Working with Other Adults in Your Classroom

Phil Beadle explains the roles of other adults that will work with you in your classroom from time to time

There will be a variety of different people who will sit in your classroom from time to time. Broadly, they will be there to provide you with support with kids who have specific difficulties accessing education, either because they have English as a second language, special educational needs or they are presenting behavioural issues. The people in your class will either be specialist teachers or teaching assistants, and their roles will roughly break down into the following:

EAL support teacher – to provide specialist support to children at an early stage of learning the English language.

Behaviour support teacher – to provide specialist support to children who exhibit behavioural issues.

Learning support teacher – to help kids who have specific difficulties in learning to access the curriculum.

Learning support/teaching assistant – either attached specifically to a child or to the class in general. There are also higher level teaching assistants, who are like the bosses of the normal teaching assistants (kind of).

Your teaching assistant is your best friend

All these people are potentially invaluable to you in your first year, and you must make it a matter of policy to make friends with the teaching assistants especially.

The first and most obvious reason that you should do this is that, despite their lack of professional status and in spite of the degrading, sweat shop salaries they command, every one of them is more experienced in a classroom than you are.

The older teaching assistants, those who have been at the school for years, will have seen it all – from breakfast all the way through to Christmas. They will be able to smell how good/bad/nervous you are, and if you are totally emotionally honest with them, they will help you.

But you must treat them with respect, perhaps even, at an early stage of your career, with deference; you are being paid graduate wages to do roughly the same hours they are working for a pittance. Ergo, they are more passionate about the kids’ education than you are. Most of them have taken the job because they have had children at the school, they will know most of the kids at the school and, as such, they will have mature, to the point of fruity, opinions as to how to deal with them.

Whilst they may indulge in the odd, quiet snicker to themselves whilst you are drowning (though I have always found teaching assistants to be the model of professional discretion), if you do find yourself in this position, then the teaching assistant is your lifebelt. Speak honestly with them about the difficulties you are having, ask politely for help and they will work with you, in the trenches, covering your back as you go over the top. Treat them as if you are in any way better than them (you are not – they have probably seen and dealt with things you couldn’t imagine) and your best friend and chief support will down tools.

One problem is that you and your teaching assistant never get any time together whatsoever to plan what you are going to do. Theoretically, you are supposed to do this, but there is no time allocated for you to do so. The best you will be able to manage is a quick two minutes in the staffroom before the staff briefing. If you do get such an opportunity, however small it is, take it. Your teaching assistant is the only other professional in the room on a regular basis. They will have the same degree of emotional engagement with your classes as you and if you want to discuss strategies, share how much you adore a pupil or just want to scream at how unjust it all is, your teaching assistant will listen.

Source: http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/news/working-other-adults-your-classroom/45963

NQT Tips - Staffroom Etiquette

Make your breaktimes more restful by reading our dos and don’ts of staffroom behaviour

It’s seen as hallowed space. Some even bar children from entering. It’s a place where you can kick off your shoes and get comfy on the sofa and maybe even on a Friday evening,share a glass or two of wine. The staffroom is a haven for most teachers; that is if you like to spend your breaks in the company of the entire school staff group in one usually quite confined room.

You could go out and give it a miss but for those who choose to stay and reap the benefits of sharing close quarters with colleagues ignore the house rules at your peril:

• Use your own mug. You might be feeling frazzled after your Year 6s have pushed every button imaginable, and a quick cup of tea before you dash off to make sure they haven’t set any booby traps by the school entrance would be just the thing you need. But if you commit the cardinal sin of taking someone else’s mug, then be prepared for the backlash. It has been known for the entire morning break to be taken up with staff deep in conversation over missing cups, who has got them, where they were last placed, how could someone mistake their cup for someone else’s, and similar high brow discussions.
• Wash it up afterwards. Don’t twist the knife in the heart of your victim by leaving their beloved mug abandoned and filthy in the sink. Wipe the tears from their eyes by leaving their mug in pristine condition and put it back in its rightful place.
• Don’t take the last doughnut. All schools have at least one day of the week when treats are kindly brought in for staff. They commonly include sugary, jammy doughnuts; muffins, home-made cakes and chocolate logs. In other words, the type of thing that the government wants to ban from children’s lunchboxes is to be found on the coffee table in the school staffroom. Though you will look longingly at the final slice of mouth-wateringly delicious chocolate log sitting temptingly on its own, don’t make the fatal mistake of eating it. If you do, the whole of the staff team will gather together to play the longest game of ‘Whodunnit?’ you have ever seen.
• If you borrow anything from the staffroom, usually books or any other kind of resource, don’t forget to put it back. The red-faced teacher who looks in exasperation for lesson plans for next week’s PE timetable will not take kindly to the fact that you forgot to bring them back from home. Some will even highlight your error to anyone present in the staffroom at the time, most of whom will be horrified at your shameless behaviour.
• Always make a fuss of anyone who has been off sick, even if it is only for one day and even if your mum saw them out shopping in the sales during the school day. It is always good manners to find out how people are feeling when they have been off sick, but in the staffroom, this often takes on a dramatic level. Heartfelt enquiries about a person’s well-being accompanied by pale, concerned faces, and hugs are common types of behaviour. The person who was ill may like to reciprocate and describe in complex detail the various stages and manifestations of their illness to the shock, horror and sympathy of colleagues.

 Source:http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/news/staffroom-etiquette/23663