Student TAs work hard

“TA!” or “Sophia!” is what I always hear when I help out in the office. Being an office TA is tiring and challenging at the same time. Most of the time I walk and give out office summons. Sometimes I become a teacher’s temporary TA.

I learn many skills as an office TA, including being able to efficiently walk around and give out office summons without using too much energy.

Alphabetizing is one the main tasks I have done. There are some days where I just come in, give out slips, and come in and alphabetize the forms that students were asked to fill out at the beginning of the school year. I have also learned why teachers get frustrated with students about their penmanship because there were times where I just wanted to give up on trying to figure out the student’s name.

I like being a TA because I like moving around. It’s not like a regular class where I sit at a desk for 90 minutes. Also, I like how it puts me in a simulation of what a corporate environment might be like, as everything needs to get done right away. Eric Supangan says that for him being a TA gives him the experience of being an intern, like doing errands for office workers and managers.

Some might believe that being a TA is sort of a free period, but according to head counselor Karine Turdjian, “being a TA is not a free period,” she said. “They help teachers all the time, make copies and run errands.”

Supangan said that the work takes time. “I’m actually assigned things to do and it’s just like any other class,” he said. “I hardly get time to do homework during my TA period, as usually the only days that I get a chance to do my homework is on minimum days because there aren’t that many slips that need to be passed out.”

In addition to alphabetizing, I’ve spent many hours duplicating and sorting papers and sometimes dealing with parents and students. Being an office TA is tiring because I tend to run around the school, handing out call slips, but it gives me an hour and thirty minutes of exercise which I enjoy. Supangan says he has learned a sense of urgency and responsiveness, meaning that he has learned how to be quick on his feet because the office needs him to do what they ask immediately.

However, being an office TA is actually different from being a teacher’s aide. While there are similar skills required for the two jobs, being a teacher’s aide isolates the student in one location and they deal with errands different from an office TA. Teachers have a trust relationship with their aides because many have their aides grade tests as well as make copies of a test for a class.

Senior Annie Vo is a lab assistant/teacher’s aide for biology teacher Virginia Benzer, and she says that she’s happy being an aide because she finally gets the experience of being a TA, something that she been interested in doing since her sophomore year. “I’ve been helping Mrs. Benzer prepare labs and she trusts me to grade the tests, so she can do other things like make the lesson plan,” Vo said.

English teacher Carol Pettegrew says that she relies on her aides heavily. They can take care of the tasks that needed to be done because she needs to make the lesson plans and also advise Bike Club. “Having a TA makes my job easier,” Pettegrew said.

While having a TA is beneficial to the teacher, being a TA also brings benefits to the students. The  benefits to being an office TA is being able to write the bulletin and knowing what’s coming up, knowing which colleges will be visiting campus, and what events will be happening at school.

Being a TA also helps with one’s communication skills. I have had to interact with nearly everyone in the main office because I technically work for all them. I talk to them more and this has helped me with my communication skills.

TAs also help with  P.E. classes, where the work is different. Senior Kevork Anouchian said, “ I feel more active and get to play music.” P.E. TA’s get to play games with the students, like shooting hoops with them during the basketball unit.

Anouchian and senior Andre Vartanians both say that they do make copies from time to time, but most of the time they keep track of the students times when they run the mile.“I don’t just sit there, probably do more work than other TA’s,” Vartanians said. Vartanians said that he helps the students learn about different kinds of exercises they have to do and about basketball, especially for those who don’t know all the rules of basketball.

There are 173 TAs this semester at Clark. While most teachers have just one TA per class, one of the few classes that has more than one TA in a period is the office. Some P.E., cinematography and engineering classes also have more than one TA per period because the teachers have a lot more work that needs to be done.

Some teachers also allow their TAs to help students if the students don’t understand what to do in class. Senior Matias Puchulutegui has helped freshmen in an English class. “I felt that I was a helpful influence to the freshmen because four years from now, they will be in my shoes, doing the same thing I do for them now.”

While having TAs is helpful to the staff, it’s not helpful if there are more TAs than what teachers need because then there would be less work available. The maximum number of TA’s that regular teachers are allowed to have are two. “We try to encourage seniors to have a more rigorous schedule, and we limit the number of TAs so that only seniors can be TAs,” Turdjian said.