4. Plan for practice

It’s time to plan how you will put your learning into practice.

Try one of these suggestions in your work together over the next few weeks. 

Suggestions for practice

• Talk with senior management about surveying students to find out how they think teacher aides should support students. Collate and analyse what students say. What themes do you notice? Discuss how you could work differently in the classroom, based on the students’ ideas.
• In activities 1 and 2, you discussed a number of strategies for supporting students in the classroom and encouraging independence. Select one strategy to try in your class. Decide what the teacher’s and teacher aide’s roles will be. Try the strategy over several weeks.
• If you identified teacher aide proximity or where a teacher aide sits in the classroom as something that could be improved, make a plan for change. Your school’s learning support coordinator (SENCo) may be able to help you plan and implement this.