Working in a secondary school, tips please!

[idobelieveinfairies]

I have just secured voluntary work in a secondary school starting after christmas, yay!!

If any TA's or teachers have any advice/tips so that i can actually be a help to the teachers and children then please let me know.

I have primary school experience...and live with many teenagers at home, but this is a bit different.

I will be shadowing a TA for the first couple of weeks then i will be on my own!!! what do the TA's do in your school?!

Thanks :)

Congratulations!

I think it depends on whether you will be working with individual children or assisting with groups. This will make a difference on where you focus your attention. You are already used to working with children so it honestly won't be too different to what you have already done.

The main tip I can give you is to try to keep the pupil/pupils on task whenever you can. This will be a great help to the teacher, especially when they are actually directly teaching. Just gently and quietly reminding the child to 'look at the teacher', 'listen', 'stop fiddling with pen/pencil/rubber' will be of great benefit so the teacher doesn't have to stop in the middle of what they are saying to deal with the interruption. I find this invaluable.

Once the topic has been introduced and the pupils are working on an activity then you will soon get the hang of helping and knowing what to do. Often it is just a case of making sure they have understood what they have to do and assisting them in completing the work.

Good luck! They will be lucky to have you

P.S. Sorry forgot to also say - if possible try to get lesson plans from the teachers in advance or at least at the start of the lesson. You will find this very helpful.