Andreja is a paraprofessional teacher’s assistant for the DC Public Schools system. Working with three year olds, Andreja urges interested students to graduate with a degree in education and to then spend as much time around children, whether through a nonprofit like City Year or a local YMCA.
Transcript
>> My name is Andrea Comontele. And I work as a paraprofessional in DC public schools. I am paired with a teacher and I work with three year olds right now. So I am essentially a co-teacher. I teach lessons with my teacher, but for the most part I just play with the kids. So the students come at 8:30 in the morning. We have breakfast for them, because we are a title one school. So breakfast - all the meals are provided. They come in. They put their stuff down. They eat breakfast. We eat breakfast together. Then we essentially play until the morning begins. We start the day off all on the carpet and then we have little song and dance time. Then we go to a special. So gym, music, art and then we have centers again. So centers is a time when they get to play and explore, but my teacher and I also get to teach them. We work - we can work on literacy or we can work on our unit. Right now our unit is trees. So we may be making a tree craft or we may be reading a book about trees and woodland creatures. And then recess and lunch. Nap time, which is the greatest time of the day. And then more play time if we wake up on time. And then recess and we're done.
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