I’ve only done temp teaching assistant work for very short periods, but two things stand out:
It was a junior boarding school. I was tasked with listening to young boys read aloud as part of their homework. I got to the point where I could listen to up to six of them at a time, all reading different books at different speeds and fluency and attend to each when they struggled or needed to spell out a word.
If no teacher was available (eg, sick at short notice) I was called in to basically keep the kids quiet while the school organised a qualified substitute teacher. Thus I had the absolute joy of teaching classes of eight year olds basic origami - not on the syllabus, but hey, I like origami and I was just a place-holder. Jumping frogs were, naturally, a big hit.
Yesterday I subbed in a Head Start class where few of the kids spoke much English, and the regular assistant was also absent (the substitute paraprofessional was a native Spanish speaker). They kept us on our toes. One crapped his pants, which I didn’t have to take care of. It will be interesting to see where they are later in the year.
Early in the year I was with a pre-kindergarten class where the kids were experiencing their first day of school (Their regular teacher was there as well). There was a four year old who was already reading fairly fluently; he informed me of the sell by date on the carton of milk he had with breakfast. However, he was socially about where you’d expect a kid that age to be. I talked to his teacher yesterday, and she said he’s doing extremely well. I’m looking forward to subbing for her in a couple of weeks.