Professional Roles Associated with Educational Assistants

Teachers

In the world of an educational assistant, the professional they work the closest with would be the teacher.  Teachers have a more direct responsibility to the outcome of a student, creating the lesson plans that the educational assistant must follow.  

A teacher has many responsibilities, some of which include:

• Design learning plans, develops IEP's, establishes learning priorities
• Provides instruction and facilitates student learning
• Reports directly to parents verbally and through written reports
• Maintains records in accordance with provincial standards
• Develops and reinforces learning procedures to enhance student skill and concept development
• Responsible for the management of classroom structure including expectations of students

Teachers impact the roles of educational assistants in many ways:

• Provides resources for educational assistants
• Provides direction to educational assistants including planned activities, classroom management structure, expectations of students, and discipline plans 
• Meets with educational assistants daily and weekly to discuss any concerns including strengths and weaknesses of students, areas of program focus, and program monitoring
• Act as a liaison between educational assistants and principals
• Facilitates workplace concerns directly associated with an educational assistants' job performance when necessary

Principals

Principals are an important part of the school system process and an integral part of an educational support team.  They provide guidance to teachers and a large part of the hiring process of educational assistants.  

Principals have many responsibilities, some of which include:

• Manages faculty within the school and are responsible for their performance appraisals
• Works under the direction of the superintendent of their school division, keeping the superintendent informed of any necessary changes to instructional programs
• Ensures learning objectives of the school division are met and that they meet the needs of individual students.
• Oversee school operations and budget development
• Maintain focus on a positive student morale the development and deployment of curricular and extracurricular activities

Principals impact the roles of educational assistants in many ways:

• Responsible for educational assistants' job placement within the school and provides their written evaluations within the first few months of their career 
• Must ensure that positive working relationships exists between teachers and educational assistants.  the integrity of the teaching profession must be maintained
• Provide opportunity to educational assistants to grow professionally through skill development 
• May step in to help solve workplace concerns between teachers and educational assistants if teachers are unable to resolve privately.  
• Ensures that any educational services provided to students by teachers and/or educational assistants meet the needs of students 
• Provides job descriptions to all support staff and provides training to teachers to properly oversee educational assistants