What is the Role of a Teaching Assistant? What does a Teaching Assistant (TA) do? there are many variations to this role making this not a straight forward question to answer. There are class teaching assistants, Special Educational Needs (SEN) teaching assistants, specialist subject teaching assistants, Higher Level teaching assistants (HLTA’s) to name a few. The job role will differ from school to school as TA’s are present in schools from Early Years classrooms through to senior and upper schools, making the role of a TA an extremely diverse and varied one. “The term ‘teaching assistant’ (TA) is the government’s preferred generic term of reference for all of those in paid employment in support of teachers in primary, special and …show more content…
“Increasingly, teachers and support staff have interchangeable classroom roles, and it is difficult to detect who has which! Although teachers are charged with implementing an exacting national curriculum, teaching assistants (TAs) assume responsibility for helping pupil’s access informal and formal learning. The roles of educators are equally important and must merge collaboratively if pupils are to achieve potential” (Sage,2006, pix) “Differentiation is adopting strategies that ensure success in learning for all, by accommodating individual differences of any kind” (Petty, 2004, p541) To conclude, once the lesson has finished, the TA will provide feedback to the Teacher as to how and what the children learnt, if there were any areas of difficultly or if extension or different strategies were used to help the child learn, if the work was supported by the TA or if their work was independent. Having assessed the children’s work and passed on the relevant information, (this can be passed on verbally or by annotating the planning and by marking the children’s work) the teacher can then reflect effectively, update children’s progress on school monitoring systems and can now plan next steps for each individual child’s learning. Children all learn in different ways therefore the adult teaching needs to be versatile and have a variety of teaching strategies to enable them to assist in any given situation. “If children don’t learn
Higher level teaching assistants (HLTAS) have a variety of training requirements to adhere to for example numerical and literacy skills up to NVQ level 2 which ensures that they are able and confident in what they are teaching. HLTAS should also have a broad knowledge of learning strategies from independent to group within the curriculum to allow a pupil to fulfil their potential. HLTAS should also have a solid knowledge of the curriculum along with skills in curriculum development and delivery this is to allow HLTAS to be able to teach to a high standard and be aware of what a pupil needs to do to get them to move up a sub level or level in different
The reputation of the teacher is possibly one of the most fickleof all professions, the reason for this being the closed environment to which they work. As in all professions, reputation is important so to be able to carry this reputation forward it is important to earn the respect of not just pupils but colleagues, peers and the local education authority. Experience within local education authorities creates local professionals, as easy as this is to state it is just as easy to understand because of the relationships built between the teacher and other local professionals within the professional environment of the
Informal discussion with the teacher about what weekly and daily activities that will be taking place. This form of planning is known as short term and would be the most likely that a teaching assistant would be involved in.
My own role and responsibilities as an assistant is to work under the instruction and guidance of the teaching and senior staff. Usually within the classroom with the class teacher, supporting learning for the pupils and providing general support to the teacher in the management of the pupils and the classroom.
In the role of a teaching assistant, you will be contributing to planning, delivery and reviewing of learning activities alongside teachers. When planning takes place there should be some opportunity to discuss and review pupils’ work with teachers. Panning, teaching and reviewing follow a cycle which gives structure to the learning process.
One of the key responsibilities of a Teaching Assistant or TA is to support and guide children while they are going through the different stages of their development.
If any other adult came to me in the workplace needing further information, advice or support then I would try and help them to the best of my ability and knowledge but if the information they needed was above my job role as a teaching assistant then i may get into contact with another member of staff within the setting such as the class leader, teacher SENCO or the head teacher to make sure the information I hand over is correct if I was myself unsure or I would refer them onto a department who specialise in certain areas.
Providing support for learning activities; TA’s are expected to understand the learning objective in order to assist the children in the correct way by using the correct strategies.
Job title was stated as assistant PE teacher, roles were; setting up equipment for lessons, taking warm ups and full lessons (at times), helping students with both practical and theory based work and finally, marking work for both GCSE and A-Level.
It is important that the teaching assistant meet with their teacher so that everyone is aware of the
Many TAs were skilled and I learned a variety of things from them. In particular, I remember one TA who scheduled a mass study session for our Midterm/Final. This study session was a great way for students to share ideas and understanding of the material. From the few TAs who were unavailable or ineffectual, I also learned the importance of being available and utilizing the skills I have described. Furthermore, as someone who has had previous experience as an undergraduate teaching assistant in the sociology and anthropology department, I can effectively handle any tasks given to me.
The teaching assistant can offer support to their colleagues by being open and honest with them, this includes being open and honest about their ability to provide support when they either do not have the time or skills to do so. The teaching assistant should also keep their colleagues up to date with their work schedule that may affect the support they can offer. They should address any issues they may have with other work colleagues in a constructive manner and try to resolve these issues by their own actions. Any issues that cannot be resolved should be reported to someone who does have the authority and capability to resolve them. The teaching assistant could either be working with teachers, other teaching assistants, other adults working
Children should be encouraged to think about risks and given more independence, so they are more likely to grow in confidence. If a child’s experiences is limited its likely that the child may find it difficult to assess and manage risks on their own .If we become to obsess about their health an safety, we may affect their learning development and abilities. Sometimes it’s good to offer them challenging environment for them to deal with risks under our observation also when a child sustain or witness injuries they gain direct experience of their action and choices.
to help the child to refocus on the learning activity. Teaching assistants need to make sure that
As a teacher’s assistant for an afterschool program called Good Grades Academy, I decided to the vocabulary as an extension of the classroom teacher’s comprehension unit. My vocabulary game was based on a lesson involving literary elements for fifth grade students. I worked with a fifth grade student named Bartek who is eleven years old. His strengths lie in his ability to figure out challenging math problems, but he struggles in the areas of reading and comprehension. Bartek decoding skills are on par with his grade level, but his comprehension skills are representative of a third or fourth grade level. He cannot recall important information in the text and his writing responses are unrelated to the text. In addition, Bartek often lacks motivation and has difficulty completing his work. He cannot sit still and disturbs the other students working in the classroom. When asked to complete work related tasks he states that it is too difficult and is inattentive when receiving instruction. I decided to play the vocabulary game with him because it would be a fun and interactive way to help him learn words.