Understanding, Consistency and Going the Extra Mile – Three things I learnt as a TA.

About Me

I started working as a Teaching Assistant (TA)/ Learning Support Assistant (LSA) in October of 2019. I was 24, recently graduated and at a complete loss of what to do career wise. Many of you may think that applying for a job that has a relatively low salary, and doesn’t seem like a positive step on the career ladder might have been a mistake.
But I’m here to tell you why being a TA was such a valuable experience and some things I’ve learn that could help you.

Teaching Assistants are INVALUABLE

I want to start with a shoutout to my TA family, comprised of young and old, male and female and varying ethnicities. Together we formed a formidable force that aimed to support, understand and make education accessible to those who may struggle to access it themselves.
We’re on the frontline, lesson by lesson, day by day, learning how our students work, how we can support them, comforting and encouraging them so they feel happy at school, and have the best opportunity at a positive future.
We may not always be valued, or seen as a necessity. But, from my experience we are invaluable to the students we help, and we make a difference to their education and their future. And that, to me, is invaluable.

My TA Journey

I started my TA journey right at the deep end. I had all my preconceived ideas from my school days and now I was on the other end I was staff not a student.
I spent my first week following the other TA’s around, seeing how they did things, getting to know the kids but it seemed to be an expectation that I would dive in and get on with it. It’s all good sitting and watching what goes on. But, if you really want to get the most out of it, and be as useful as possible you just have to get stuck in. Kneeling down to get on the students level, and asking them what they’re working on was initially a great way to get an understanding of where they were at and what they were struggling with.

After a week of journeying through each subject, and meeting hundreds of students I found my niche.
I spent a small period of time with our Year 7 transition group, which comprised students with a variety of complex special educational needs and we seemed to click. I ended up spending the majority of my time throughout my year with this group and getting to know and understand them and all their individual quirks.I quickly found a particular student that I worked well with and who seemed to respond to me. He had autism and a very negative view towards education and I was ask to join the team that worked with him.

The good thing about being a TA is that you have a lot of wins all day and maybe one or two negatives. Each time the student completes a piece of work, answers a questions right, follows an instruction. You’re building their positive view of education, and it feels good for you too. You then combat when they get overwhelmed with their frustration or anger and you have to employ your variety of strategies and become the most persuasive smart negotiator in the world to get the student back to lesson and calmed down.

On top of this it gave me an accessible route into education and indispensable experience to kickstart my teaching journey. I was able to observe countless lessons and teacher styles. I had time to become comfortable working with children in an authoritative role. I experienced being in an educational environment and the processes and system that enable it to work. I was given opportunities to teach, and manage behaviour. I was able to make a difference and once I had got a taste for that I wanted more.

I’m going to share three things that my experience as a TA taught me.

Point 1 – Understanding your students

It’s funny, when you get the time to actually understand why your students make the decision they make their behaviour makes a lot more sense. For kids with SEN, injustice can be a big trigger or feeling like they are ‘not normal’. Understand this enables you to put into place positive differentiation (differentiation is when you change your process or structure to make it more accessible for a students needs). I quickly learnt that there is always a deeper root cause for a student’s behaviour. We can quickly assume it’s because they’re rude, or because they don’t care. But often the reaction of the student is entirely within our control. With one of my students, we had a check in every morning so he could get off his chest the events he did or didn’t like from the previous evening at home. He needed to speak about this, so we could predict the kind of day he might have. On the other hand, we can force students into power battles that catalyse their behaviour. We can avoid this by following a checklist that offers the student an opportunity to reset and avoids shouting matches.

A good book for looking at how our reactions change is: When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour by Paul Dix.

A good checklist I learnt to work on:

1. Can I reset the student with my body language or an emotionally intelligent cue; such as giving them a look or a positive gesture.
2. If the student doesn’t respond can I have a private conversation explaining the specific behaviour that I want them to change and asking what the student what they might be struggling with? If they say perhaps they had a really bad argument with their mum, you know they might be having a hard time concentrating today.
3. Does the student need a break – these can be helpful for students with SEN or behavioural issues to reset outside of the classroom setting.
4. Is my own behaviour calm and neutral? If I am in control I am displaying how a positive conversation can take place. I am also not losing control of the class by losing control of myself.
5. Am I being just? Am I picking on the student due to reputation and accelerating the consequences I give? Students react quickly to injustice and often give up if they feel they can never win or are being unjustly picked upon.
6. If needed remove the student using the policy your individual school uses. But, I would always aim to have a conversation after and repair the relationship.

All of these points come down to emotional intelligence. Understanding that there is generally something bigger going on behind the students behaviour and being able to control your own emotions to combat the situation.

Point 2 – Set your expectation quickly and be consistent

Walking around school and observing lessons is part of what TA’s do all day. You notice the teachers the students behave for and you notice, even dread the lessons where the teacher’s had no control. I learnt that teachers and adults that set a certain expectation and followed through when those expectations were being challenged maintained a good standard of behaviour in their classroom. The students knew what the standard was, and they knew they would get called out if they didn’t meet the expectation. When working with SEN, we often had to set the expectation at the beginning of each lesson as their emotional levels could fluctuate throughout the day.

How can we set our expectations clearly and consistently?

1. First out, clearly explain your expectations, and the consequence for defying those expectations. You can do this at the beginning of each term or at the beginning of your lessons if you have a challenging class.
   
2. The most important step I find, is following through with your policy of expectation. It’s so easy to avoid giving the consequence, you don’t want to disturb the class, you know the student might kick off.But, the behaviour you don’t challenge is the behaviour you come to accept. If they know the expectation and they understand the consequence there generally isn’t an argument because they know what is right and wrong and can choose to adhere or not. If you are inconsistent in your behaviour management style your students will take full advantage, and behaviour management will cause you a lot of stress.
   
3. Control your own emotions. Students can wind you up to the absolute maximum. I’ve had days where all I did was follow one of my students around that refused to listen or follow instructions and couldn’t manage his own behaviour; it was beyond frustrating. He would run, hide and break things and it was my job to try and manage that. These could be frustrating days but I made sure I was patient, neutral and consistent. I didn’t get angry, I didn’t get frustrated. I was on the student’s side and would explain why and use as many techniques as I could to help him manage his emotions.

Point 3 – Going the extra mile

I was lucky to work with an incredible group of LSAs. The were passionate, generous and committed to providing the best level of educational support. They gave their time and energy regardless of their contract to ensure those students were supported. It is always a pleasure working with a group of like minded people to achieve a common goal.

I’m a big believer in having a good balance between your professional and personal life. I’m also a big believer in not being taken advantage of and I feel TA’s can easily be taken advantage of. Asking us to fill in the gaps and give more time than we’re paid for. Yet, I feel there is a way to find a balance between the two that allows us to give our all without getting frustrated.

1. Throughout the school day I gave it my all. I was there 30 minutes early to prepare and set myself for the day. I would willingly give my break and lunch if needed and I was flexible. I always said yes if it was during the school day which allowed me to be useful to my teachers and co-ordinators. Saying yes, even if it isn’t your preference makes you easy to work with and can be a really easy was to go the extra mile without compromising your time.
   
2. I’m paid to go to work, so I’m there to be an asset and help them achieve their aims. That means I will happily take the harder lessons, or the more challenging students. I’ll work full timetables and do break and lunch duty. I do this because I’m employed to support our students throughout the school day. I often saw our SEN kids lost and wandering about, and part of me going the extra mile was ensuring they were okay even if I wasn’t my responsibility to. I was observant and took the initiative to help.
   
3. I chose carefully the after school or extra curricular activities I participated in. I wasn’t paid to be there after 3pm, so I could confidently choose what I wanted to do after the school day ended without fear of not fulfilling my responsibility to the school. You don’t have to feel bad saying no, it’s your right!

Being a TA was an incredible experience. It opened up the world of education and I had the most fun doing it. I was excited to go to work everyday and I enjoyed every moment I was there. I got to work with some incredible people and I learn so much.

Maybe next time you see your TA, you can give them a bit of encouragement and let them know how much they mean to you.

I hope this helped and provided a little bit of insight.