Personal Experience: My Experience As A Teaching Assistant

Superior Essays
My first placement took place at a special educational needs (SEN) secondary school where I was employed as a teaching assistant. My duties were varied as I would often help children who struggled with the work because of their disabilities but also perform menial tasks such as photocopying. However by doing all of this I gained valuable experience of working in a school, knowledge of learning difficulties and improved upon many of my transferable skills.
Communication skills
Throughout my time at the school I improved on my communication skills by using different techniques for the children. For example, when talking to lower ability children I would use language that was easy to understand and speak slower. As well I learnt to talk to the
…show more content…
This improved my patience as I had to wait for them to finish before we could move on. This was extremely difficult when I was paired with two students of different abilities and I would often have to find extension tasks for the higher ability student to do whilst the lower ability student caught up. This helped me use my own initiative as I would set them tasks such as reading what they had written to make sure they understood it whilst the other children finished their work.
I improved my visual communication skills by using a whiteboard to employ visual aids to help the children such as drawing pictures so they can understand the words. I also became familiar with the computer program ‘Widget’ which puts basic pictures alongside corresponding words.
As well as assisting the teacher and pupils I had to perform menial tasks such as inputting data on the teacher training day. However this improved my information and keyboard skills as I was required to find confidential information on the school’s computer system and input it into a form. From doing this I learnt the importance of confidentiality as I was viewing very sensitive information.
Interpersonal
…show more content…
However once I decided to get to school for 8.30am instead of 9am giving me extra time in case the bus was late I was able to improve my punctuality and time management skills. I used this extra time to attend staff meetings to get a better idea of how a school works and to prepare myself for the day such as seeing if there were any changes to my timetable or if there were any duties that needed doing such as photocopying. This immensely improved my self-discipline as this was my first full time job which forced me to act maturely by arriving on time and waking up earlier.
Professional Development
My career awareness developed as during this placement I learnt that I can cope very well in a school setting particularly a SEN school. However I also learnt that whilst parts of the job can be rewarding such as long holidays and seeing a child improve their abilities, I wouldn’t want to work in a school for my career as it is exhausting and I think there is too much work for too little pay. One of teaching assistants I knew had two other jobs because they didn’t earn enough.
My environmental awareness improved as a result of my horticulture lessons where the children would learn and discuss ways to help the environment. I found myself learning just as much as the children in our

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    1. Using the term “diversity” as defined and described in class discussions and readings (racial, ethnicity, linguistic, social-economics, disabilities, etc.) identify and explain, using the field experience class demographics, how your class setting was diverse. While walking through Forest Hills Elementary, seeing the principal, vice principal, administration, staff, teachers and students are racial and ethnically diverse. The principal and vice principal were very passionate about their students and wanting them to excel.…

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An effective school leader should possess skills such as creativity, implementation, evaluation, and excellent communication. I conducted an interview with Tamara Perez, who is currently a director at Smart Starts Preschool. She has an A.A. degree in Early Childhood Education, Staff Credentials, Director Credentials, and has been teaching for 12 years. Becoming a teacher was not exactly what she had in mind. She was going through a rough time in her life and she began working as a teacher.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    TDA31-2.2 Explain how to adapt communication with children and young people for: * The age of the child or young person * The context of the communication * Communication differences.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I built a positive understanding of children's development and growth of parenting skills. This helped me communicate, assistant, and direct being a teacher assistant. My first trimester of childcare I had to experiences two month being a student teacher at Irving Kindergarten Center. My first week went very productive. I was able to experience different lifestyle of kindergarten kids.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I am a hard-working individual with a passion to pursue a career in primary school teaching. I feel I have the qualities required to be successful in my chosen course as I am a happy, creative and patient person. In order to succeed within this profession it is vital to be interested in the learning process of childhood education which is a trait I have. I began to realise a teaching profession was the route I wanted to go down during my A-level studies as I was studying health and social care and one module was based on the development of children and through this I developed a understanding in the importance of the education system for children and felt it was a extremely rewarding career choice. From this new found interest in this career…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Allowing myself time to find the correct resources for both myself and the…

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oxfam Personal Statement

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After breaking my arm, a couple of years ago I was restricted in participating in many activities and this made me realise how much of our everyday activities we take for granted. What also came to my attention was how our physical and mental health ,in addition to our social environment, can affect our capability of carrying out daily living activities. For example,personal care, domestic tasks, socialising, and work. From this moment, the physical function of the human body has been an interest of mine. Having always wanted to enter a health profession career, what drew me towards Occupational Therapy was the diversity that the course offered from working in rehabilitation clinics, hospitals and care homes.…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Teaching Assistant Application Design is powerful, creative and often surprising. As a teaching assistant, I would like to have an interactive classroom, whether that interaction is between lecturer and the students, or between the students themselves. I believe that lecturing should not be a one-way communication system. As a graduate student, I think it is more important that the students are constantly a part of the process of their own learning.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Principles of relation building with children, young people and adults is the same. Building up a good relation is not quick. There are certain factors which helps it to develop. Communicating effectively helps to develop a good relation with children.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    • The student’s understanding of their own heritage and how this might affect their critical thinking process? (2%) I was born in Burlington, Ontario and lived there for most of my childhood. At 9 years old, my family and I moved to Oshawa, Ontario where I currently am still living in.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I also believe that I can be sensitive, have tact and be diplomatic as I work in a job where medical conditions are often discussed, this means that I have learned to deal with sensitive information appropriately and with tactfully. I also volunteered in my last year of school in the support for learning centre in my school. This meant that I got to see first hand how educational psychologists deal with children and young people with issues such as dyslexia and autism. I believe that this has helped me learn how to work with young people with types of issues such as these in a appropriate way without being patronising and condescending.…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I have been attending the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) for over five years and during my time here some of my skills improved. Many of the skills that improved are the ones that have helped me and will continue to help me through college. I do not think I would still be at CCRI if these did not improve. My skills that mostly improved are time management, note taking, and participation. Time management was a skill that I used to be horrible with, but got better with time.…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social Work Research Paper

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages

    My experience with working with children has made a huge impact on my decision of why I want to be a social worker and work with children. Working as an ABA therapist with children that have autism at Behavioral Innovations has been one of the greatest experiences that have helped me face problems that are in front of me. While working at my job I have learned to take on leadership roles, to work as a group and communicate, and most importantly, patience.…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Reflection About Classroom Teaching Experience Being an educator is a challenge and a new learning experience each time. As an educator, I am entrusted with the responsibility of shaping the way students think and feel in the classroom. I have always wanted to be an educator and share my experiences with the new generation of nurses. When I was assigned to work with professor Lynette Rayman to do my classroom teaching experience, I was thrilled because the topic I chose was chronic kidney disease which also happens to be my area of expertise. I had to incorporate my previous learning experiences to make my presentation lively.…

    • 1703 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being part of the team environment to help my student succeed helped me find the career path I wanted to take when it came to working with students. The experience of coming together to help the students was a team effort for the school and the family, and being part of the process allowed me to find the field I wanted to enter as a teacher. Even though, the experience was minimal it gave me to opportunity to fall in love with a career that I can make an impact in a student’s…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays