5 Things link up - School Days Edition

I'm joining with 'Five Things' link up today - school time!

1: Making it through the week. 
After having such a difficult year or so I began to question my ability to teach. Was I good enough? Could I handle it? Those kind of negative statements. However, after my first week back in school for the new academic year (my 7th year teaching) I have realised that I am brilliant at what I do. Now I am not saying this is going to be an easy year, because it won't but I know I can do it! If I have more health problems, I deal with those and detach those negative jobs from my job abilility.

A good week but now I felt like this all day today ... [Source]

2:My patience
This year has seen me have a very demanding, physically agressive and tempremental child (towards other children and staff) join my class. I was aprehensive to say the least. But, I have put my patience to good use and given him the time and attention he craves. I made tailored beahviour charts and worked with him. The response... a child who is completely different to the one in the school the past two years. He has never had to be removed from class, works at tables with others and completed all his work. I know that it will be a long journey and I know that he will have his moments but to make it a week without any crisis moments is a great achievement for us both. Oh, and he told another teacher that I am, "Awesome." High praise indeed. 

[Source]

3: Drive and ambition
First week back and my school completed a Sports Day. If you've ever been to the UK or live here, you will know the weather is not the most reliable. So we had to cancel all our dates last academic year due to rain. So we moved it to first week back. It was certaintly something which weighed on my mind all Summer but it went great. Crazy to have it first week back but we did it and it went smoothly.

I'm in charge here... [Source]

4: New books
I love things to look neat and I definitly set high expectations of my class. One of my favourite things is to mark wok in new books. All the pages are immaculate and the covers are all clean. As the year goes by they become dog eared and well worked. Which is great because they are worked in but the pristine books... I love it!

[Source]

5: A fresh start
We all have ups and downs. It's life. My life had mostly downs the last couple of academic years. It hasn't been the easiest but this year it's a fresh start. I am looking at this as being my first year again. I am finding ways to be more productive and learning to delegate and have fun again. It may seem like a small thing but I hope this is the making of me both mentally and physically again. Goodness knows I need some stability!

[Source]

What are you pleased with this week?

Bonjour...?

I have decided it is time to start ticking some things off my wish list - which I will share at some point I am sure. Last week I thought back to 2012 and what I wanted to accomplish but hadn't. Learning something new came to mind, in particularly languages. 

I might be able to manage this at least...

In my school days I studied German to quite a high level and was pretty good at it. But I had always wished to have learnt French too. France is synonymous with love and adventure. In fact I like to imagine myself as a Miss Hepburn, exploring the city full of smiles. This has been one of the reasons I've always wanted to learn it. Also, I want to add more languages to my repertoire just for my own personal achievement.

The most important thing...

So, as of tomorrow, I am going back to school. The teacher will well and truly become the student. I know two lines in French and that is all. Hopefully, after the 10 week course I will be somewhat fluent in the language of love... or at least able to order a good meal and alcohol.
Are there any things you would like to go back to school to study?

And then I froze...

Today was an eventful one. After a day in bed ill yesterday, I finally dragged myself out of bed and into school this morning. Like the good teacher I am, I knew I had a hockey tournament to take a group of kids too and I could not disappoint them. So I layered up for my afternoon of outdoor sports.

Little did I know, but my layers were nowhere near enough. We arrived at the venue only to be told there was no indoor area for the kids to eat their lunch. This meant that we had to sit on the astro turf pitch, in the cold and eat there. Kids being kids, they all loved it but me - not so much. Not only could I not eat (and hadn't for the past day and a half due to illness) but I also had to scramble to find lunch for the child who left his on the bus. Obviously these days, "Have you got everything?" means don't check and leave food on bus which is going to leave and not come back. How did I not know this?

We spent 3 and a half hours outside playing in consistent cycles of snow/no snow and freezing temperatures. Again, the kids loved it but standing sidelines for that long was difficult when nursing an illness when I should really have been tucked up in bed. The best news came when we were awarded 3rd place - this made all the cold worth it! 

I was this cold... no exaggeration... seriously... ahem. [Source]

As teachers go, I am a pretty dedicated one don't you think?

What was your favourite sports at school?

A move...

Today I headed into school, even though I'm off, to sort my classroom out. It's so nice to be heading into the next year group as I'm finding myself a bit bored in Y3 after 2 years but the downside is the classroom switch. I have had to sort all my things out to move and it's amazing how much crap useful stuff I have acquired in my 4 years of teaching so far. Not only that, I had to have a big move around in the classroom I'm going into - and find more tables for my big class!! Luckily I managed to rope my Dad into helping me move tables and stuff around and I now have my class how I want it to be come September (until I get bored and change it around again). All there is left to do is make it look all pretty with all my backing boards and displays which I will do nearer September. 

My new home

I'm free...

Today was the last day of the academic year for me. This means that I have six weeks off to recover and have fun before going back to having no life! It was a lovely day and I got to say goodbye to my students but lucky for me it wasn't too hard as I have been moved up to the next year with them all. I feel extremely lucky as it's very rare to move up with the same class. Also, the kids I'm working with are great so I know next year is gonna be a good one. 

Since I have time off now I can get back to blogging a bit more and have somewhat of an adventure in August :-) The fun times start at 4.45am tomorrow (yes- that early on my first day off) when I meet up with Miss Twin and Miss GG and we head away for the weekend to visit our friend who is due her first baby come October!!! It's an early start but it's sure worth it!

No more late nights working..

My bounty from the kids... enough chocolate and wine for the summer mixed in with jewellery, notebooks (a lovely one I've already picked out as my new Blog Book, mugs and bath/body sets. I feel very lucky!

Hope you've had a lovely Friday!!

A note of positivity...

Last week we sent out school reports for all kids. I know to receive they don't look a lot but it took me ages to finish them all. I spend so long on the general comments which I feel is the most important part as it gives you a good idea of the attitude and the motivation of the child. Today, a parent emailed my head teacher to give her reply to the report. I have to say, I was genuinely touched by the response and it's little things like this which I love as teaching can be such a thankless job at times. I just wanted to share what brightened up my day!

Happy!!

APP time...

It's that time of the year when teachers are torn... we have the countdown till the summer holidays and the weight of assessments to deal with. Personally, I am pretty sorted with my assessments. We had the SAT's last week in my year group and all mine are completed and marked- go me!! Now I am updating APP which is Assessing Pupil Progress. I'm sorry if this bores you but at the moment it's one of the few things on my mind. Not in a stressful way as I am way ahead for once (I have even started on class reports would you believe?!) but it's a lot of work and concentration.

With APP, the idea is to study 6 children at various abilities throughout the year and use these to support assessments and then almost generalise to the other children at their level. Personally I disagree with the idea of it in the way that it is generalised to all children. After all, aren't we taught that children are all individual and no two are alike? Surely this generalisation isn't going to be 100% successful. On the hand I like the specificness of the assessment grids and they are extremely useful to use when planning lessons which are differentiated for all the different abilities in class.

Click on this link and then look at the pdf file if you fancy seeing wheat an 'average' level 2/3 child in my class should be achieving. I know not many of you will be that interested in this (believe me I sometime get bored of it myself) but if you're a teacher then you may have some interest. We than have to have it A3 size and annotate dates to match work in books/whole class discussion/mental maths tests to the different statements and at this point in the year decide on whether the child is low, secure or high in their level.

After all the SAT's, I am now assessing via this to give evidence to support my teacher assessment which I give the kids for the end of the year. Therefore during the whole school moderation, there should be no holes to pick with my levels which in turn leads to a much calmer end of term for me allowing me to focus on topic assessments, sports day co-ordination, class play, teaching and marking. Not much to do then!! I love it really...most of the time!

Anyway I thought I'd share one of the perks of being a teacher...Queens final on a big screen in my classroom:

Then the flip of the coin... my evening:

Any extremes for your job or any great perk?

54+19=

Just a quick post today as I am out early for a comedy show and then into town. I am a little skeptical of the comedy show. I am a pretty sarcastic person so I sometimes find comedy a bit dull. I like it when they take the mick out of real life and observations. None of that over the top shouting stuff...yawn!!! So I am hoping it's gonna be good. 

I just wanted to share a gem from one of my students today. I was working through a Maths test with her and she is one of my lower group. The question was 54 + 19= So I told her she could solve it in her head. She begin eagerly counting and then stopped, looked at me and said:

"Miss...I'm stuck now. I don't have 19 fingers..."

I can add 8....

Happy Friday!!

{Image via}

What makes a good teacher?

I love my job (but loathe the paperwork) and I always want to make the kids enjoy school as much as possible. I realised today just how much kids can idolise their teacher when one said to me:

"Miss...I got up early today. I got up early because I wanted my Mam to style my hair like you wear yours. But she couldn't do it."

Now, my hairstyle is nothing exciting and the only reason I'm wearing it like it is at the moment is because I need to get my fringe sorted out! This made me feel happy (and also thought the parent would hate me for being harassed to do a hairstyle) and realise that as much as it feels like I'm so busy and weighed down by paperwork, the kids are still enjoying the lessons and I am having an impact in not only their learning but the way they behave (and obviously the way they look). Another child I found out changes into leggings and tunic tops to try and look like me when she gets home to play teachers! Flattered or scared? I don't know! haha!

I wondered, "What do I do to make the kids enjoy their education and like me as their teacher?" I came up with some thoughts which I had about my favourite teachers at school and realised they made me the teacher I am today.

No shouting

I don't shout at kids. I hate shouting. On the odd occasion where a child has done something so naughty that I have had to shout people are actually shocked since I never usually do it. I think that so many kids think that shouting is the only way to talk or solve problems. In my eyes, once you've shouted you've lost control of your own feelings and the situation at hand. I go with the more stern voice and talk about things logically and I can tell you that it's worked a treat this year (and in the past).

Talk

Basically, I am known as a good talker. I don't really like silence when I'm around people, it's awkward and uncomfortable. In the classroom this helps as I talk to the children. Again, at home there are lots of kids who are barely spoken to. They struggle to verbalise anything because they aren't used to a conversation. I share my life with them and they share what they are looking forward to or happy about and even what they are sad about. If I'm open with them they will feel confident to share their feelings with me and therefore the classroom environment is a very team like environment. Everyone looks out for one another.

Patience

The biggest thing to have when teaching is patience. There are times when I get frustrated, cross, ill or just plain tired. This is the time when I'm at my weakest, the time when the smallest of things will make me want to cry or shout. But, I take a deep breath and continue. I have a child who pretty much forgets to use full stops every time in their writing. Every time I make a joke about the full stops 'running away' and I sit and go through their work with them to put them in the correct place. One day it will stick but till that day I will soldier on like I do showing incredible patience.

Finding the good in everything

I want to share some of my kids work:

Our new jungle display!

Animals from my lower group...I do teach them - honestly!

Jungle adventure...

Jungle adventure...

What was it that made a teacher your favourite when you were at school?

*Ash cloud watch- seems to be fine at the moment! However I am now becoming ill! Booo!! I hope both stay away!!

Little Miss Bossy...

The past couple of days, it seems the kids in my school have all become extremely unsettled and this includes my class. Nearly all 28 of them can't work without fussing, talking, telling tales or being sensible. This has led to me becoming the dreaded Little Miss Bossy*. It's not all and it's not all the time but in my class it's enough for me to notice a difference. My class, when they came to me, were renowned for being badly behaved. When I got told the class I would get (out of the two coming up) people would look sympathetic and say... "They're quite a handful." So much so that my headteacher said to me, "Missy, your class next year are very different from this lot (my current class at the time), they're pretty wild but I know you can get them under the thumb." Err.. thanks?!

So I prepared for the worst, rewards and stickers at hand and within 2 weeks they were calm and better behaved. They were so settled and apart from a couple of incidents they all calmed down and began to behave. During the parents evenings I've had, many parents have commented how much more confident and well behave their child is. Others said that their child has suddenly became enthusiastic about school... comments like that make my day and  the hard work worth it.

Because of this huge calm period I have have noticed straight away that they have become this:

I have tried to figure out the cause: weather (it affects kids more than you realise), moving the tables, two weeks off, worry about going to the next year or just tiredness? I have no idea, This has resulted in becoming Little Miss Bossy!! I have set clear boundaries, introduced a VIP (Very Independent Person) award, become more liberal with stickers (kids always respond better to praise) and requesting silence. The kids have responded and I can see them settling again already after just two days. Fingers crossed this continues as it's gonna be a long, tiring time to the end of the school year if it doesn't.

* I am obviously, without a doubt, usually Little Miss Sunshine!!

The wrong job...

This is definitely a question I have asked myself the past few months. Should I have choose teaching as a career? I know the answer will always be yes- sometimes it takes a while to get there but deep down I feel very privileged to have such an important role in so many peoples lives. I remember my teachers even now and they still inspire me.

However, it seems to be one thing after another at my place with so little thanks. Only today we had another message mid lesson asking for documents, books, planning etc in a day. When I trained I was so excited to venture into the world of teaching. It seemed like the perfect way to help shape the lives and help children. So many that I see have great home lives however just as many have not such a great time. They need support and guidance and as teachers we can give them that.

As the time goes by I feel the education system is putting so much more focus on assessment , planning etc etc that we have less time to focus on supporting the children and helping them develop as people. Today I could just feel my stress level rising and rising. By the end of the afternoon I just felt exhausted and was pleased to have some quiet when the kids went.

Since I'm on a course all day tomorrow I will not be in school which will be great. As much as I will miss the kids I feel some time away from that environment, networking with other education staff will be just what we need. 

Thought I'd share my work which I have brought home tonight...58 books to mark and planning file to keep updated. *Yawn*

Tick, tick, tick...

An apple a day...

First of all thank you to all my new followers! I have passed the 50 mark!! Glad you enjoy the blog!

I have came home today with A LOT of work to do and it feels like I have even more 'work' on my shoulders. For that reason I will be making this a short but sweet post. Then I am off to do some work and order pizza (yes- I'm in one of those moods! Take away pizza night!).

I want to share an image with you all. It was a gift from one of my kids today. She came up to me and said, "Miss...I know you don't normally get given things like this but I thought it would be nice for you..."

Then she handed me this:

How very Twilight....

I don't know about you but I thought the days of giving teachers an apple had long gone. I was pleasantly surprised at how sweet this was. It made my day.

Hope you all had a good start to the week!

A long day...

What a day!! I left for work at 8am.

After, numerous cups of green tea, a couple of painkillers, 3 ice packs, 5 lessons taught, 60 books marked and 12 hours later I made it home.

Today was the day which all teachers dread (except the 1st day back after every holiday and report deadline day)... it was Parent's Evening. Ahh parents evening, so many ups and downs.

If you have a 'good' kid you find parents either:

a- Sit looking a little embarrassed (in a good way) and proud of how well their child is doing.

b- Sit and plead ignorance at how good their child is and make you wax lyrical about how fabulous their child is.

If you have a 'bad' kid you find parents:

a- Are completely unaware of the behaviour issues and blame some other child.

b- Really don't care that much.

c- Begin to say how hard it is too at home.

d- Back you up 100% on anything to do with rewards/sanctions etc.

It's a lottery and so far in my teaching career I have won. I have had both 'good' and 'bad' kids but luckily have always got along well with the parents. I think that makes all the difference as that link is so essential. If the child is mis-behaving, having that home teacher contact is a great incentive for the child as they know information doesn't stop at the school gate. The current class I have at the moment were extremely boisterous and feisty when I got them but I have since managed to calm them right down and some of the more rough kids are becoming respectful and understanding of right and wrong. This obviously makes parents evening easier.

However, talking from 3.30 till about 7.20 without a break to a carousel of parents, after a full days teaching is draining. Lots of sleep today and then back to the grind tomorrow!

I am going to leave you all with my treat for such a long day:

Cadbury Creme Egg...so, so nice!!!

Waiting...

I was in the middle of a lesson today, and as usual, my kids were being random. One decided to tell me he was going to a disco tonight and last time he went he waited two hours to get his face painted white, with Man U wrote in gold across his forehead. I then asked him 'Was it worth it?'...expecting him, as a child, to be extremely enthusiastic about it and he replied no.

First off I was impressed that this child had waited two whole hours to get it done (which in kid speak is like 30 minutes if that) and secondly that he actually didn't think it was worth it. If you have ever worked with kids, you will know that they pretty much find everything exciting...particularly face painting.

It worried me, as, as an adult there are not many things which we would wait around for. But we're adults you know...we have lost that naivety and excitement which children have. Had he grown into a mini adult? Had he finally realised that not many things are worth waiting 2 hours for (except something like a McDonald's the day after the night before)? Or maybe the face paint was just crap...which is probably the most obvious answer. But, as I sat and watched him still laugh about it, I got to thinking how old will he be when he finally becomes a little adult and he sees the world in such a different way. I suppose as adults our views of the world are constantly changing and we pretty much understand how and why things may change. I've forgotten what it was like when I was a kid. When everything you saw was funny, you liked anything, you had no fear and things on the news were not things you fully understood.

I like seeing my kids like that, they are still kids and still have that love for life. They are happy nearly all the time and if not it doesn't take them long to come around again. It makes me feel extremely privileged to be able to do the job I do and educate these children about life and hopefully help them become ready for the challenges and changes that lie ahead.

ABC's....not the only thing I teach at school....

My life...

I was frantically ticking and stamping while marking at school today and thought about how much time I spend in my classroom. It's funny because as stressful as my job is, my classroom feels so peaceful. When I'm in school and feel stressed, I can just go to my room and potter around and it calms me. I think I actually love it! I thought I would share my world with you. 

My Classroom

View as you enter...notice all the tables- and that's not even all of them!

Front of class- you'll have to excuse my messy desk!! It serves as a dumping ground as the day progresses!

More displays and brightness (plus the ever moving whiteboard haha!)!

 

 

It's all so bright and I can't help but smile when I look at all the work :-) I think it kinda reflects my personality all the displays and they way they are all arranged. I even have a pink class notice board!!

What made me laugh the most was...

 

This was something which I was thinking about this morning while painting my face to look more awake at work! After reading a discussion about what makes you happy on 20 Something Bloggers website, it really stuck in my mind. I was able to come up with 2 things which really made me laugh  in the past month. Now I’m not talking about a little giggle, a short laugh which leaves you feeling elated...no...I’m talking about the type of laugh which flaws you, makes your mascara make a break for it down your face and leaves you unable to speak.

Smile!!!

My first was when I was playing a game of Trivial Pursuit with my sister over Christmas and I mis heard a question and came up with the most ridiculous answer which was just impossible. I started to laugh and literally went on for like 5 minutes! I was at the point of tears with laughter for something which was nothing really.

My second was when I was looking at a friend’s photo on Facebook. Two people were in the foreground in the snow and he was in the background walking up a hill with his sledge towards the camera. One person had commented how he looked like a borrower and then I was gone. Again, the crazy laughter. 

When I was at work today, I decided to get the kids to finish: “What made me laugh the most was...” and they came up with some answers only kids could:

“When my Dad started crying cause I beat him 6-0 on Fifa 11.”

“When I had something in my hand and I didn’t know.”

“These names: tricky lickey, chicken little, zirke lirke.” (How cute?! Lol!)

And my personal favourite was whispered to me as the boy thought it was too rude:

“Your eyes are so attractive; they look like wee holes in the snow.”

Hahaha! Now if you’re not familiar with some British phrases then you may not find that as funny as me. Basically, when someone is extremely drunk, people may describe them as having “eyes like piss holes in the snow”. He said his Dad had said this and he thought it was funny!

You’re probably thinking, well neither of the moments I spoke about sound that funny let alone being 'making you cry funny' but you just had to be there. This made me realise that sometimes these moments come from nowhere and are unplanned. When I thought back to both times, I realised that on both occasions I was feeling a little low and worn out. This made me wonder if these moments are sent to make you, in that moment of tiredness, sadness etc pull you back from the brink and make you smile through your tears. As the classic song says: “Smile and maybe tomorrow, you'll see the sun come shining through for you.” Nat King Cole.

So what was the last think that made you laugh so much you were crying?

 *image from http://www.morguefile.com