A sweet little girls heart xoxo

This is why teaching is so rewarding.
One of my students is a Spanish girl. I love to have her translate things I have written on the board just to listen to her. Even the simplest things such as her translation of measuring a litre of water into a jug sounds simply splendid in Spanish!!!

She is so thoughtful. And her face... she is ALWAYS smiling and her eyes light up the room.

She made me a Birthday card for my birthday (which was in June) and had everyone in the class sign it. I had no clue and was genuinely surprised!!! It was beautiful... I am sorry that I let other things that were making me not so happy at that particular time in my life... mostly getting older!!! Yuck... interfere with just how special that gesture was.

Today my heart felt so warm and happy. I went back to work today after 2 weeks off for winter holidays. During the winter holidays this little girl went to Queensland with her family. Today she gave me some gifts.

A postcard.
A 'best teacher' owl keyring (technically it's a 'zipper pal' but for my purposes it will be a key ring!)
and a piece of dead coral from the Great Barrier Reef.

This is something I will treasure.
Before the holidays she asked me what my favourite animal was. I told her it was Sea Turtles. I didn't really think much of it I myself ask the children questions like this (for ideas on what to plan lessons around etc).
The special part... the postcard has a picture of a Sea Turtle on it.
Doesn't that make your heart get the warm and fuzzies xoxoxoxoxo
(I have included pictures but of course have edited to hide her name...)

Yes. Teaching is hard work and studies show it is one of the most stressful professions out there. But you have to appreciate what a privilege you are in to know these beautiful people.

coming up for air

Ohhhh my god!
First year indeed. SO much for sharing my experience.
I have just completed my first term and my first block of 2 weeks holidays. I've been slack about blogging but I will try to do better.

The first term was much like the first week. Surviving.
Things I learnt:
Filing...
I started with 'subject' folders... i.e. English, Maths, C.O.G.S etc. Now I have about 50 different folders! It is more like Maths assessments, Measurement, Space and Geometry, times tables, mentals... and lord knows if I'm going to have to break that up even more... measurement - Mass, time, area... etc.

Adapt:
If you can't adapt, forget teaching!!! You may PLAN for something to happen, but let me tell you quite often those plans go bye byes. There are too many examples to demonstrate this... many mistakes... it can be disheartening but I smile even if I clearly don't feel like it!

So many funny tales.

I laugh when I think of....

One of the children practicing his petty thievery (pick locking) skills when he tried to use a paper clip to open my store room cupboard. You see he was trying to assist a friend, I had locked a toy he was playing with in there. He was trying to get it out. Problem was he snapped the paper clip and I WAS LOCKED OUT OF MY STORE ROOM. Oh the chaos when the rest of the class realised what had happened. The LOLLIES were in the store room. No lolly rewards on Friday... oh my lordy!!!!!!!!!

I will have to add to this when I think of them. What a shame I didn't share them as they happened....

My R & R during the holidays I went to New Zealand for a week. It was amazing I loved it. There was an earthquake... 7.8 on the richter scale the second biggest earthquake in NZ history. It went for sooo long I was afraid the house I was in was going to slide down the hill at any moment. I saw snow for the first time, it even snowed while I was there and I drove in it (which was not so fun). Attached is a pic of me and my first snow man!

Back to the madness of school days. Back to learning!!! I hope... back to sharing...