You’re an enthusiastic educator who’s taking that extra step to ensure the next generation has the best opportunities and tools to succeed. You don’t want to hire just any teacher assistant; you need someone patient, knowledgeable, organized, creative, and as passionate as you are about inspiring youth.
With high expectations for the needed career skills, the prospect of hiring a teacher’s assistant may be enough to send you into a full-on panic. Fortunately, you can take a deep breath and relax; we’ve taken care of the hard stuff.
We’ve created three downloadable teacher assistant job description templates just for you, complete with tips and advice that’s sure to help you see those teacher assistant resumes coming in soon!
Write a Winning Teacher Assistant Job Description
Let’s imagine for a minute you’re a job seeker, and you check out popular hiring sites and read some job postings. You see that nearly all job postings are vague, copy-and-paste, uninspiring ads that don’t inspire you to WANT to work 40 hours a week.
The best administration to work for is one that values you, and more and more, teacher assistants are seeking healthy working environments where they feel respected.
Consider this guide your tool to help create a job posting that accurately and uniquely reflects the job and has prospective candidates inspired to send in their teacher assistant resumes.
Determine who you need on your team & why
Being forthcoming is surprisingly a rarity on job postings. Go a step (or two) above the status quo and be direct with potential teacher assistants. Let them know why you’re hiring in the first place.
Are you growing your student base? Is the student-to-teacher ratio changing, and do students need more support since Covid? Are current teachers asking for more help in their classrooms? Letting candidates know this right away demonstrates you value them, their time, and the needs of your current staff.
Think of your values
- If you need to fill a teaching assistant role, you’re looking for someone who loves to teach, is patient with students, and can motivate with engaging lessons. So, what are you writing in your job ad that underscores you value these abilities?
- It probably goes without saying that you want a teacher assistant who loves teaching, but has your job description made it clear that you value your teacher assistants, too?
- Patience is a virtue for teachers and hiring teams. Does your job description emphasize that you’re dedicated to providing onboarding and training practices with patience?
- If you want to bring in a teacher assistant that has creative ideas for lesson plans, you may want to try suggesting some creative ideas (like a world history Jeopardy tournament) in your job description.
Edit & polish for a perfected job description
Whatever you do, avoid the temptation to brain dump and write your job posting in a single sitting. Remember your job posting is an opportunity for candidates to evaluate your management style and the respect and attention you give prospective hires.
Meeting a few minimum requirements will ensure you attract the best teacher assistant for the job. Your job description represents your school, so make sure you edit and revise it before posting.
Outline Your Teacher Assistant Job Description
Writing your job ad may sound like a daunting task. The good news is you don’t need to start from scratch. Use this outline as the backbone of your job description, personalizing it to attract the teacher assistant you’d love to hire.
Job details
Think of the job details section of your job description as the abstract of a scientific paper. Let candidates know you value their time by getting straight to the point and presenting the critical information they’ll need. The best job details sections will include information on the type of job, a blurb about your school, and a comment about why you’re hiring.
About us
Work culture is important to a teacher assistant. In this section, provide details about the “vibe” of the school and the atmosphere they’ll be working in. Ask yourself:
- Is your school academically rigid?
- Does your school emphasize standardized testing? or is it more of a creative, self-motivated learning environment?
- Is it a large school?
- What atmosphere would a prospective teacher assistant encounter?
Roles
Have you ever looked at a job description for a job title that you know you’re qualified for and been left confused and unsure if you meet the requirements? Yeah, us too. In fact, many hiring managers completely neglect to include any responsibilities at all!
- Maintain a classroom environment conducive to learning, not just finding the right answers
- Identify students with potential learning differences and difficulties, informing primary teacher, and communicating with family members as directed
- Encourage critical thinking skills, avoiding “giving answers” and instead posing questions to help students practice problem-solving and develop agency
- Create fun learning experiences, such as Jeopardy history tournaments, and use engaging content like TED Talks to help students remember important topics
Qualifications
Aside from the job requirements, the qualifications are the most important section for prospective teacher assistants. Your future teacher assistant needs to know what education level, certifications, and years of experience you require.
No one wants to waste time by applying for a job they’re not qualified for, after all. And it benefits you to only have candidates apply that, for example, have their Level II Teacher Assistant Certification.
Listing the non-negotiable, essential qualifications and a few preferences won’t hurt, but avoid making a laundry list that would intimidate and scare teacher assistants away from applying.
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Some higher education in history preferred
- 1+ years of experience with AP curriculum
- Ideal candidates will have taken AP History in high school and passed the AP exams
- CPR and First Aid Certification
- Level II teacher assistant certification
- Experience with SmartBoards and troubleshooting is a huge plus
Salary and benefits
In this day and age, teacher assistants have the pick of the litter when choosing a school to work for. Ask not what your teacher assistant can do for you, but what you can do for your teacher assistant.
Be upfront and include a range of salaries that a teacher assistant can expect to get paid; mention all the standard benefits (healthcare, vacation, etc.), and don’t shy away from selling prospective teacher assistants on some of the unique benefits they can enjoy when working with your school.
Roles and Responsibilities for Teacher Assistants
Teacher assistants wear many hats. In addition to creating lesson plans for the whole class in collaboration with the main teacher, they’re expected to observe the class and identify when students need extra help.
Below are some common and important roles an outstanding teacher assistant may serve. Though many teacher assistants won’t be asked to fulfill all these roles, it’s a great place to get ideas for your job description.
Collaborator
Teacher assistants don’t work in isolation, so a willingness to collaborate is an absolute must. When there’s a broken link in the chain of communication between educators, students, and parents, education suffers.
Like a well-oiled machine, the ultimate goal is to ensure everyone is aware and able to support learning, so parents aren’t left wondering whether their child is thriving or needs more support, and students themselves aren’t left unsure of their successes or areas needing attention.
- Collaborate with the primary teacher, students, and parents to address areas for improvement
- This role requires proactive listening, approachability, and the ability to read students and parents
Creative lesson planner
Remember when you were a student? If you’re like us, you probably thought more about making paper airplanes while your teacher droned on about some topic you didn’t care about than you did about world history.
Games, discussion, and avoiding the dreaded PowerPoint go a long way in encouraging students to flex their brain muscles. The best teacher assistants make it look easy, but constant changes and new ideas are the names of the game when it comes to making learning fun.
- Create fun learning experiences, such as Jeopardy history tournaments, and use engaging content like TED Talks to help students remember important topics
- In addition to the hard skill of lesson planning, this role requires excellent research and presentation skills
Problem solver
Students are unique, and what works for one student may not work at all for another. The ability to proactively identify when students are struggling, understand why they’re struggling, and adapt to meet their needs is at the heart of being an effective educator.
- Recognize learning styles (such as auditory, linguistic, and visual), and incorporate all of them into your lessons
- This role requires excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to adjust to help each student achieve their full potential
Educator
Education has little to do with dense textbooks and bland presentations, and teacher assistants know this to be true. A lot of work goes into teaching; top teacher assistants spend the time figuring out the best practices and research methods to educate students.
- Encourage critical thinking skills by promoting problems with no right answer (real-world scenarios where decisions have pros and cons), using small-group discussion, and avoiding giving quick answers
- This role requires a constant willingness to learn, patiently improve, and scope out teaching techniques with the most scientific support
Reporter
Imagine reaching the end of a semester before trying to evaluate your students’ performance. Regularly collecting, analyzing, and reporting data ensures students never stray too far from the track. Consistent feedback in the form of graded assignments and student evaluations helps teacher assistants proactively address areas where students need extra encouragement.
- Write and grade exams under the supervision of the primary teacher, providing suggestions for performance improvement
- This role requires strong organizational and written skills, great time management, and the ability to work independently
