Allentown’s state representatives grabbed crayons and joined a small group of second graders as a support teacher coached students how to break down numbers using colored blocks to organize the place value columns of their math problem sets.
Support teachers and other paraprofessionals “do a lot of the heavy lifting” in classrooms, Allentown School District Superintendent Carol Birks said during a visit Thursday to Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy.
And now, advancing from a support role to a lead teaching position just became a little easier for four Allentown School District paraprofessionals, who each will receive $5,000 awards to fund their career development.
Birks and American Federation of Teachers Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus spoke of their own experiences starting out as paraprofessionals at a Thursday event in which the union donated $20,000 in scholarships.
Paraprofessional work ranges from one-on-one support for students with learning disabilities or behavioral challenges to assisting teachers with language instruction.
They should be proud that they understand how to assist students with special needs and how to serve multicultural populations, DeJesus said.
“It makes you a better teacher,” DeJesus said.
State representatives, district school board members and union officials observed paraprofessionals facilitating small-group instruction during a tour of first and second grade classes at the academy.
State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, who represents Berks County, said she’d like to see the school’s bilingual model replicated across the state and praised Allentown School District for investing in employee advancement.
“I love that you have taken the time to recognize talent and to nurture it,” Cepeda-Freytiz said.
The district’s Elevar Emerging Educators program allows paraprofessionals to continue their paid classroom work while earning a bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate.
That program is already free to participants, so the donated scholarship money will likely be awarded to paraprofessionals who are paying their own education expenses through other programs, said Will Seng, ASD executive director of human resources. The recipients have not yet been chosen.
State Reps. Peter Schweyer and Michael Schlossberg said they aim to continue investing in the schools in their Allentown districts as a way of strengthening the community.
“We can do wonderful, innovative things,” Schweyer said.
Schlossberg said recent developments in national politics have reinforced for him how valuable it is to have schools like Sonia Sotomayor that honor immigrants’ culture and language.
“There’s very few things that are better than seeing kids learning and happy and engaged,” Schlossberg said. “No matter who you are, that warms your heart.”