My Teaching Journal

Just recently I got my Ministry of Education (MOE) number! Hopefully I wont have to wait too much longer after the holidays to get paid. It’s day 1 of the holidays and I’m working 9-3 tutoring around 6 children at a time for a holiday programme. I’m teaching reading, writing and grammar. My chinchilla wasn’t exactly cheap so it all helps! I’m also working a late night plus Sunday on top of that (as usual). It’s so good to have teaching experience during the holidays as relievers don’t get paid during this time! Tutoring rocks!!!

I relieved three days last week, boy was it tiring!!! I taught mainly Year 1-3 children which is great because I need more experience in the area. Those classes were quite tough as their were children with conflicts. It’s so hard when your a reliever and you don’t know the dynamics of the class when the teacher calls sick. I had to break up a fight and it was horrible! I felt like running home at lunch time.

On the positive side I taught my first new entrants class yesterday and they were absolutely lovely! In the past I had only taught a Year 0-2 class in my second year of study. I was a little suprised how fast they do things!!! I gave them an art activity that I expected would take 15 minutes at least and 5 minutes later they brought a page with brown and blue scribbles on it chanting “Miss Draper Miss Draper I’ve finished!!! Can I plaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy?!?!?!”. It made me think about more activities that wouldn’t use too many resources.

Every time the relieving agency has called me I’ve been fast asleep in bed with limited time to et ready so today I woke up at 6.50am, got dressed and ready by 7.30am and I didn’t get called! Just my luck!

Only a few more days until the school holidays so hopefully I can get another day relieving. If I do I’ll make sure I update my blog. In the school holidays I’ll be tutoring so that’ll be good money and experience. When I have time I’ll also update some teaching resources. Remember to email me with your ideas!!! :o)

-Miss Draper xxx

I was sound asleep in my snug wee bed when I received a call at 7.20 am from the relieving agency!!! It was on my day when I’m available to work a half day. They offered me two different schools, Year 3/4 and 7/8 at an intermediate. I ended up teaching the intermediate class and it was pretty good. I taught two different classes and both of them provided planning. It felt pretty silly with my big yellow box which probably weighed 50 kg because it was packed with resources. At least my paperwork has been sent away for my salary assessment. I wonder how many weeks it will take me to get paid…hmmm…

I hope I get more days this week! I will update you all soon on my relieving adventures. I’m pretty busy this weekend as I’ve just moved in with my boyfriend so I’ll try my best to keep adding stuff.

Ciao world! x0x0x0x

When a friend of mine was on placement, she had a hard time getting all the children’s attention. Her lecturer suggested this idea…

Explain to the class that for the day you will have a special command to grab everyone’s attention, and when they hear/see if everyone must stop what they are doing. Quickly brainstorm fun ways to grab attention for example, scratch your head and make a siren noise, make a wave noise etc. Choose the ‘naughtiest’ child’s idea. Whenever you want the children’s attention your guaranteed to get that naughtiest child’s attention first! If you have a topic/theme in the class try relate it to it.

Have a go at this and email me with more ideas!

Miss Draper

Hey world!

I still haven’t had one day relieving yet!!! I have just joined a relieving agency so hopefully I can relieve next week. I have been spending my free time gathering resources, especially rainy day activities. I’m also re-doing my CV as I want to apply for a job within the next couple weeks, hopefully once that’s done I can upload it onto my site. That’s it for now but I promise to keep you all updated with relieving!

Ciao! xxxx

Hi world!!! It has been about 5 weeks since I passed my final placement. Getting started is a lengthy process!! I only just got my Confirmation Letter and Transcript from the university so I was able to verify copies and send them off to the Teachers Council and Provisionally registered. I rang up today and now I’m officially provisionally registered! Now I’m playing the waiting game AGAIN to get my Practicing Certificate so I can join Quick Help (relieving agency).

Some advice for student teachers in their final year of study…send away for your registration towards the end of the year like October. Even if you don’t have your qualification you application can be put on hold while they check off everything else, I think it’s the police check that takes ages.

Well I haven’t even relieved one day yet which is a shame because I’ve organised my work so that I’m availible three days a week. Ive only handed in my relieving CV into four schools so today I’m going to hand out more. Once I can join the agency I should be getting ooooooodles of work.

Tutoring ESOL children is going great, it’s going to be relevant to add on my CV. I’m doing four classes a week now, two hours each, mainly teaching two children at once.

I’ll keep you updated more often, I promise! ;o)

Keep up the emails

Miss Draper X

Hi everybody!!!!

Just letting the whole world know that I completed and passed my final teaching practice, yeehhaa!! It is school holidays now so I’m in the process of finding new employment. My paperwork doesn’t come through until about June so until then I can only teacher for 10 days. Tomorrow I’m applying at an English school for ESOL learners so fingers crossed I get it! I need to find more employment that also allows to relieve so I’ll keep everyone updated!

Feel free to message me as I have more time to put into the website! Request information, email me ideas or simply just tell me how your day went in the classroom!!!

Miss Draper xxxxx