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Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Episode 110: Paraeducators Making a Difference in Canyons Schools
In education, collaboration is key. No one person can do it all, and that’s where paraeducators come in, playing an indispensable role in the success of our students.
On National Paraprofessionals Appreciation Day, we recognize the contributions of these dedicated professionals. To better understand their impact, we spoke with Nate Edvalson, the Director of Special Education for Canyons School District, and Stacey Nofsinger, Principal of Jordan Valley, who both witness the powerful influence of paraeducators on a daily basis.
“As paraeducators, they often bring their own personal experiences and connections into the classroom,” says Edvalson. “Many enter the field because they’ve had a meaningful interaction with a student or a personal connection to the work.”
With nearly 300 paraeducators across the district, they provide support in numerous ways: offering behavioral assistance, aiding with health needs, and ensuring access to education through specialized instruction.
Nofsinger highlights the deep connections paraeducators build with students. “Our paraeducators create an environment that feels both welcoming and safe. When a student arrives at school and sees their paraeducator, you can see the positive shift—students are more at ease and their personalities shine,” she says. “It’s all because our paraeducators know them so well and help them feel truly seen.”
0:00 Introduction to Connect Canyons
1:08 What is a Paraeducator?
3:27 Jordan Valley School's Mission
4:57 Day in a Paraeducator's Life
8:04 Benefits of Team Teaching
11:44 Becoming a Paraeducator
18:45 The Human Heart of Education
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyons School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us experts too.
Speaker 2:Learning is about making connections, so connect with us. Teamwork makes the dream work. No one can whistle a symphony. Many hands make light work. We all know a number of phrases like this, because they're true Two minds are better than one, and the same idea can be applied in the classroom. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, frances Cook. Today is National Paraprofessionals Appreciation Day. Our paraeducators are our teachers' right hands. To celebrate them and the work they do. I'm joined today by Nate Edvelson, director of Special Education for the District, and Stacey Knopfsinger, principal at Jordan Valley School. Thank you both for joining us.
Speaker 2:You bet Nate, I'd like to start with you. Can you outline exactly what a paraeducator is for those who may not know?
Speaker 3:I think what's unique about paraeducators is that they usually get involved because they have a need or they've been touched somehow by a student in their past with their story, with their experience and they want to help. Sometimes we get people who are interested in pursuing a path in education. Sometimes it takes people who are interested in being a support Somehow. They want to just help. They know education is important and they get part of it. What they do decides who they are. I think they facilitate and help out Basically, like we all do, I think, in our jobs. It's kind of a as needed, but they specifically focus on how to support teachers in curriculum development and curriculum delivery and providing student behavioral supports and providing health care hygiene. So they are an extension of the teacher. They are teacher's hands when the teacher can't be present and they provide that essential role in lieu of and under the supervision of a teacher. They are teacher's hands when the teacher can't be present and they provide that essential role in lieu of and under the supervision of a teacher.
Speaker 2:So we have paraeducators in pretty much every classroom, right, I would say it's safe to say we have hundreds of paraeducators.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have probably upwards of 300 staff members fulfilling a variety of roles. I think we can get really specific when we talk about paraeducator, but I think it would be also important for us to recognize that we have behavior assistance. We have staff members who do home health or health aides for 504s. So we have a variety of people that fulfill the needs for our students with disabilities, ranging from the need to provide access to the curriculum all the way to specialized instruction. And one in every classroom. I'd say no, we have definitely one in every building, probably more than one in every building for the most part, Particularly our elementaries. We have quite a few schools that have larger numbers of students, have impact across, Whereas with the secondaries you have a lot more localized students populations. They're bigger, so we'll have staff members still there, but it may not be as numerous. You have a lot more localized students populations. They're bigger, so we'll have staff members still there, but it may not be as numerous. Older kids need less hands.
Speaker 3:They learn to be a little more independent. But yeah, every building has multiple staff playing that role.
Speaker 2:Stacey, I'd love to chat with you about Jordan Valley. Can you talk about the mission of the school and, vicariously, why it is so important for your students in particular to have paraeducators?
Speaker 4:Sure, yeah, the mission of Jordan Valley is to educate students in a variety of capacities, specifically in functional communication, functional academics and their own self-regulation, behavioral skills, in order to access their community and demonstrate as independent as possibly that they can.
Speaker 4:And so the paraeducators and paraprofessionals at my school are the largest group of the building, as we have licensed staff as well, but we have around 40 paras that are supporting in every classroom at our building. Our students are the most impacted, whether that be medically, in a communication aspect, behaviorally, and so they really need a larger level of support, a more intense support, to be able to access their learning appropriately. And so paras throughout the building are really some of them are one-on-one with students for their safety and learning. Others are what we consider a classroom pair where they can support and help any student in the classroom and, like Nate referenced, they're like an additional arm to the teacher right, like they're an extension of that licensed special educator that understands the nuances of what it takes to really educate students that are so impacted. And so they're really the lifeline at Jordan Valley and how they support each and every student there.
Speaker 2:Can you describe, maybe, what a day in the life of a parent educator might look like?
Speaker 4:Oh, wow, it's literally different every day.
Speaker 4:But, the gist is that they are supporting the student from even when the bus arrives on property and they're helping them access the building. They are giving them choices throughout the day to give them some autonomy. They're helping them to understand and recognize their own needs, whether that's they're cold, they're hot, they're frustrated, they're happy. They're constantly communicating with the students what they're thinking or they're asking them what are you thinking? Like we have to really prompt quite a bit verbally to help students go throughout their day and their routines.
Speaker 4:The paras are excellent at building relationships with the students and they know them so well. They really take an interest in what the kids enjoy and what they really dislike and they support them in just having a successful, regulated day. They do a lot of modeling of appropriate behaviors and we use a lot of our augmentative alternative communication devices where they're modeling that type of communication for them regularly. They're helping them just recognize when they are upset oh, it looks like you might be upset Like let's walk over here or let's go to this sensory room or let's just take a break, kind of a thing. So they're kind of having to be a couple steps ahead so that they can best support and offer options that the students can access and, of course, they're always doing the academic components as well, of reminding them, maybe restating what the teacher is teaching and presenting, and helping them access up close materials that will help them towards their IEP goals that will help them towards their IEP goals.
Speaker 2:I imagine from a teacher's standpoint it has to just be a weight off their shoulders to have someone else in the building in the classroom that can help. What are you hearing from teachers and your staff about our paraeducators?
Speaker 4:At least at Jordan Valley, the paras really make the room successful. The teachers comment all the time how they can't do their job successfully without the support of their paras, and they build very strong relationships as a team, because you really need to kind of be those two steps ahead, and there are many teams at my school that feel as though they're all just very much in sync and they know what each other would do in this situation and can just do it. And that takes a heavy weight off the teacher's shoulders because, no matter the student, they all have individual needs and one person cannot address all of those needs simultaneously successfully, and so the pairs really solidify the plan and being able to meet the needs of each student, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Nate, what are you seeing kind of on the broader district level when it comes to how our paraeducators are helping out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mirror number one, the appreciation that Stacey mentioned about how teachers respond to a paraeducator that really knows how to tackle the job and takes that initiative. I think also she's describing a lot of level of intensity. That of course happens in different settings, but it does range even to some of the stuff that's, I would say, even a little more traditional, in that there is a range of student need and so there could be small groupings where they're working on phonetics in the school systems and things like that. So there's such a broad range of the needs for students in the paramedic. I will say that our preference and our push would be to have them working with students as much as possible. But they will also do essential supports like helping with paperwork, filing even some clerical components from time to time that will assist the teacher in their regular job duties. They're just that essential piece.
Speaker 3:I think to Dacey's point, I think it's a team. I think that if you have a great running team, the teacher would agree that they're inseparable. They need that and I think one thing that is worth mentioning that sometimes is a frustration, and that is you know we have all these folks. Why can't we do something different? But we do need a lot of hands because a lot of students require different things, right, and so you know. Have safety and security in the bathroom People, then we will have changing needs. We'll have different hygiene needs. We want to be able to have students going to inclusion and being out, so you need maybe a little more interaction out there with one or two students, so we have to have enough support to help the students. In the same time, we want to maintain our fiscal responsibility as a public entity. It's a good balance, but we really appreciate, I think, what people are trying to do.
Speaker 2:Everyone learns differently, at different levels, etc.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Tell me, how does one become a paraeducator? Can you just Walk into a?
Speaker 3:classroom or so we have. You know well, you can always volunteer, which of course we love. That we love our volunteers In the Canyon District and I'm sure there's other districts. There's a process you go through for, of course, application and hiring, screening in regards to fingerprinting and just different things to make sure that we have safe employees. You know, we always want to make sure we're thinking of student safety in our hiring practices, which I think we do a phenomenal job in this district, or thinking of student safety in our hiring practices, which I think we do a phenomenal job in this district doing. But there's public postings. There's usually, there's often pools of need, so there's always standing job requirements.
Speaker 3:The thing about paraeducators that I think is particularly helpful for a different demographic is, you know, we don't always need well, we don't always have the ability to hire full-time. We don't always need full time because we just don't have that. But so there's a variety of types of persons that can fulfill those roles. Could be someone who just wants a few hours to engage in the community in a different way. It could be a college student who needs to flex around some of their scheduling in the day, morning, afternoon, I mean.
Speaker 3:I know a school that I'm helping to run right now, you know we would be happy with seven hours on a Wednesday and Thursday between those two days, just to help with some extra hands. So I think there's a lot of ways to get involved. There's a payment for getting involved, then there's a lot of enrichment that happens and so I think, reaching out, you know, just putting your name in, letting them know hey, I know this posting said 17 hours or 28, but I could do five. I think administrators would be thrilled to work with anybody's schedule. If we can get people who are interested sincerely in helping kids and we work around their schedule the best I can, we would always rather have some hands than no hands at all, and I think that's helpful.
Speaker 2:I imagine, as for anyone who's looking to get their foot in the door when it comes to education, you know whether they want to teach or they want to work in administration. We do have a fund that the employees contribute to here to help rising educators yeah, to help access tuition help and supports and so that's something I know that I have heard buzz amongst our paraeducators.
Speaker 3:That's been a big, huge appreciation that they have for helping them take that next step. Yes, I think a lot of people that's where they start. Maybe you probably started as a parent educator.
Speaker 4:I knew I wanted to be an educator. I went right to college out of high school to become a teacher. But I currently have five staff members that are classroom paras that are going back to school for either teaching or speech language pathology. And some of them have been the recipients of our district, like Grow your Own campaign and having some funds to help pay for that coursework. Some of them have specifically stated their work at Jordan Valley is what prompted them to then go back to school to become an educator.
Speaker 3:For my experience I've done some para work, my wife, who's been an educator for 25 years she started out in para as a para educator and my experience I've done some para work. My wife has been an educator for 25 years. She started out in para as a para educator, and so I know it's an end for a lot of people. I think to Stacey's point too. I think I even have my own family relations that are kind of lost in what they want to do and they're not sure but this the more they do these kinds of things, the more they become focused on man. I really think I could make an impact. I think it's a great opportunity for people to again give to the community, receive some compensation, but to me I always and I know that we receive compensation, but I do look at what we do as an act of service to a large degree, because we provide such an important service for students, for community, for parents. I mean that we're educating students, that we're providing respite, we're providing some opportunity for students to interact that they may not otherwise have is such a blessing, I think, to community and, although it's a right and a privilege, that's a part of community that you can get involved in. If you're feeling disconnected, if you're feeling like you would like to figure out how to make an impact, education is a great way to go and a paraeducator job is, I think, a less intimidating way to start because you can get your foot wet. You've got a lot of supports. You've got these wonderful master teachers that can guide and support you and help you understand how to do things. You've got great administrative support A great way to figure out if education is a thing that you'd like to consider. And, again, flexible around hours. So a college student could be pursuing a degree in accounting and then decide, hey, I want to give it a try and see what this is for me and come and love it and do that for a while.
Speaker 3:I think now we're looking at different trends for different populations. When before, with the baby boomers, they would stay in a job for 30 years the same kind of type of work I think now we're seeing trends where people are bouncing around and getting different skill sets. It's an opportunity for them to acquire some skill sets I think are universally applicable Teamwork, collaboration, getting experience, getting a chance to have a resume. There's just a lot of benefits. I think people don't realize when you're thinking about work and, I think, really paying at least equatable to some positions, but having a bigger challenge than other positions. There's a lot of judgment that still comes involved in these, and I think that's one of the biggest employable skills is judgment. Making good judgments is what makes a good, strong leader, and eventually this new generation is going to need strong leadership, and so this is such a great entry for that too. But I think there's a lot of benefits that people don't realize.
Speaker 4:I would even add to that that, even if you don't think that you can do the job because you haven't had this training, and it's more than just being a helpful brother, sister, mom, dad you know I love kids like those are all great foundational pieces. But what's awesome is that Canyons District recognizes that, yes, the interest is first and foremost, but then we need to provide some specific training, and I know that my paras have been very appreciative of self-led online training to give them just a little bit of a boost to either confirm that, yeah, I do have good judgment skills. Yeah, that's what I would have done, but it's almost like it's confirmed that those are really good skills that they have and that they are a good fit for that role. And so it's not like we hire you and just let you be right, like we do some training. The schools will do training, the teacher and your teams will do training, and so we really take the best like coachable candidates and then coach and mentor and train you.
Speaker 3:And I like that too, because I think I think we always need to do more like coachable candidates and then coach and mentor and train you. And I like that too, because I think I think we always need to do more, and so I think we've. We've been in discussions about how we can improve those online resources, how we can deepen them, how we can maybe even consider some compensation for engaging in them. The state has core modules that can be done for some compensation, so I think there's always avenues to get more education. I think sometimes people will ask for additional opportunities and we'll provide those on those. So we're definitely always collaborating with our leadership, collaborating with our teachers to find out how we can improve, but we would always welcome feedback from any of our staff or any people that have thoughts about how we can improve our systems to deliver more. We're looking at adding hours for, you know, for having collaborative work with teachers, and figuring out a way to make those structures work better.
Speaker 3:Most of the time, I think that's the missing piece is time. We all need more time and it's hard to find that time when you're balancing work life, your own, your own progression, your own self-care. I mean there's a lot. There's a lot drawing on educators, and when I say educators, I mean it broadly. Yeah, cafeteria workers, our paraeducators, all those who constitute the body of education. We're all fulfilling multiple roles, and one of our most important roles we're fulfilling is helping students feel cared about and connected, and so you know, we're using all those skills to broadly address all that.
Speaker 2:That's really cool to hear. You know that it can go anywhere from just spending a couple hours in the classroom and helping out because you, you know, have some free time and you want to give back to your community. You know, have some free time and you want to give back to your community. But then also, like you said, you have those maybe college age students who are looking to figure out what they want to do, or just someone looking for a paycheck and then they find that it's so much more than a paycheck. That's really beautiful. I'd love to hear just kind of both of your overall. I'd love to hear your overall message on what you would like to share about.
Speaker 3:Doing great. Thank you, you're great. This is my second podcast this week. It was great. I wouldn't be able to do it.
Speaker 2:I'd love to hear, I'd love for you to share your overall message that you want people to know about our paraprofessionals and the work that we do both across the district and at Jordan Valley.
Speaker 4:Sure, I'll start the district and at Jordan Valley, sure, I'll start At Jordan Valley. Like I said earlier, the paraeducator force, if you will, is the largest and they are some of the most dedicated, compassionate and reliable people that I've had an opportunity to rub shoulders and work with, and I think that one of the things that I'm just constantly praising about them is the relationships that they build. And so, if you are human and you have a heart and you can think for yourself, I think that being a para or an educator of any type is worth a shot in looking into, because those are the key components that we can't teach. We can't teach how to be compassionate. We can't teach how to be loyal. We can't teach how to just care for others. We can teach how to teach. We can teach how to do a discrete trial. We can teach you know different safety measures for students. Those things are checkboxes that we can practice and teach.
Speaker 4:But our para educators really bring an emotional element that helps the school feel welcoming and feel safe, and when our students get off the bus and see their person and they smile and they happily walk down the hall and like crack jokes, you know or elbow each other, like they have this sense of goofing around and you can see that student's personality come out. For students that are non-speaking and are highly impacted, that is a whole nother world that we get to see, and it's all because of the paraeducators that know them and bring that out in them. So I think that the things that they bring already from their own life's experiences, their personalities and just their background is really what kind of makes our community whole and ensures that students really are having a good educational experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'll just say, you know, I'm a parent of four children. My oldest is going to be 20 here in July and you know, throughout their lives, all my children's lives, expectation is strong, but it's it's almost like a family expect, for lack of a word, but to be a peer, to be involved. But you know a lot of families, a lot of parents, I think, look for what's a way that I can kind of push my student into adulthood and or my child into adulthood in a way that's going to crystallize the values that I've tried to imbue. And you know, sometimes they'll go on some sort of service opportunity maybe you know Peace Corps, whatever that may be, or they go on some other part where they're out dedicating their time to other people.
Speaker 3:This is such a great opportunity to do that same thing and, to echo St Stacy's amazing points, you can teach the concepts of compassion, you can help people understand what that looks like, but to truly engage in it you need practice and opportunity.
Speaker 3:So here's another great opportunity for an individual to engage in community and compassion, and so I would echo that in addition to hey, we also have programs in school. They would help people decide and get a passion for this too, where you can be a peer tutor in our programmings in school, and that's another avenue for so that's another plug. You know students or whoever's listening to the podcast to consider being that person, whether you're enrolling in a class to support or you are aware of a student, that you can reach out to the job of an educator. The job of all of us is compassion and learning and teaching, and that's why we got into it, that's why we love it. We want to better the condition of the human experience, and I think that you can take part in that by being with us, and I think that you can take part in that by being with us.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean, you guys have opened my eyes. You know, but knowing, we know our paraeducators go beyond just, you know, helping out with some paperwork or you know they're not just sharpening pencils in the back of the classroom, they're in it for the kids and it's beautiful to hear the bonds that they have with our students. Thank you both for sharing your knowledge and your time with us and shout out to our paraeducator yeah, thank you so much, appreciate that and thank you for listening.
Speaker 2:If there's a topic you'd like to hear discussed on the podcast, send us an email to communications at canyons districtorg. Thanks for listening to this episode of connect canyons connectrictorg.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook or Instagram at Canyons District or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.
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