Students assisting teachers

Teacher’s assistants at Spectrum High School assist teachers in everyday tasks, such as grading tests, homework, and projects.

Ruby Curtis

Mrs. Mollet (left) and her TA, Molly Novotny (right) having a conversation.

Ruby Curtis and Arianna Bechthold
April 26, 2023

Teachers at Spectrum have big jobs; consisting of grading work, making class plans, and, of course, teaching. All of this is a lot for just one person to do for a whole class, so that is where the teacher’s assistants come in. Teacher’s assistants, or TAs, are students who spend their free periods assisting teachers wherever the teacher sees fit. Caiden Tuckey, who TAs for Spanish teacher Jennifer Hamernick, said,

“It’s a lot of printing copies of stuff that needs to be printed for each class, grade stuff on Schoology; tests, quizzes, homework, and everything in between.”

Notes that De Haan’s teacher’s assistant left on his white board.

Teachers, like Mitchell De Haan, ninth grade Social Studies teacher, find that having a TA frees up time they would usually spend grading to do other things.

“I have my TA do some grading, so that I can focus on different things, like creating simulations, or games, or improving a lesson, or trying something different,” De Haan said.

Many people, however, don’t realize all of the tasks and responsibilities a teacher’s assistant has. Some of which they had to learn quickly. Grace Knapp TAs for Mrs. Chrest, who is an English teacher.

“Making copies is surprisingly hard, the first few weeks of making copies was really confusing,” Knapp said. “Now I get how to do it.” 

Kenzie Scholer, the TA for Ms. Genise, has performed tasks that may be quite different from what other TAs do.

Ms. Genise’s fish tank, where the students have decorated it with notes to celebrate the late fish.

“I had to learn how to clean a fish tank,” Scholer said. “Which was an interesting activity.”

Teachers are very busy during school days, so they are grateful for the extra help the TAs provide them. Teachers like Autumn Mollet, biology teacher, and Jennifer Hamernick, Spanish teacher, are both glad for the extra help they get.

“I really like it because my TA is the one who makes my copies so it’s one less chore I have to do,” Hamernick said. “I can spend my time, then, grading and lesson planning.”

Being a TA is both a fun experience and a great opportunity to learn new hands on activities. Both TAs and teachers recommend to anyone thinking of doing it, to just jump in and go for it.