I hear that
almost every day at school: “But I am a TA!”. Students are using this line when
they are tardy to class, leave early, disappear for unlimited time, talk to
their friends, don’t do any work, use their cell phone, and most irritating for
me, personally, sit at the teacher’s desk.
Students TA’s
(Teacher Assistant) may have variety of jobs, ranging from checking tests and homework, taking attendance, all the way to
absolutely doing nothing; either sleeping or playing with their electronic
device of their choice.
The reasons for
having a TA in almost every classroom’s period, and at most offices in schools,
are all related to money. Offices are constantly cutting clerical help, and
classrooms are short of adult (paid) TA’s. On the other end of the spectrum - schools are
eliminating elective classes and offer very limited choices for those who need
them, thus students are offered a TA position as elective; not a healthy choice
for many reasons. First - students are idle most of the time; sleeping, texting,
or worse, disrupting class. Even worse – in many cases they have access to sensitive
data, not for students eyes, or exposed to office talks that are not for
students’ ears.
Most
disruptive for me is their attitude of “I am equal to you, don’t tell me what to
do!…”. Not only that teachers, now, have to deal with additional 1-3 students, but
with ones with superiority attitude. What makes it even harder is the fact that usually no
information is available on the roster to help identify the real TA’s, and thus
students are using it as an excuse to get out of classwork, or adhering to
school and class rules…
So… sorry
full time teachers, the first thing I do when I hear “But I am a TA!” is asking,
“Are you a paid TA?” (to make sure I am not offending a young, adult, real TA),
then I am sending them back to students’ seats, and make sure they are not
disruptive, or else they face the same consequences as other students.
Once in a
while, I wrongly blame a good TA for being imposter, my apologies! But usually I
know a real TA when I meet one. I recognize them by their respectful attitude, the
work that they bring with them in case there is nothing assigned by the teacher,
by asking politely if there is anything they can do to help… These are the
students with whom I may be even willing to share my sacred “teacher’s space”…
