The first few weeks in Essex
To say the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of stress and excitement would be an enormous understatement. Although I'd say it was mostly stress and a little bit of excitement.
We got to Essex on the 17th of August all ready to go and I quickly found that I wasn't happy with the layout of my room (because at this point this was my biggest issue still). I wasted no time in hitting up the shops just a 5 minute walk from my house but realised my job of redecorating would have to wait the long 6 weeks until I got paid for the first time, I haven't even been paid yet and I don't like the idea of all this budgeting! Luckily for me it was Mum to the rescue when she came down to visit with Sue on the Friday. I had to drop my Mum off at the airport this past Saturday and it was pretty emotional. It's hard to be so far away from those who know you best, although I suppose (maybe unfortunately for them) that it gives my family here a chance to get to know me well now.
Monday the 24th marked the start of induction week, a week that I think I had looked at way too lightly in retrospect because it was the busiest and most challenging on my brain week I've had since University. It was like a retraining of the brain to think differently, the phonics program is unlike anything I have ever used before and the behaviour management systems in place are really taking me a little bit of getting my head around. That Friday though to mark the end of training those who had been with us through the week took us out for a few drinks at the Dickens Inn at St Katherines Wharf, which was absolutely stunning! I wouldn't mind going back there again that's for sure, maybe next time I'll stick to food and only a little wine, rather than a lot of wine and no food.
During the week of induction I had been getting into school when it opened at 8am and working in my classroom for an hour and then staying as long as I could at the end of the day which was good for me because the following week we had 2 days to get in and get our classrooms up to scratch. Mine certainly was not looking like it should on the Wednesday that's for sure. Thursday was another day of training for us and then I managed to stay until 6pm at school getting things done. Friday I went to the Cotswolds for the wedding of my cousin Ben to Pippa, it was absolutely beautiful but I knew from the start I was missing a lot of vital information at school. Here's a shameless selfie (loving the falsies much!) and one of the proud groom, so happy my cousin!
Monday came along before I knew it and I've never felt so unorganised in my entire life. I let the children in at 8:30 and invited the parents to come in with them. I wanted the parents to see where their children would be spending most of their days and to have a chat to me if they wanted to. The kids were on the mat waiting for me by 8:40...I was not prepared for that. The first day went by so quickly with both the children and I learning together the ways of the school. Things were all working out well until I took my first Read, Write, Ink group where I freaked out because the children told me they already knew the content I was trying to teach and I was trying to tell them they didn't. Wednesday was better though. Then Thursday came around and everything that could have gone a bit wrong, did. It's almost humorous to think about it now, I guess that's what you've got to think about when you're a teacher. If you can't laugh at your not so great days then what are you going to laugh at? Let's just say I'll now be prepared for the random classroom visits and I won't almost cry over them when they happen from now on.
So all in all it's been a good few weeks and I've learnt a lot living here so far. I'm so grateful for my new friend Katie who is like the (right way up) English version of me. We have way too much fun together but it's fab and I love it :) I can't wait to become an even better teacher and my aims for myself are very high so I'm looking forward to what I can achieve.
This is where I don't post until October because I'm about to become so busy I won't have time to scratch my head. I'm sitting here at the dining room table with my bowl of super food (tuna, baked beans, cheese) and my cider with 2 laptops open and paper everywhere.
We got to Essex on the 17th of August all ready to go and I quickly found that I wasn't happy with the layout of my room (because at this point this was my biggest issue still). I wasted no time in hitting up the shops just a 5 minute walk from my house but realised my job of redecorating would have to wait the long 6 weeks until I got paid for the first time, I haven't even been paid yet and I don't like the idea of all this budgeting! Luckily for me it was Mum to the rescue when she came down to visit with Sue on the Friday. I had to drop my Mum off at the airport this past Saturday and it was pretty emotional. It's hard to be so far away from those who know you best, although I suppose (maybe unfortunately for them) that it gives my family here a chance to get to know me well now.
Monday the 24th marked the start of induction week, a week that I think I had looked at way too lightly in retrospect because it was the busiest and most challenging on my brain week I've had since University. It was like a retraining of the brain to think differently, the phonics program is unlike anything I have ever used before and the behaviour management systems in place are really taking me a little bit of getting my head around. That Friday though to mark the end of training those who had been with us through the week took us out for a few drinks at the Dickens Inn at St Katherines Wharf, which was absolutely stunning! I wouldn't mind going back there again that's for sure, maybe next time I'll stick to food and only a little wine, rather than a lot of wine and no food.
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| The exterior of the Dickens Inn |
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| The result of finding the Tower Bridge unexpectedly while out on a night...lots of excitement! |
During the week of induction I had been getting into school when it opened at 8am and working in my classroom for an hour and then staying as long as I could at the end of the day which was good for me because the following week we had 2 days to get in and get our classrooms up to scratch. Mine certainly was not looking like it should on the Wednesday that's for sure. Thursday was another day of training for us and then I managed to stay until 6pm at school getting things done. Friday I went to the Cotswolds for the wedding of my cousin Ben to Pippa, it was absolutely beautiful but I knew from the start I was missing a lot of vital information at school. Here's a shameless selfie (loving the falsies much!) and one of the proud groom, so happy my cousin!
The odds were definitely in my favour when LSA's were assigned to classes because I have been paired up with the wonderful Lisa who stayed very late on Friday (without me knowing) to make our classroom wonderful for the children on Monday morning.
Monday came along before I knew it and I've never felt so unorganised in my entire life. I let the children in at 8:30 and invited the parents to come in with them. I wanted the parents to see where their children would be spending most of their days and to have a chat to me if they wanted to. The kids were on the mat waiting for me by 8:40...I was not prepared for that. The first day went by so quickly with both the children and I learning together the ways of the school. Things were all working out well until I took my first Read, Write, Ink group where I freaked out because the children told me they already knew the content I was trying to teach and I was trying to tell them they didn't. Wednesday was better though. Then Thursday came around and everything that could have gone a bit wrong, did. It's almost humorous to think about it now, I guess that's what you've got to think about when you're a teacher. If you can't laugh at your not so great days then what are you going to laugh at? Let's just say I'll now be prepared for the random classroom visits and I won't almost cry over them when they happen from now on.
So all in all it's been a good few weeks and I've learnt a lot living here so far. I'm so grateful for my new friend Katie who is like the (right way up) English version of me. We have way too much fun together but it's fab and I love it :) I can't wait to become an even better teacher and my aims for myself are very high so I'm looking forward to what I can achieve.
This is where I don't post until October because I'm about to become so busy I won't have time to scratch my head. I'm sitting here at the dining room table with my bowl of super food (tuna, baked beans, cheese) and my cider with 2 laptops open and paper everywhere.
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