Teaching Assistants

[mercury]

Hi,

Just wanted a little advice, i've just finished college course but do not want to go directly in the area I studied, i'd rather follow the teaching path, i'm thinking about looking into Teaching Assistant but have no clue how i'd get started. Do you have to study or is it just based on experience? Any teaching assistants out there?

[Physicsgirl]

In our school we have many past students who want to go into teaching. They work as TAs within lessons. My advice is to go and speak to your nearest school - primary or secondary - and ask whether there's an opportunity. You could get started by doing some voluntary hours to get experience which will help when it comes to getting a job. This route greatly depends on your local schools. It would be easier to go to the school which you attended for this "back door" approach, but if not, check out your local education authority web site. They could have advice there. It's a huge growth area within schools. Being a TA does not necessarily mean studying, although once you get employed you can take qualifications to move higher up the scale. Experience is the main thing, so any work you've done with young people will really count, although it's not a necessity. Hope this helps.

[~Wingnut~]

Hi Mercury :o)

I have just finished my TA course and am awaiting it being assessed by the external verifier.
I did the NCFE Level 2 course but there are NVQ 2 & 3 course that can be done too but it wasn't available last year in my area, however I think it is this year.
Our course was made up of 100 hours (90 in college, 10 hours of our own time on weekends if needed, such as to do a display or some maths tution for those that haven't done any for a few years, it may be that you never use these 10 hours but you have to be prepared to do so if required). We had to attend Monday mornings 9.30am-12pm
We had to do at least 50 hours over the year in the classroom. I already worked in the school but as the cook but did my hours on an afternoon. The tutor came in to assess & observe us. You must have a placement to do the course.

We had to create an educational resource. Such as a game that could help children with their maths or literacy or it could be an aid, one year someone worked with a child with a disability who couldn't hold a pen very well and wrote at an angle making it difficult for them to write on the paper. The student TA created a clipboard to help the child and it worked very well that he went on to use it for all his school work.

There was also an exam made up of multiple choice questions which if we got more than 4 questions wrong then it was a fail but there is an oppourtunity to re-take it.

Get in touch with your local college to see if there are any TA courses available.

Good luck and hope I have been of some help :o)