Temporary Instructional Support Specialist - Wilkerson

Instructional Support Specialist I

Assists one or more teachers in the direct care and supervision of the children in a classroom or infant care facility. Maintains and prepares classroom materials, attendance records, health forms, and student files. Provides instructional assistance to individuals or small groups of students.

The Instructional Support Specialist I provides instructional assistance to general education classrooms where activities can be carried out by an incumbent who meets minimum NCLB requirements, namely the passing of a competency exam. This position may require 6 semester units. It is the first and entry level in the career path. Advancement to levels II-IV requires additional units, advanced knowledge, skill, and ability to work with special student populations, projects, or in specially recognized skill areas.

Essential duties and responsibilities include assisting an instructor to implement lesson plans by providing positive learning experiences for children, assisting the instructor in maintaining classroom discipline, monitoring classroom activities when a teacher is absent, accompanying students going from one location to another, observing, monitoring, and controlling behavior of students within approved procedures, giving each child individual and special attention each day, responding to each child's particular needs and characteristics, insuring that all children receive equal attention, assisting instructor with attendance recording, performing clerical duties such as preparation of correspondence, teaching aids, labels, charts, bulletin boards, and displays, and performing other duties as assigned that support the overall objective of the position.

Qualifications include knowledge of the principles and practices of age appropriate child development and guidance applicable for an educational setting, working knowledge of the basic subjects taught in the District schools, basic knowledge of teaching and instruction methods, knowledge of basic clerical and record keeping processes, knowledge of and skill at using personal computers, audiovisual, and other equipment to support learning, record information, and send communications, sufficient human relation skills to work productively and cooperatively with teachers, students, and parents, knowledge of and competency in a second language, ability to assist teaching staff with implementation of instructional goals and activities, ability to assess the needs of individual students and develop programs to meet those needs, ability to interact with teachers, parents, and specialists in order to carry out assigned duties, ability to oversee students, administer assignments and tests, and perform general clerical tasks, ability to make informal presentations to individual and small groups of students and assist with demonstrations of assigned subject matter to classroom sized groups, ability to relate positively to students in a teaching/learning environment in a way that builds confidence and recognizes socioeconomic and cultural differences among children, ability to balance emotional support and discipline and deal with common behavior problems, physical abilities to perform indoors in an office and/or classroom/laboratory environment engaged in work of primarily a sedentary to a moderately active nature, near visual acuity to read and write printed materials and computer screens, hearing and speech ability for ordinary and telephonic conversation, to speak to groups, and to hear sound prompts from equipment, ambulatory ability to move about office, classroom/laboratory, and school grounds, to tutor, assist with presentations, and reach work materials, sufficient manual and finger dexterity to demonstrate teaching aids, to point out important words/figures to students, and to operate personal computers, ability to lift, carry, push, and move supplies, furniture, etc.,

of light-to-medium weight (under 50 pounds) on an intermittent basis.

Education and experience requirements include the equivalent of a high school diploma plus experience working with students in a classroom or equivalent environment and successful completion of a rigorous competency exam resulting in a certificate, plus completion of 6 college units. Incumbents who have completed 12 or more college credit hours that are degree eligible, will be assigned to Instructional Support Specialist II or higher.

Licenses and certificates may require a valid driver's license. Approved competency examination. Working conditions are performed indoors and outdoors with some, yet infrequent exposure to health and safety considerations.