What it the Advantages and disadvantages to become a Teaching Assistant?

Answer 1

The advantages are many. The ability to make a difference in a student's life is one of the main ones. To see understanding take place or to have a student take what you taught and use it is one of the major events in an teacher's life. Some people think that summer vacation is an advantage, but usually teachers are required to complete in services in the summer. The summer break is also used to prep for the next school year. The disadvantages are that teachers are blamed for students not learning, but there are many factors beyond their control. Students come to school hungry, sleepy, unmotivated, with family problems, emotional or learning problems. . Today many schools want teachers to use a script to teach from. It is called scripted learning. This takes away the teaching process and makes teachers into actors. There is more to teaching than the giving of information. It is knowing subject matter, learning theory/methods, knowing students, and is partly intuitive. Teachers also have yard duty, teacher meetings, report cards, papers to correct, parent conferences, state forms to fill out, lesson plans to do, and to prep for lessons. Many classes are student heavy with 30-35 students per class. When classes are that large it is hard to help all students. Some schools are falling apart and needed things like cooling and heating don't work. Getting 35 students in a room on a hot afternoon makes it impossible to teach. Now, people want to shoot teachers. Yet, state standards still have to be met and testing scores to go up.