The Complete Guide for Teaching Assistants in Secondary Education by Geoff Brookes

"Well," I thought, "if I am going to be a teaching assistant, I had better find out what I will be expected to do".  After all, schools have changed quite a bit since I last worked in one, 22 years ago.  So I dropped in at the local library and came across this slim paperback which seemed to be exactly what I needed. 

The book starts rather slowly with a general overview of schools (in England and Wales) and how teaching assistants fit in to them, but soon gets down to practical details of the responsibilities, problems that might arise, and relationships with students, teachers, and parents  Much of this was new to me.  Teaching assistants seem to play an import role in schools nowadays; 22 years ago they did not exist.

This book is more of an introduction than a guide (it contains no bullet-pointed lists) but, still, I would like to have a copy close at hand when doing the job, at least for the first few months.