Our accredited Educational Personnel program will prepare you to go right to work as a teacher’s assistant or aide, or give you transferrable college credits towards earning a bachelor’s degree in education that leads to teacher certification.
What Is a Teacher Assistant, and What Kinds of Skills Do You Need?
Working as a teacher assistant is exactly what it sounds like: You assist a classroom teacher. You may help in providing some instruction, grading papers or maintaining the classroom. You may also be called a teacher’s aide or paraprofessional educator.
What skills does it require? Working and interacting well with children is a given. A good teaching assistant is also flexible, helpful and willing to fulfill a number of roles in the classroom. You should be comfortable with following instructions and budgeting your time to deal with a number of demands at one time. Some teacher assistants work with a particular grade or age level, while others work with any grade and age within a particular area, such as special education.
Teacher assistants may work with children in small groups, grade assignments, record grades, make copies or cut out papers for projects. They might also supervise a class for a short period of time. Sometimes teachers will use an aide to work with the students in most need of attention in the classroom, to give them extra time and attention that might be difficult to provide when a class is large or students’ abilities vary widely.
For more information, see What Does a Teacher’s Assistant Do?
What About Becoming a Teacher?
You may already know that you want to earn a four-year education degree and become certified as a teacher. Our Educational Personnel degree provides not only job-ready training as a teacher assistant but transferrable college credit to earn a bachelor’s degree — as do our Associate of Arts in Teaching degrees, offered at all DCCCD colleges.
Some of the skills sets necessary to succeed in a career as a teacher are: enjoying and being able to work well with children of all abilities and personalities, being able to explain theories and concepts in age-appropriate language, understanding instructional foundations and being able to measure progress in your students.
You should have a good command of the English language, both oral and written — and if you are bilingual (especially in Spanish in the state of Texas), you will have a distinct advantage in filling highly sought-after positions as teachers of ESL and bilingual education.
Where Can I Work With Educational Training?
Depending on the level of your education and specialization in age group or area, such as special education or language, you may work in:
- Church education programs
- Colleges and universities
- Community colleges
- Community programs such as the YMCA, YWCA or Red Cross
- Correctional institutions
- Day care centers, from private to corporate-sponsored
- Federal programs such as Head Start
- Hospitals
- Industries where children cannot attend regular schools and need to be individually tutored, such as in the film and television industries
- Overseas settings for businesses, American schools for expatriate families or international schools
- Libraries, museums or other city programs
- Not-for-profit organizations such as AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps or America Reads
- Nursing homes or adult day care centers
- Private schools
- Public schools
- Schools with special educational emphasis, such as Montessori or international education
- Technical and vocational schools
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For more information, see:
Job Descriptions
America’s Career Infonet and the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (2008-2009 edition) give detailed information about the skills, abilities, work activities and recommended education for jobs in which preparation for working with children is critical, including:
Salaries and Projected Job Growth
America’s Career Infonet lists salary ranges for the following job titles, with estimated job percentage growth through 2014 in the United States:
| Job |
Annual Salary |
Projected Growth Through 2014 |
| Child care workers |
$17,600 |
+18% |
| Special education teachers, pre-K through elementary |
$46,400 |
+20% |
| Special education teachers, middle school |
$47,700 |
+16% |
| Teacher assistants |
$20,700 |
+10% |
| Teachers, elementary school |
$45,600 |
+14% |
| Teachers, kindergarten |
$43,600 |
+16% |
| Teachers, middle school |
$46,300 |
+11% |
| Teachers, pre-school |
$22,700 |
+26% |
| Teachers, secondary school |
$47,700 |
+6% |