Comments for TA talk

Comment on Thinking Skills by aerobic en casa

aerobic en casa — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:36:33 +0000

I’m not sure exactly why but this blog is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.

Comment on Thinking Skills by thecatinthehat

thecatinthehat — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:47:18 +0000

Glad to be of use Henrietta. Thinking skills are vital tools for everyday life. It’s great that we are helping kids to develop these.

Comment on How’s your literacy? by thecatinthehat

thecatinthehat — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:27:17 +0000

Thanks Elaine. It is important to get punctuation, grammar and spelling right when you’re promoting yourself. We all make mistakes but it’s easy enough to check or to ask someone else to do it for us.
As a TA myself, my main concern is that children may not be supported effectively if the adults helping them are unsure.
I see a lot of written work from TAs and a common trend lately seems to be to put apostrophes on words that are plural, for example flower’s, dog’s and apple’s. It just worries me.

Comment on How’s your literacy? by Elaine

Elaine — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 09:03:30 +0000

This is really useful, thanks Cat. A successful professional folk musician who plays the instrument I’m learning doesn’t know how to use apostrophes, and doesn’t bother to get his books or his website proof-read by someone who does. I think it makes him look ignorant and arrogant at the same time.

Comment on Miss, miss, please miss…I know the answer! by thecatinthehat

thecatinthehat — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:26:25 +0000

I’m glad that you have found some useful information on here. I hope that other TAs will share their ideas on this blog. It can be quite a lonely job sometimes and anything that helps us to connect is useful isn’t it.

Comment on stereotyping by thecatinthehat

thecatinthehat — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:24:33 +0000

It’s a funny old area isn’t it?
I once came across an old story book in school. The King had promised the hand of his daughter to the first brave, strong man to kill the dragon.
That one went straight in the bin.

Comment on stereotyping by thecatinthehat

thecatinthehat — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:02:35 +0000

I completely agree Elaine.
When we put clothing that announces things like, ‘Here comes trouble’ on our sons, what can we expect?
I do believe though, that boys and girls are different, they learn in different ways, and I think sometimes we need to treat boys and girls differently so that they can achieve equally.
Of course, that’s a generalisation. But I believe we need to look at all children’s learning styles and needs, and I think it’s useful to be aware of possible gender differences to help us plan for learning.
Whether they are boys, girls, or …’generic infants’so that all kids can access and enjoy learning.

Comment on stereotyping by Elaine

Elaine — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:49:02 +0000

The trouble with saying “boys will be boys” etc is that it’s not true. Lots of children don’t fit the stereotypes, and end up getting bullied for not being boyish/girlish enough or having to pretend in order to fit in. Ask any gay person.
I remember there was a really helpful article in Learning Support about this. It said the answer to boys’ underachievement is not to pander to macho stereotypes, but to discourage them.

Comment on A Fresh Start by thecatinthehat

thecatinthehat — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:20:11 +0000

Thank you. I intend to keep the blog updated weekly so I hope you will drop by again.