Project Math Access DVD 06 - Perspectives- Part 04 Transcript Start Audio Description: Part four, classroom assistants. Marien Massa: We didn’t have anybody in the building that could really be an aide for him, but he is allowed an aide. We went through special services, and we would get an aide from there. Now, they are not really trained in anything. They are just paid $10 an hour, and they come in and sit in your classroom. Well, the problem is we don’t have aides that really know math, so they could come in, and they could sit with him... and they could tell him what’s in the diagram, but did they really understand what they were talking about or try to guide him in the right position? Sometimes he would be way off on what the question was, or way off on what the thinking was, and they couldn’t get him on the right track. And then they would stay for a week and they would get frustrated, because they felt they were hurting him more than helping him... but they didn’t realize they were really helping me because I could not keep running over there to say, “You need to look at this. You need to do that.” So, asking an aide to do that, they felt uncomfortable, so we had gone through many, many aides. Finally, l just said, “This is not working." I went to my department head and talked to her, and she said... “Well, why don’t you try getting a student that is in one of our honors classes that has that period free that would wouldn't mind coming in and sitting... and they can get credit as a math aide." And I said, “Well, okay, we’ll put it out.” I got a wonderful girl, just great. She got along with the student, which most of the aides did not. I would have a hard time, if I was a student, getting along with these older people that really aren't helping me. So, there were personality conflicts there, but you know, I understood it as the teacher looking at the situation, but I’m sure the aide didn’t... understand it or the student didn’t understand it. But, the girl came every day and it worked great. She would take Wikki Stix and help him out. It was wonderful. When she wasn’t there, it was like I was panicking because, now what am I going to do... because I was banking on her doing it instead of me walking over there and taking the time to do it. So, that was part of the thing that because relief, is somebody was willing to step forward and say... “Yeah, I’m willing to take on the challenge and try to help him as best as I could,’'... even though she may not have known everything to do with a student that can’t see. She probably learned a lot, as I was learning a lot also, so it was a great experience that way. She still stops and sees me and says that she really enjoyed working with the student and she learned a lot. Those aides are not going to come in here and know anything. They were trying to place aides in my classroom that knew mathematics. Well, you can know mathematics but that doesn’t mean you can deal with people, and that was one of my problems with one of the aides. It just didn’t work. And, she was actually taking notes and answering questions in class, and I’m like... this is going to be interesting; I have a new student in class.