Teaching Assistant Reflection

1.1 Describe how a learning support practitioner may contribute to the planning, delivery and review of learning activities.

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.

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. I consider myself to be a visionary, who can foster positive relationships, and embrace

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

I have been lucky enough to have been taught by some truly inspirational teachers and am aware of the effect they have had on my life and the choices I have made subsequently. My own passion for working with young children extends from my desire to emulate these role models and perform the same inspirational function in the lives of my students.

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.

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. The parallels in our lives seemed like fate. One day I was close to tears, ranting to him about how no matter how hard I studied, someone would always fault be for

Real Talk for Real Teachers written by Rafe Esquith has been thought provoking as well as entertaining to read. I have learned a great deal from reading this book and I hope to implement a few of his ways in my future classroom. I can relate too many of the stories that have been told in this book because this is real life in a school environment. I would like to break my summary down chapter by chapter.

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 noticed that the teacher followed a set of learning

“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!” “I’m sorry coach see you later!” Being balanced is important because when you take advanced classes and participate in sports you have to be able to go to practice and get your homework finished. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices and give up things really important to focus on what’s more important. Along with being prepared and hardworking advanced students have to be balanced and have a good mindset.

If selected for admission, there are many important contributions I can make to NOVA Southeastern University College of Optometry’s Class of 2020. One contribution is I know I can provide my peers assistance when studying for upcoming exams in their class. I am incredibly hard working person and over the years I have developed strong studying habits, became more focused, disciplined, and patient when it comes to studying for all my classes. While I was attending Barry University’s Biomedical Science program, I would assist and tutor my peers in lecture and in labs such as Biochemistry, Histology, Neuroanatomy, and Anatomy and Physiology, so that they can develop a stronger understanding of the information that was expected to be in upcoming

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’.

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. My classroom reflects this and during my PGCE, using the topic of Space, I immersed the classroom with visual displays of knowledge and work, a questioning wall, well-resourced reading and research areas, and physical resources such as planets and stars. The children became engrossed, which was reflected in work brought in from time spent researching at home. Being a keen learner, I feel it is important to instil a love of learning within children, which these creative approaches promote.

At Homework Club in my local library, I am a volunteer, and, every Monday, we assist young children with schoolwork. What makes this organization distinctive is the location; we operate in an area notorious for its poverty and crime rates. As a result, kids from nearby schools endure a troublesome life where education is just not the pinnacle. So, Homework Club provides every child an opportunity to excel academically. This goal drives me to participate in education is a pinnacle component in life. 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.

While I had a certain syllabus, I had been put in near full control of my school, and all I had to do was show my completed work. Being independent, began to teach how to schedule my time correctly as I would soon learn is a necessity in dual credit college courses.