You may be lucky enough to get a teacher's aide,a person to assist you with the many classroom-management tasks you'll face each day as a teacher. A teacher's aide can be a paid employee of the district, a parent volunteer, or a student. Regardless of who the person is, you'll want to treat him courteously and professionally and have appropriate work ready for him when he arrives each day. The worst thing you can do is tell him, “Oh, I've got nothing for you today. Would you like to sit and read?” You're wasting your aide's valuable time — and yours, too — because there are always a multitude of jobs that need to be done.

The trick is to get organized before your aide even walks through the door. First, set aside a part of the room where your aide can work without interruption. Make certain your students know that the aide's area belongs to him primarily and shouldn't be intruded upon when the aide is present. A single chair at the end of one of your learning-center tables should suffice. Or, you can ask the custodian to bring in a desk and chair exclusively for the aide's use if there's room and the custodian is willing.

Next, introduce your teacher's aide to your class at the earliest opportunity. Make clear to your students that an adult aide should be treated with the same respect as any other adult staff member and that student aides should be treated courteously, as with all peers. Have your aide make a few introductory remarks to the class if he wishes. Help everyone understand that an aide is a kind of honorary coteacher and a student aide is an honorary member of your class.

Then, if the district's policy is that your aide does secretarial work primarily, have work ready for him. That means you have to stack papers, write instructions where necessary, put different tasks in different folders, and generally make things as easy as possible for your aide. For instance, much of his time might be spent grading papers. Separate stacks of papers by assignment and by period number if you're teaching secondary school. Have answer keys copied and ready, placing a different answer key in each folder if necessary. Provide correcting pens for marking and a pocket calculator for figuring grade percentages. Write some brief instructions for or briefly tell him what you want done.

If you need your aide to copy papers, and if your aide is a responsible adult, organize your copy masters, or originals, into folders and tell him how many copies you need for each master. Provide trays for him to put the copies into upon his return.

Another secretarial task your aide can perform is filing papers in students' portfolios. Filing can become quite time consuming, yet it must be done because when parents visit they'll want to see their child's work. The folders must also be available for each individual student's perusal, of course. If you don't have an aide, you'll have to file papers yourself and that means working at a rapid pace to complete the job. But if you're lucky enough to have an aide, consider asking him to file the previous day's papers first thing when he arrives.

If your school permits adult aides to work with students, set up a table and some chairs for that purpose — a semicircular table and five chairs constitutes an excellent arrangement. Provide daily written instructions, student work, and textbooks or other books. Make sure the aide has appropriate answer keys to grade written work, if feasible. Aides can also walk around the classroom helping students who require extra tutoring.

A teacher's aide can be a marvelous human resource and an invaluable part of your daily instructional program. Treat your aide with respect, utilize his talents, and your classroom management will become more efficient and professional.