Many schools around the world hire teacher assistants to work with classroom teachers. Throughout international schools, more often than not, teacher assistants have the primary responsibility of fulfilling clerical duties (making copies, grading homework, changing bulletin boards, etc.). I believe that teacher assistants need to provide instructional support in the classroom, along with their daily clerical duties. However, the only way to make this change within a school is to provide a framework and practical steps that will inevitably strengthen your school and community.

1. Make it an expectation! From the very beginning of the school year, communicate the importance of teacher assistants providing instructional support in the classroom. Most likely, assistants will expect that fulfilling clerical duties and transitioning students between classes will be their only responsibility. At the beginning of the school year, during the very first meeting, dialogue about the importance of teacher assistants supporting student learning in the classroom. There may be resistance from one or two that will not want to put in the extra time and effort, however, many teacher assistants are passionate about education and supporting students and they will gladly take on the responsibility of helping all students learn. Have you had meaningful conversations with your teacher assistants and asked which of them would like to become teachers themselves and welcome such responsibility?
2. Provide meaningful professional development! As an administrator ask yourself this question: when you are having staff meetings, what are your teacher assistants doing? I assume most people will respond that they are in the classroom supporting the teachers. I question, what message this is sending to our TAs? What message do you think it would send to involve teacher assistants in staff meetings and on professional development days? By including TAs in staff meetings, we are recognizing that we value them and that they are an important part of our learning community and overall school goals. I would even take this a step further and involve them in weekly team meetings at the different grade levels. Yes, they may not have the educational background to fully contribute and may not always understand the conversations; however, the more they are exposed to further professional development and growth the more effective they will be in working with teachers and students on a daily basis. At our school, we provide targeted professional development for our teacher assistants. Our own teachers, once a month, deliver interactive sessions to our TAs on working with small groups and/or individual students, using technology in the classroom, conferring with students using the Lucy Calkins Reading and Writing Workshop model, etc.
3. Check-in and provide feedback! At the beginning of the school year, our teacher assistants are involved in the same goal setting process as our teachers. After completing their goals, teacher assistants meet with administration to discuss the goals and then work together throughout the school year to accomplish them. Whenever I walk into classrooms, I am not only there to watch and provide feedback to teachers and students, but I also take the time to talk with the teacher assistants and provide feedback on their daily interaction and support of students. I praise them on the positive support they are providing as well as offer recommendations of ways they can enhance their support. I use twitter to highlight the wonderful things happening in our classrooms for both our teachers and teacher assistants.

As a closing note, supporting teacher assistants in the classroom is a great opportunity to provide teacher leaders valuable leadership experience. At the beginning of the school year, I spoke with one of our exceptional grade two teachers, Amanda Blankenship, about supporting our work with TAs and she was enthusiastic about setting up and delivering professional development sessions for our TAs. The feedback has been very positive and I do believe the TAs appreciate having a teacher that they can go to for practical classroom questions and support. Our wonderful and talented learning support teacher, Erin Madonna, has also begun training our teacher assistants to provide extra, directed support for our students with specific needs. She meets with them on a weekly basis and supports them with strategies and activities to target individual needs. Recognizing and utilizing teacher leaders for initiatives, such as the importance of teacher assistants as instructional support in the classroom, is a valuable way to move a school forward and promote a culture of collaboration and continued learning.