Alrighty, where to start...
Last week was a fun one. I spent the majority of the week at a school in Hackney working with an Autistic child. He was incredibly sweet, smiley and pleasant to be around but did not speak at all. I sat with him in his own section of the room doing puzzles with him, matching activities, and that sort of thing. I was told to come up with some of my own ideas to see what he was and was not able to do. That was great, I got to pull out my own resources to see if he could write or draw anything, use scissors, recognize colours... I was amazed when I asked him to find the blue fish and he did! The next day he could find the red and green. The classroom teacher had no idea he knew his colours or could understand when people talked to him at all. That was absolutely amazing and I hope I enjoy all my work as much as I did in that school.
Friday I was told I was doing an observation at a school to see what the nursery is like and determine whether or not I want to apply at that school. I got there and found out that rather than observing- I was being observed. That scared me at first but then I decided it would be fine, went over the lessons and went with it. There were 2 fantastic TA's helping me as well. During the class I was being observed, I had no clue how long of a lesson to teach or what exactly it was supposed to be. My instructions were: role play Goldilocks. There were 2 different Goldilocks books and I wasn't sure what to focus on for the role play. I chose one and had student volunteers come up to do exactly what happened during the story- a different group each page. At the end I had them recreate the story as a whole. I had props pulled from the classroom to use for the entire thing. At the end of the day, I talked to the HeadTeacher and found out that the lead of the Early Years loved my lesson. I have another observation on Monday and if it goes well- a job offer and meeting the students parents in late December for a January start. It's a great school with amazing staff that is not very far away.
I'm not entirely sure what to do as of now. The nursery is nice but the students are 3 and 4 and still have accidents. My ultimate goal is to work as a special needs teacher and students are not recognized as having an exceptionality until generally year 1 or 2 at earliest. Therefore my experience would not necessarily match the age group or type of students I want to be working with later.
Another possibility is working as a teaching assistant with a child with Autism. The other teaching agency mentioned an opening that I can do a trial for. That is exactly the type of experience I am looking for- except the pay is half as much and I will not gain teaching experience, only teaching assistant experience.
Alternatively, I could continue to supply, apply for jobs in years 1 and 2, apply to a separate company dealing with working with special needs students... I'm just not sure which job will put me on the right path for the future. I'm hoping to talk to one of the agencies tomorrow before I get to the school. If anyone with knowledge of this sort of thing has some advice- I'd love to hear it.
Aside from the work week, Matt and I went grocery shopping the majority of Saturday and watched a movie in the evening. Today we went to the mall to browse and grab a few more things we needed. I got a watch for using at the grade schools and a pair of new dress shoes (mine have a hole in the top that is getting more and more noticeable). We had dinner afterwards and are about to shower, possibly watch a short show and get some sleep.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
I'm kind of slacking, this blog took over a week
Alrighty, since we are here now, settled in, into somewhat of a routine and busy with maintaining our house and work life, the blogs from this point will be less frequent but I will still try to log in about weekly to give some updates and let everyone know how things are going.
The past week has been good. Matt has been working consistently at the highschool each day. I've been working wherever the companies send me. One of the days I worked half a day in the same classroom I was a TA in before. That was awesome because I already knew the kids and the routines so teaching there was fantastic. The teacher was there in the morning, explained the lessons and headed out to a meeting. One of the days there was no work. I ended up spending the day in an online Tetris competition with my friend Tommy from highschool. Thursday and Friday I was called to work in Hackney working as a TA for an autistic boy. Unfortunately he was absent both days and I never got to meet him. I did still work and helped the teacher with marking sheets, organizing lessons and helping the students with their work. That was really nice to do. I loved the teacher, students and classroom in general. Fortunately, they called me back to work in the same room Mon-Wed so I should still have an opportunity to meet the boy I was called in to assist.
For the weekend, we spent yesterday at the Science Museum again, exploring the exhibits, doing a 3d flight simulation and watching a Imax film about the Hubble Telescope. It was an awesome day. Today we went to a market in central London and browsed some of the shops with Bonnie, a teacher at Matt's school. She was great to hang out with, very nice and friendly. Her roomates were also along for our journey. After our market browsing, we did more grocery shopping at a couple stores and returned home. We are currently making Spaghetti Carbonara and chicken fillets for dinner to have with a glass of wine, and then it will be movie night here at home. Better get going to tend to dinner! :)
The past week has been good. Matt has been working consistently at the highschool each day. I've been working wherever the companies send me. One of the days I worked half a day in the same classroom I was a TA in before. That was awesome because I already knew the kids and the routines so teaching there was fantastic. The teacher was there in the morning, explained the lessons and headed out to a meeting. One of the days there was no work. I ended up spending the day in an online Tetris competition with my friend Tommy from highschool. Thursday and Friday I was called to work in Hackney working as a TA for an autistic boy. Unfortunately he was absent both days and I never got to meet him. I did still work and helped the teacher with marking sheets, organizing lessons and helping the students with their work. That was really nice to do. I loved the teacher, students and classroom in general. Fortunately, they called me back to work in the same room Mon-Wed so I should still have an opportunity to meet the boy I was called in to assist.
For the weekend, we spent yesterday at the Science Museum again, exploring the exhibits, doing a 3d flight simulation and watching a Imax film about the Hubble Telescope. It was an awesome day. Today we went to a market in central London and browsed some of the shops with Bonnie, a teacher at Matt's school. She was great to hang out with, very nice and friendly. Her roomates were also along for our journey. After our market browsing, we did more grocery shopping at a couple stores and returned home. We are currently making Spaghetti Carbonara and chicken fillets for dinner to have with a glass of wine, and then it will be movie night here at home. Better get going to tend to dinner! :)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
It's the weekend again!
Alrighty, updates, updates. It seems when I don't title the previous blog a weekday, I lose track of the last day I've written anything. Now that I've figured out what I've last said...
I did that teaching assistant job again that second day and of course loved it again. Great class, great job description... well with the exception of taking down the bulletin board at the end of the day. The bulletin board was really just a wall outside the classroom with stuff stapled through it. I had to remove the display using a knife and scissors because there was no staple remover. That was a pain in the butt! I made sure to run out an buy a staple remover so that can't happen again.
The Thursday, the school wanted me back again because the TA was sick but I couldn't go because I had a meeting with Career Teachers- a 2nd recruitment agency. I did my interview and afterwards- my paper work to sign up. After that, they mentioned a job I might have interest in: A TA position in primary school, going back and forth to different classrooms to support children with special needs. They pay isn't as good, but I would love that job. They faxed my resume to the school and I'm waiting for someone at the school to take a look at it and get back to the company so they can get back to me.
The next day I was at a nursery in a class of 3-4 year olds. That was INSANE. Children all over the place, always someone crying, missing their mommy, snot hanging down their faces... It was kind of a long day. The new agency called back about positions available for potential long terms, but all they mentioned were nursery jobs. I'm still waiting to hear back about the TA one.
Now is Saturday. Matt and I went to pick up hangers earlier and went for a walk in Killburn looking for various things we need for the house still with limited success. He is still not feeling at his best so we will likely spend the evening in and possibly find a movie to watch.
Last item of the day, there was a rumour that this blog needs more pictures and cowbell. Here my my solution:
I did that teaching assistant job again that second day and of course loved it again. Great class, great job description... well with the exception of taking down the bulletin board at the end of the day. The bulletin board was really just a wall outside the classroom with stuff stapled through it. I had to remove the display using a knife and scissors because there was no staple remover. That was a pain in the butt! I made sure to run out an buy a staple remover so that can't happen again.
The Thursday, the school wanted me back again because the TA was sick but I couldn't go because I had a meeting with Career Teachers- a 2nd recruitment agency. I did my interview and afterwards- my paper work to sign up. After that, they mentioned a job I might have interest in: A TA position in primary school, going back and forth to different classrooms to support children with special needs. They pay isn't as good, but I would love that job. They faxed my resume to the school and I'm waiting for someone at the school to take a look at it and get back to the company so they can get back to me.
The next day I was at a nursery in a class of 3-4 year olds. That was INSANE. Children all over the place, always someone crying, missing their mommy, snot hanging down their faces... It was kind of a long day. The new agency called back about positions available for potential long terms, but all they mentioned were nursery jobs. I'm still waiting to hear back about the TA one.
Now is Saturday. Matt and I went to pick up hangers earlier and went for a walk in Killburn looking for various things we need for the house still with limited success. He is still not feeling at his best so we will likely spend the evening in and possibly find a movie to watch.
Last item of the day, there was a rumour that this blog needs more pictures and cowbell. Here my my solution:
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Breaking the mold and not titling the blog the name of any weekdays
Alrighty, updates again. I wonder how many people actually read these. I wonder if while reading them some people wonder to themselves why they bother reading them.
Yesterday I had work in the afternoon as an ICT support teacher, which as it turns out meant computer lab teacher as I was hoping. I understand IT is information technology, but I do wonder where that C came from. I suppose I could Google that at some point. Anyways the afternoon went by pretty alright. The first class was a bit chaotic because half the class forgot their usernames/passwords and it took forever and 3 teachers to find them. Not a whole lot got accomplished there. 2nd Class was easier because they remembered theirs. Also y the 2nd class I had found the marker to the whiteboard and was able to clearly write the directions on the board so the students couldn't have the opportunity to forget them all. By then I also figured out their computer software and was able to get them to the proper URL's. All in all, successful afternoon. Then was just the usual dinner making, Matt tried to work on the oven a little bit and we went to sleep.
Today I got a call in for a teaching assistant role. I was incredibly excited although the pay is not as good. I was in year 1. The teacher gave me directions as to exactly what to do so this time I was not lost or confused. I was able to help a couple other teachers- 1 with creating a pictorial system for a student with special needs, another with her lesson that wasn't really thought out before teaching it. I grabbed some of her resources and invented games to keep the kids busy while she figured it out. It turned out she liked my games better and let me do those for the lesson. With one of the students I was working with during the day, I found out at the very end that she had been going to the school for 5 weeks, barely spoke English and hadn't said a word to the teacher at all. She had been asking me questions all day. I felt pretty good about what I had accomplished with her, as well as with the other 4 students who required the 1 on 1 support.I really love the teaching assistant position. It gives me the opportunity to do the job I really wanted to do in the first place: Work with students who require additional support rather than try to teach and manage the full class. The school requested that I go back to the same room tomorrow, which I excitedly agreed to.
After work: Matt dealt with the oven some more, we went to the post office to deal with some expensive forms, we got some pizza and relaxed a bit online. It's crazy how quickly the evening goes by, especially when bedtime needs to be so early in order to work in the morning.
Yesterday I had work in the afternoon as an ICT support teacher, which as it turns out meant computer lab teacher as I was hoping. I understand IT is information technology, but I do wonder where that C came from. I suppose I could Google that at some point. Anyways the afternoon went by pretty alright. The first class was a bit chaotic because half the class forgot their usernames/passwords and it took forever and 3 teachers to find them. Not a whole lot got accomplished there. 2nd Class was easier because they remembered theirs. Also y the 2nd class I had found the marker to the whiteboard and was able to clearly write the directions on the board so the students couldn't have the opportunity to forget them all. By then I also figured out their computer software and was able to get them to the proper URL's. All in all, successful afternoon. Then was just the usual dinner making, Matt tried to work on the oven a little bit and we went to sleep.
Today I got a call in for a teaching assistant role. I was incredibly excited although the pay is not as good. I was in year 1. The teacher gave me directions as to exactly what to do so this time I was not lost or confused. I was able to help a couple other teachers- 1 with creating a pictorial system for a student with special needs, another with her lesson that wasn't really thought out before teaching it. I grabbed some of her resources and invented games to keep the kids busy while she figured it out. It turned out she liked my games better and let me do those for the lesson. With one of the students I was working with during the day, I found out at the very end that she had been going to the school for 5 weeks, barely spoke English and hadn't said a word to the teacher at all. She had been asking me questions all day. I felt pretty good about what I had accomplished with her, as well as with the other 4 students who required the 1 on 1 support.I really love the teaching assistant position. It gives me the opportunity to do the job I really wanted to do in the first place: Work with students who require additional support rather than try to teach and manage the full class. The school requested that I go back to the same room tomorrow, which I excitedly agreed to.
After work: Matt dealt with the oven some more, we went to the post office to deal with some expensive forms, we got some pizza and relaxed a bit online. It's crazy how quickly the evening goes by, especially when bedtime needs to be so early in order to work in the morning.
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