Teaching assistants are increasingly being asked to take on more and more responsibilities within schools, whilst more money and effort is being devoted to recruiting and training teaching assistants. This new guide covers the essentials of what every teaching assistant should know. Packed full of practical suggestions, tips, advice and up-to-date factual information, this book provides a trouble-shooting guide to help teaching assistants deal with a wide variety of classroom situations. Some of the issues and dilemmas confronted in the book are: - who's who in the school - self esteem - how to use individual learning styles to support students and those with special needs - dealing with unacceptable behaviour - coping with the job and personal development. Whether read from cover to cover or used as a quick reference tool for looking up specific concerns, this is an essential book for all teaching assistants in primary, secondary and special needs schools, those starting out, and teaching assistants enrolled on training programmes such as NVQ 2, NVQ 3 and the higher level teaching assistants award.