Hello–
Due to school cutbacks, my daughter has a free period in her school day. She has been thinking about filling it with a TA-ship with one the teachers that she likes and might ask for a college recommendation in due course. Is this a good use of her time? The free period is at the beginning of the school day, so if she didn’t do the TA ship she would have extra time in bed/for schoolwork in the morning. She has a quite heavy load – 6 courses of which three are AP and two are honors. So I’m not sure whether she should enjoy the time off/utilize it for study or sign up for the TA ship.
If she needs the study time and has other things she does as ECs then let her have the free time. I don’t know how we reached the point that every minute of a students day needs to be programmed.
Thank you, Erin’s Dad. Her EC is newspaper – she’s layout editor this year so that period would give her time to devote to it. She has had to drop her EC music this year – again because of scheduling so that was part of my concern.
My opinion…your daughter has already had to drop one EC because of scheduling and time commitments. I can’t see the benefit in picking up another EC type of activity which will also consume time…and involve scheduling (e.g. will she be able to do this for two years…or is it one and done)?
She has a challenging schedule and junior year grades are very important. I vote for letting her have time…not adding to her responsibilities.
Thank you, Thumper1. I hadn’t thought of it that way – that it’s one EC in place of another. I agree she needs downtime as well as plenty of study time as a junior. I’ll share this point of view with her.
Another thing to remember about being a TA is that it’s not quantifiable.
The probably ‘A’ on her transcript for a TA class means very little, as anyone looking at it will not know if it was received for simply showing up, or because she actually did work assisting the teacher. Additionally, there’s no way to tell what work she’s really done for the teacher. As such, those classes are most always looked at as study periods anyway.
Good decision. I suspect the time/benefit to your D ratio (in learning or resume) would not be worth it. She can spend her time sleeping later or doing other things. Bummer about schedules, isn’t it? That happened to me eons ago and to son in HS.
Hi wis75 – yes the schedule stuff is tough. cutbacks galore at our school so less and less options every year. Never knew this would be such a juggling act.
I’ve never been impressed with TA or helping a teacher for credit or community service on a transcript. What are they doing besides grading multi-choice tests? Filing? There is no deep research going on but a lot of running errands to the office or setting stuff up in the classroom.
Her music EC can be pursued independently - she can get some friends together and organize a quatuor.
Newspaper is a valuable but time consuming activity. Let her have the period off.
And perhaps organize with other parents of MS/HS students about the cutbacks so that other kids aren’t in that dire situation? (Of course the students could organize themselves to go talk to the district, etc.)
It isn’t just cutbacks. Sometimes there are not enough students to justify another section and it can happen that the timing meets more students’ needs than the few impacted. Schedule conflicts will happen again in college and in later life. Agree with the busywork opinion of a “TA-ship”. Reminds me of hearing a proud grandma explaining how her gifted grandson was using his extra time in grade school helping other students decades ago. Thank goodness our school district was maximizing son’s education instead of that. That HS class sounds like something only a potential teacher may want for insights into the other aspects of teaching than the classroom presentation.
Thanks all. She has decided to forgo the TA ship and I feel really good about that, based on the comments here!
True, scheduling conflicts will always happen. But we are having bigger courses and fewer sections all the time – The entire french program has just been cut starting nextyear, so there will be no French 4 and those students who have been banking on it have been left in the lurch. Many of the students are picking up classes they have to have to graduate (like PE) at the local CC because they’re not getting them at the HS. Years of mismanagement of funds coupled with declining enrollment are the culprits in our school’s case.
I know it is late. The only reason that I would have said to go with the TA is because our school would never just say okay no class come in late. Nope you would have to go on time every day for study if you had no class or it would be marked as a tardy etc. Since study hall (by whatever fancy name they call it now) would not be a favorite for my girls so they would choose TA over that.
Cut backs are hard. Our classes seem stable but sometimes a class just isn’t available the time slot you want, not enough kids for a second section etc. On the other hand some of the classes mentioned here have never been offered at our high school such as astronomy.
Hi momtogirls2, thanks for the response! Our school allows students to have the first period off, and to come in later. You cannot have a free period in the middle of the day though and is like your school in that respect. Luckily, her free period is in the first period, so she is allowed to come in later, or come in and take study hall.
Astronomy! or Psychology! or Calc BC or Physics 2 – none of those things at our school. Ok , I’ll stop complaining now: it could be worse, I know!
