Em Holliday

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.