In these past few months, I have been really enjoying working as an Educational Instructor (EI) Assistant at PASS Adult Services Society. Some of my duties as an EI Assistant include:
Follow daily activities schedule as assigned
• Assist and work with students (in a group-setting or in a one-to-one setting) to complete daily activities
as scheduled for the program
• Assist with administration of program material consistently to reflect the adult program curriculum
• Be informed of individual student targets to ensure successful completion
• Assist and teach individual students skills of independence, such as skills for their personal care and
hygiene, meal preparation, shopping and cleaning up
• Assist with behavior support plans for each student as required by the Behavior Analyst
• Assist with supervision and monitor students on field trips and scheduled outings in the community
• Help keep PASS environment safe, clean and healthy to follow COVID-19 Protocols
• Participate in natural environment teaching opportunities whenever possible
• Contribute to a positive team culture that supports students and other staff
• Attend all required meetings and actively contribute ideas, suggestions and feedback
• Consistently show respect to students, staff, board members, outside consultants, and parents. Keep
professional boundaries in all relationships.
• Maintain clear communication and work to resolve conflicts in a positive manner
• Accept feedback and suggestions as constructive. Follow up with application of suggestions.
• Maintain confidentiality (do not disclose any private information regarding the adult program or any
private information regarding any student, parent, or staff)
• May be requested to complete other duties as assigned
On my first Co-op job, I worked as a Special Ed Assistant with grade 8 and 9 students with autism. This experience has helped me get a great understanding of the autism spectrum and I had gained some skills that I was able to apply to my current position (read more about those skills here). Since I started being an EI Assistant I have been able to use my current knowledge and skill set but I have been also working on some new ones. Here is a list of some of the skills I have been working on during this work term. I have added some skills I already had and also some skills I would still like to work on. For the skills matrix, I will list the skills I have been working on, I will then write about one situation where I had to actively use this skill. Then I will write what task did I accomplish, what were the results and finally write how do the skills I have gained from this exspe3irnece relate to a position or career area I am interested in. I hope to keep building on these skills during my next position.
Situation: As an EI assistant, I have been given the opportunity to lead some classes. They may include “Morning Meeting”, “Debrief Time”, “Relaxation”. A lot can happen during such classes. In each class, we have quite a big group of students and my job is to keep instructional control and be able to resolve conflicts that may arise.
In one of the classes, we had a situation where one of the program members was engaging in unexpected behaviour with another member. This can happen quite often and it is not uncommon in our day-to-day. I am still new to the program and my role but I have already encountered a lot of situations where I had to keep instructional control.
Task: As an EI assistant and as part of my training, we are required to read all the client guidelines and be familiar with each of the students I am working with. When I lead a class, I am also in charge of assigning support staff to each set of students. I have to assess the class size and see who needs more assistance and which support member could better assist them.
Action: I have to analyze the situation first and assess danger. If the program members are in danger, I should follow the correct protocol (either be clear the floor or provide NVCI measures). Sometimes we have to clear the floor, meaning we have to move all other students to a different area to keep as much distance as possible. Whoever is near the student in distress should follow their own de-escalation protocol, if necessary, we also have to use non-violent crisis intervention measures to make sure the student is safe.
Result: As an EI assistant we want to ensure that everyone is in a safe space. If one of our clients is unsafe, we have to be able to resolve the conflict and regain instructional control when needed. I have been learning a lot about the process of regaining instructional control. I still need to build rapport with the program members in order to feel more confident with them.
Relevance: I decided to work at PASS because I was mostly interested in the teaching and tutoring responsibilities of this position. As a UBC student doing a minor in Education, I am interested in continuing a career in that area. Being able to have some teaching opportunities will help me improve the skills required for similar positions in the future.
One of the suggestions I got in my first term was to improve the instructional control of the class. I am still working on making sure that the members know that I know what I am doing and that they should be listening to me. It will take some time but I am committed to try my best to gain that control and better support the members of our program.
I have always been interested in working in education and working as an SEA and now as an EI assistant has given me a more specific idea of the type of career I would like to pursuit in the future. I realized that I enjoy working with individuals on the spectrum and that working in such meaningful field will make me happy in the future too. I hope that I can take these skills to my next job opportunity.