Sometimes it feels like these days, teaching assistants are like gold dust! How a school employs and works with teaching assistants really varies depending on the school’s needs and resources, and during your teacher training you may have been able to work with a TA, or you may not. Many teachers would love to have the support of a teaching assistant in their classroom, and some teachers share their teaching assistants with other classes across the schools. They are such an amazing resource to have and can do brilliant work in classrooms, but for ECTs and new teachers, it might feel daunting to have a TA. Working with teaching assistants is often a very small part of your teacher training, you may not even have worked with one at all during your placements, but then if you are given a TA in your first teaching role it’s your responsibility to work with them. So we’ve put together some advice on how to work with a TA, if you are lucky enough to have one!
Listen to their advice
Teaching assistants have often had a lot of great experience and can offer a great perspective on your classroom and the students. Particularly for ECTs and new teachers, your teaching assistant has probably spent a lot more time in schools than you have and may have some great advice and ideas. So don’t be afraid to listen to them! It’s a tricky thing to balance, as during your training and ECT period you are always having to provide evidence of your decision making and your actions, and you’ll also need to show evidence of how you work with a TA effectively. It can be easy to see this and adopt a kind of ‘manager/assistant’ dynamic, but it’s better to think of the two of you as a team. Be open to what they think, listen to what they have to say, and you can show that you are playing to their strengths and making a great team. Maybe you want to get off on the right foot at the start of the year and give them a badge of appreciation – like our ‘TA stands for Totally Awesome’ badge!
Include them in your planning
When you’re planning your lessons, make sure you incorporate what you want your teaching assistant to do. Think about what they can do during each part of the lesson so you can use them most effectively. During the teacher input portion of the lesson, do you want them to be supporting a particular child? If you’re having a whole class discussion, can they support by writing ideas up on the board? If you don’t need their support during teacher input, is there a task they could be doing during that time, like sorting papers or working on a display? Then when children are working independently, let them know which students you’d like them to support. Think ahead about the different ways an extra pair of hands could be helpful and assign them something specific to do. You can use our Lesson Planning Pad for this – these are helpful for working with support staff as they can have a quick glance to get a feel for the lesson, and there’s a specific place where you can note down what your TA will do during the lesson.
Find our Lesson Planning Pad here
Communicate effectively
Communication is really important when working with a teaching assistant – you’re a team and you need to be on the same page. This can get really tricky as teachers have a lot on their plate, a long to do list, and a lot of different people to communicate with. That’s one of the reasons we created the Teaching Support Pad. It’s a tear off pad which lets you make some notes about your school day and give your TA some guidance on what you’d like them to do. There’s a space for each different period of the day, which you could use to note down what you’d like them to be doing, which students you’d like them to support, or things to keep an eye out for. There’s also a ‘Things you need to know about today’ box so you can flag up anything it might be good for your TA to be aware of, like if you’ll be leaving the classroom for a meeting or if a child is feeling unwell. Then there’s an ‘I would really appreciate it if you could’ box, where you can note down some tasks you’d like them to do in any spare time that day, like preparing supplies for an art lesson or putting some good work up on the wall. Filling these out is a great way for you to delegate tasks and keep track of what’s happening in your classroom, and they can also work well as evidence for your ECT folder.
Find our Teaching Support Pad here
Get them involved in group discussions
Getting your TA involved in the teacher input portion of the lesson and group discussions is a great way for students to connect with them. Teaching assistants will often work with the same few students most of the time, so it’s nice to find ways for them to spend time with the whole class. It can also be great for encouraging your students to get involved, and for helping your teaching assistant feel like a real part of your class. At the start of the year, if you’re discussing and deciding on your class values, ask for their input – what does Miss TA think? Does she have any values she thinks are important? Let’s ask! Or if you’re asking students to contribute ideas but they can be a little shy to get going, ask your TA to get involved by sharing her idea. This can model to the class the kind of participation you’re looking for and make them feel more confident about getting involved themselves.
Show your gratitude
It’s something that can easily be forgotten when you have a lot on your plate, especially at the end of the school year which can be a whirlwind of a time with lots going on. But it’s important to make sure your TA knows that you appreciate their help and you’re grateful so everything they do. If you give out praise cards to your students, maybe one day you can give a praise card to your TA and have a student give it to her! We also have Thank You cards which are perfect for teaching assistants and a great way to just pop them a little note to make them feel appreciated.
