Happy New Year to you all! I hope you enjoyed the Christmas break and are looking forward to the year ahead. I don't do New Years Resolutions or goals, to be honest I would never stick to them. This year I want to contnue something that I have already started in 2018. Over the past year we have been working on our green flag for Global Citizenship Litter and Waste. While working on this flag I have become more aware of the levels of waste in my home, school and the wider world. Our reliance on easy convenient products has resulted in an over use in single use plastics. Over the past few months I have tried to reduce our household waste and also use less chemicals in my cleaning. One website that I have found to be a great help is Wellness Mama, it is a treasure trove of beauty, food and cleaning ideas. Some cleaning products that I have switched over the past few months are: All Purpose spray- I now use a vinegar spray. I did try infusing it with orange peels for a few weeks but I still felt that it smelled like vinegar. I don't really mind the smell as it dissapears quite quickly after you use it. Toilet cleaner- This has been replaced by toilet fizzers. I am delighted with these and you can choose what essential oils you would like to add. Furniture polish- Microfibre cloths catch all of the dust and can then be washed in the washing machine. I don't like the feeling of a lot of microfibre cloths. The one I bought is from Lidl and has more of a suede feel to it. Oven cleaner- Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda is all I use now. It might take a bit more elbow grease but I much rather it to the chemical filled oven cleaner. Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda is also great for getting rid of tough grease and unblocking drains. Most of my beauty products are from Lush . I like the range of products they have and their focus on reducing packing. Shampoo & Conditioner- I use the Honey i washed my Hair shampoo bar and I love it! I have two conditioners, one in a bottle and also a solid one. American cream is the bottled conditioner and is a great treatment. I am still getting used to the solid conditioner and I keep this one in my gym bag. Body scrub- I made my own sugar scrub from Wellness Mama and am very happy with how it turned out. Face scrub- I made my own oatmeal and lavender facial scrub , again from Wellness Mama. It is a bit messy but well worth trying out. Deodorant - I bought a solid deodorant in Lush several months ago and am very happy with it. I wasn't too sure about it first but I wanted to try it and I am glad that I did. A few other reusable items I have are a stainless steel straw, stainless steel cutlery set, homemade beeswax wraps and a reusable bottle.
I bought my Tupperware bottle 9 years ago and it is still going strong. This was the first year I brought it away while travelling and it was great to be able to fill it in the airports and not have to buy single use plastic bottles. I buy all of my vegetables from Green Earth Organics. They are based in Galway and deliver organic vegetables. We have bought our vegetables from them for over 18months and have been extremely happy with the quality. We have also noticed that we have a lot less food waste and none of the vegetables are packaged in plastic. I live in an apartment and don't have a brown bin. So each week I empty my food scrap bin into my parents brown bin. I'm sure some of the neighbours think I'm crazy! I hope to continue to focus on reducing waste and chemicals in my house. If you have any other useful ideas feel free to share!
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I was contacted by Mairéad from Synergie Lifelong Learning over the midterm. She was wondering if I would share some information about a Toe by Toe course that they were running earlier this month. It got me thinking about how many courses can be on offer that we just don't know about. So I thought that I would share a few here. I am not linked with any group but am just sharing information that I found online. Synergie Lifelong Learning COURSES
NCSE Primary CPD Programme 2018-2019
Continuum of Support (COS) and SET Allocation Model (Primary)
I just thought that I would quickly share my reward system with you all. As you may know I teach in a SEN setting so have a lot of small groups and one to one teaching. I have been using this reward system for the past three years and it works very well. Each student is given a sticker chart and can earn one sticker if they follow the class rules. I don't have too many behavioural issues in my classes, but a lack of motivion can often be an issue. The boys really enjoy earning stickers and I often find that when they begin with the reawrd system they choose prizes from the ten box. As the year goes on they like to save for the twenty stickers prizes instead. It is great to see that they can wait that little bit longer to choose their prize. In general it takes five to six weeks to earn twenty stickers. The prize boxes are kept on a shelf where the students can access them easily. If they are coming close to earning ten or twenty stickers they can askto have a look in the box. These are a selection of prizes in the 10 sticker box. They are mostly pens, pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners . These are very useful for students that always seem to loose their pencils. (Sorry for the sideways photograph)
These are some of our 20 sticker prizes. These are usually more novelty items and the children see them as more of a treat. I tend to buy a lot of my prizes in Tiger and I pick them up throughout the year. It means that there are regular updates in the prize box. Usually around this time of year the boys start to say that they would like to save up their stickers until Christmas. Instead of getting themselves a prize they save up to choose gifts for their family. This always amazes me how thoughtful the are!
Click the links above for a free Halloween wordsearch from Education.com!
Find the spooky words in this Halloween word search from Education.com! Find more fun language arts games here. I have followed Mrs Mactivity on Facebook and Instagram for a number of months now. A few weeks ago I was contacted to see if I would be interested in providing feedback on some of the resources. I was gifted a twelve month subscription with no obligation to share resources etc. Over the past week I have used several of the Phonics resources and am very happy with the quality and selection. Membership costs are kept very affordable, approximately €11.50 for a 12 month subscription. There is also an option of a free membership which is well worth checking out. I have been using the 2017 UK Phonics Screening check with some of my students. The following resources have been very useful when we are workin on our Alien words. The children really like the alien characters! Phonics Screening Check Alien Word PowerPoint Alien Word Cards (x4 per page) Go over and check out what's new and available on the website! If your class like The Greatest Showman or Unicorns there are some fantastic resources available. The website is constantly growing and is nice to see such high quality from a small business! 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!
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!
Personally I feel that the summer is time to switch off from work and to enjoy yourself. I know that this is not possible for everyone, some people are spending their summers applyig for jobs and hoping they get interviews. Wherever you are in your teaching career try to use the summer to relax and enjoy yourself as much as possible. This can be anything from meeting friends for lunch, having a weekend away or going on the adventure of a lifetime. For some people getting themselves prepared for the year ahead might be an important part of their summer break. So over the next few weeks I will focus on enjoying the break and will pop on to this page when it suits. I have added some ideas of way to both relax and help you feel prepared for September. To Relax:
Feeling prepared:
I have had a fantastic summer so far and hope you are all enjoying it too. The summer break is definitely one of the perks of the job. As most of you may know I got married earlier this year and have just returned from our honeymoon. We chose to spend our honeymoon in Alaska and I have to say it was absolutely amazing. One thing I love about the summer break is that I get to catch up on reading. I find that during the school year I don' t have as much time as i would like to read for fun. This summer I have already read a few really good books and have attached the reviews below. “A dusty road stretches into the distance like a pencil line across the arid landscape. Lions, rhino, and buffalo roam the plains on either side. But I haven’t come to Kenya to spot wildlife. I’ve come to run.” This book provides a great insight into the lifestyle of Kenyan athletes and tries to find what their secret to success is. The book follows Adharanand Finn's experiences of moving his family to Kenya and training for one of the toughest races. I borrowed this book from my husband and was absolutely glued to it. It is based in the USA during the Great Depression and documents a group of young men's lives as they try to earn their place on the Olympic rowing team. It also discussion the 1936 Olympics which were held in 1936 in Hitler's Nazi Germany. This is definitley worth reading! Click here for a review that was published in The Guardian My sister-in-law bought this book as my birthday present. it is a fascinating read while also being terrifying. Let's just say it's not a book that you would read before going to bed. It is a true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade. The book itself is extremely well written and I'm looking forward to finishing it over the weekend. Chapters Bookstore is my favourite bookshop and I love to spend an hour or so choosing my next set of books to read. If I don't have time to go into town I usually buy my books on the Book Depository. They offer free postage and often have good offers. I have attached links to the Book Depository on each of the book images above. I spotted this on Twinkl during the week and though it might be worth sharing. I am hoping to go to Chapters during the week so any other recommendations would be great!
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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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