My Blank Canvas

Paul Cezanne once said that "it's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas!" and he was correct. After 1,150 kms and 13 hrs and 35 minutes of travelling I was standing in the middle of my classroom, my blank canvas.

Ideas about how you can place desks and organise resources come flooding into your brain....again and again and again! Instead of organising a plan of attack I jumped straight in! In hindsight I now know that that was probably not the best idea as I found myself sitting in the middle of the room perched on piles of books, covered in dust and looking like I had attempted to build a fortress out of the various cupboards and bookshelves!


However, through the haze of dust I was able to pull myself together, put on my Organised Teacher hat and begin to make sense of the chaos.

And the result was satisfying....

One resource that I have come across has been:

Happy Birthday balloons
I altered this slightly and added a 'birthday teddy' to hold the balloons - great for colour and also the students love to compare their birthdays and ages with each other! I laminated each balloon and wrote on with whiteboard marker the student's name and d.o.b!
http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/1461-1465/sb1462.html

My 'Oyster'

After several days, weeks and months of the phone ringing at various strange and unusual hours one enters into a set routine - jump out of bed (if one happened to be still in bed), run helter skelter down a flight of stairs, jump over the cat (if one happens to possess a cat) and grab the phone before the last *brrring*....Unfortunately, one then has the task of trying to sound like they have been standing next to the phone peacefully and contentedly waiting for its blissful tones to fill the little cottage that is situated on top of a hill!


On such a day *THE* phone rang with *THE* phone call which would change my whole year 2011. The joy and excitement which filled me could not be contained as I found out that I would be receiving my own class. From the day I received the phone call to the day I stepped foot into my classroom the only thought on my mind was that I could not wait to meet each and everyone of the students that would fill the classroom with their imaginative ideas and deep, really deep comments about the world!

A wise teacher once told me that the 'world was my oyster'.....and now it truly was and what an oyster that was going to turn out to be!

A .. B .. C ..

Let's start at the very beginning, because like starting with A B and C when reading it is a very good place to start...


As a graduate teacher the task of dropping a casual teaching resume off at a new school is preceded by anxious anticipation - will I be able to get to this school if they ring at 8.45am and expect a teacher at 9am? what will the students be like? will they have a special corner specifically for casual teachers to sit in? Such thoughts were running through my head as I drove around the local schools, dressed smartly and smiling happily whilst handing over a professional looking, perfectly printed sheet of white paper. After about 15 schools these thoughts started to dwindle and fade....

The phone rings! So it begins I thought! School after school after school was ringing...7:15 am, 8:45am, 9:30am, 12:15pm, 3:30pm, 7:00pm, 8:30pm, 9:30pm! No matter what the time...they rang! During this time as a casual teacher I picked up more strategies for behaviour management, more strategies for time management and more strategies for thinking.on.the.spot then I had in 4 years at University! It goes to show that Harry Callahan was correct.. "Experience is the best teacher of all..."