Senior Addy Nemec walks into Honors Medical Interventions, ready to ask Leah Pelletier what help she needs for the day. She sets up labs and helps other students out, feeling productive and happy she’s able to lend a hand in a class she loved last year.
Teaching assistants, unlike student teachers, are high school students who volunteer their free periods or study halls to help out teachers with whatever they may need in their classes. Whether this be washing test tubes in the chemistry lab, passing out papers, or setting up machines for physics labs, teaching assistants got it covered.
While being a teaching assistant seems like a big job, it’s actually relatively simple. Just because students are giving up a study hall doesn’t mean they don’t have time to do their own work.
“I feel a lot more useful than I would in a regular study hall,” senior Addy Nemec says. “I still get my stuff done, but I get to help out my teacher too.”
Many seniors choose to be TAs, and a lot of them choose to do so because they care about the subject they TA for.
“I look forward to connecting more with the teacher I TA for,” senior Noah Etten says. “I chose to TA for AP Physics I because it takes me back to a time where I felt I needed a lot of help, so I hope I can help kids that need it like I did last year.”
“I TA for Honors Medical Interventions,” Nemec says, “and I chose it because the biomedical classes are my favorite, and I was really successful when I took them,”
“I chose to TA for Mr. Poci’s chemistry class because I really like the subject and the teacher,” senior Logan Lewakowski says.
Many MCHS students are unaware of the fact that they can be teaching assistants, with some current ones jumping into the job unexpectedly.
“I was an official TA for Mr. Ellison last semester, but I have first period free this semester,” Etten says. “I did about one day of late arrival, and immediately thought, ‘this isn’t for me.’”
“I felt like I wasn’t doing anything productive with my extra time,” Etten says, “so I asked Mr. Ellison if I could TA for his first period, I’m happy I did.”
As Nemec packs her things to leave Ms. Pelletier’s room, she reflects on what she did for the period. She helped set up labs, cleaned up, and even helped out students with their assignment for the day. Nemec feels accomplished, happy that she chose to be a teaching assistant.