Teaching Assistant
About the Employer
Qualifications
• High school diploma with successful passing grade on the Para Pro exam or two-year degree, or 60 hours of college credit from an accredited college or university
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Prior work with children
• Knowledge of computers
• Preferably bi-lingual communication skills
Skills
• Active listening: giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate
• Critical thinking: using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems
• Learning strategies: selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things
• Monitoring: monitoring/assessing performance of yourself and other individuals to make improvements or take corrective action
• Mathematics: using mathematics to solve problems
• Reading comprehension: understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents
• Judgment and decision making: considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one
• Time management: managing one's own time and the time of others
• Desktop computer skills: using a computer application to type text, insert pictures, format, edit, print, save, and retrieve word processing documents
Reports to
• Principal
Job Goal
To assist the teacher in achieving teaching objectives by working with individual students or small groups to help them achieve the skill levels of the class as a whole.
Performance Responsibilities
• Administers, scores, and records such achievement and diagnostic tests as the teacher recommends for individual students.
• Works with individual students or small groups of students to reinforce learning of material or skills initially introduced by the teacher.
• Assists the teacher in devising special strategies for reinforcing material or skills based on an understanding of individual students, their needs, interests, and abilities.
• Operates and cares for equipment used in the classroom for instructional purposes.
• Helps students master equipment or instructional materials assigned by the teacher.
• Guides independent study, enrichment work, and remedial work set up and assigned by the teacher.
• Guides students with group activities such as drill work, and reading aloud.
• Supervises testing and make-up work as assigned by the classroom teacher.
• Reads to students, listens to students read, and participates in other forms of oral or written communication.
• Alerts the teacher to any problem or special information about an individual student.
• Serves as the chief source of information and help to any substitute teacher assigned in the absence of the teacher.
• Maintains the same high level of ethical behavior and confidentiality of information about students as is expected of fully licensed teachers.
• Participates in in-service training programs, as assigned.
Specific Job Requirements
• Possess and utilize excellent team building skills
• Accept delegated responsibilities willingly
• Able to work under occasional stress
• Demonstrate a high level of initiative in job performance
Education and Training
• Knowledge of teaching and instruction for individuals and groups
• English language knowledge, including the structure and content of the English language, including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar
Work Context
• Requires standing
• Requires walking
• Job tasks are performed in close physical proximity to other people
• Requires working indoors in environmentally controlled conditions and working outdoors
Terms of Employment
• 182 days per school year; salary based on district scale for teacher assistants
• Salary scale
• Evaluation:
• Performance of this job will be evaluated in accordance with provisions of the board's policy on evaluation of support services personnel.