in Real Time)
Making student work accessible
Structured Tasks
Augmentative Communication Supports
Visual Supports
Developing Student Schedules (including digital self-regulation and body break links)
Developing Individual Body Break Routines
Instructional Tools (Jamboard, Slides, Docs, Draw, etc)
Educational Assistants, in communication with classroom teachers and special education staff, often develop materials to support student learning. These materials could include items such as structured tasks, visual supports, augmentative communication supports, etc. There are a variety of digital tools that can be used to support the development of these student learning materials. Not only could they be developed digitally but also shared with students digitally.
Educational Assistants work with classroom teachers and special education staff to discuss and outline the content and focus of pre-recorded digital instructional supports for students. Digital pre-recordings can provide a student with the ability to independently access instructional support. There are a few tools that are used to support this work in the UGDSB.
Greeting the student at the beginning of a learning block
Walking a student through what to expect next (e.g., video review of visual schedule)
Modelling a specific learning tool/task
Presenting choices to students (Choice Boards)
Video/Audio: Reading of a song, rhyme, story for a student using student specific cueing techniques
Provide body breaks for individual students, either online or on site in schools, could be pre-recorded or live
Voice Notes & Inserting Audio
How to make your own Videos
Join the SERT Google Classroom or Meets to work with students alongside the SERT
Work with an individual student on a Google Meet (either with the classroom teacher or SERT) to support them completing an independent program (e.g bin system). *Support with things like check ins or body breaks If EA is onsite in a school with a DD class that they don’t normally work in.*
Join Google Meets with classroom teachers and help with collecting data around student stamina, level of engagement and behaviour needs. Monitor the chat, post bulleted instructions in writing in the chat area after the teacher has given them orally
Hold up visuals to support students (eg. picture of microphone, hang up, raise your hand, wait) during Google Meets
Work with the classroom teacher during a synchronous lesson to support a student through coaching, prompting, scribing, questioning, direct instructional support, data collection, etc. while the student is participating in a group lesson/learning activity
Read a story live in the classroom as a "guest reader"
Interact in various Google Classrooms supporting with body breaks and brain breaks
In the UGDSB, Google Meet is the main real time teaching platform. Educational Assistants are invited to join the Classroom Teacher and/or SERT in their whole group or small group Google Meets to support Synchronous learning opportunities for students.