Paraprofessional Colloquium

As a means of enhancing instructional capacity, the Colloquium provides paraprofessionals needed skills in supporting the core work of instruction. As a potential pathway to teaching, the Colloquium targets career changers who prefer to take a more gradual route into the profession. Funding will enable the Colloquium to provide three cohorts (60 participants) with six collegiate credits for two courses while working as a paraprofessional. The Introduction to Paraprofessional and Paraprofessional Internship courses are job-embedded and emphasize real-life experiences and mentor support to enhance learning. Funding will provide participants with six tuition free credits and matriculation to Charter Oak Community College. CREC anticipates that between forty and fifty percent of students engaged in the colloquium will advance along the pathway by pursing teaching certification.

Mentoring

A key element of ongoing professional support will be the deployment of a cadre of trained mentors to work with paraprofessional interns, resident teachers and administrators, and teacher leader candidates. Prospective mentors will be nominated by partner districts and selected based on a combination of instructional expertise (as indicated by administrator recommendations) and equitable distribution among participating schools. Given the significant number of mentors required (approximately 150), we aim to place at least two trained mentors in every participating schools.

New Practitioners Networks

In addition to designing and delivering comprehensive mentor training for teachers and administrators, CREC will facilitate practitioner networks designed to provide ongoing support to novice teachers and administrators. The New Teachers Network will comprise a community of novice teachers who meet quarterly to discuss problems of practice and presentations on topics relevant to the challenges of being a new teacher. Likewise, The New Leaders Network will serve as the induction program for all AARC completers. The networks will meet quarterly, and offer presentations in topics related to areas of need as determined by participant surveys. Both networks will also include a virtual component through a social networking space that will be used to share resources, questions and ideas.