Just a few things. Just to say I blogged.

It has been exactly 1 term to the day, tomorrow, since my last blog post. Which is why I can't help myself but to write tonight (I'm no poet). 
I need to beat that timeline!! 
I was told by at least 3 people, when I started my blog, that during the school year I would not be able to keep it going. 
Well dammit here we are. I'm blogging. And it's Term 2 Week 4. NYAH.

Anyway, just before beginning to write this (in bed, trying to sleep, with my brain going 100 kilometres an hour) I came to realise a few things. 

1. I need to dile it back a notch or I'm probably going to burn out. Which sucks because I have SO much in my to-do pile as of right now.

2. A day of teaching can go from amazing, to horrid, back to "okay I can do this", right back to "holy shit is it 3 o'clock yet?!

Which brings me to number...

3. There is nothing I can do to control this. I need to let it go (if you sang that part get out of my blog, please). 

4.  Taking breaks for myself is OKAY. I need to take care of myself if I want to actually be able to be there for my class 100%.

So much has happened/ been happening currently my brain can't really keep up with it all (I went to a dental appointment yesterday...and it wasn't meant to be yesterday...Teacher overload brain-1, Kirsten-0). So again I can't keep up with it let alone be able to publish it coherently on this blog!
Here goes nothing though.

I successfully survived term 1! Hooray!
I had my wisdom teeth removed during the school holidays (I'm going to ring my own bell, damn I'm sooooo dedicated!)
Here is where I went wrong. I thought I would be well enough to return to work/school (same thing) within the 6 days of having my surgery.

Yeah, no.

I had a TRT (relief teacher) in on the first day back for term 2.
Rookie mistake.

These past few weeks have been shellshockingly (I made a word?) different to term 1. 

"Who are these crazy children?" ...

Slowly gaining back my teacher super powers. 
I also gained a new student (up to 23 now!). 
I am also going to lose a student next week (back to 22, still with me?).

On a more serious note...

One of my students houses was devastatingly burned down just over halfway through term 1. When I heard the news my heart broke but I was so glad him and his family were all okay! 
The trooper came back to school within a day with no school bag, no school clothes. He truly lost everything he had except for the clothes on his back.
Some truly amazing people pulled together to help him and through donations from the Lions Club and the community his family was able to find their feet again and try and get back to a normal life. (Lisa if you're reading this you are honestly an amazing lady!).

One last thing.
I have some students in my class who are in real need of all the extra support they can get when it comes to literacy.
Today I was testing one of them with reading his sight words. Last term he was able to read 7 of the list of 514...
This term he has read over 100 and I am still testing him! 
I couldn't be prouder of him.

So I'll wrap it up now, too many bloody gifs in this thing I apologize. 

By the way! It's mid-year report writing time, I have 22 students reports to write up and grades to give! Yuck.
Wish me luck.

Until next time and lets be honest who knows when that will be!

                                                                                          Kirsten :)

Post-teaching first post (this title definitely makes sense)

Wow, here I am actually finding time to write a blog again! 
So it's officially the end of week 4, term 1. I have been teaching for 4 weeks...
19 school days (1 pupil free day). 



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Aaaaaand I just sat and paused at my keyboard for a really long time just then because my brain feels like it's going to explode with things I want to write, things I have learned about myself, my class, teaching, learning etc. etc. etc.

Wow, ok let's just begin with the fact that my heart is full with a different kind of love. The unique kind of love a teacher has for a whole classroom full of students. 20 wonderful, amazing, talented, beautiful and curious kids.

That is not to say I haven't had days where I had to hyper ventilate and went home and sobbed a little already. There's been days full of doubt. Days full of thoughts where it was like "holy shit I run this room, just me, by myself, I call the shots" (with help from my little community of learners). So far already I've encountered situations where a girl was telling us a story about her relative in jail. Another where 2 children were discussing another students dead mum over lunch. Students who come to school with no breakfast and some with no lunch. And another where one of my kids was stealing food from other children's bags because they never get little treat snacks put in their lunch box. These situations are bloody tricky. And when I take a step back and realise:

"Wow some of these kids have actually been through more hardships than me. I am 21 and they are 6-7 years old".

It hurts. 
But,
I can go into that classroom everyday with a huge smile on my face knowing I get to spend the next 6 hours filling their days with laughs, learning, happiness and wonder. Already so many of them, actually all of them, have surprised me in one way or another. Whether it be their reading, spelling, maths or even their caring and inquisitive natures. It's a major lesson on the steep learning curve that is having your own class; assume nothing.

Overall I have just got to say I couldn't feel more at one with the choice I made, just over 4 years ago, to become an early childhood teacher. In my 4 short and blindingly fast weeks I have already hit the steep learning curve that is teaching. This is not easy. This is NOT the kind of job just anyone can do. I have the upmost respect for anyone who has been a teacher, is striving to become a teacher and is currently still teaching. I also have respect for myself for not just doing the job that I am doing but also loving what I do. It feels good and I feel like if I just keep going I will make a difference in maybe not all of their lives but at least some :)

Before I go lie down and give myself a break (well deserved a-thank you) I want to share with you a little classroom project that seems to be really working. We built a "community of learners" wall that has pictures of all the students in my class with their names underneath and something they are particularly good at and can help other class members with. So instead of always coming to me "Miss Osborne can you do this" they can check the wall and ask a class mate. This develops their sense of classroom community and team work skills :)

I began with this sheet to get them started:

Thank you anonymous student of mine, I don't know who Mis Ozdon is but she sounds great!

After we completed these with each others help I collated them and we had a discussion about our answers. From this discussion we chose certain tasks and things that we were good at that would be our role to help other class members with! 
And here we have the final product:

Yes I know, it's very tricky they all look so similar, I mix up names sometimes.
Ha. Sorry about that one.
Anyways, the kids use this "community of learners" wall WAY more than I first anticipated and it's lovely not only to give me a little bit more free time but seeing them help each other out is amazing. My little community of learners :)

I also buy them watermelon too because they're so awesome.
 
Thanks for reading and following my early career journey. Talk soon. Maybe. Probably not. I'm too busy loving my job. Love ya see ya bye!

                                                                                      Kirsten :)
 

Welcome to Room 18, Year One class with Miss Osborne!

The title says it all...welcome to my class! As I write this I have just finished my first ever week 0 as a teacher. Week 0 entailed a HUGE effort of preparing my classroom for the first day of school (next Tuesday, eep!) and now 

I'M DONE!

I would love to share a few photos with you on my progress over the week and final photos of my classroom, keep scrolling and reading!

I began with, what I like to call, an empty square. 

 

It looks really empty but I had a whole lot of stuff piled up on the side ;)

So on Monday of week 0 I came into my room to start the big move! (I was invited to come in on Monday to start prep even though teachers aren't actually meant to start until Thursday of week 0, yes, yes I know over-preparer).

The first thing I moved was my desk only because it was the only thing I was certain I had a spot for! By the nice sunny window :)

About 2-3 hours later everything had a place and looked a bit like this...

The large furniture all had a home! Now it was time for the finer details and decorations! Come at me laminater!

By about Wednesday afternoon my room started looking like this...

Outside my door: Welcome sign above door, "Where is room 18?" sign, Room 18 letterbox and a beautiful quote about being a classroom community. 
 

Inside the door! Starting to take shape. Don't mind the massive boxes full of stationery on the tables. The stationery order came and it was truly like Christmas all over again!

And the view from behind my desk!

Now Thursday and Friday of week 0 are mostly made up of training and development so not a lot of time was delegated to doing the final fix ups on the room so....I conned my lovely, amazing mum to come help me this afternoon!

                              Love ya mum!

And now for the final pictures of my 100% complete room after we added the final posters and details AND after my mum scrubbed the desks for me...again woman you're the best! 

Here we go... (there is a lot of pictures, I'm excited okay!)

Do you think I like blue? Maybe?

Tricky word wall and chill out zone/ reading area.
 

Class computers.
 

Front of the room for floor time and interactive whiteboard learning. With a step platform for those little year one's to reach it!

Whiteboard at front of room. Also 3 tubs are for home folders, literacy folders (homework is reading daily) and communication books.
 

The daily routine with times. Some magnets and our class roles and responsibilities list. 

My very sad looking classroom library. More to come!

Class calendar.
 

Book of the week!
 

Class birthday cupcakes with candles! 
(THANKS ROXIE!!!)

Front view of my desk.
 

Looking from behind my desk towards the door.
 

Looking down the side of the room towards the conferencing desk where SSO's can work one on one with students or students can do pair reading etc. Many uses!

Useful stationery such as scissors, glue sticks, rulers, pencils, coloured pencils, textas and sticky tape. Boxes for construction underneath.

Looking from door. Thanks mum for the gleaming table tops!
 

Looking from the conferencing area out towards chill out area.
 

My whole work area. Not that I will be here much mostly around the room teaching!

And there we go! Welcome to Room 18, Year one with... me!

I hope you liked it feel free to leave a comment etc. I'd love to hear them.

Let's finish this blog post with how it started...

Wish me luck with my first week of full time teaching!

Bye for now,           

Kirsten :)

The big question?

We’ve heard it all too often. 

“What made you become a teacher?”

Even if you’re not a teacher, or studying to be one, you’ve probably heard it! What made you become _________?  We hear this from people we know, family members, TAFE or Uni lecturers, and it can even be a big question in job interviews. DUN DUN DUNNNN. I said it. 

Personally I feel like I have been extremely lucky when it comes to jobs. Literally every job I've gotten was either by meet and greet resume drop in "oh hello nice to meet you, so you've got the job next Monday if you want it" or through a day trial (my first job as a waitress, I will never miss that profession. All the retail workers in the house put yo hands up in the air and share your united hate of the customer, yeeeeaahhhhh). And now I've landed my first teaching job through honest hard work (while on placement/relief teaching) and true dumb luck.

I've only ever had ONE interview in my life and that was for a university grant to complete my studies in the Northern suburbs (which landed me the school that landed me the job, see I told you dumb luck). I walked in absolutely crapping my dacks but my facial expressions, body language and honest answers to their questions told the interview panel the complete the opposite. Hey it must've worked I got the grant. 
My advice: fake it til you make it! 

Well ladies and gentleman I digress. I think I’ve come up with a pretty cool casual way to answer THE question. Lets hear it again.

"What made you become a teacher?"

And no it’s not “because I wanted to choose to be something that was nice and easy and comes with a big fat salary”...HEAVY SARCASM. That was necessary. So here’s a made up transcript from a possible job interview with say...a principal.

“So what made you become a teacher?”

“Well, in all your years in the profession are you still learning?” 

(I like to be annoying and answer a question with a question, pretty slick huh? But don’t worry we don’t stop there! Let’s assume they answer something like this...)

“Yes, everyday”

“That is why I became a teacher, because I am a lifelong learner. If I can teach my students that they are lifelong learners too then I have done my job. Students should know that the be all and end all isn’t at their end of year report cards or the % they got for an exam or standardized test. If I can help them realise that when they learn they learn for life they will have the opportunity to become open minded and enthusiastic learners equipped with the skills they need to be successful.”

BOOM. Did you like it? I thought it sounded pretty good but I’m probably biased because it came from my own brain. Let me know! Give me some feedback. You’re more than welcome to use these ideas at anytime someone asks you why you decided to become a teacher.

I wish I had some cool back story as to why I became a teacher but I don't really. All I know is I love kids, I want to help as many kids as possible and by some miracle give them the opportunity to, maybe not change THE world but to have the strength to change their own world for the better.

This is my last post before I go into school tomorrow to start setting up my classroom and organizing my teaching plans! Wish me luck and look for the next blog post which will be all about my first ever WEEK ZERO.

Kirsten :)