"Good Morning Miss. Miss... Pre-ajdgagaga!"
I kid, I kid, many of them got it their first try! Proudly sitting up and saying "Good morning Miss. Premarajah!". SO CUTE!
I have to do this in point for so I can re-arrange the points as they make sense.... make sense to you?
The School & Staff
- The Avenue Primary is a three form primary school. This means there are three of each year (grade) in the school. We have a nursery, then reception (that's me!) followed by years 1 - 6. Almost 700 students in one school!
- The staff are a mixed bunch this year, many of us are new. Four of us from the agency, 3 from South Africa and one lonesome Canadian ;) Some others are newly-qualified, then there's a handful of long-timers from the Avenue. All have been extremely welcoming, friendly and helpful to me!
- My "team" consists of the other 2 reception (R) teachers and our teaching assistants (TA's). My first day checking out my class I met Hayley. She has taught R for 2 years so she had her class set up all beautifully and helped me SO MUCH with figuring out what to do and how things work. She's an awesome coach, really dedicated, organized and friendly.
-A few days later I met Maureen, who moved from year 2 to teach R this year. She is actually the head teacher for all the younger ages (Nursery - year 1) and keeps track of how the curriculum development is going for all those grades. Make sense? She also has to meet with management (Headmistress, assistant head mistress and the head teachers for the other 2 year groups) once-a-month to discuss school politics and such. Basically she's important and has many jobs, but she is SO COOL! She talks a lot (think Mrs. Waber) but doesn't get too off-topic. There really IS a lot to chat about as her and I adjust to a new grade level and Hayley teaches us what we need to know!
- I am still getting to know the two TA's that will be in my class, but so far they are my LIFESAVERS! THey know what to do about little things like getting kids to the bathroom, cloakroom, office for register (attendance) and how to serve the milk and fruit. They have MILK BREAKS! But only some kids get it if their parents signed up for it. Very confusing...
- The staff seem very social, or at least enough of them are to go out for drinks once-in-a-while. Last night was the first bar night and I finally got to really chat to teachers from the other years without having to ask stupid things like "where is the bathroom?" and "how do you use the photocopier?", things like that! Great fun, they're all pretty relaxed so far!
The Kids!
- This Thursday was the first day of school for 90 little darling 4-year olds. They got dressed in their uniforms for the first time and set their little feet inside the 3 reception classrooms very nervously.
- 28 out of my 30 kids showed up the last two days and it was quite a scene! Some came in proudly holding their book bags and sat on the carpet awaiting my instructed eagerly! A handful were wailing, screaming and crying as they came, clinging to their mums. We don't let the parents inside the classroom, so this is where the brilliant TA's calmed down the screamers and created some calm in the room.
- I, on the other hand, was the most nervous of all! Sweating like a crazy sweating person, I went around asking their names and put on name tags. Since there are THIRTY of them, it took a LONG time and they got a bit wiggly, so I had to break into a song. I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SONG TO SING! Wheels on the Bus was totally un-related to anything we'll be doing in class, but it worked. 30 sweet, darling faces with their hands rolling like wheels on a bus. Precious.
- As the hours went on, I ran out of things to do!!! I found out who my two challenging students will be on the very first day, in the first hour! Then more behavior from other kids popped up yesterday. It will take some time for them to settle!
- We have interactive whiteboards in the school! There is a permanent projector on the ceiling of every class. The primary classes have the interactive board where the kids can actually use the fingers to "write" on the screen! I might have a slide of the letter "a" and the kids could use their finger to trace over it! Then I can just erase their writing while my computer print remains on the the screen. SO COOL! The higher years get a "promethium" board or something crazy where the powerpoints are more advanced and the students/teacher has to use a special pen to write over it. Still, very crazy!
- Because my students only just started they are here for 1/2 days until the end of Sept. This opens me up for supply (substitute) work within the school while other teachers go for training. I had to vcover a year 2 class and teach them math ON THEIR CRAZY BOARD! The problem was, I hadn't received the training yet! It was pretty fun to experiment, but I'm not sure how i taught them to add to 10...
- Yesterday I covered a year 6 class AND THE COMPUTER FROZE!! I had no resources to then teach them about Andy Warhol before they started their art activity. Luckily, the teacher across the hall said he had the same slides and got my class to come into his class and he taught the lesson for me. Sweet! The kids were really fun and reminded me of my practicum class *sighs*
And so the story goes. I am so lucky to have been placed in a school in a nicer area of greater London and with staff that are accepting me! One things I did notice, I am the only ethnic minority teacher! There are a few TA's and support staff who are mixed, but it was just something I noticed. Also there are only 2 male teachers and it must feel like about 600 women surrounding them! Pretty interesting dynamics...
There's the sociologist in me coming out!
Sorry if this was boring, but I know some people will have questions! I'll try to put some of my kids quotes as they come. For now, many of them have the same line which I will leave you with:
"I have to wee"
I have to do this in point for so I can re-arrange the points as they make sense.... make sense to you?
The School & Staff
- The Avenue Primary is a three form primary school. This means there are three of each year (grade) in the school. We have a nursery, then reception (that's me!) followed by years 1 - 6. Almost 700 students in one school!
- The staff are a mixed bunch this year, many of us are new. Four of us from the agency, 3 from South Africa and one lonesome Canadian ;) Some others are newly-qualified, then there's a handful of long-timers from the Avenue. All have been extremely welcoming, friendly and helpful to me!
- My "team" consists of the other 2 reception (R) teachers and our teaching assistants (TA's). My first day checking out my class I met Hayley. She has taught R for 2 years so she had her class set up all beautifully and helped me SO MUCH with figuring out what to do and how things work. She's an awesome coach, really dedicated, organized and friendly.
-A few days later I met Maureen, who moved from year 2 to teach R this year. She is actually the head teacher for all the younger ages (Nursery - year 1) and keeps track of how the curriculum development is going for all those grades. Make sense? She also has to meet with management (Headmistress, assistant head mistress and the head teachers for the other 2 year groups) once-a-month to discuss school politics and such. Basically she's important and has many jobs, but she is SO COOL! She talks a lot (think Mrs. Waber) but doesn't get too off-topic. There really IS a lot to chat about as her and I adjust to a new grade level and Hayley teaches us what we need to know!
- I am still getting to know the two TA's that will be in my class, but so far they are my LIFESAVERS! THey know what to do about little things like getting kids to the bathroom, cloakroom, office for register (attendance) and how to serve the milk and fruit. They have MILK BREAKS! But only some kids get it if their parents signed up for it. Very confusing...
- The staff seem very social, or at least enough of them are to go out for drinks once-in-a-while. Last night was the first bar night and I finally got to really chat to teachers from the other years without having to ask stupid things like "where is the bathroom?" and "how do you use the photocopier?", things like that! Great fun, they're all pretty relaxed so far!
The Kids!
- This Thursday was the first day of school for 90 little darling 4-year olds. They got dressed in their uniforms for the first time and set their little feet inside the 3 reception classrooms very nervously.
- 28 out of my 30 kids showed up the last two days and it was quite a scene! Some came in proudly holding their book bags and sat on the carpet awaiting my instructed eagerly! A handful were wailing, screaming and crying as they came, clinging to their mums. We don't let the parents inside the classroom, so this is where the brilliant TA's calmed down the screamers and created some calm in the room.
- I, on the other hand, was the most nervous of all! Sweating like a crazy sweating person, I went around asking their names and put on name tags. Since there are THIRTY of them, it took a LONG time and they got a bit wiggly, so I had to break into a song. I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SONG TO SING! Wheels on the Bus was totally un-related to anything we'll be doing in class, but it worked. 30 sweet, darling faces with their hands rolling like wheels on a bus. Precious.
- As the hours went on, I ran out of things to do!!! I found out who my two challenging students will be on the very first day, in the first hour! Then more behavior from other kids popped up yesterday. It will take some time for them to settle!
- We have interactive whiteboards in the school! There is a permanent projector on the ceiling of every class. The primary classes have the interactive board where the kids can actually use the fingers to "write" on the screen! I might have a slide of the letter "a" and the kids could use their finger to trace over it! Then I can just erase their writing while my computer print remains on the the screen. SO COOL! The higher years get a "promethium" board or something crazy where the powerpoints are more advanced and the students/teacher has to use a special pen to write over it. Still, very crazy!
- Because my students only just started they are here for 1/2 days until the end of Sept. This opens me up for supply (substitute) work within the school while other teachers go for training. I had to vcover a year 2 class and teach them math ON THEIR CRAZY BOARD! The problem was, I hadn't received the training yet! It was pretty fun to experiment, but I'm not sure how i taught them to add to 10...
- Yesterday I covered a year 6 class AND THE COMPUTER FROZE!! I had no resources to then teach them about Andy Warhol before they started their art activity. Luckily, the teacher across the hall said he had the same slides and got my class to come into his class and he taught the lesson for me. Sweet! The kids were really fun and reminded me of my practicum class *sighs*
And so the story goes. I am so lucky to have been placed in a school in a nicer area of greater London and with staff that are accepting me! One things I did notice, I am the only ethnic minority teacher! There are a few TA's and support staff who are mixed, but it was just something I noticed. Also there are only 2 male teachers and it must feel like about 600 women surrounding them! Pretty interesting dynamics...
There's the sociologist in me coming out!
Sorry if this was boring, but I know some people will have questions! I'll try to put some of my kids quotes as they come. For now, many of them have the same line which I will leave you with:
"I have to wee"