The Para Place

Here is a little bit about Becky Auger from the article:

"Becky represents the professionalism and dedication that all educators demonstrate daily in our state's excellent public schools," said Vermont-NEA President Angelo Dorta. "I and the members of Vermont-NEA are extremely proud of her achievement."

Auger is one of three paraeducators who lead the school's literacy program, which began in 2006.

She also heads two major school projects that help foster a sense of community at Moretown – she catalogs photographs of students as they grow up and she directs the school's annual field day.

Congratulations to Moretown paraeducator

Michelle Auger was recently awarded the Paraprofessional of the Year award at Richmond Hill Elementary School, an award voted on by her peers. Her husband Tim said this about her:

"I think she really deserves this," he said. "I know, on the home front, we couldn’t run the household without her. She loves her job. She has several different degrees out of college and she could pretty much go out and do a lot of different things if she wanted to, but she enjoys working here with the kids and the fellow professionals here at RHES. She’s always wanted to give back to the community more than doing something for herself, and that’s her way of doing it. She enjoys her place and she tells me it’s worthwhile and rewarding to her."

Visit this news article for pictures and video of the event.

We have another conference prize winner, William C. Soltys of Lyons Township High School in LaGrange, Illinois has chosen the $50 gift certificate to Black Eyed Sallys Restaurant to use during the conference. Congratulations William! I asked William to tell us a little about himself:

I am in my 7th year as a Para-educator at Lyons Township High School in Illinois. I work with special education students as a one-on-one in regular ed classes. I enjoy working with students and watching them excel. I am also the co-president of our local Association. This is a second career for me having retired in 2001 from a career in Hospital Administration with the Department of Veterans Affairs. I am looking forward to attending the conference and bringing back valuable information to share with my colleagues.

Don't forget that there are two more prizes and we will give both of them to the next winner- a product from the NRCP Paraeducator Merchandise Store and one of our Training Manuals. We will select the next winner by the middle of next week, so get your registration in right away!

If you have been thinking about attending the upcoming National Conference, but are not quite sure what to expect, take a moment to look through a few pictures that were taken at last years conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico or a from the year before in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Doesn't that look like fun?

What are you waiting for? Register Today!

The schedule for the upcoming conference has been released with 68 sessions covering a wide range of topics, including:

• Understanding Your Student With Autism Spectrum Disorders from Cindy Myers
• Establishing Policies and Creating Systems That Strengthen Teacher and Paraeducator Teams from Anna Lou Pickett
• Living Wage: You’re Worth It! from Debbie Minnick
• Degree of Work Satisfaction of Special Education Paraprofessionals from Peggy Akerman
• and many more!

2008 National Conference Schedule.

Sue Watson, from the About.com Special Education page has created a list of 10 questions to ask yourself before you decide to pursue a career as a special educator. Looking over the list, I think it applies equally to paraeducators. Here is one of the question she asks:

3. Do you have endless patience?
I spent many months working with a child with Cerebral Palsy with the main goal being achieving a yes/no response. After months of working on this, it was achieved and she would raise her hand for yes and shake her head for no. These kinds of things are often just taken for granted, this was a very big learning leap for this child and made the world of difference. It took endless patience.

Visit Should I Become a Special Education Teacher?

We have selected the winner of one of our fabulous conference prizes. We will notify the winner tomorrow and then post the person's name along with his or her prize. There will still be some great prizes given away, so hurry and register before we choose the next winner- don't forget that everyone who registers before March 1st receives an early bird discount!