With many of us returning to school next week I thought I would write a post to remind everyone that we are still on holidays. Our summer break is one of the biggest perks of teaching so try to not cut it short. It can be easy to get caught up with trying to prepare for the new school year. Our classrooms do not have to immediately look like they were pinned on Pinterest. It is ok for them to be a work in progress. I have attached some photographs of classroom displays that I have had in my classroom over the past few years. I am a firm believer that displays are there to help the children and are not a sign of how crafty we are. I try to keep them simple and easy for the children to read. Don't get me wrong I love to have nice displays and a very oragnised classroom but this takes time. As a mentor I know only too well the pressure NQT's can feel at the start of September. The feeling that you are not prepared enough, the truth is you can never be fully prepared. I have been teaching for ten years now and I still don't feel prepared for everything. Here are some tips for the next few days: 1.Enjoy yourself! I feel like I always say this but make sure to take time out for yourself and do something nice. This might be meeting friends for lunch, having a facial or even shopping for school supplies. 2. Make a plan for your first week back to school. To do lists are key to keeping on track but you also need to give yourself a set time to stay back after school each day. Otherwise you can loose focus and end up wasting your time. 3.Use this week to do some food prep. You can make a batch of soup or even some lunches for the next two week sand pop them in the freezer. This will save you time over the first week back and means to can spend your evenings doing something nice for yourself. 4. Heritage week! It is Heritage week this week and there are hundreds of events taking place all over the country, why not sign up for one or two of them? 5. If you do go in to school put up backing paper, borders and titles on your display boards. Arrange your desks and set up your own area, whether it is a bookcase or teacher desk. The classroom doesn't have to look amazing on the first day back. I much prefer to stay back each day for the first few weeks and get my classroom looking the way I want. 6. Twinkl! This is by far my favourite resource website, I absolutely love it and think it is well worth the subscription. Twinkl really saves you time and effort! Go and have a look at the website for yourself, the quality is fantastic and they even have options for you to print using less ink. This is not great for the environment but also for your purse. (This is not an ad and I am not linked with Twinkl. ) 7. If you visit your school check what they provide you with so that you can spend your money wisely. In our school we have a store that has backing paper, borders and plenty of art supplies. 8. Organise your school planner/diary. This can actually be quite a nice thing to do while you are sitting down in the evening watching television. The most important thing is enjoy the next few days and relax!
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I had great plans for this week but instead I have spent the past few days trying to recover from a bad episode with my back. Having all of this free time has made me start up my Instagram page again. I forgot how much I love having a browse at other teacher's ideas on Instagram One thing I have noticed is that you can very easily feel under pressure to be that perfect 'Pinterest' teacher. Your classroom should be a work in progress and doesn't need to be completed before the children arrive. Don't feel under pressure to have everything perfect in the beginning. I teach SEN and at first I struggled to find a good rewards system. I generally don't have many issues with behaviour but quite often the rewards are to help motivate the children. The system that works with my class is a sticker chart system. The children can earn one sticker for each lesson once the follow the classrom rules. Our rules for last year were: 1.Listen to teacher 2. Try your best 3. Show Respect Once the children follow each of the rules then they get to choose a sticker for their chart. They are also responsible for their own sticker chart and must remember to bring it to class. If they forget their chart then they cannot get a sticker. When they reach 10 stickers they can cash in their stickers to get a small prize e.g. pencils, erasers, marbles. They also have the choice of saving up to 20 stickers so that they can get a bigger prize. These include novelty erasers, pens, bouncy slime, lots of these prizes are bought in Tiger. These will all be put in my 20 sticker box.
It gives the children more choice over their prize and also promotes decision making skills. If they have 10 stickers they can ask to look at the 10 prize box and see if there is anything they would like or if they would rather keep saving. The 10 prize box always has basic pencils, erasers, sharpeners and rulers. This means that the children can earn their stickers for things that they might need rather than just something they want. At Christmas time this year several children saved their stickers and got prizes that they wanted to give their siblings and parents as gifts. I was so surprised by this and just thought that it was so sweet. This year I will also allow the children to give me ideas of prizes they might like to have in the box around Christmas time. I bought new sticker charts in Target this year. Twinkl also have reward chart that you can print and Mol an Óige have ones that you can buy. These lovely little design your own gardens are €4.99 each. They would be a great way to start gardening with your class or at home with your own children over the summer. Weekly planner. I have a similar one to this and keep it on my desk. It saves me from having lots of disorganised post-its everywhere. Some stationery. I love the blue stripey notebook but I've promised myself that I won't buy any new notebooks!
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AuthorI have been teaching for several years and hope to share some of my ideas and experiences with you. Archives
March 2020
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