Teaching Experience

I am working in a bilingual primary school. The school has infantil classes, but me and the other Language Assistants only teach first through sixth grade (approximately ages 6-13).

My coordinator is extremely organized. Since there are several LA’s at my school, she created schedules for 3 trimesters of the school year. Each trimester, we work with a different age group. My first trimester was 1st and 2nd grade, my second trimester 3rd and 4th, and my third trimester will be 5th and 6th grade. She created this structure so that we would be able to get to know all of the students in the school. I thought it would be difficult to learn so many students’ names, but working with them in small groups made it so much easier. I also love making the connection with the students. When they are more comfortable and familiar with you, they tend to respond better to your lesson material.

In my school, the LA’s only work in three different classes: English, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. These classes are those taught in English. The teacher of each class has the ability to designate our responsibilities. Some of the teachers will have us simply help maintain control in the classroom, make sure students are staying on track, helping them with whatever activities are being completed. Most teachers have us take groups of 2-5 students into the hallway to work individually with smaller groups. We generally complete the same task as the students in the classroom, but the smaller group allows the LA to witness the progress of the students and keep them on task. This also helps if students have questions. Sometimes they might refrain from asking for clarity in front of the entire class, but will not hesitate in a small group setting.