First Day!

I've just returned from my first day of teaching! Yesterday was officially my first day on the roster, but I didn't get a call. I was a bit downhearted, but my flatmate assured me that someone would fall ill or have a heart attack today (his words. not mine!). Luckily (for me, not the sick teacher), I was called in at the last minute this morning. I literally got to the school as they were taking the register (attendance). I had a wonderful class of year 3 (equivalent: grade 2) students, who were quite well behaved.

It took a few minutes to get myself sorted, there are a few things that are done a little differently here. (For instance, each lesson has a learning objective that is written on the board for the students to see. If they are doing an exercise in their notebooks they write the LO at the top o their page). To add to the mayhem of a very first day substituting in a foreign country we had a surprise fire drill. Hooray! It wasn't too bad actually. The nice thing about classrooms in England is that nearly every class has a teaching assistant in addition to educational assistants for exceptional students. Thus, I had two other adults in the classroom to help me out today (as a supply this helps so much for keeping respectful behaviour!).

The day ended up flying by, in a good way. It felt so good to get back into the classroom! The classroom teacher had been away a couple days and the assistant teacher wasn't sure if she'd be back tomorrow. She said that if she wasn't she'd put in a good word for me to come back. By the time I got home my agency consultant had already called the school, then called me to tell me about the rave reviews the school had given me.

The steps to acquiring a substitute teacher here are much different than at home. If you make a good impression on a school, they will most likely call and request you specifically to come back. This makes me so glad that I made a good impression today.

I hope you are all having good weeks!

Here's a snap of me ready for work this morning: