The Stress of Having a TA: Managing expectations

My friend Sarah is a bad ass. She is an incredibly good teacher and is assiduously responsible. In our initial episode about the difficulties of having a Teaching Assistant (TA), she promised to follow up with me about her take-aways from her conversation with me and Joe.

Which she did.

And this is the conversation she and I just had about that follow-up.

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Here’s the thing about TAs: They are supposed to be helpful. Just like paraprofessionals and parent volunteers and co-teachers are supposed to be helpful. Very often they are! And very often they are not. Why? Because they are sentient adults. And most sentient adults have their own ways of doing things. They are used to being in charge. And, sometimes, they think their undermining or self-aggrandizing behaviors are good for you. When they’re not. They’re good for them.

So you might think the topic of working with TAs is boring or irrelevant. But Sarah and I (and, in the first episode, Joe) are actually talking about collaborating with anyone who is not you. Not necessarily easy.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For example, we discuss

* The Impact of Stress: Sarah owns her busy-ness (“My poor TAs!”) and thinks about how to lower her standards to a range that is more easily reachable.

* Cultural Differences: Sarah’s TAs are from many different countries and cultures. But every adult has their culture. How to bridge the differences?

* Sorting Expectations: Sarah comes up with an approach to determining her TAs’ strengths and weaknesses and assigning them to the proper teaching tier.

Thanks for tuning in! We at TTE hope you’ve had a restful summer and are rarin’ to head back into school!