So my last post was saying how rubbish it was being on supply, and how things have changed this month! Things started off slow, but they have picked up and I have been working more or less full time which is awesome!
The advantages of supply work is that you get to meet so many teachers and children and it really opens your eyes to the world and what is out there. This month I have been to some new schools and I have loved them (even though there was a hiccup with my satnav and traffic a few times!). It can be hard going into a school and not knowing what it is going to be like, but on the whole I have been lucky with the staff being very welcoming! I have also been back to some of the schools I was in last term and it is nice to know that the staff remember you can they are happy that you are back. I must be doing something right then!
Another advantage is you can really pick up so many different ideas and I have been collecting different things on my travels, not just things that I want to do but also things that I wouldn't do. I mean really who would go into school when they have phoned in poorly just to tell the supply teacher what to teach and how to teach it?! It really happened, honestly, I was amazed. On the other hand I have seen a new way that maths is taught with each kid having their own kit and it being very practical which was amazing and the kids really got it, but it is something that you could do in any class even if you hadn't bought into the course!
I've also been teaching quite a few mixed classes this term which has been interesting. I have found it hard sometimes to teach the lessons and really admire the teachers who do it year in and year out. I haven't had to plan anything for it but it must be hard to get the work right for 2 or 3 years in the same class.
I think I need a rant now about agencies, it's only a short one but surely they should check carefully if work has been set as I have turned up to some schools and have been told that work is set and then found out that it isn't, luckily I have had some activities that the kids can do and that have turned out quite well, but it is annoying. And also surely when you have been booked you should not have it cancelled, especially not cancelled on the day you are going. It has happened a few times and I have turned down other work which is really annoying.
It's nearly half term now and then the kids get a break which is well deserved and us teachers get a chance to take our foot off the gas and just chill for a week! I am so looking forward to it because I am off to Spain! :) I am going to complete one of my goals for the year and visit my friend, Faye, in Spain and see how she is getting on teaching over there. I'm quite excited because we can go and look at her school and see what it is like and how it works so it should be good. Maybe I'll get some good ideas to bring back and share, who knows!
Well January was busy in the end and February has started the same way so I am hoping that it carries on that way! Hopefully over the next month I will be able to share some resources and actual lessons with you, when I get chance to sit down and actually type them up myself!
Right, I'm off to watch the rest of the Superbowl! Night xx
Monday, 6 February 2012
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
And so it begins ... Let's roll ... or not!
Well Happy New Year! :) 2012 already! I can't believe how fast time seems to be going. It makes me sound old but every year seems to get shorter, maybe it's because I have so much to do. My list just keeps getting longer and longer!
The year began on a high after celebrating with family and friends watching some local fireworks and a rather drunken game of scrabble! That was fantastic and New Year's day (after I had apparently decapitated the reindeer in our hallway on my return from the party!) was great too spending time with my family, but then I realised that it had been a month since I had worked.
A whole month ... surely it couldn't be, school's had only been closed for 2 weeks, yet it had been a month. No work on supply means no money :( so I began to look for some work. Imagine my relief when I found some supply work as a nursery nurse for 4 days. So I quickly accepted it and prepared myself for 4 days with little children! Then at 7:30 this morning as I was getting ready I received a text to say that the booking had been cancelled for the whole week. Not only that I had already turned down some work from another agency because I had this booked. SO that is how my day began this morning.
So today, I spent the day on the phone to my agencies. Yes agencies, I have three agencies which are trying to find me work and none of them had any work available, yet all of them are taking on more and more teachers to the agency.
At the minute I seriously feel that I have wasted a year of my life and that I am worse off. I could be in a job earning money, working with children and be guaranteed a wage without the worry of not knowing when I am next going to work.
I know I am lucky because I don't have anyone relying on me, however I still have outgoings and I still need to live a life so have I wasted a year? All the job interviews I have had say I need more experience, but how can I get experience if I can't get a job and I can't even get supply work.
I know it is early in the year and hopefully something will come up in the next couple of days so I can just get by, but will my dream of getting a job come true this year? There are no jobs in schools and yet there is apparently a shortage of teachers and more teachers being trained.
On the other hand I have been taking down the Christmas decorations and planning some of my tutoring work and trying to gather some ideas to do if I do get some supply this week. I love crafts and things and with the Olympics coming this year I thought about making an Olympic torch of resolutions for children in the classroom. Each child could write what they would do on a flame and then they could be put coming out of a torch and put on display so the children can see it throughout the year, things can be added and taken away throughout the year too.
One thing that I have found that I can use in any KS2 class to is compass points and the kids love it. Depending the age of the kids I ask them to tell me where North, South, East and West are and then asking them to show me where things are that I say my pointing themselves in that direction. I then ask them to make a list of things in a group and tell me what direction they are in. For older children I have given them compasses and asked them to tell me exactly what direction it is in. The kids love it. They love it almost as much a loop cards so I always carry a few packs in my bag! So simple yet so entertaining!
I know some of these ideas may seem simple but as an NQT I am still finding my footing and coming across different ideas so please feel free to share some of your ideas too, and keep coming back as I find some other lesson ideas that I can carry with me all over! I'll be updating the blog all the time!
Fingers crossed that things work out, if you have any thoughts or comments about supply teaching or teaching in general, I would be interested to hear them.
Thanks for reading!
Louise :D
The year began on a high after celebrating with family and friends watching some local fireworks and a rather drunken game of scrabble! That was fantastic and New Year's day (after I had apparently decapitated the reindeer in our hallway on my return from the party!) was great too spending time with my family, but then I realised that it had been a month since I had worked.
A whole month ... surely it couldn't be, school's had only been closed for 2 weeks, yet it had been a month. No work on supply means no money :( so I began to look for some work. Imagine my relief when I found some supply work as a nursery nurse for 4 days. So I quickly accepted it and prepared myself for 4 days with little children! Then at 7:30 this morning as I was getting ready I received a text to say that the booking had been cancelled for the whole week. Not only that I had already turned down some work from another agency because I had this booked. SO that is how my day began this morning.
So today, I spent the day on the phone to my agencies. Yes agencies, I have three agencies which are trying to find me work and none of them had any work available, yet all of them are taking on more and more teachers to the agency.
At the minute I seriously feel that I have wasted a year of my life and that I am worse off. I could be in a job earning money, working with children and be guaranteed a wage without the worry of not knowing when I am next going to work.
I know I am lucky because I don't have anyone relying on me, however I still have outgoings and I still need to live a life so have I wasted a year? All the job interviews I have had say I need more experience, but how can I get experience if I can't get a job and I can't even get supply work.
I know it is early in the year and hopefully something will come up in the next couple of days so I can just get by, but will my dream of getting a job come true this year? There are no jobs in schools and yet there is apparently a shortage of teachers and more teachers being trained.
On the other hand I have been taking down the Christmas decorations and planning some of my tutoring work and trying to gather some ideas to do if I do get some supply this week. I love crafts and things and with the Olympics coming this year I thought about making an Olympic torch of resolutions for children in the classroom. Each child could write what they would do on a flame and then they could be put coming out of a torch and put on display so the children can see it throughout the year, things can be added and taken away throughout the year too.
One thing that I have found that I can use in any KS2 class to is compass points and the kids love it. Depending the age of the kids I ask them to tell me where North, South, East and West are and then asking them to show me where things are that I say my pointing themselves in that direction. I then ask them to make a list of things in a group and tell me what direction they are in. For older children I have given them compasses and asked them to tell me exactly what direction it is in. The kids love it. They love it almost as much a loop cards so I always carry a few packs in my bag! So simple yet so entertaining!
I know some of these ideas may seem simple but as an NQT I am still finding my footing and coming across different ideas so please feel free to share some of your ideas too, and keep coming back as I find some other lesson ideas that I can carry with me all over! I'll be updating the blog all the time!
Fingers crossed that things work out, if you have any thoughts or comments about supply teaching or teaching in general, I would be interested to hear them.
Thanks for reading!
Louise :D
Thursday, 29 December 2011
Welcome!
Hello!
So I have decided that I am going to give blogging another try! I first did it as part of a class I took in California, but I am now going to personalise it. As I am a newly qualified teacher (NQT)in the UK I will try and give a real account of what my life is like, firstly whilst supply teaching and then hopefully (fingers crossed) when I get my first teaching post. I will also use it to share resources and things with everyone!
I am also going to use it as a kind of diary for myself as I feel that 2012 is going to be a busy and interesting year. Hopefully it will be my year so lets just wait and see.
Feel free to comment on anything. I hope you enjoy some of my posts and that I'm not too boring. What I say will be what I feel so I am sorry if it offends anyone but I am open to discussion and who knows maybe someone might change my mind.
I have a few goals for 2012 that I will share with you:
1) To get my first full time teaching job and have a class of my own
2) To go back to California and see all my wonderful friends out there
3) To go to Spain and visit my friend who is teaching out there
4) To have a fun, adventure filled year making the most of being young, free and single!
5) To get into shape and hopefully look OK in a bikini!!! We will see!
I am looking forward to the next year and I hope that you all are too! Please bare with me whilst I get into the swing of things on here, but I hope you enjoy the ride and I will see you all at the end!
Here's to 2012! Let's make it a good one! :)
Louise xx
So I have decided that I am going to give blogging another try! I first did it as part of a class I took in California, but I am now going to personalise it. As I am a newly qualified teacher (NQT)in the UK I will try and give a real account of what my life is like, firstly whilst supply teaching and then hopefully (fingers crossed) when I get my first teaching post. I will also use it to share resources and things with everyone!
I am also going to use it as a kind of diary for myself as I feel that 2012 is going to be a busy and interesting year. Hopefully it will be my year so lets just wait and see.
Feel free to comment on anything. I hope you enjoy some of my posts and that I'm not too boring. What I say will be what I feel so I am sorry if it offends anyone but I am open to discussion and who knows maybe someone might change my mind.
I have a few goals for 2012 that I will share with you:
1) To get my first full time teaching job and have a class of my own
2) To go back to California and see all my wonderful friends out there
3) To go to Spain and visit my friend who is teaching out there
4) To have a fun, adventure filled year making the most of being young, free and single!
5) To get into shape and hopefully look OK in a bikini!!! We will see!
I am looking forward to the next year and I hope that you all are too! Please bare with me whilst I get into the swing of things on here, but I hope you enjoy the ride and I will see you all at the end!
Here's to 2012! Let's make it a good one! :)
Louise xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)