Using Adults other than teachers in the classroom
5
Classroom helpers
It can be really wonderful to have helpers in your classroom but if you don't manage them well you may create extra work for yourself instead of saving time. Whether you have a qualified classroom assistant or an unqualified volunteer, here are some useful ground rules.
- Make sure the helper knows your planned learning outcomes for any activity they are involved with. It is useful to involve helpers at the planning stage of activities as they can often contribute ideas or foresee difficulties which you might overlook.
- Establish a feedback method which will actually work - you might need to put aside a few minutes for this at the end of a classroom session. It is very dispiriting for adult helpers to go away without any acknowledgement of what has gone on in their group or without a chance to inform you about the success or otherwise of your plans.
- Your helpers could record some sort of assessment information for you as they work with a group of children, but remember that you should set the task.
- Any helper who is part of D&T activities should be aware of basic health and safety rules. Most of these are common sense, but you shouldn't assume that your helpers are as good as you at predicting the behaviour of children in your class.