6 weeks in...

I have now been teaching for 6 weeks and boy am I exhausted! I am exhausted but am loving every minute of being a teacher. 

Thinking back over the first 6 weeks there are a few things I would like to reflect upon.

1. There are not enough hours in the day, week or, I suspect, year! I am going to have to keep developing my systems and put in place ways to get everything I need to get done, done.  'Work smarter not harder' is something that I keep repeating to myself.

2. A support network is essential.  My network includes my family (immediate and extended), friends, colleagues (current and past) and my PLN, based in real life and in various social media arenas. The support these people offer me not only makes me feel good but also gives me things to think about, share and work on in the future. 

3. My learning is in its infancy. Which both excites and frightens me. Excited, because I did wonder how I would do out of uni not having projects to work on (silly I know). Frightens me because there is SO MUCH to still learn.  I am so pleased to be able to use said network to learn through and with. 

4. Balance is essential to maintaining sanity and health. Both of which have been sacrificed recently. I have not had balance but it is very early days and I am so excited about every day at school that I don't really mind at the moment.

I made the right choice, I found the direction I was seeking and as I head out tomorrow for an all day TPL session I will be thinking of my class and will wonder how they are doing. 

Gosh my room has changed since this first day!

4 years...completed!

About 5 years ago I was looking for direction in life and thankfully I returned to my dream of becoming a teacher. I made the decision to apply for uni and on the recommendation of my son's teacher applied to UTS.  To my relief I was accepted! 

When I started uni I thought I would be the oldest person by many years and would not make any friends. I was SO wrong. I was not the oldest person (but just about!)...and I have made lifelong friends, I have learnt a lot about being a teacher and many other things as well. I worked hard, I achieved well and loved just about every minute of it. 

I have spent the last 6 weeks working as a casual teacher.  I am growing in confidence every day and am enjoying myself immensely. I love how children's minds work.

Last Wednesday at 2:50pm the DEC called me to say they were offering me a full-time permanent position at Newport Public School for 2014. I was amazed, I found it hard to breathe as I hung up the phone and I am still on cloud 9, dreaming about what class I might have. 

On this coming Friday I will visit the school and meet the Principal and staff and I CAN'T WAIT!

Watch this space as my planning begins...

First 3 days as a professional

Last week I had the great pleasure of teaching my first 3 casual days. 

I got paid and I loved it! PHEW!

I went into a school I had never been to before (thanks to a friend from uni) and had the privilege of teaching a class who had not had their regular teacher for at least 6 weeks plus the school holidays.

It was daunting, exciting, invigorating and heaps of FUN!

The class was a 3/4 composite in a school of composites. It was by far the most diverse classroom I had ever taught in, culturally, academically and behaviourally. 

I had to think on my feet, I had to come prepared as there was nothing waiting for me...this made it a much more challenging and rewarding experience.

The one thing that I was very relieved about was how welcoming the staff at the school were.

All in all a wonderful first professional outing where I learnt about myself and about and from the students.

Here is a sample of art the students did inspired by the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds, these are buddy dots half a dot by each student - the children loved choosing half dots to match up, sorry about the dodgy photo!

#satchatoc

Today I was lucky enough to take part in a conversation on Twitter with educators from around the world. The theme for the chat was supporting new teachers.  Every few minutes one of the moderators would post a new question that everyone would answer.

Not only did I make quite a few new connections, I also learnt that there are many teachers out there who are willing to help new or early career teachers. 

One of the questions asked during the chat was how could universities equip new teachers better for their career?  This struck a chord with me as throughout my degree I have been disappointed by the number of lecturers who are not connected via social media.  So many still warn us about the dangers we may face.  Also not that many of my colleagues are active on twitter, nor do they understand the support and learning that can happen in 140 characters.  

From what I can see and from what I have experienced, social media can be so helpful, not only in answering the many questions new teachers can have but by providing a network of like-minded people who are passionate about their profession.  These are the people I want to work with, collaborate with, learn from.  

So if you are a new career teacher or a teacher who is new to social media, get involved, join the conversation. You will be pleased you did :)

Thanks to @stringer_andrea @mrshollyenglish @pjfairbrother for today's #satchatoc  

Morning Mashup

While thinking about ways to connect with the students in my class I came up with the idea of having a morning mash up. A 5 minute brainstorm session on things that are of interest to the students and to me. It could be something we heard on the news or radio, a question, a concern, a high five moment. Anything that we would like to share that would be of interest to the rest of the class.

I started to do this in the week during my practicum when I only had the Year 5 students (Year 6 were on camp). They loved it! We had all sorts of items mentioned.  One item that led to a further discussion was the news of a 100 car pile up in the UK.  The questions the children had about this one ranged from which car in the 100 would be most damaged to how could that many cars not see what was happening in front of them?  We then spent a few minutes trying to figure out the answers.

I guess that it may not always be practical to do this each day. However, these sessions told me a lot about my students.  It taught me that one boy was obsessed with cricket as he wanted to relay the Australian team's current standing, and that an Australian cricketer had broken the record of the highest score in a Twenty20 match.  It taught me that one of the girls in the class was interested in sharing her own achievements, did this mean recognition was one of her love languages and/or that she was not getting that recognition elsewhere?

Once the Year 6 students returned from camp they enjoyed this time as well. It actually took away some of the time spent each day with disruptive questions to the class as they had already had some voice time. One morning I shared a video I had found with them, called Little Video, Big Messages, I think, I hope it had some impact on them.

I will definitely be using this with my class the next time I am teaching. Why not give it a try?

Approved!

So today after almost 4 years of study and practical experience I received my interim approval to casual teach in NSW public schools. 

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! 

I have loved every minute of my pracs and just about every minute of my time at uni. I have learnt so much from everyone; my university colleagues, my supervising teachers, tertiary advisors, lecturers, students and of course my fabulous PLN on Twitter.

It has all been worth it and as I thanked my boys this morning for all their help during this final internship it occurred to me that I have changed all of our lives for the better by taking this risk, this leap of faith to a new career path.

I will spend my working life teaching and learning and I hope I don't have to wait too long to before I find a school and a class of my own.

So thanks to all those who have helped, supported and encouraged along the way.

This is the wonderful card I received from my class - they are a stellar bunch of children!

Time to get serious...about blogging!

It has occurred to me a few times during this final year of university, my final year of being a pre-service teacher, and while following so many dedicated and inspiring teachers, that I should revisit my blog and contribute to the ongoing conversations about education. Conversations that I listen to and at times take part in, not only in the blogosphere but in the Twitterverse as well.

Source

This blog was started as a requirement of my first ICT subject in the 2nd year of my degree. I revisited it, oh so briefly, during another specialist ICT subject earlier this year, but for the most part it has sat dormant.

Some of the most inspiring bloggers I follow and read on a regular basis are teachers.  Teachers who are actively learning while teaching. Teachers who are willing to share their story, their knowledge and their time to help other teachers.

This is the kind of teacher I want to be.

During my internship (one week to go!) I have had the privilege of working with a wonderful teacher who is all these things and has been so willing to share his knowledge with me. He has taught me how to simplify my approaches to behaviour management, he has taught me that even on days when you are interrupted 50,000 times the students can still be engaged and learning. My supervising teacher, like me, came late to this career, but he is one of the most respected and loved teachers in the school. To me one of his greatest attributes is his willingness to learn.

Source

So, I will endeavour to update this blog once a week, I hope to share snapshots from my own learning as well as articles, stories, information and links. It will be a place for me to do more than just retweet, although I will continue to do that as well.