Bell's Banter: The CES Team

At the start of the year one of our colleagues gave a speech about our school where she referred to the members of the community as being part of a team. She noted that successful teams have different parts-strong coaches, bonds between players, differentiation for all skill sets, and a common vision and passion. Last week, after hearing about a meeting between a particular set of team members at CES, I realized that my next blog post should be dedicated to the amazing work they do as part of our school each day. This blog post is dedicated to the spectacular paraprofessionals that we have working in our building. I quickly realized that my own writing would not truly capture their impact on the school, so I began to gather input from some other members of the CES team including other administrators, teachers, and students. Here is a sample of why they feel that the paraprofessionals in our building are so important to the CES team. (See if you can guess which ones are from students!)

“She does the best read aloud voice...accents when needed and beautiful expression. The kids always think it’s a special treat when she does the read aloud.”

“She helps me tie my shoes and plays with me at recess.”

“He’s like everyone’s favorite uncle when he is in class! The students are excited when he walks into the room...not only is he extremely knowledgeable in math, but it is also the way he is able to speak with the kids to help them understand concepts and ideas they may need to revisit (many times he comes up with algebraic formulas and computations, that I just have to shake my head, because either I don’t understand it, or he figured it out before I even finished explaining it!) The students respect him, and feel proud and accomplished when they receive a compliment or positive feedback from him."

“She is very smart. I voted for her to be principal last year.”

“She is amazing in my fourth grade room! She can step in at any moment and start or continue the lesson that I was working on with the students. She has created her own lessons to do with the class that extend the teaching I’ve been doing in my units of study. We are all excited about this!”

“She works with students who are struggling using word rings, on letter identification, sound recognition, math problems, number reversals, review and practice of old and new concepts...you name it, she does it!”

“She works with all students and makes them feel special and smart!”

“She anticipates possible safety issues before they occur. She often will walk the playground before recess begins to look for potential areas of concern.”

“She works so hard in the bookroom...leveling, barcoding, shelving, and rearranging books. She has also helped to organize all of the packets for the K-2 AIMS benchmarking process. Her dedication is admirable.”

“She is organized, efficient, and willing to learn new ways to support the students at CES.”

“She has an innate ability to understand students' needs, and works diligently with us to support these needs in the classroom setting.”

“She makes me feel better when I’m upset. She helped me when I was fighting with a friend at recess and we figured out our problem.”

“She often brings in stuff from home to compliment our lessons. I honestly feel like she is a co-teacher in the classroom.”

“She is so cool!”

It is obvious that the students and staff at CES are extremely appreciative of the wonderful work that our paraprofessionals do each day. Thank you to all of our paraprofessionals for being such important members of the CES team!

(I wasn't able to get photos of all of the wonderful paraprofessionals at CES. Below are a few shots of some of the members of this valuable team).