Does your school have a student aide program? Spanish class student aides can help with a lot of things that simply save a teacher time! Here is some information about how to get a student aide and what you should and should not ask a Spanish class student aide to do!
Starting a Student Aide Program
If your school does not have a student aide program, it’s not so hard to start one! Here are the basics:
- Sell the idea of student aides to your school! Students can earn 1/4 credit for working with a teacher during a study hall. At my school student aides work 3 periods a week. Of course, the amount of credit or days worked can be changed to suit your school’s needs. Volunteer hours could also be given!
- Your School Counseling Department would put this in the course catalogue if you want it approved as an official credit bearing opportunity.
- At our school, there is a teacher whose duty it is to manage the program. She sends out application forms via email, adds students to a teacher’s roster (so they can give them a pass/fail grade at the end of each semester) and sends reminders to the rest of us to enter those grades!
Spanish Class Students Aides Can:
- Change bulletin boards
- Make copies (not of assessments)
- Laminate or cut things out of the laminations that have been done
- Hang student work
- Organize (bookshelves, materials, etc.)
- Run errands, like bringing things to the main office, mailboxes, etc.
- Cut things out for games
- Fill in important dates on your monthly calendar, like progress reports and days off
- Help you with a task that is not related to Spanish class, like sealing your Christmas cards, so that you have time to correct!
- Research new ideas for class activities
- Create a birthday list (I have a Google Slides presentation with 2 names per slide. I write the student’s first name and last initial and their birthday underneath. Ex: Maddie L. 12-15) I print them, cut them apart, organize them in order of dates, and hang them up on my birthday cupcake. A student aide could do that!
- Put together packets of missed work for students who have been absent
- Use your lesson plans to put your copies in order by day
- Help create class activities: For example, if you are going to play memory, a student aide can write out (or type out) the index cards with the Spanish and English words you will play with.
- Make decorations for your classroom (Word Wall, Paper Snowflakes, etc)
Having a student aide allows teachers to have more hours in the day. The extra things and little touches that never make it to the top of the priority list can be done! It also is a wonderful way to build connections with our students. Finally, if you have a student interested in education, it’s a great way to mentor and show some of the behind the scenes work that teachers do!
Spanish Class Student Aides Should Not:
- Ever see other students’ grades
- Correct anything
- Have access to assessments
- Have access to other students’ private information
Though it may be tempting to have students correct or check off work, this should be strictly the teacher’s job for so many reasons. We need to maintain students’ privacy, for one. Another reason is that everyone makes mistakes. We would not want to have to explain a grading mistake that a student aide made! Finally, our students’ work gives us valuable feedback about what they have mastered and what things we need to keep practicing. Teachers should always correct their students’ work!
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