CAS EXPERIENCE PLANNING

PYP Teaching Assistant: Service

Our CAS Coordinator sent out an email asking for teaching assistants and as I
previously had worked with younger kids, I though it was a great opportunity to gain
more CAS experience. As I volunteered for the Art teacher assistant I myself would
possibly extend my knowledge in Visual Arts as it is also one of my HL
INVESTIGATION
The class who I help teach is a big class for one teacher, around 15 students. The kids ages vary
from 7 to 9 years old. Therefore when Ms Carla reached out to us she explained that she just
needed some assistance. As the class is a big class full of younger children 3 art DP students
ended up volunteering for the position, including I. I love art and as I already had some experience
working with younger age groups before hand I though it was a good idea to help.
PREPARATION
- I had to ask Ms Carla (our art teacher) if I could participate in the assistant teaching (as 2 other
art students in my class volunteered) and she gladly agreed
- I dont need to prepare classes with the other assistants (Liyat and Melena) as we are not
teaching it but assisting Ms Carla
- On rare occasions we did meet with Ms Carla to briefly talk about what we would be doing in
class, just so we could be prepared
ACTION
Every Thursday during my study period, from 2:05 to 3:00pm and the assisting lasted 55 mins. The
activity lasted overall a short month
DEMONSTRATION
An email I received from my CAS
coordinator regarding the involvement in
the teaching assistant

The form which all the teaching assistant received.

I signed up for Thursday time

REFLECTION
Overall I had a great experience with the teaching assistant project. We ended up also taking the
kids out for a field trip to Fielding Bapp, a barbarian artists. In conclusion I really enjoyed helping
Ms Carla with her class on Thursdays. As an art higher level student I thought it was a great idea
to help out with younger kids, and the field trip provided me with minor further information on
Barbadian artists, which I could study if DP Visual Arts had a unit on Barbadian art.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
One: I would like to break my impatience with little children and improve my skills with
communicating with younger age groups. I am a confident communicator and I love to speak
however I dont usually speak with younger people therefore I would like to improve this as well.
However as I am a great communicator I believe I should easily be able to connect and
communicate with the younger kids. I think I will achieve this LO, as, again one of my skills is
communication, Im a very easy talker therefore when communicating with little kids, it won't be a
problem and this will provide me the opportunity to hopefully break my impatience
Two: Challenging myself to become a better rounded IB student, regarding little children. I do have
a little brother at home therefore I am used to younger age groups however the PYP5s are a lot
younger than my brother therefore I have to adapt, and letting them have fun in art class is very
important however all while still being able to provide a service for Ms Carla
Three: N/A
Four: As I am an IB DP student sometimes it was hard to fit the assistant teaching in my schedule,
for example the field trip was planned around the PYPs timetable therefore we had to adapt
ourselves to younger students timetable. However the assistant teaching lasted for a short month
and throughout my experience I did learn a lot about how to treat younger kids and how to
communicate with them. As it is also a project which was organised my teachers, I will show my
commitment towards the project out of respect for the teachers and the students
Five: I was working collaboratively with Ms Carla, as she was the main teacher and we were her
assistant we had to work with her on deciding who to help, at what time, but overall all 3 of us
(teaching assistants) showed all traits of the learner profile when working with the art teacher and
the younger kids. I will be achieving this LO by working with 2 other art students in my class. I have
known Ms Carla for over 9 years and she has been my art teacher for again 9 years, therefore
talking and working with her will be easily achievable
Six: N/A
Seven: In the period the kids ethnicities varied, and each of them were from different countries.
Therefore we had a wide range of different cultures in the class, some were from Barbados,
England, America, Japan, Germany and Jamaican. If a student was having trouble communicating
in English and they knew French or Spanish I would be able to help them and translate as I am a
fluent French speaker making my way to being a fluent Spanish speaker. As TCS is an
international school which accepts all and every religion, race, beliefs, achieving this LO will not be
an issue