[PHOTOS] A day in the life of a “classroom aide”

“Can I go to the bathroom? I can’t find my Duo-Tang!” The Journal visited a primary school class, where these little everyday glitches weigh less heavily since an educator is present every morning to manage them. A few months after its implementation, the classroom support project is already so popular that teachers would like even more.

“When I don’t understand a word or an expression and M^me Laurence is busy, can I ask M^me Genevieve,” says Mayar, a fourth grader, when asked what she enjoys about helping in the classroom.

M^me Laurence is his teacher. M^me Geneviève is the educator who is present in her group every morning.

Thanks to it, the hands remain raised for less time, explain the young people interviewed in this class at the Étriers school in Saint-Lazare, in Montérégie, where The Journal spent a day last December.

That morning, the activities followed one another like clockwork. Obviously, the math review and spelling quiz would not be as effective if M^me Geneviève was not there to distribute the sheets and make sure that everyone took out the correct notebook.

A classroom assistant is generally an educator who already worked in the school's daycare service and who comes to spend between 5 and 15 hours per week in class to support the teacher.

Do you have to manage a small conflict between students after returning from recess? The mess in a lunch box or a lost boot? M^me Geneviève takes care of it.

This role was created with a pilot project in 2022. Since the start of the 2024 school year, there have been more than 12,700 across Quebec, in most primary schools.

Already, the feedback from the field is favorable, if we rely on a survey carried out this fall. This project is a win-win, since in addition to allowing teachers to be better supported, it allows certain educators to fill gaps in their schedule (see other text).

In the moon

Geneviève Gareau is an experienced class assistant, since she already participated in the pilot project in recent years. With teacher Laurence Castonguay, they form a well-established duo.

In the front row, a student falls into the moon. M^me Gareau stands in front of him with a smirk. She motions for him to look at the time. The young person quickly gets back to his writing exercise.

While the teacher helps students individually, the educator takes care of everything else: checking parents' signatures, ensuring that the young people follow the instructions.

“It seems stupid, but all these five, ten minutes saved here and there, accumulated over five periods, we can practically save 40 minutes [d’enseignement] per day,” estimates M^me Castonguay.

“I feel less burdened.” She can thus concentrate more on the heart of her work, that is, teaching. “And do it better.”

The art of repeating

Her class was targeted because it is a “popcorn” cohort, she explains.

Classroom assistance cannot teach or replace the services of the psychoeducator or speech therapist, for example. But it can help the whole group function better.

“Sometimes I just reread the question [avec un élève] and it will unlock. However, I only repeated,” underlines M^me Gareau. “I'm going to say: 'Do you remember what M^me Laurence said earlier?” And they will find it for themselves.”

During this time, young people who understood the instructions the first time can move forward without interruption.

The interventions she does most often? “Put that down” or “Listen M^me Laurence,” reports the educator, laughing.

No more volunteering, finally a continuous schedule

Like many daycare educators, Geneviève Gareau had a schedule with gaps before the classroom support project filled her schedule… just like her bank account. Before, she could stay at school for several blocks of two to three hours without being paid. “I always ended up volunteering, setting up projects for students,” she says. The Journal followed her during a day of work.

7 h 15: Geneviève Gareau arrives at school. At the entrance, she welcomes the young people from the daycare service.

7 h 55: Closure of the daycare doors. Young people dance to Christmas music in the cafeteria.

8 h 10*: Start of classes. M^me Gareau goes to Laurence Castonguay's fourth grade class.

8 h 15*: The teacher gives explanations individually to students who need them. Meanwhile, M^me Gareau goes around the desks to collect parents' signatures and ensure that the students have completed their lessons. When this is not the case, she notes it and informs the teacher with a post-it on her desk.

8 h 25*: M^me Gareau orders books before returning them to the school library.

8 h 50*: Spelling and mathematics exercises. M^me Gareau distributes papers. She will help young people who raise their hands.

9 h 30*: Writing a text. Students line up in front of M's office^me Castonguay to ask him questions.

Meanwhile, M^me Gareau answers other questions. She helps some young people look up words in the dictionary.

10 h 10*: Recreation. M^me Gareau watches the young people getting dressed in the corridor.

10 h 30*: Return from recess. Revision, then math games.

As the students must form six separate teams, M^me Gareau helps move desks.

11 h 15: The course continues without class assistance. M^me Gareau must go down to the cafeteria to prepare catered meals which will be given to certain students.

11 h 30: Dinner for preschool and first cycle students. No need to ask young people their names: she knows them all.

12 h 20: Dinner for second and third cycle students. M^me Gareau is going to chat with some young people. She is “a bonding machine,” she admits.

12 h 50: Two hour break for M^me station

15 h 05: She rearranges the tables in the school library to accommodate her afternoon care group. Around twenty young people in sixth, fifth and fourth grade gradually enter the room and then have their snack.

15 h 30: Young people want to play Werewolves. M^me Gareau sets up some decor and a string of lights to add to the ambiance. Its role is above all to ensure that the young people do not bicker too much to be the master of the game. And presto, “the village falls asleep”, the participants cover their eyes.

16 h 25: There are only a few students left who get dressed to go play outside and join the educators, who finish their work at 6 p.m.

16 h 40: End of the day for Geneviève Gareau.

*These periods were unpaid downtime in the educator's schedule, before her role of helping the class filled them.

Nearly 80% satisfaction, but beware of sprinkling

A survey carried out at the end of the fall shows the “craze” created by the class aid project, despite its imperfections.

“People tell us that it has a positive impact on children, on their work, on their quality of life,” lists Éric Pronovost, president of the Federation of School Support Personnel (FPSS-CSQ), which represents around 7,200 educators. in schools across the province.

At the end of November, the FPSS conducted a survey of 1,258 of its members, including 720 who provide classroom assistance.

Nearly 80% of respondents said they were “very satisfied or satisfied” with the implementation of the project since the start of the school year.

They say they feel more valued thanks to this new role, which allows them to strengthen their bond with students as well as teachers, while providing them with a fuller schedule.

Not all classes

“When we talk to teachers, they tell us that they would like even more […]. Once you taste it, it creates a craze.”

However, not all classes are entitled to it.

For example, at the Étriers school, five out of ten educators in the daycare service help in the classroom, for a total of 70 hours per week for some 400 students.

“I think that each elementary school class should at least have its own classroom help,” concludes Mr. Pronovost.

A local survey also reveals that in certain places, there is “sprinkling,” notes Isabelle Gariépy, president of the Vaudreuil Region Education Union (SERV-CSQ).

That is to say, instead of concentrating class assistance in the groups that need it most, we grant crumbs of hours to all classes to avoid creating discontent.

Some 75% of teachers who responded to the SERV survey mentioned being entitled to less than 10 hours of help per week.

On the ground, teacher Laurence Castonguay sees the difference: the bond between her classroom assistant and her students is so much stronger since she is present every morning rather than once in a while.

No “fillers”

There are still some flaws to correct. Some educators find that their role is not clear enough or that their schedule is too tight.

For example, one person responded that they hoped that classroom aides would be considered “as colleagues and not stopgaps,” we can read in the FPSS-CSQ survey.