The Classroom Aide

I believe that I am a quality candidate for the Instructional Assistant position, as I have 5 years’ experience in various educational support roles. In each position, be it as a Library Assistant in the Westbrook LRC, Student Aide, or as FOSS Coordinator, I utilized my strategic planning, organizing and excellent communication skills to add value to the educational experience of the students and staff with whom I worked.

N.E is a ten-year-old boy who attends 4th grade at North Bergen Elementary School. N.E is a very intelligent and creative boy that needs extra help to achieve his academic and social skills. He has little motivation for school achievement, with problems in independent reading, math and classroom behavior. He demonstrates a poor approach in working in a group, usually instead of working on assigned task, he talks to somebody when it is prohibited, playing with his hands or objects, making noises, calling out and looking around. The student gets easily frustrated and cries when he realizes he is having problems with his schoolwork, especially, in the subject of mathematics.

The function of a HLTA will be relevant and specific to the setting that they are employed, but the overall aim is to help children to achieve their full potential through a number of teaching methods suitable to each childs needs.

What does a Teaching Assistant (TA) do? there are many variations to this role making this not a straight forward question to answer. There are class teaching assistants, Special Educational Needs (SEN) teaching assistants, specialist subject teaching assistants, Higher Level teaching assistants (HLTA’s) to name a few. The job role will differ from school to school as TA’s are present in schools from Early Years classrooms through to senior and upper schools, making the role of a TA an extremely diverse and varied one.

I interviewed an Instructional Aide that I work with at Cottonwood Elementary. Her name is Marcela and she works with the Kindergartners. She moved from Argentina to New York when she was 3 years old and her first language was Spanish. Her mother put her in preschool when she turned 5, to help her learn English. Marcela shared with me that when she went to school she felt very sad, disconnected and was constantly looking for other children that spoke Spanish. She did find a girl who spoke Spanish and she became “buddies’ with her. The girl that she befriended would help her by translating everything the teacher would say, which was all in English. Marcela said she was speaking English by Kindergarten, but she must have had a strong accent because they put in her in speech

My past personal and professional experience makes me a quality candidate for the Instructional Assistant position for which I am applying. Throughout the five years that I worked in District 57, I interacted with teachers, students and other district personnel on a daily basis. As part of my FOSS duties, I frequently collaborated with teachers to determine their needs for science materials and/or assistance.

I am extremely excited to be applying for the 2017 Instructional Assistant summer session position. I see this as not only a job, but a great opportunity to gain hands on experience within the field of special education. I currently attend Old Dominion University and major in speech pathology & audiology, with a minor in special education. I have two more semesters to complete before I graduate and attend graduate school. I have completed all of my special education classes and I have a total of 3 more speech classes to complete. Therefore, I am familiar with special education, communication disorders, assistive technology, and individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Preschool teacher's assistants need a driver's license and must possess good communication skills and patience. A background check will be conducted on applicants.Teacher's assistants aid in the preschool classroom in a variety of ways. They need at least a high school diploma, but some positions aimed at low-income families call for an associate's or bachelor's degree, with courses in child development and growth, along with activities for young children. Preschool teacher's assistants usually must have a driver's license and pass a criminal background check.

The teaching assistant can offer support to their colleagues by being open and honest with them, this includes being open and honest about their ability to provide support when they either do not have the time or skills to do so. The teaching assistant should also keep their colleagues up to date with their work schedule that may affect the support they can offer. They should address any issues they may have with other work colleagues in a constructive manner and try to resolve these issues by their own actions. Any issues that cannot be resolved should be reported to someone who does have the authority and capability to resolve them. The teaching assistant could either be working with teachers, other teaching assistants, other adults working

The class is a Year four, five, six composite class and is made up of twenty-nine students; twelve girls and seventeen boys. There are six Year four students, eight Year five students and fifteen Year six students. The variance of intellectual ability within this class is significant with students’ capability ranging from a Year one level to above Year six level and includes students with special / complex needs. The class includes five students who are verified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, two students who are verified with Intellectual Disability and four students who have been diagnosed with ADHD. Two students are also diagnosed with visual impairment. The class also includes four students who display very challenging behaviours including one student who is under Juvenile Justice for causing grievous bodily harm. This student is on reduced attendance and has a teacher’s aide assigned to him who must supervise him at all times. My mentor teacher emphasised that there are ongoing behaviour issues

I am writing this complaint letter to inform you of your child Alexa Jackson’sattendance at school. She has been absent for more than 16 days this month. It is important for your child to gain her education and come to school on time or else she will have no other choice but to repeat the same grade next year. Please take notice of this letter to sit down and talk with her to convince her to come to school more. It is important for you to be a responsible parent and not neglect what is going on in your child’s life.

Although, it would have been exceeding if they wrote to each parent, because this would make the parents know that they have taken their time to write to each parent so their child could go to the trip. Also, they have added the date. This material is added to show when the letter was written.

After reading your advertisement for a Teacher Aide’s position, I instantly decided to submit my application as my attributes closely complement your needs. I am very ambitious to make a significant difference in the lives of children and am confident that this eagerness and passion will go a long way in contributing to your school.

I am contacting you because I would like to set up a meeting with you about My’Quan grades and classroom ethics. I am very disappointed with him.

In scenario one- The e-generation, the key issue that can be identified is the struggle of a primary school teacher to interact with her new generation students because of the rapid growth of technology especially in the education sector. There are also other issues that can be clearly seen within this case such as the unfamiliarity of Marta with technology, which is limiting the creative abilities of some students like Zac. As well as the dissatisfaction of students due to the old teaching methods adopted by Marta.