Teacher assistants, also called teacher aides or instructional aides, provide instructional or clerical help for classroom teachers. That allows teachers more time for lesson planning and teaching.
Teacher assistants tutor or help children learn class material, using the teacher's lesson plans.
They give students individual attention. They supervise students in the cafeteria, schoolyard, school-discipline center or on field trips. They record grades, set up equipment and help prepare materials for instruction. Large school districts hire teacher aides to perform exclusively nonteaching or clerical jobs. Teacher assistants held about 1.2 million jobs nationally.