Undivided Attention...

Amazing... one of his lesser-known poems- but it does take your breath away...

Pink Gumboots... adapting to your environment without losing your identity

If I've had the pleasure of meeting you- you will know if humanly possible I'll be wearing pink shoes. They make me smile. They make the kids smile. Really- what more could you want? Well, with the recent rain I've discovered you could want gumboots. For those cold days where the rain just keeps going, gumboots are a very useful adaptation to the school environment. And today I was able to find... yes... you guessed it... pink gumboots. It made my day. It made the checkout lady smile. And it made me think... how much of "me" do I get to keep when I teach?

I think that's really a challenge for us Supply Teachers- balancing between adapting to our ever-changing environment and staying true to ourselves. As much as we adopt the behavior management plans of the different schools we teach in, we all have our own personal philosophy about discipline. Every day do our best to work within a different set of school values, different moral frameworks and different learning environments- but we really do need to make sure we don't lose ourselves. It's not really about pink shoes at all- it's about the right express our own identity. Without getting too deep I'd hope that as teaching professionals we are able to work in a way that aligns with our personal teaching philosophy. I think I'm lucky enough to have found schools that allow me to do that... and I hope you do too.

PS- I think my gumboots will also remind me to make the best of whatever comes my way... because now even on a rainy day I can have a reason to smile. And yes... that is a part of my personal teaching philosophy!

Three Choices...

Today I gave my class (year 6) three choices... they could be awesome, terrific or wonderful. There were no other choices. Each child got a certificate with tick-boxes for each choice- to take home or show their teacher. Some kids told me that a certificate like that was a guaranteed dessert, or control of the TV remote at home that night. Others kept theirs at school to show off to their teacher tomorrow. I've put a copy of the certificate in the downloads section... but it's easy enough to make your own.

But it got me thinking about the choices we give ourselves as Supply Teachers. Do we assume that a challenging school is going to be, well too challenging- thus removing the "great day" option from our own list of possibilities for the day? How many bad days have we had simply because we don't give ourselves the chance to have a good day? Like today, tomorrow I've got a lovely class at a lovely school- and I'm simply not going to give myself the option of having anything other than an "awesome, terrific or wonderful" day- it worked for the kids today so I don't see why it can't work for me too!