Teacher Assistant Success Strategies

Discussed in this Episode:

✅ I talked with Dean Beadle about how having a consistent, well-bounded teacher assistant relationship gives autistic students a sense of stability, so long as the relationship is properly transitioned when it needs to change.

✅ Dean explained that instead of springing change on a child, we should prepare them in advance for what to do when something unexpected happens, like a TA being away sick.

✅ I reminded teachers that teacher assistants often know the child better than anyone else in the building, so their observations and ideas need to be listened to and valued.

✅ I explained that differentiating the curriculum is still the teacher’s job, not the TA’s, though the TA can support how that differentiation happens in practice.

✅ Dean shared how a teacher assistant built a lesson around a student’s love of Lego to help her access a Shakespeare unit she found overwhelming, and it reminded me that we should start with what feels safe for a student before moving into harder content.

✅ Dean spoke about how, as he got older, he was given a say in how he used his TA time, and I talked about why giving students that kind of choice helps build independence.

✅ Dean described using a simple signal system, like scratching his head, so his TA could check in on him without singling him out in front of the class.

✅ Dean talked about how a good TA facilitates positive social connections between a student and their peers, rather than becoming a barrier between them.

✅ I shared that when we withdraw students for extra support, we should be careful never to pull them out of the one class where they’re actually thriving.

✅ Anna and I discussed how a skill taught in one setting, like sitting on a chair or using cutlery, often needs to be explicitly retaught and put into context in a new setting, because students don’t always generalise it automatically.

You Will Learn:   

✅ Top 10 Tips to Stay on Task

✅ 12 Key Strategies for Success

✅ 7 Considerations for Supporting Students

✅ Top Tips to Support Social Skills

✅ 10 Tips to Remember when Teaching Social Skills

✅ 10 Ways to Use Cooking to Teach

✅ Tips for Supporting Students Who Are Not Focusing or Following Directions

✅ Behaviour

✅ 11 Key Strategies for Understanding Behaviour

GREAT RESOURCES FOR TEACHER ASSISTANTS