Classroom support staff are expected to manage a wide range of responsibilities—from supporting instruction to navigating student behavior—all while maintaining professionalism and composure. This interactive workshop provides practical, easy-to-apply strategies to help teacher aides and classroom assistants feel more confident, prepared, and supported in their role. Participants will build skills in communication, behavior response, and self-management, while also learning how to regulate their own stress in high-demand moments. The session bridges the gap between knowing what to do and feeling confident doing it.
Every interaction matters. A well-timed question. A patient explanation. A moment of encouragement when a student is ready to give up. Teaching assistants are present for thousands of these moments every day — and when those moments are purposeful, the impact spreads far beyond a single lesson or a single child.
The Ripple Effect is a professional development training designed for teaching assistants who want to do more than support the classroom — they want to transform it. Grounded in research on how students learn best, this training equips teaching assistants with practical strategies for deepening student understanding, building academic confidence, and fostering the kind of learning that lasts.
Participants will explore how to ask questions that push thinking forward, how to scaffold without doing the work for students, how to recognize when a learner is stuck versus when they need space to struggle, and how to build the trusting relationships that make all of it possible.
This is not a training about being helpful. It is a training about being impactful. Because when a teaching assistant grows, students grow. And when students grow, so does everything around them.
Often times as teaching assistants, we are faced with students who just don’t want to do the work. How do we motivate our students so they want to read, write and study? One task at a time! Let’s learn how to make tasks small and engaging, so we can get the most out of our readers, writers and mathematicians.
Consultant, Dana Brown Professional Learning Services
I have a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, with a concentration in behavioral sciences, from Concordia College-Bronxville, a master’s degree in reading and literacy from Fordham University, and an advanced certificate in educational leadership from SUNY New Paltz. I... Read More →
