The Stress of Having a TA: Managing expectations

Teaching through Emotions: Teacher Mental Health · Aug 20, 2026 · 33m

My friend Sarah is a bad ass. She is an incredibly good teacher and is assiduously responsible. In our initial episode about the difficulties of having a Teaching Assistant (TA), she promised to follow up with me about her take-aways from her conversation with me and Joe.

Which she did.

And this is the conversation she and I just had about that follow-up.

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Here’s the thing about TAs: They are supposed to be helpful. Just like paraprofessionals and…