Em Holliday

Last term we read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Oh my goodness we had fun with it. Not only is it a great book but we have so many fun activities to go with it.

Dahl Dollars - at the end of Term 1 I was very concerned by the difficulties my students were having with money. Many could not even work out how to put together a dollar. I pondered over the holidays and came up with Dahl Dollars. In class we created money with Roald Dahl's head on the back and a picture from his books on the front. The money was in the same denominations as Australian Money. The children were then able to earn "Dahl Dollars" for good beahviour in the same way they earned stickers for lucky dip prizes in Term 1. 5c equalled 1 sticker. 50c (or 10 x 5c) won them a lucky dip prize.

So far so good but there was of course a twist. The children each had a 'purse' in their desk (a labelled plastic bag) in which they kept their coins. I would open the bank and they could exchange their 5 c coins for bigger coins suchs as 10c, 50c and so on. I made a big deal of students getting the 'big coins' as I was trying to encouarage them to exchange and learn how to put together a dollar from smaller coins. (They had to tell me what coin they could get.)

To encourage team work I also introduced a shopping list of more expensive prizes. They children could save up their money to buy 'free play', 'drama activities', 'pancakes' or the ultimate 'Chocolate surprise'. These were prizes that could be bought by some children who saved and the whole class benefitted from. The children loved counting their coins to see if they had enough money to get free play or even food. The first group of 8 children who bought the class free play I rewarded with certificates in assembly. It was a big deal because they were giving up a lucky dip prize to buy something for the whole class to enjoy. The 'Chocolate Surprise' was the ultimate goal and at $8.35 every child in the whole class gave up at least 1 or 2 lucky dip prizes to win it - and they did. All 20 children donated ( I helped them keep track) and they bought a chocolate surprise. (We made hideously sweet and sticky chocolate drinks with all the trimmings). They loved it so much that they've been asking to have Dahl Dollars back all term - I'm trying to think up a Christmas themed one now for 4th Term.

We also paper mache'd Wonka Words - We created big cardboard cutouts of our favourite words from the book and paper mache'd them into 3D and hung them from the roof. It was great, messy, fun.

You can also buy Roald Dahl magazines which are fantastic and the children couldn't get enough of them. I bought about 12 from the website http://www.magical-world.co.uk/ and they are such an amazing resource. I know of at least 1 child who is now a fortnightly subscriber to the mag.

So if you are doing Roald Dahl or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I hope you enjoy it as much as 2H did.

Well my first thought is how amazingly busy I've been, as you can tell since I haven't blogged in over 6 months! well I've certainly enjoyed most of my year so far. My love of the job is still strong and I still find those hours spent in the classroom with the children are completely great - except on the days you are ready to strangle them! :) Not that I ever would.

I've noticed how flexible I've become - I now spend less time planning fully structered activities as more often than not they are interupted in any case. Although, in saying that, when I do sit down and take the time to plan a creative and exciting series of lessons (usually in maths which is my fav subject) I get an immense amount of satisfaction from seeing a new and exciting lesson taking place.

Summative and formative assessment is my best friend. In the organised chaos which is a classroom so often you turn around at the end of the week and think "Did I actually teach anything at all? Are they learning or are we just having fun?" and that's where those comparison tests from the start and end of term are so invaluable. They tell you what you actually did teach - and yes, those things you didn't as well.

In my year group we give the children a comprehensive maths test in week 1 of term which covers all maths subject areas to be taught that term. The children sit that test again at the end of term. It is a very useful diagnostic tool and you can churn out great data and graphs to prove to 'the powers that be' what you have and have not achieved. It's also great for really focusing your teaching/instruction into weak areas and grouping children for support and extension.

Literacy is a bit more vague but BM reading levels are very informative and making notes on the children's habits as they read on those Running Record sheets helps remind you later of what to focus on. This is also great for when parents appear at your door 5 minutes before the morning bell and want info on how to help their child improve - I have a good memory but not that good!

Behaviour Management techniques - I've trialled many of these over the year and am still looking for new ones. I started out with the behaviour cards I blogged about earlier this year. Right now I am trying a new technique which was explained to me by an experienced teacher. Every time a child does a 'negative' to another person, such as a put down, they have to counter with 2 positives, one of which must be a sincere apology. We only started last week but it looks like it will work well. I think, though, the most important thing is consistency, I've noticed this term I've been a bit lax on the old discipline methods - using my voice more than anything, and discipline is suffering slightly because of it. My goal is to return to using the behaviour cards as the children responded well to those and I didn't have to use my voice so much.

Probation - is six months at my school and the report is a useful tool to help you channel the areas that perhaps you are not doing so well in, I found the management extremely supportive in helping me to improve those areas. Probation is not about being 'caught out' but having a chance for professional dialogue with people who see you work and identifying areas for improvement and being told that you are actually doing a good job too.

Organistation - is the most important thing in my classroom. I receive hundreds of emails per week not to mention paper work, marking, art for the walls, parent/teacher notes yada yada yada. Every week I try to 'zero' my desk by filing, actioning emails and notes as quickly as possible and keeping clutter down to the absolute bare minimum. I'm not, as yet, as accomplished as other teachers in this but I'm doing pretty well - not much goes missing.

Student supplies - There are so many things the students need every week and I'm forming the opinion that they need as much help as possible in keeping it all straight and not lost! I look after their computer log-ons, their white board pens, their art pens, their spare paper, their notes, their work sheets. Everything you can possibly have centralised and organised - do. Otherwise you spend all your time sorting through desks and bags hunting for things the children loose! My golden reply to "I can't find it" is "Have you searched your desk?" 9 times out of 10 it is in there.

There's heaps of other things I could say about being a first year teacher - it's a year of experience. Perhaps on another day. Just remember why you teach - because when everything else in your professional and private life is in chaos, the children still have boundless love and joy from being with you, as you do them.

Ah I can't express the joy I am getting from teaching my own class this year. I'm a first year out and haven't stopped smiling since term began. Well, I've enjoyed all the teaching anyway. Even if I've had a rotten week (like this one), arrived at school near tears, am tired, grumpy or simply not 'cheerful' I find that as soon as I am with the children I am smiling and enjoying myself all day.

I adore the kids in my class, they challenge me, annoy me and make me laugh and I'm sure it would be the same with any class. I enjoy talking to the parents and working with them and the school to sort through issues, espescially when I can tell parents of a new skill or improvement I've noticed in their child and see their happiness upon hearing about it. I even enjoy programming and then being able to tick off all those outcomes as I see them being achieved.  Sure, like any workplace there are ups and downs but on the whole teaching is a wonderful profession and I hope that I continue to enjoy it as much as I am right now.

I experienced one of those amazing light bulb moments, we all teach for, in the classroom today. We are learning about multiplication and one of my students made a discovery. (we had many but this was one of those enlightenment discoveries). She came to me and explained that she had discovered that "for 7x2 you can start at 7 then just count on 7 more and you get 14". A gem of mathematical discovery - discovering that you can 'count on' rather than starting at one every time. The maths world is her oyster!

Having completed the Bachelor of Education in Primary Teaching (Graduate Entry) at The University of Canberra I thought I'd give a run down on the in's and out's of this degree for future participants - an insiders guide to it all.

I loved this degree but it was two years of hard yakka. First thing to know is that you need to be prepared to put in a LOT of work and to really succeed you need to put in even more work outside the standard course requirements. If you're still reading then I haven't scared you too much and you're probably unshakeable enough to do this degree and be a teacher.

This degree is brillant in that you get the full qualifications in half the time but also means they are squashing 4 years work into 2 and naturally there are gaps which I'm going to help you leap over.

The lecturers of this degree are outstanding and great people to talk to and learn from. Also being a graduate means you don't have to worry about being overly keen or enthusastic - because everyone else is too. Think about this: all the students have previous degrees and 99.5% have been out in the work force or caring for family or both for any number of years. All these people then decide to take the risk of dropping everything, going back to uni full time for two years to change their lives. These are people with debt, children, spouse, pets - people with full lives who are risking alot (because it's almost impossible to work and do this degree - there's obviously a financial risk) to make a change. They care a lot about the work, want to get it right and graduate ASAP. Not to mention they are passionate interesting people who all lead different lives and I gained so much by learning about  and from my peers. Make friends with your peers - they will support you through the tough and confusing times and add a wealth of light and colour to your life and degree.

The classes you will take.

We quickly learnt that this truncated degree leaves out some valuable practical training so make sure in first semester you attend Reconstructing Mathematical Understanding (RMU). It's the first year maths subject which graduates don't do and you'll be lost if you don't get some of this knowledge. We walked into Mathmatical Education 1 (ME1) (2nd semsester) and the tutor was completely unaware that we hadn't done RMU, the prerequiste. So when we told her we didn't understand the terms she was using from RMU her reply was "That's your problem". Which, when a tutor has 90 students per week and 2 don't know what she's talking about I guess is a fair attitude but we felt rejected and lost at sea. We very promptly spoke to the RMU lecturer and got added to the WEBCT (see below) list and sat in on lectures - we didn't officially do the course but we did the course work and got the notes. (PS: we only survived ME1 by supporting each other, using mathematical dictionaries and more than one stand up fight with the tutor! I hope no-one else has the same troubles we did!) The moral: GET THE COURSEWORK FROM RMU AND LEARN IT IN YOUR OWN TIME!!!!

Health and Movement Education 1 is a great practical class where you do the activities you'll do with the kids and even get to go out and teach sport to some children. Embrace this class, keep the manual as it is a PE bible, and don't forget what you learn because you won't be seeing much sport again until your final semester on Internship.

Science and Technology is another great practical class - more informative on technology than science I found. You'll come out with some great technology ideas but if you're interested in science be sure to go to the science lectures and pay attention - I certainly don't feel capable of teaching science concepts having done this course - but I can make a mean kite!

Many people struggled to see the point of Education Foundations but trust me - the things you learn here and in Socio-cultural Politics will inform much of your teaching style and attitute. Education Foundations really started to make sense for me aboue halfway through 2nd year - but I can now see how valuable it was.

Responding to Individual Needs in Education is a class where you develop lots of tools for your 'virtual toolbag' and I've referred to activities in that and Promoting Positive Learning Environments again and again. They can both seem a bit of a drag at times but just write everything down and come back to it when you are on prac - you'll find the most amazing resources that you didn't even know you had.

Language Education is good. Misty (the Lecturer) knows full well that as graduates we are under huge pressure to be ready for the classroom in less than 2 years work. (Trust me, 2 years is a short time to become a teacher!). She hands you everything on a silver platter - grab her help and use it - you may never use her models in the classroom but they are a starting point if and when you have nothing else.

One thing Language Education doesn't do is teach you a lot about grammar or spelling. If you're anything like me and don't know the techniques of grammar make sure you do the Intensive Grammar and Writing Course during your first summer break. This was one of themost useful course I did at the uni - it cost me $25 and it would have been a bargin at $100. You get a folder with all the basic grammar stuff, excellent teaching and also half the course is dedicated to essay writing - how to write them well. I can't tell you how useful this class was - even though it was during the holidays - I personally think it should be compulsary.

Mathmatics Education is theory heavy. You will come out with lots of knowledge and the text book "Error Patterns in Computations" is fabulous - I worked it through cover to cover. The WEBCT activities also help you solidify your own understandings and opinions - trust everyone has a different opinions and half the fun is discussing and learning those of your peers.

WEBCT

This is the online portal where much of the communication for the degree takes place. It is vital to have good access to the internet and to use WEBCT all the time. When you get your OSIS login remember to forward your student email to the account you always use and never leave your email unchecked for too long. You can get training at the uni for help with WEBCT.

Prac's and Internship

Prac's are awesome - so much fun but hard work. Except to be exhausted and stressed and out of your depths. Uni really doesn't and can't prepare you for your role as a teacher in the classroom - it's such a different but wonderful environment. Remember it's okay to feel out of your depth and as if you're drowning - that's normal! Make sure you connect with your family, friends, dog - who or whatever you have in your life that keeps you grounded and makes you happy. The lecturers at uni are great and they know all too well how you are going - talk to them, take their advice, support and friendship because they've all been there too.

Internship is the highlight of the degree - the first time you're in a school long enough to really connect and become part of the family.

And don't feel bad if you go to your first prac and you decide teaching isn't all you thought it would be - it's not right for many many people and the reason they put you into the schools so early is so you have the chance to find this out and get out before you've wasted too much time. That's not to say that a bad prac means you're not cut out to be a teacher - it could have simply been a bad prac - be sure to talk to friends and lecturers before you make any big decisions.

Trying to get a job

Of course the point of the degree is to get a job and here is what I've learnt (and no I'm not claiming expertise - just tinsy bit of experience).

From your very first prac TAKE PHOTOS of the work you are doing with kids in the classroom. Writing a journal is also a great idea (I keep a blog) - photocopy examples of children's work both good and bad which you could show someone and explain and idea or connection. Keep them and all your prac reports in a safe place because in about April of 2nd year you need to interview for jobs and you must have evidence that shows how you teach and a DIVERSITY of experiences. Thay will all go together in your portfolio - which BTW doesn't have to be beautiful, just extremely well organised.

And Diversity of experience is the key - I'm a perfect example - I had tops grades, amazing prac reports and referees, years of experience with coaching children in sport plus tutoring, a great attitude but in my interview I spoke almost exclusively about this one child with whom I'd had a multitude of experiences and forgot to expand beyond him. I ended up with a hugely disappointing ranking and trust me - if I'd waited for a job from the department I'd still be unemployed at Easter I'm sure. As it is, I took things into my own hands and got myself a job at a private school.

That's another thing - don't put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to jobs - you may be told there are lots of jobs out there but at this point - ten days before school goes back - only those with the top ranking and early offers have been offered jobs - be prepared to be a relief teacher if you don't get the top ranking - at least for a while. Get the paper every Saturday for the second year of your degree and start applying for jobs.

Final Words

I adored this degree and I'm an enthusiastic young teacher ready to step out into the world, which has a lot to do with the wonderful environment UC education set-ups for its students and the great tutors and lecturers you'll meet along the way. Don't be scared by any of the not-so-pretty things I've highlighted here - it's better to go in knowing than being unplesantly surprised later on. I truly hope if you've read this far you go on to find out that teaching is an amazing experience and I hope do be able to do it for many years to come. And come back and tell me how you're going - remember that the greatest resources a teacher can have is her/his peers.