Hit : aide duties part 1

[Susanne Ford-Croghan <crogan@SOVER.NET>]

        I received so many requests to forward my responses about an aides
duties
that I decided to post a hit.  I've never done this, so I hope I do it
right.  Most of the messages are here, but some are missing because I
received them at home during vacation.
After rereading some of the responses, I think some of you may have felt I
was a little unfair to my aide.  For the record, I have never asked her to
do anything I wouldn't do myself, I always say please and thank you,  and I
don't think that I have ever had the  "I have a degree, you don't" attitude.
I asked her opinion and tried to include her in decisions.  I feel that she
took advantage of that by refusing to do things, doing her homework, and
taking care of union business when she should have been working.  I will not
let her take advantage of me anymore, and I tell her what needs to be done.
This morning she once again was working on her union constitution and I had
to tell her what needed to be done (these are things that were on a list,
which I had shown her earlier in the week). Unfortunately, I guess that's
the way things have to be.  My principal told me she should not be doing
union stuff, but when it comes to the other things, I need to "pick my battles".

It looks as if I've babbled once again--Sorry!  Here's the hit, hope it helps-



Now, that makes it a horse of a different color!  I had an aide for 7 years
who was 20 years older than me. She had been a classroom teacher for 40
years and the library was supposed to be a lighter task.   Her
chief goal was cleanliness followed by quiet and order.  Her replacement is
15 years younger and is steadily learning the tools of the trade. She was a
volunteer and a parent of two of our students.  I am more myself,
not fretting over my errors, less defensive with Eileen. I try my best.
Everyday I try to thank her for hanging in with me.  I am creative and
energetic but I need someone like Eileen to fill in my lapses in
organization, etc.

 I had a principal from 1975 through 1981 who sat in the library each day
and did her clerical work.  I learned so much from her.  She was very
definitely an assistant.  We bounced ideas off of each other and tried
many interesting techniques.  As a principal, she felt she had a greater
handle on the students seeing them in an informal learning situation.

        So it is okay for a librarian to do the cleaning of tables etc, but not the
aide?  I worked side by side with an aide for 8 years (new place, now I
don't haveone--would love one!!))
basically, an aide does what needs to be done, the same wayt that a trained
librarian does.  These are not times when we can just do one thing and no
others, we are really busy and as the jobs come up, whichever person is
free-er timewise, does the job.  (short of doing whole-group teaching, which
the trained librarian does).  that's the way it worked for me, and boy!!were
those good days.


You have my sympathy.  I've been in your situation, and I believe the
solution lies with your administrator.  Meet with her and, hopefully,
together, design a strategy to get this aide on track.  Make expectations
clear, and meet again in two weeks to discuss progress.  Good luck


I happen to have one of the best aides in the world, in my opinion.  I was
hired as the librarian before I had my MLS (and before I knew I really
wanted to be a librarian!).  She has pretty much trained me in all of the
basics of how the library runs.  HOWEVER, she has never told me how to run
any of my classes or tried to take over any part of the library.  Just like
your aide, mine does refuse to do any sort of cleaning.  Not because it is
demeaning in any way, but because it is not relly in her job description.
The cleaing is to be done by the custodial staff, and if we take the
responsibility to clean the library ourselves, then that is more time taken
away from our regular work.  And it also opens the door for accepting other
jobs we don't do right now.

I don't know what else I could tell you.  My aide shelves books, gets all of
the books prepared to go on the shelves, takes care of overdue notices, and
basically does anything that needs to be done except any part of the
teaching process.  It sounds as though maybe you need to have a job
description written for your library - one for your position and one for
your aide's position.  This type of job description was in place at my
school before I came and I think it has helped a lot.  Good Luck!!


Perhaps what you need is a job description for a library aide.  Are there
any other aides in your district?  If so, perhaps you and the other media
specialist(s) could formulate a job description.  It would,
of course, have to be approved by your principal.  Alternately, you could
come up with one and have the principal approve it, under the guise of being
a joint effort.  Who gives her her evaluation?  If she
isn't evaluated she should be.  The job description should be the basis for
it.  It sounds like you need to work this out through the hierarchy, as she
has decided that she should be the librarian, and is not going to
cooperate with you.  I used to be in a similar situation, and wondered if it
wouldn't be easier to do it myself, with mother volunteers.  But a good aide
is invaluable. Good luck!

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