Advice for working in a Catholic/private school halp!

[fireheart]

oh and congrats!

Thank you

I've only done one shift out at a school, so the coordinator must've liked me.

There are two options they can provide for me:

Ongoing assistant: as it says on the can. I'd be filling a vacancy left behind at any school. I would be there for as long as there are at least 15 or so kids. (Ratio is around 1:15)

Additional worker: these are provided outside of the ratio and are designed to help a child with special needs so that he or she can attend the after hours program. They stay for as long as the kid is there, but once the kid is picked up, they can stick around for a bit longer if needed. The program is very inclusive and you don't need to have a degree in disability or special needs.

[EricKei]

Congrats!!!

The important stuff has pretty much all been covered ^_^ I definitely second...

Divert/defer ALL theological questions to parents/teachers. Major land mine. This may extend to avoiding the "God is seen many ways by different people" thing. Some people will get upset about that >_< so it may be better to defer to any supervisors/teachers present

Act in a "conservative" way (Catholics (I attended Cath high school in New Orleans, which is an overwhelmingly Roman Cath region right in the middle of the Baptist-leaning Bible Belt) in particular tend to lean to the right -- which basically means "try not to swear" and "don't rock the boat". Avoid/defer anything that could be interpreted as political commentary as well. And yes, some of the ones from wealthier backgrounds will be dicks, just as in any job. All you can do is grin and bear it.

Many parents will likely have very specific ideas of "how their children are to be raised" -- I'd say ask the schools you are assigned to how to handle any odd issues that come up; make it clear you want to help and do your job, but that you want to do it THEIR way

The 'childhood surgery scar' idea is brilliant

[PepperElf]

heh. or just steal some of my lines.

one scar on my right arm is from a computer hutch that I fell into (the edge gave me a "rug burn").
another one on my left elbow was from my car - broken window from a vandal and I missed a shard of glass from the cleanup.