Teaching Assistant Reflection

Teaching assistants work in a variety of situations. Sometimes they work with the whole class, sometimes they work with individuals or groups of children. It is important that whichever role we take on we are fair to other children balancing the support needs of the individual with that of the rest of the group. For example if you are working with a particular group and a child from another group asks for help, you would not necessarily ignore the other children. Focus your behaviour on the group you are allocated but not at the detriment of others.

Last semester, I started working for Greater University Tutoring Services (GUTS) as a Tutor Resource Coordinator. Though I have previously tutored economics at GUTS, the position has offered me unique opportunities to engage with the organization in greater depth and learn how it is providing educational support for more than 4,000 students on campus. As Tutor Resource Coordinator, my job is to deliver high quality academic and language tutors through creating different tutor training and leadership development for tutors. One specific example about my work at GUTS is my creation of a standardized tutor training program. Previously, GUTS had four separate tutor training programs.

This year, I applied to be a teacher's assistant with my favorite AP teacher, thinking it would be an easy credit. Little did I know, it would turn out to be an important learning experience for myself. The first week of school our conversations consisted of casual small talk. As time progressed I started to open up to him about problems in my life; my parents recent divorce, my long term depression, and my obsession with my grades. My teacher sympathized with me, telling me his own struggles growing up with his parent's divorce, his battles mental illness, and his poor grades.

I want to become an assistant principal for one simple reason, the children. I believe that all children can learn under the right conditions. With this in mind, I feel that instructional leaders are responsible for ensuring that the conditions for learning are embedded in the school’s culture. Although my role as a Learning Team Facilitator enables me to have an impact on the academic achievement of students through working with teachers, I believe that becoming an assistant principal will help me to be more of a driving force throughout the school. I possess several personal attributes that are essential in serving in the capacity of an assistant principal.

Over the past ten weeks as a learning assistant, I have learned a great deal about how it feels like being on the other side of the student-teacher interaction. While I first started off as a learning assistant, I did not know there were teaching strategies to maximize student learning but after going to the pedagogy seminar and reading the articles provided on a weekly basis, I feel like I have a relatively better understanding of teaching than I had before. During my first few weeks as a learning assistant, whenever a student asked a question I would just answer their question but after learning about univocal and dialogic discourse, I now try to help the students answer their own questions rather than me doing it for them. For example, during the transformation lab, when a student

5 strategies that a teaching assistant might use to support literacy development: 1.Improving language which means building children’s vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important. It is needed to communicate, to understand others and to express own ideas. Building and improving vocabulary will improve reading and writing skills. In order to improve children’s vocabulary teaching assistant could make sure to provide children with a language-rich environment.

Over time, this experience has truly accelerated my problem-solving ability. Every student grasps information differently and, thus, every new student is a new challenge. Personally, my efforts are a pivotal component of the effort since the lack of such would cut down the number of volunteers for every student and, in turn, the amount of devotion one can exert. Overall, this experience exhibits my desire to assist those in my community and to refine my abilities as a true leader.

Phonics was my first homeschool experience. I remember sitting in the backseat of our family vehicle going on a road trip listening to a song about Ally Alligator and learning all the sounds of the phonetic alphabet. I have been in a learning environment from the time I was born. My mother taught in a way that was fun and gave me a love of reading as soon as I could breathe. As such, it is hard to remember what was “school” and what was just “life.”

How To Be A Successful Advanced Student “Hey girl, you can’t practice today, you have to go to tutoring, to get your grades up.” Ugh, I wish I never took advanced classes. Hey, you just have to find a way to balance your time, I thought to myself. “Why are you still standing here get your butt to the library, I want you back on this court!”

This reflection will discuss my key learning’s in the workshop from module 4 – ‘Developing leadership in self and others’, and integrating it with the article by Kelly (2008), ‘Management mentoring in social service organisation’. Within the group discussion, we talked about what a mentor is and the function of a good mentor in the social work field. Ragins and Scandura (1994, pp. 962) in Kelly defines a mentor as “an individual influential in the work environment who has advanced experience, knowledge and is committed to providing upward mobility and support to careers”. The group identified the function of a mentor depends on what the mentee (protégé) wants to learn from the mentor, the situation, learning facilitation and a mentor who is supportive and guiding, which exhibit the function of a mentor.

I enjoyed creating an online resource collection for my teaching partner. I am driven by inquiry and helping others. During my observations and feedback session I took note of things that my teaching partner wanted resources of. I enjoyed creating a collection of effective strategies for Beth to utilize. A particular focus for our blog was the use of leveled text.

At George Fisher Middle School, students and teachers work together to collaborate and create a positive learning environment. The 6cs of the school that are emphasized areas of focus are critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, citizenship, and compassion. Students in this class features students who enjoy participating and having an active role in the learning. The class also features many theatre kids, I can take into consideration these interests. Prior knowledge- Students have already learned about the Bills of Rights with an emphasis on the 1st and 4th amendment.

The purpose and individuals goals came to me as I was reading chapter 3 in the Learning Through Serving: A Student Guidebook for Service­ Learning and Civic Engagement Across Academic Disciplines and Cultural Communities book. Consciousness of Self, Congruence, Commitment, Collaboration, Common Purpose, Controversy with Civility, and Citizenship are the seven C’s which helped me to tailor and refine my individual goals. This was important to me as the seven C’s helped to add meaning and value as to what I was to achieve by helping these students. I wanted to help the students by volunteering so that way I would be helping out the community. When I was younger in the same Sunday School Program.

I bring a creative approach to teaching and planning, as creativity is an important part of who I am. I use a variety of resources and methods of delivery and learning to engage and motivate children. Whilst providing PPA, I had the confidence from teachers to alter plans and plan lessons using these approaches. These lessons received praise for my content and methods of delivery. I use first hand experiences to immerse and engage children throughout topics.

Tutoring and assisting my peers has never been a job for me, it is something that I enjoy doing just as a hobby. I’m someone who is very passionate science, and I love reading about it, and nothing gives me better joy than helping my peers fall in love with science too the way I have. I always attended all my class and after hours and hours of understanding and memorizing the information given to us by our professors, I then developed a strong understanding of the material given to us. I then enjoyed guiding those students in the right direction who were struggling to improve their grasp and understand the information to help them develop a stronger understanding of the information given to them, providing tips to better improve their studying habits, and also help them fall in love with science the way I have. In a way this experience has helped develop my leadership qualities and helped me become more of a confident person.