please ignore the broken chair in the corner

Although there are occasions when I would love to get back into the classroom and actually teach,  I do enjoy being a Teaching Assistant.

My Level 3 position involves me wearing a variety of Hats on any one day.  Photocopier Hat; Filing Hat; Teaching Hat; Supportive Hat; Duty Hat; Register Hat; Teller-Off-er Hat; Praise Bounteous Hat; Telephone Hat; Research Hat; Data Hat; Talk to Parental Units Hat; Update Website Hat; Stationery Cupboard Hat; Ordering Stuff Hat; Revision Study Guides Hat; Let’s Gossip Hat; Resource Maker & Compiler Hat; Listener Hat; Cheer-up Hat; Prove My Worth Hat …

Sometimes I even wear my Tea / Coffee / Hot Chocolate Hat with pride [I make a mean hot drink, plus I'm the Queen of weaning teenagers off sugar without them knowing, oh yes].  Occasionally I don’t mind stumbling into the cupboard containing my Fetch This & That, Wench Hat – simple tasks can be a pleasure when one is feeling overworked and stressed.  Hey!  Even TAs get overworked and stressed, especially in the PRU environment.

But what really, really irks me is being treated as a piece of doggy-poo.  I may not be your equal in terms of pay and job-importance, but I should always be treated as your equal in the eyes of a student. 

I don’t mind my Fetch This & That, Wench Hat when the teacher is nice and treats me professionally.  I do mind wearing it when the teacher uses my presence in the classroom to inflate her own self-importance, and to show the kids the true meaning of the word bully. 

So, to vent my annoyance and frustration at a certain young teacher where I work, I have devised some rules which would look beautiful in a fetching display on a, hmmm … pink background, with a black wavy border.

Rules for the teacher -

• If I’m standing next to the cupboard which contains the things I want for the lesson I will open the cupboard and get them myself.  This is most effective when I know where they are and the TA [who never usually works in the classroom] doesn’t.
• I will not just say to a TA, “Can you go and get such-and-such folder?” without explaining where it possibly might be.  She doesn’t normally work in the classroom and is not a mind-reader.  When it becomes apparent that she needs my key to get in the cupboard I will not grumble. 
• I will not allow my TA to interrupt another lesson looking for something which doesn’t exist, even when I desperately need it but wasn’t prepared enough to make sure I had it at the beginning of the lesson.
• As I walk past the table I shall pull it round myself.  I will not wait till all the students are in the way and then ask the TA to do it, especially when the students are also perfectly capable of doing it.
• I will not make sarcastic comments after asking the TA for input about something.   It’s not my fault she is far better at the subject I am teaching than I am myself.
• I will make sure that the web address I want the TA to type into the browser is written down, somewhere.  Again, the TA is not a mind-reader.  I might even allow the students to type the address in themselves; after all, they are teenagers and do have some ability.  They don’t need to be spoon-fed. 
• I will not act unprofessionally in the classroom.  I know that students need to know the boundaries, and me sitting there giggling with them is not the Right Thing.  I am a teacher, not a teenager. 
• I will respect my TA at all times, because she is a person too and is actually worthy of it [usually].

Sometimes, the lack of professionalism amazes me.