Catch Up

It's been a crazy few months! Even though I'm only a part time teacher, there has been so much to work on in the library.

I have been making slow changes, including adding a cute suggestion box for the students (pictures and a write up to come soon, hopefully). Over the winter break I got stuck in and removed a lot of expired materials from the library office. I even found some relics from the olden days... Music records, floppy discs and slide holders! I will be keeping a few choice items but the rest will be passed on to the spring sale or the aftercare program.

Tomorrow, I will be substituting for the Grade R teacher. I've never taught in a Grade R classroom, so I'm actually quite excited for what will probably be an exausting day. I'm lucky enough that I will have two very experienced aides to work alongside.

Senior Primary Display: Walk on the Wild Side

This afternoon, I finished the display for the senior (Grades 4-7) side of the library. After asking the classes which themes would interest them, I settled on 'animals'. This allows me to put animal non-fiction as well as fiction books on the display. I hope that the students enjoy it, and that it is as big of a hit as the "VP and the World" display was on the junior side.

Click to enlarge the images. I hope to take more detailed ones when I have time!

Before - Random collection of posters:

After - Walk on the Wild Side:

The white text is filled with various animal facts and 'Did You Know' snippets. The pink basket to the left is our Animal Ark collection. The various wooden animals were stored in a random cupboard in the library- thanks to whatever teacher/librarian left them there, they were a perfect addition to the display! The centerpiece of the display, the (hopefully) friendly snake turned out better than expected, I didn't follow any design and it somehow looks pretty good for a first attempt. I like the animal font, but if I was to redo the display I would cut the black letters in such a way that they would have white paper as an outline.

My first ever library display!

As I'm sure you can imagine, things are crazy at the moment. Even though I'm only a part-time teacher, there's enough prep-work, admin and sorting-out-the-library-work that it's always possible to stay busy. I managed to enjoy last weekend: I didn't think about any work at all. Being able to switch off has always been one of my weaknesses, ever since I started teaching, so I'm continuing to work on that.

Good things that happened today:

• I completed my first ever library display! Compared to the amazing displays I have seen online, it's quite modest - but I'm quite proud of it, and hope that the Junior Primary (Gr 1 - 3) will enjoy it from tomorrow. Since I don't know our collection very well yet, I had to manually go through each shelf to find theme-appropriate books. At least doing that helped me improve my knowledge of the collection! Take a look (click to see full-size pics):

• I found three books (2 Roald Dahl, one JK Rowling) that we had thought lost. Yay! They've returned to their place on the shelves.
• The Grade Rs came for their first ever library visit. We hope to be doing more in the future.
• I introduced the second Grade 7 class to the concept of shelving the 826 (English Fiction) books according to the first three letters of the author's surname. Each girl got a book to re-shelf  Some girls enjoyed it so much that they asked to help me re-shelve the rest of the returns! They have got a little star next to their names on my potential student librarian candidates...

We Have Lift-off!

I can now finally announce my good news: I've just started working as a teacher-librarian! I'm extremely excited to have this opportunity. For last two weeks, I've been focusing on learning my new responsibilities and tasks from the outgoing librarian. In fact, I'm so grateful that she is still around to show me the ropes! This week has been my first 'official' week on my own.

Literacy is a huge passion of mine, and I've already started to draw together some ideas that I'd like to slowly integrate into the library. Being a South African public/government school, we simply do not have the budget for drastic technological advances - just like most public schools globally - instead, I'm trying to gather ways of modernising the library with an incredibly limited tech scope. In my next few posts, I hope to formulate my ideas about 21st century libraries that are on a budget, and what can be done as a new educator to provide fresh ideas without having to splash out on.

Being brand new to this, I have a million ideas whizzing around in my head. I'm looking at finding a way of easily sorting my ideas into digital 'folders' and then expanding them into proper notes/plans/documents at a later stage. Tiddlywiki looked like a great solution, but I was having errors getting it to sync properly between my netbook and desktop. 

My ideal life-organiser:

• I could jot down text notes, fully searchable and sortable. I like branching menus and folders.
• Fully usable on my Windows 7 desktop and Windows XP netbook, with ability to sync (I also have and love Dropbox). Would be handy to store/access content on the web, but not necessarily essential due to Dropbox.
• Ability to read/view content (bonus points for adding simple notes, even to an ear-marked folder) on my android phone.
• Good timetable/scheduling abilities, though I'll take that as a separate app. Anything that lets you plan for a two-week (A/B) school timetable?
• Ideally free.

For my normal life stuff, I currently use Catch Notes on my phone for lists and memos, and Google Calendar on my phone (via 3rd party widget) and desktop for calendar tasks. For my teaching/library sphere, however, I feel that I'm going to have to have something more sophisticated. This weekend I've been browsing alternatives, but nothing has really jumped out at me. I'm giving Evernote a go, though I fear that it's reliance on syncing and assumption that you have internet 24/7 is going to be it's downfall. 

If anyone has any suggestions for contemporary, Windows/Android, free life-organisers, please let me know. 

I'm working on little changes to the library, I'm going to take some pictures and get them uploaded to show you all. Thanks to my new Twitter PLN for all the encouraging advice!

I've graduated (again)!

I'm a graduate again! On Thursday night, I attended my graduation ceremony for the PGCE course. This officially makes me a qualified teacher... I'm not sure what I've been doing since I got my results in December but clearly teaching wasn't it! I'm just kidding. It's really great to finally have my certificate. Teachers here in South Africa have to be registered with the SACE in order to be considered fully licenced. It's quite a long process, so I'm glad to be able to get that underway. My family from Cape Town were able to come and visit for the graduation, it was amazing to get to show them my little town for a while.

It's been the Easter holidays here, so the Grahamstown schools have been having a break. I've enjoyed the time, catching up with friends, comparing notes with fellow teachers and keeping up to date on my reading. One blog that I stumbled upon is Free Technology for Teachers - this blog, run by Richard Byrne, has frequent posts highlighting the huge amount of resources that teachers can use to enhance their lessons, streamline their administration and just generally make life easier and more interesting.

I'd like to order a 5ft 1in Sub, please.

Many people, when hearing that I'm currently working as a substitute teacher, generally have something like the following response:

Oh, you're substituting? Shame! Don't worry, I'm sure you will find a real job soon.

I usually find this quite frustrating, as the person speaking generally isn't a teacher themselves. Substitute teaching has an incredible stigma, from both well-meaning adults and students alike. If grown-ups think that substitute teaching is just temporary work, then that attitude carries down to the students. The real teacher isn't here today, so I can do what I want. Many of my little charges, usually innocently, often ask me if I am a 'real' teacher. Some, who are used to living in a town with a PGCE course, even ask if I'm 'just' a student teacher, or how long I've been teaching.While I did fall into substitute teaching while looking for a full-time teaching post, that doesn't mean that I take this job any less seriously than a class teacher does. Substituting requires a whole different bag of tricks than regular teaching, as every day you are teaching a different set of students, with different needs and expectations. Rather than just 'babysitters', as far too many people see substitute teachers, I feel that I'm thriving when the class teacher leaves content for me to cover with the class. While watching them watch a movie is fine, I always prefer a chance to be teaching them something new.

Here are some strategies that have worked for me, so far, as a substitute teacher.

Teacher Squeaks' Unofficial Guide to Substituting:

Learn the names of the students. What's worked best for me is grabbing a sheet of paper and sketching the layout of the class, writing down where the students sit. It helps if the class has labelled the desk of each child, as many have done. Students will sometimes switch desks, not even maliciously (I want to sit next to my friend!), and I have found some success in explaining myself to the class - if I don't know their names, then I'll be calling them "hey, you" all day, and that's rude. I get instant respect for knowing a student's name, even if I'm just referring to my sketched room plan, and only occasional giggles for getting the 'wrong' name or pronunciation.  As a first-language English speaker, often I come across Xhosa names which I struggle with. My strategy for that is to just ask the student to say their name to me, and write it down. I will then attempt to say it correctly, and they often are kind enough to correct me - or even offer a nickname for me to use. Using these ideas, I usually learn about 25% - 50% students' names for the day, and can refer to the rest of them using the room plan.

My sketches are usually just boxes (desks) with names in them (students).

Use a behaviour plan and explain it to the students. For the older ones, I just explain my expectations for how they are going to act. For the younger ones, I take the time to explain that things will be different today, since I'm not their class teacher, and they are going to have to sometimes explain to me how things work - but I still get to be in charge and how it is 'my' class for the day. A successful strategy is putting the letters B-R-E-A-K on the board and removing a letter if they get too rowdy or disobedient. In the class that I had to use it in, I removed 2 minutes of break-time for every letter I removed. When I removed the first letter, it shocked them so badly that they didn't give me any more trouble. Keeping a class in 2 extra minutes during break is surprisingly easy, but to a 10 year old those 2 minutes feel like hours!  The important thing about any classroom management plan is consistency, and that is even more important for a substitute. Students often feel that, because you're a substitute,  you will let them misbehave. It's much easier to start of strict at the start of the day and then ease off them by home-time, rather than fighting with them all day over noise levels.

Pack for any eventuality. On my first few sub jobs, I even packed an extra pair of shoes- and was glad I did! I keep a squeaky-toy as an attention signal for the younger grades with me, even if I'm teaching the older ones. I pack a tennis ball, stickers, a whistle, plasters (band-aids), snacks, loads of stationary, and all sorts of other oddities. As a sub, you don't have always have the benefit of an entire class full of resources to use, and even if the resources are there you might not know where they are kept! This post on Sub Hub is amazing for picking up tips for how to pack like a sub. In fact, just read everything on Sub Hub, it's a great blog for substitute teachers.

You never know what you're going to need... (From Sub Hub)

Document everything. This will be on a case-by-case basis, but I generally prefer to use some sort of daily report sheet and leave it for the class teacher. Here are some great examples, I created my own one and try to bring a few copies to every sub job. I don't write down every single problem, but if a student is acting way off-base then I will record it, along with how I dealt with the problem (such as referring the student to administration). You may be lucky enough to arrive in a class with their own version of a substitute report, in that case you should probably stick to their format. I always try to have a positive comment about the class and the content that we covered: if it was my class, it would be a comfort that some learning actually happened while I was away.

Bring something to occupy the students. Often, you will be called in at the last minute, sometimes even on the morning that you are expected at the school. If the class teacher was unable to have a lesson plan ready for you, you will have to fill that time in some other way. I bring an age-appropriate reading book (Alanna: The First Adventure was wildly popular with the Grade 5  class) and the ideas for some games that can be adapted for reviewing content. Minds in Bloom has loads of great games, questions and critical thinking activities that can work well. Get well-versed in your brain breaks, all students appreciate them and there are many which can still fit the bill of 'educational' (slap counting is a fun example). The Sub Hub has emergency lesson plans for many grade levels which would be great to throw in your bag in case of emergency. The last thing you want is the other teachers looking in on your classroom and seeing them "doing nothing".

I hope these suggestions help some other fledgling substitute teachers. Subbing isn't always an easy job and it can feel unrewarding sometimes, but remember that all the experience you gain will help you later if you are looking for a full-time post. I enjoy substituting very much, particularly the chance to visit other teacher's classrooms and see how they do things. The majority of students have been pleased that their substitute teacher actually expects them to work, lets them have little breaks and praises those who follow expectations.

A Busy Time

Since returning to Grahamstown, things have been very busy for me. The substitute job I mentioned last post went off without a hitch, and has lead to further jobs in the last few months: Grade 5 (1 day and then 2 further days, Grade 7 (3 days), and Grade 3 (1 day). These substitute teaching jobs, though they are only for a day or two at a time, have really given me some confidence that I am, in fact, qualified to do this. Sometimes I feel that I'm actually quite good! When I'm in the classroom teaching, it's a great feeling. Though I've been working nearly exclusively at one school, this week I had a substitute job at another school for the first time- business is picking up!

Since substitute teaching doesn't keep me busy on a regular basis, I have also been volunteering twice a week at Queenspark School, a local private school that I had my teaching practice at last year. I had a meeting with their Head of Foundation Phase, where we decided that I would be most useful to them working with Language Enrichment and also helping out with Creative Writing. Doing this has given me lots of time with students one-on-one, in small groups and also the unique experience of working with one or a few students while the class teacher continues the lesson to the whole class. I've also been helping a local optometrist with the eye screenings they have been doing at the schools. Honestly, it's been great fun, and already being familiar with many of the schools makes the process go smoothly.

Though I haven't given up on finding a full-time post, I appreciate the time I have to build up my CV with these varied jobs. Currently I have my eyes on a part-time position that has recently opened up, but time will tell if I manage to grab it. A two PGCE friends are teaching at the school I have been spending the most time at, and a third has just joined as a part-time isiXhosa teacher. Another former classmates is working at Sandlot School, it was a delight to see her in action when I came by to do the eye-screenings there recently. Seeing these talented ladies get positions is encouraging, and gives me something to motivate me to keep on searching.