#beginningteacher

- You don’t have to copy what other teachers are doing. Do what works for you and your class

- Got skills? Use them - ICT, acting, puppeteering, talking, smiling, handwriting, mimicking, creating, fixing, making, reusing - etc !!

- Don’t complain to others about work, especially to your colleagues.

- Classroom systems/routines are your firm foundation for teaching

- Invest in storage (from miniscule containers to your skip bin sized ones)

- Reply to emails as quickly as you can

- Keep parents in the loop with what’s going on in the classroom and their child’s successes- especially when they don’t ask. It shows that you care about their child.

- Don’t be off class for too long.

- But absence does make the heart grow fonder

- Maintain a great relationship with your students. Break up serious teaching with a laugh/something less serious.

- Keep a visual inspiration board - something that you can turn to when you feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. Something that will help you get back on track. Remember the why behind the what.

- Always show your appreciation to all staff (including your boss and office staff)

- Occasionally bring in something to be shared in the staffroom for all staff. (Like chocolates)

- Be readily helpful to colleagues when they ask for your help

- Come to work before ‘on time’, whenever that is.

- Have rest when your body tells you that you need it.

- Remember you are a rookie. Rookies don’t have it all together. You are learning. Take it easy and grow from your mistakes.

- Don’t be so hard on yourself.

- Encourage others. Especially staff. Everyone is having a hard time getting over the weekend and the holidays.

- Drink lots of water

- Keep your mind and heart at peace with meditation. Remember where you started. Remember who you are before you are a teacher.

- Try to finish things before they are due. This helps everyone else, not just yourself

- Think about how your actions and decisions may affect others.

- If you care for the school, it will show.

- Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Being passionate is not something you can force. If you are passionate, you will make the sacrifices needed.

- If you want to be passionate, look at the lives of people who are passionate. Cultivate your interests and hobbies.

- Have a life outside of work. Remember your family and friends. Remember their birthdays, and remember to contact them throughout the week and meet them face to face.

- Share your life with your students (relevant to what you are teaching, and only what is necessary/beneficial to them)

- Being on duty provides opportunities to get to know students in the school. Great for building rapport.

- Be at lines before your students

- Mark students’ work to provide the feedback that they need to grow.

- Set students personal goals.

- Share photos and videos of your class with them. Remember the good times. Feel good :)

- Say good morning with a smile to every student for roll call. Tell your students to greet you back the same way.

- Reinforce and encourage the behaviour that you want to see. Always follow up with points/prizes if you promised them.

- Eat healthy food and exercise, especially when you don’t want to or can’t be bothered to.

- Make friends with your colleagues/be friendly to all.

This is my first shot at blogging so I really wasn’t sure how to start this, but upon reflection today, there are two essential things I think you need to know before deciding to continue reading...

1. What I’m all about

My name is Ally. I’m an English and Humanities Teacher at a public high school in Melbourne, Australia. Although technically I am in my second year, I have spent 2015 taking on short-term contracts and CRT (casual relief teaching, or substitute teaching) work. Those who have experienced the unpredictable nature of this kind of work will understand; it is stressful not knowing where you’ll be working in a few months time, and you feel like you’re in the world’s longest job interview, constantly trying to give principals and school leaders reasons to believe in you. When you’re in it, having a twelve month contract, let alone the mythical and rare unicorn of teaching jobs; ongoing employment (!!!) seems completely unattainable. I have been lucky enough to secure a 12 month contract at a school I love, with colleagues that support me professionally and personally. I start that contract in two days, which brings me to thing-you-need-to-know number two...

2. Why I’m here deciding to blog about it

Teachers know that reflection is a huge part of the job. But what I’ve realised is that avoiding reflection is not the problem, at least not for me. I have been known to overthink it, feel completely defeated when things go wrong, and of course, take work home with me. This year’s going to be a big one. I’m going to have my own classes, I’m not going to be asked by every other staff member “and who are you replacing this term?” and I can say goodbye to that feeling that I’m constantly being assessed for the next role. I can experiment, challenge myself, and take some time to truly work out my teaching style. And I thought this would be a pretty good place to write about all of that.

For Christmas, a good friend and colleague of mine gifted me with this book:

and although I’ve not yet read it cover to cover (I really need to get on that) one chapter in it really resonated with me. 

It’s entitled You can be yourself: Developing your own Teaching Style. Potentially one of the most defining aspects of my personality, and my approach to life really, is that I make no apologies for who I am. It took me a lot to get here, and I wear my heart on my sleeve. So to learn that I could successfully merge “real me” and “teacher me” was a kind of revelation, because for too long I was trying to emulate those people, both real and fictional, whom I thought were the “ideal teacher”. Teachers I had at school, mentors I had on my teaching rounds, other people I studied with, Hilary Swank in Freedom Writers (yep). It took me a long time to realise that none of that was going to work, and part of the reason I was so mentally exhausted by this already taxing career, is because I wasn’t willing to be myself. 

I guess that’s what this blog will be about. Finding that balance between doing my job, and being true to myself. Working out where to draw the line between professional and personal time and pursuits. Finding out where I fit in as a beginning teacher. Navigating that feeling that I’m “not quite ready for this”.

On my third or fourth day working at my current school, a colleague said this to me:

“You may not feel like you know what you’re doing, but you definitely look like you know what you’re doing”

And I feel like at one point or another, that’s what beginning teachers, or anyone starting out in their first job post-graduation hope for. There is no way we always feel like we know what we’re doing. There are days where it’s more about faking it ‘til you make it, and hoping you can pull it off. Navigating that inexperience is part of the journey.

And of course I’ll post about all those other awesome things teachers use Tumblr for; resources, ideas and reflection.