The Teaching Assistant

A teaching assistant will be able to deal with many situations where a pupil requires a reprimand or sanction of some description for their actions and behaviour. For example, minor conflicts between pupils, not listening to instructions, talking in class or poor manners.

A teaching assistant plays an important role for the standards of behaviour expected in the classroom.

Although the class teacher is primarily responsible to plan, deliver and review all learning activities for the class, a teaching assistant can work alongside the teacher and make contributions that can improve the teachers plan, alter the delivery to make it more effective for pupil attainment and extend the teachers initial review. “Planning, teaching and evaluation follow a cycle which gives structure to the learning process” (Baker, B., Burnham, L., 2010) and is vital in my role as a teaching assistant. I aim to describe how I aide the teacher to plan and deliver lessons and how I give feedback to the teacher about individual pupils, in order for the teacher make improvements in her planning and to be able to target individual

A teacher’s role is to arrange for suitable assessment for the students to ascertain their current skills and knowledge, to identify any barriers or challenges to learning to assess learning styles and to know the boundaries to work within.

My role as a teaching assistant is to take on tasks such as preparing the classroom for lessons and clearing up afterwards, which allow the teacher to concentrate on teaching. To support pupils with particular individual needs, sometimes my role is to work one to one, while others work in small groups or work with one of these groups. The teacher is not able to give every pupil individual attention, assistants provide essential support to the pupils and the lead teacher. My responsibilities also include:

Assessment – Problems arising from the assessment are usually to do with time constraints. To properly assess how successful a lesson has been, a teaching assistant needs time to talk to children and ask what they have learnt and to fill in any assessment sheets given by the teacher. The best way to minimise these problems is to have simple, concise sheet devised by the teacher with sections for the teaching assistant to gill in which are relevant to what the teacher wishes to know about.

You can use past experience and achievements as a starting point for assessment. If you have a learner who may have worked or studied in the area that you are teaching, you can assess that experience and then decide where to start on the subject for future assessment.

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.

Assessment for learning informs and promotes the achievement of all pupils. It encourages them to take responsibility for their own learning.

As a teaching assistant your teacher may involve you in the planning of a lesson, she will tell you what the lesson is about and who they want you to work with.

The function of assessment in learning and development is to provide a measurable way of planning and supporting students’ progress. Assessment is carried out by means of checks and tests carried out throughout the course. Assessors should provide feedback throughout ensuring that learning is occurring and the learner is at the correct level. It is also important that assessor’s decisions are also consistently reviewed and internally and externally verified.

Assessment is a valuable tool to measure students learning and achievement. It is an essential element for teacher to reflect on what and how they teach. To assess students is to collect evidence of their learning. Teachers use the information to modify their lesson plans and adjust their instructional methods; students need feedback on their performance to concentrate on their vulnerable areas. Assessment is necessary for parents to reinforce their children strength and assist them where extra attention is required. The data collected will inform school

You can use past experience and achievements as a starting point for assessment. If you have a learner who may have worked or studied in the area that you are teaching, you can assess that experience then decide where to start on the subject for future assessment.

Some of the assessment can be done based on the product of the students after the class. The product do not have to be done in class but can be done in months. The evaluation is done within the progress of the student trying to complete the product. This is mostly used on hands-on activity’s evaluation. The skills practicing to complete their task will implement in their mind much better than just chalk and talk. In short, they can learn, mastered and practiced their skills better thru performance assessment than examinations.

You can use past experience and achievements as a starting point for assessment. If you have a learner who may have worked or studied in the area that you are teaching, you can assess that experience, then decide where to start on the subject for future assessment.