Wednesday 4 September 2013

Round 2 in Year 1

Hey all! I've spent the past 3 days getting my classroom ready for the new year. I'm so excited for my kiddies to come in tomorrow!

Last year I always felt like I was in the shadow of the teacher who I replaced... I changed lots but I also never really felt like my room reflected me. This year I wanted to make sure that my room was organised and totally to my liking as best as I could with what I had.

When I came into my class on Monday afternoon (my suitcase in tow!!!) here's what I saw:





Luckily, all of my boards were backed and bordered because my awesome LSA last year did it before we broke up for summer holidays. So after a few days of some elbow grease and dedication, my room is now looking like this:

The book area/role play area, and you can also see the levelled readers bookcase. 

A view of the majority of my room.
The back of the room
The kid's trays, the sink and art area, and you can see my behaviour clip chart in the right of the picture as well.
The front of the room and my brand spanking new Promethean board and computer!!
Our prayer corner and our weekly helpers 
Miss French's area- where I keep all materials, books, important info, etc. That lion on the cupboard door is the beginning of where our school values will be placed. It's still a work in progress but I like it!

I'm really liking what my room looks like this year and how organised it feels! I just KNOW that this is going to be a fantastic year. I can't wait to greet my 24 smiley 5 year olds tomorrow morning! 

Saturday 31 August 2013

Pre Back-to-School Post

Hey all! It's been a loooong time since I've written a blog post, but here I am! I spent an amazing but quick summer in Canada. It was fantastic to decompress and relax after my first stressful year of teaching, just what I needed! (Did I mention HOW SWEET my kidlets were to me on the last day of school? I didn't think I'd cry that much, but I did... check out my haul below!)



 BUT after awhile of doing nothing, well, I'm itching to go back. I am strangely motivated and inspired to do an even better job. Hey, it doesn't hurt that I've developed confidence in teaching this new curriculum and using the British strategies as well.

This is my last weekend of summer holidays *sniffles*! Monday is a Bank holiday here in the UK but Ruth (my year group partner) and I are going to go into our classes to get ourselves sorted anyway. Tuesday and Wednesday are "training days" for staff, so I'm sure we'll have a few meetings about new policies and procedures, and some time to get our rooms sorted. I'm nervous that I haven't seen my classroom since the end of July! When I left all the tables, chairs, bookcases and EVERYTHING were in the middle of the room for a deep clean during the summer.... I sense a lot of work in my near future.

It also doesn't help that I'm homeless at the moment. I landed back in the UK on the 24th. I stayed at a Travelodge for a week while I searched for a new place to rent with my 2 new Aussie housemates. We've found a place but can't move in until the 10th of September. In the meanwhile, I'm so grateful for my friend Diane's generosity and Ruth's generosity for letting me stay with them until I can move in.

I'm sure I'll be busy in the next few days, but will be taking pictures and hopefully writing a post within the next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me! xx

Thursday 21 March 2013

My Classroom updated!!

As promised, my next blog post- albeit way later than I expected- is about my classroom! I think it looks much more inviting than it did when I first took over the class. It's obviously a constant work in progress, but I'm really starting to feel like I've put my own touch on it. 








For comparison's sake, you can click here to see what my class looked like when I first started!! 

Saturday 2 February 2013

24th Birthday in the UK

My little munchkins made my birthday so so so special on Wednesday! They all rushed in the classroom and gave me big hugs and shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS FRENCH!" with huge grins on their face. One little boy must have heard me say it was my birthday coming up because he came in with a wrapped present for me! Look at the cute little tag with his writing! Turns out it was a set of lip gloss and red nail polish. He said he picked it out and had his mum wrap it for him. ADORABLE!!

I got the day started, and was oblivious when my LSA (like an EA) asked for 3 students to come with her for a minute. One came in carrying a bunch of flowers, one came in carrying a gigantic homemade card, and one came in carrying a box of chocolates! They all sang Happy Birthday to me and I almost started crying with the cuteness of it all.


Needless to say, I had a wonderful day, and my British teaching twinnie Ruth got me a birthday cake to share with our gang at lunch time. When I got home, Dana and Jess and Sam all gave me cards, and I got some giftcards to my favourite places! They also invited 2 of our other friends over for a delicious chocolate birthday cake. So thoughtful, I totally wasn't expecting it! Love them! I had a really good birthday made special by some of my old friends (thanks Molly and my PIC for cards in the mail!) and my new friends (Ruth and Diane!). It made being away from home and getting one year older a lot more bearable. And now I'm 24 and so far it's been wonderful! My next post is going to be about my classroom and what I've done with it in the almost 2 months since I started- it's looking a bit better for sure! Until next time xx

Saturday 26 January 2013

When life gets chaotic..

Heya everyone!

Well, somehow a month has flown by since my last post. I promise I thought about updating a million times but I literally don't have time for regular life chores let alone extra things like updating a blog. Teaching is consuming my life. I use some of my free time on the weekends to try and have a life, but about 90% of my time is dedicated to my little ones, and trying to appease my new school. The standards here are almost unattainable. It's really discouraging sometimes! Too many things to do, not enough hours in the day. Needless to say, I'm excited for half term break. Only 3 more weeks to go! Then, my dear friend MOLLY LAWRENCE is coming to visit me, and we're gonna travel to Dublin and Edinburgh with my other lovely friend Teri! It's gonna be amazing for sure!

Another thing that's keeping me going is the thought of going home for my 2 week break during Easter. I haven't bought my ticket home yet but I'm super excited to be going home to see my family. I'm missing them a lot, but keeping really busy is helping keep my mind off of it. I really do love it here, and I don't think I would want it any other way. Aylmer isn't the same and I'm really glad I got out of there. It would be nice if my family were closer though :)

Anyways, I promise to do a proper update, but I know some of you were wondering if I was still alive/okay, so I thought I would write a quick blurb to assure you that I am healthy and happy! xx

Saturday 22 December 2012

A Very Merry Christmas in Year 1!

Whew! These past 2 weeks have literally flown by. They have been challenging, exciting, fun, joyous- I've loved every moment. The kid's excitement about Christmas is contagious. We did a bunch of fun Christmas-themed activities. Wednesday we had our class party. I brought my kids over to the other Year 1 class for some snacks and games. We even had a visit from Father Christmas! 

Father Christmas visits both Year 1 classes
I sent my darlings home to their parents at 2pm yesterday- Miss French was on a bus home by 3pm ready to begin the holiday vacation! The girls and I are ready to celebrate Christmas- there are presents under the tree, cookie ingredients purchased, and some sweets ready to be eaten! We fly out on Wednesday morning to Venice for 3 days, and then from there we will take the train to Munich for another 3 days. I'm really looking forward to it! I will definitely write an update after I return, but in the meantime, Merry Christmas to all! I love you bunches! xx

Monday 10 December 2012

Welcome to my Classroom!

Today marked my first full day in my "own" classroom!! I say it like this, because literally, everything in here has been inherited. It's quite a disaster, really. It doesn't look awful, but it is honestly so disorganized, and not to my liking at all. I mean, can we look at the VCOP wall for a minute? We've been in school for almost 2 full terms and there is literally next to nothing on it! VCOP stands for Vocabulary (so we up-level our word choices), Connectives (and, so, because), Openers (therefore, firstly, then), and Punctuation. It's all the rage here in England, so every classroom has a VCOP wall/area. I will be giving mine some attention in the very near future. The walls are quite bare since the teacher took a lot of the stuff with her when she left on Friday. I also want to give the book area some attention, and organize the sink/painting area. 






Today was a whirlwind... trying to memorize all the names while following routines AND doing dress rehearsal for Nativity is bananas. I am certain I have picked the worst time of year to begin because there is so much craziness with Christmas... but at the same time it's good because there is less planning to do! I'm soo tired I can't wait to go to bed. I woke up at 5:30am, caught the tube at 7am, got a train to West Drayton at 7:20, and was at the school by 7:45. I had a meeting with the Deputy Head and my Year partner about midterm planning for the next 2 terms after school. I didn't leave the until almost 5:15pm and then had to catch the train home. It was a LONG day! I had dinner and then I did some more planning and organizing for the upcoming days. I'm about to fall asleep at my computer now, so I'll give you more updates as I have the time. I am so so so excited to embark on this CRAZYYY ride!! xo