Teacher Discussion Forums

My average class size is 36 students, and I have a bilingual local teacher to assist me in nearly every class. So far I have used the teaching assistants mainly to explain complicated activities to the children, or to keep a watchful eye from the back of the class to help with dicipline. I would like to find better ways to take advantage of this help! Do any of you have experience with team-teaching or using teaching assistants? Note that children are elementary through middle school age, and the teaching assistants themselves are not by any means fluent English speakers.

Phil

Having another teacher in the room would be useful when doing group work. With 36 students in the class, you could have six groups of six, and both you and the TA could each monitor the progress of three groups.

TAs are also good for providing extra practice. In one university where I taught, the TAs rarely came to the regular class periods. Instead, there were two TAs per class, and they each ran manditory after-class study sessions of four to 8 students each to review the material, use it in context, and answer any questions that people were to shy to raise in a larger group setting. The study sessions met once a week for thirty-minute periods. The professor reviewed the lesson plans of the TAs, and once or twice a term sat in on the sessions to be sure everything was going well. Also, if you only have one TA but want another in order to do things this way, you could consider appointing an older/advanced student as an extra TA.

Another way to use a TA is to take some of the teaching workload off of yourself. You can use TAs to grade papers, proctor exams, and even teach the occasional class period or portion of a class period. You can provide the lesson plans, you can brainstorm plans together, or you can review the lesson plans the TA comes up with.

Hope this helps.
-EH