Teacher Assistants
Career Snapshot
While it can be enormously rewarding to help a child learn, the teaching job is also exhausting, difficult and stressful. Teacher assistants, often called teacher aides, can help relieve some of the pressure teachers face in the classroom. They handle tasks that allow the teacher more time for lesson planning and teaching.
Teacher assistants may correct or grade papers, prepare visual aids to enhance the lesson, supervise students in the cafeteria, schoolyard, or on field trips, or tutor students. Assistants are often assigned to help students who have disabilities or special needs. Sensitivity and patience are key assets.
Assistants tend to work during normal school hours, although some may take paperwork home to complete. They work the standard school year, which usually means holidays and summers off. Well-educated people who may have pursued careers elsewhere are increasingly recruited to work as teacher aides. At the high school level in particular, they may specialize in a certain subject, such as math or science.
The education requirements needed to become a teacher assistant are being influenced by the recently passed 'no child left behind' act. The act mandates that all teacher assistants working in a program supported by federal Title I funds have at least a two-year associate's degree, two years of college study, or pass an exam given by a local school district. These are quickly becoming the standard requirement for many teaching assistant positions.
It should be pointed out that being a teacher assistant doesn't necessarily put you on the career path to becoming a teacher. That requires years of specialized training. But being a teacher assistant will certainly get you top marks for being friendly, helpful and caring.
Characteristics
Activities
Areas of Study
Degrees
Key Abilities
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Information Ordering
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Near Vision
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Oral Comprehension
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Oral Expression
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Problem Sensitivity
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Speech Clarity
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Speech Recognition
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Written Comprehension
Colleges
Top Skills