A small percentage of Cal High students serve as a teacher aide (TA), dedicating one or more periods of their school day to help teachers by running basic errands and completing tasks, such as passing out papers.
The question is whether these elite paper passers actually do anything.
TAs are exactly what they sound like. They are students who bring a harmonious blend of knowledge, passion and expertise to the educational realm.
At least, that’s what they’re supposed to be, and the mystery lies in whether Cal TAs are fulfilling their duties and contributing to the classroom.
Do TAs merely inhabit the periphery, or do they carve out a substantial niche in the symphony of educational endeavors?
“Usually, I’m just having my TA do things like alphabetizing papers for me, or run to the office and get something for me,” AP Statistics teacher Janice Saiki said. “Just little things like that, things that I could do.”
Clearly, the orchestration of papers into alphabetical order or organizing the classroom doesn’t rank very high on a teacher’s list of priorities.
Junior Prasiddha Aravind, a TA for Rae Anne Crandall’s AP Computer Science Principles class, said her teacher would be able to easily do tasks assigned to her.
“I think the teacher could definitely do the tasks I do,” Aravind said. “But, she can’t do everything at once. She also has to go around and help people, so I think I do make an impact.”
Saiki mentioned that the duties of her TAs do not include grading papers or anything she feels is confidential to her students.
This creates yet another mystery.
Senior Rubin Jain, a TA for Namita Vakil’s AP Calculus AB class and Ghazala Niazi’s AP Statistics class, said his responsibilities primarily include grading tests and homework. His job in the AP Calculus class consists of grading the multiple-choice part of tests, while his job in AP Statistics consists of grading multiple-choice and free-response questions.
Math teacher Jatinder Singh assigns similar responsibilities to his TAs, while other responsibilities include distributing papers and picking up mail.
“The place of a TA in the classroom, it’s very subjective,” Aravind said. “It’s not clearly defined.”
Aravind thinks the role of TAs depends on the class and subject. Regardless, this myriad of tasks seems to consist of trivial jobs. Do TAs truly live up to their title and prove their usefulness in the classroom?
“In terms of lesson planning, running a lesson, not really,” Singh said. “But in terms of reducing my workload a little bit, [the TAs] do help.”
Saiki and Aravind agree with Singh that TAs, while having trivial jobs, do help the teachers focus on more important tasks.
“I would rather spend time doing the corrections and leave the mundane tasks for [the TAs] to do,” Singh said.
Junior Nathan Thomas was enrolled as a first-semester TA in Saumya Rakesh’s class but ended up assisting Surbhi Jain’s Accelerated Algebra 2 class instead because Rakesh had too many TAs. Thomas believed he was being useful in the classroom by watching over students and running errands for the teacher.
Being a TA appears to embody the epitome of a high schooler’s dream. An entire class period is dedicated to the glamorous task of dispensing papers.
The role of a TA comes with certain prerequisites.
“I’d say to just make the most of it, talk to all the students,be friendly, be chatty, come in with an open mind,” Aravind said.
Saiki emphasized that punctuality, attendance, responsibility, and reliability are only a few of these prerequisites. Certainly not qualities inherent in every teenager.
Singh said that he looks for sincerity, a positive attitude, and a hard-working mindset in a TA.
“I think a lot of patience is necessary,” Aravind said. “Sometimes it’s hard to get commands from a teacher and students.”
Jain, who took Niazi’s AP Statistics class his sophomore year, said it’s also helpful to have taken the course as a student.
“Because I took this class during my sophomore year, I remember a lot of the curriculum,” Jain said. “So, I go around helping some of the students with questions they may have about the work they are doing.”
Aravind said being a TA is a unique experience, getting to interact with other students in a different way.