Back to School: The Teaching Assistant’s Survival Guide
5 School Scenarios and How to Stay Afloat
In the wild – You are in class, breaking down the assignment for a kid who needs visual reminders of the steps. You finish and ask them to look at the pictures and tell you what they are doing first. They pull the pictures towards them and stare at the first one. It is obvious they have no idea and didn’t listen to you. This is no surprise – it happens every time you try to explain something.
Do – Explore all the reasons to love the kids you work with.
The kids we work with can be difficult to get along with, stress-inducing and occasionally mean. If we’re going to do our job at all, let alone well, we need to find the reasons to love the kids we work with. Maybe that child was unable to sleep because of a situation at home, and they’re trying to keep their eyes open. Maybe they used up all their energy helping a friend in the lunch hour. Finding out the reasons they struggle, and the things they enjoy, makes them much more than a problem to be solved. Knowing their best and their worst makes them more loveable and, therefore, your job more enjoyable.
Remember – They are more than their worst moments; they are also their best moments and their middling ones.
Survival Tip: Get the teachers to put their lesson plan or task breakdown on the board.
In the wild – The class before lunch is held back, and you wait with them. When you, and they, are finally released you dash to the canteen, where you are thankfully allowed to skip the queue of kids in order to pick up your lunch. On your way to the staff room a teacher calls your name. They want a quick chat about a kid you work with, they’ve prepared a worksheet “Can you just pop into their classroom and have a look at it?” Sure, you can do that. It’s a long conversation; you look at the clock and realise you’re on duty … right now. You rush to your section of the playground grateful that it’s not raining and hope the kids are getting on today. It’s not thrilling, you barely watch the kids, thinking instead about the million other things you still have to do. 5 minutes before lunch you head off to the SEND room to pick up a kid and walk with them to their next class. Your plate of food is on the teacher’s desk, it’s fine, you don’t have time to eat it anyway.
Do – Protect your breaktime
It can be hard to find a moment to breathe let alone sit down and eat. So, make sure you take your break. Teachers need to know that they will have to find a time that works for both of you if they want to talk with you. And while walking out of a class that has been held behind can feel awkward or like you’re abandoning a child in need, you weren’t misbehaving, so just leave. You won’t get lots of breaks in school so build in time outside of your working hours. Consider this a permission slip for you to have fun and relax.
Remember - You are more than what you do. You do a lot, both inside and outside of school and you are still a good and useful person while you rest.
Survival Tip: Wednesdays are the worst! Be prepared and bring in treat to share with the other TAs.
In the wild – The teacher asks you to take a kid out for one-to-one reading. You sit them down and tell them, “There’s no one to mess around for here, you can’t impress me by being funny, but you could impress me by reading. It has to be done so why don’t you read it one word at a time until we’ve finished up to here?” But they don’t. “We won’t be leaving until you’ve read the whole of this section, if you want to go, you’d better read.” And they do read a bit, because you won’t back down, but you fight for every… single… word. At the end both of you are angry and exhausted and they have no-more idea of what is happening in the book than they did before you started.
Do – Learn from your mistakes
This was always my biggest mistake, and I made it multiple times. The only way out of this was to say something like, “Yesterday I forced you to read every word, even though it meant neither of us understood anything in the book. That was a mistake, and it didn’t work for either of us. Do you have any ideas about how we could get your brain and your body in the right mood for reading today?” That puts you and the kid on the same team, finding a solution together, and as a bonus, they’ll feel (slightly) better about making mistakes in front of you.
Remember -You are more than your mistakes, so it is helpful to admit that you have made one. Whether it’s the relevant kid who you tell, another TA or even your boss they will be on your side and help you not to repeat it. After all, wouldn’t you do the same for them?
Survival Tip – if you are going to lend a kid a pen, don’t expect to get it back. Have a supply of cheap pens and pencils.
In the wild – This teacher has a different teaching style to most others in the school, they stay behind their desk for 90% of the lesson. If a kid needs help, they don’t go to them. This means you run around more, and answer more of the class’s questions because getting certain kids to go up to their desk takes a lot more effort. They also race through the book at twice the speed of any other teacher. You’d get annoyed at the amount of ‘Could you fetch this for me?’ and you’d be cross that you get substitute teachers for the whole second half-term, or you would be except… you know that they have a back operation lined up and are in agony the whole time.
Do – Build a relationship with the teachers
You need to make a plan together to help the class. You need to be clear about what is and is not your job. And to do that you need to talk with the teachers. But while you are at it, find out about the person who teaches. What do they hate most about teaching? And why do they love it? What do they do outside of school? What are they celebrating or looking forward to? How do they chill out after a long day?
Remember – There is more to a teacher than what you see in the classroom. The more you get to know them, the more you understand them. And while you won’t be friends with all your teaching colleagues, working alongside people you like is so much better.
Survival Tip: Wear comfortable shoes
In the wild – The kids you worked with last year call out to you, but you realise they don’t remember your name, you’re just ‘Miss’ or ‘Sir’, and they’ve never even asked what your name is. A teacher lays out the plan for the term, what they’ll study and learn, where the spare pencils are, the consequences of forgetting the homework. But they don’t introduce you, you’re not sure they’ve noticed you, and the only time they speak to you is to ask you to do some photocopying. At the end of the day you meet a friend, who works a 9-to-5 job. “How was work?” they ask, “Must be nice: full-time pay for a part-time job.”
Do – Know that you are loved and valued
Your school wouldn’t be as good without teaching assistants. Those kids need one-on-one time and effort that the teacher can’t provide when they have 30 other kids in class, but you can. The teachers need information and tactics to help the struggling kids and who knows what works better than you do. But while teaching assistant is your job title you are more than that, you have a hobby, a family, a personality, a self, which makes you valuable and loved no matter what job you do.
Remember - You are more loved than you could possibly imagine. There are kids and teachers in school who love what you do to help them, but more importantly there are colleagues and parents who will be your friends (even if you are not there yet). And you have a life outside of school with family and friends who love you and enjoy being around you. That may not feel like enough, and it probably isn’t consistent because people aren’t consistent, so you should know this too: you are loved by God.
- He knows your best and your worst and his love for you never changes.
- He cares about your dreams and motivations, as well as everything that you do.
- He knows your mistakes and he doesn’t hold them against you. He even knows the wrong choices you have made and wants to wipe the record clean.
- He sees all of your life, all the bits that make you, well, you and he really, truly loves you.
- He wants you to know that he loves you more than the best dad could love his child. He loves you enough that he died for you, a painful and embarrassing death on a cross. And as he died he took away everything that was keeping you away from him.
Survival Tip: You’re never too busy to find out if that’s true.
~ Hannah Lewis