UNCONDITIONAL EDUCATION
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • Our Model
    • Our Leadership Team
    • Press
    • Contact Us
  • News + Resources
    • News You Can Use
    • Resources
  • Unconditional Education Book

Welcome

​Please scroll down to read our Unconditional Education blog posts.

​You can click the button below to learn more about our Unconditional Education and School Based Services!

OUR UE MODEL AND SERVICES

The Many Hats of a Student Support Assistant

3/24/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
​“We all wear different hats here, formal and informal. Can you talk about the hats you wear in your community and what they mean to you?” This was a question my housemate asked someone applying to live in our cooperatively run house during their informal interview. It is a question I’ve been subliminally thinking about at work all year. 

Picture
I’ve always worn different ‘hats’ as a Student Support Assistant (SSA). Our work weaves across the behavioral, socio-emotional, and academic realms depending on the students we are working with, what our school partners expect from us, and sometimes just depending on what kind of day it is. Yet I’ve found this to be especially pronounced during distance learning.

​At the dentist this week, the hygienist asked me what I do for a living, and I was tongue-tied for a moment. Last year I might have said something like, “I provide mental health and behavioral support for students at school,” because that felt like my primary role. Academics were often put on the backburner during support time with my kids because the behavioral, socio-emotional pot was boiling over.

Picture
In distance learning, however, many SSAs are trying on the ‘teacher’ hat in new ways. One SSA said that last year she felt like a lot of her job was, “...a lot of crisis response and general in-the-moment behavioral redirections, incentive plans, tracking, and stuff like that,” whereas since distance learning, her work has shifted to encompass more of an academic support role focused on supplemental teaching. Some SSAs are also running reading intervention groups, or in my case, a community meeting every day for a group of sixth graders. School staff are spread thin, and as SSAs, we often flex and bend to fill in the gaps. With shortened class periods and long independent work blocks, there are a lot of academic gaps to fill. 

Picture
Providing emotional support also looks different outside the often hectic school setting, with both potential for disengagement and intimacy. One SSA said she finds herself, “often feeling like a therapist” during her one-on-one Zoom check-ins with kids, with “a lot more kind of ‘talk therapy’ that comes up.” In the words of another SSA, “...we spend the most time with students, so we often have to switch out of different hats because we have to meet the different needs of the students throughout the day.” The need for emotional support has always been there, but the opportunities and needs for one-on-one check-ins with students have grown during this year of isolation.
 
One SSA described our role as always wearing the hats of teacher, therapist, case manager, and behavioral coach rolled into one, and for her that hasn’t changed during distance learning. The main difference for her is that she is now finally accessing training on supporting students’ needs outside the behavioral realm: “For example, I had to dispense a lot of academic content without any training on how to teach math, ELA, etc. to students [last year].” This year, however, she had the opportunity to receive some training around supporting students with academic needs. 

Picture
​Sometimes I feel spread too thin as an SSA. Other times, I feel grateful that I get to be so many different versions of myself in one day. To a group of 12 sixth graders, I’m their community meeting teacher. To other kids, I’m the person who helps them with their schoolwork and organization skills. Then there is my 3rd grader who asked, “Wait, are you my therapist?” And I get to take the things I’ve learned in each of these roles and apply them to whatever situation I find myself in. It’s a balancing act that can be draining, and is not for everyone, but I find that grounding in the relationships I am building—despite whatever hat I’m wearing—keeps me from slipping.

Picture
Blog Post Written By: Trinity Morton, Student Support Assistant
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Authors:

    School Program Partnerships

    We're Hiring!

    Interested in joining our School Program Partnerships' Team​? Check out our open positions below!
    Teachers
    School Therapists
    Classroom Counselors

    Categories:

    All
    Academic Strand Updates
    All In! Snapshots
    Behavioral Strand Updates
    Clinical Strand Updates
    Program Highlights
    School Highlights
    Staff Guest Posts
    Staff Highlights

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.