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Home / Essential Skills Profile / Elementary and Secondary School Teacher Assistants / Thinking Skills

Thinking Skills

Problem Solving

Level 1

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • deal with students who are always late for school
  • learn why the student is late and try to find solutions

Level 2

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • determine how to involve parents in their children’s education, without creating conflict
  • find ways to use different learning styles in the lesson plans

Level 3

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • deal with behavioural problems or learning problems by finding the cause and ways to help the student
Decision Making

Level 1

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • make decisions about how to emphasize and practice lessons
  • decide what types of support material to use as teaching aids
  • decide when to share problems with their supervisors

Level 2

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • decide when to change activities to match the student’s abilities
  • decide how to discipline students and when to share incidents with the school or parents
  • decide what action to take when a fight or argument happens between students

Level 3

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • decide how to change the classroom material to help students with special needs
Job Planning and Organizing

Own Job Planning and Organizing

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • plan their days based on the outline given by the teacher
  • change their priorities and work plan often, depending on the needs and demands of students
Use of Memory

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants must remember

  • names of students in the different classes
  • special instructions about specific classes or students
  • differences in the lesson plans for different types of classes
  • how to help special needs children
Finding Information

Level 2

Elementary and Secondary School Teaching Assistants

  • learn about students through their school records
  • consult with the teacher or school psychiatrist to get information needed to help specific children
  • get information to support what is being taught by communicating with teachers or other teaching assistants
  • find information though school libraries, maps, co-workers or emails to plan field trips