Choosing happy

Back in July I made the difficult decision not to apply for teaching jobs for this September. After three years studying for my Primary Education degree and completing my NQT year I wasn't sure I'd chosen the right path for me. Strangely it didn't feel like a waste of time as I learned a LOT in the past four years but I had no idea what I wanted to do next. All I knew is that I wanted to do what makes me happy :) I decided to stop applying for jobs I wasn't interested in and instead search for something I'd love...

Images found on Pinterest.

Me and Ryan had intended to move to France together so I'd spent the Summer looking at potential properties and studying for a TEFL qualification so I could teach over there. However, September rolls around, I don't want to move to France, I am still living in a friend's spare room and I am jobless. Honestly I did feel like a bit of a failure, especially when friends were going back to their schools and getting excited about their new classes, but I was determined not to give up!

Despite having no job and no concrete plans, we spent the first week of September in Cornwall because we were still on the hunt for somewhere new to live. Our trip also had a secret agenda which was really hard to keep quiet! I'd been invited to an interview at the Eden Project for an Education Assistant job which was SO COOL AND EXCITING! It felt like fate that I'd found an education job in Cornwall, let alone somewhere as awesome as Eden. People who know me well will know how perfect this opportunity was for me.

After months of feeling like my teaching skills aren't good enough, worrying that I'd chosen the wrong path and crying on Ryan's shoulder far too many times, my week in Cornwall really renewed my confidence. I got the news that I passed my TEFL course with an amazing score whilst wandering around Newquay and the team at Eden were incredibly complimentary of my experiences and skills during my interview. My voluntary work at Oxfam and York Castle Museum didn't go amiss!

 

Images found on Pinterest.

Fast forward to me sat in my room in York, eagerly watching my phone for hours on end; I finally get the call to say I didn't get the Education Assistant job. Instead they want to offer me a flexible Education Officer role because they really liked me and want my teaching skills on their team. You can find out more about the awesome role here - Education Officer Career Profile. I'm so excited to teach about stuff I am actually passionate about in the beautiful biomes amongst the plants. I'm also hoping that David Attenborough or Bear Grylls pop along again sometime soon ;)

The Core (Where I will work!) Image Source

So now I have an amazing job, my confidence is sky high and I'm moving to Cornwall with Ryan.

Choosing happy = A success!! 

Live what you love.

Good Evening! It feels so strange sat writing this post while it's going dark outside. Is it a sign that Autumn is definitely on the way? or maybe it's just because I am writing my post late... again! Ooopsy :) It has been a super busy week as I finally starting teaching my own class on Tuesday, YAY!! Even though it wasn't technically my first day at school it was still really exciting to get into MY classroom and do things my own way. As well as the first week of school I have had new glasses, been doing some more yoga and trying to spend time with Ryan too so it's been a really lovely week. I've made a deal with myself that I will try and leave work at school so I actually have a life besides teaching.

 

Despite this deal I've still been spending a lot of time looking teaching stuff on teachers pet and Pinterest, it is all so cute that I wish my classroom was big enough. I must say that the pencil hospital and caught you being good ideas I talked about before have been VERY successful in this first week. I've also watched a few episodes of New Girl ready for the new season that starts on September 17th (American). Regular readers will know how much I LOVE Jessica Day and I hope that my teacher work-life balance will be just like hers in the coming year! 

Talking of Jessica Day, all avid New Girl fans will remember the Jamboree t-shirt she takes back from Spencer in season 1 of the show.

"Girl made a lot of jam, Spence. You know how time-consuming that can be? You need a jar funnel, a canner, some fresh fruit. Strawberries, raspberries, maybe a tayberry."

Schmidt 

Well today I really really really wanted this t-shirt, I had a jam making sesh with Ryan as he is really good with foody related things. He will probably blog about it too so check out his fancy WordPress blog which is mostly food related here.

Anyway, after this weekend, I now know aaaaaaaall about making jam. That is partly the reason why this blog post is late. I was supposed to come back to Harrogate at lunchtime to get on with my to-do list but I just got so into the jam making! Yesterday we had a little drive around Pocklington, where Ryan lives, and found lots of Elderberries and Blackberries. I helped pick some but left the messy blackberries for Ryan to do while I whinged about being cold :P does anyone else think it's really cold lately? I wore boots all weekend!

 Last night at 8pm I was sat on the floor in my reindeer onsie raking berries off the stalks with a fork so we decided to leave it until today to get stuck into the actual jam making, However, when Sunday morning came, rather than rushing straight into the jam making, we decided to go out for a lazy Sunday morning breakfast. It was a good idea of mine I think :) tucking into half a full English and a pot of tea would make me ready for any day.

So... making jam! I was in charge of sterilizing Ryan's old jars, always the eco-friendly with his recycling. It's not too tricky, you just pour boiling water into them to kill any germs. Then you cut circles of greaseproof paper for under the lids but I forget why!! 

 Then you have to weigh and wash all the berries before leaving them to boil/simmer for 20-30 minutes. Then you put the sugar in (how much depends on the amount of berries) and leave it for AGES again. Finally you end up with a yummy smelling, gooey mixture that sets when it cools :)

and there you have it...

JAM!

I am very much looking forward to tucking into toast with homemade jam in the morning. What a perfect way to start my second week in school!

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.

I HAVE TIME TO BLOG! :) Who knew I'd be so busy during the luxuriously long summer holidays that I have off?! After two beautiful weeks relaxing by a pool in Spain, I've been playing catch up with all my work and slowly ticking off the to-do list ready for the new term in September. The start of my NQT year is fast approaching now and I'm starting to feel the nerves!

It was finally time to get back into school today (I don't just laze around for the entire six weeks... well... almost) and I spent all day moving tables, laminating, making displays and generally organising my new classroom. Here is what it looked like when I arrived at 8:30 this morning...

It was quite an inspiring classroom when it was left for me but I had to take down everything that was blu-tacked for the massive Summer clean. After a lot of muscle work and hours of laminating and stapling it finally looked a little bit like this...

There were loads of ideas on Pinterest that I wanted to integrate into my first classroom so it was an exciting day having them all come together. You can check out my classroom ideas/inspiration board here and see if you can spot any of them in my classroom. 

I've grouped the children into tables and named them after British olympians and paralympians which ties into our 'Growing Together topic'. We are going to be looking into healthy living and ending the half term with a study of ancient greek olympics. There are lots of creative links that make absolute sense I promise!

I've switched the literacy and numeracy boards and backed them with lovely bright colours so that the classroom is nice and fresh even for the children that spent last year in there. My numeracy board still has some work left to do tomorrow but it has certainly brightened up that corner!

The 'UP' inspired display has been in progress since our moving up morning. I asked the children to write down what they wanted to achieve this year on a balloon so that their aspirations could metaphorically lift the house and we'd be 'growing together'. See what I did there? ;) The bookcase and desk area is sooooo much better and more accessible now too. I want to create a really attractive reading environment/chill out zone so that the children will be more encouraged to use the space. The post box is a nice touch from the old classroom, I will be using it for children to write down any problems or feelings that they might not like to talk about.

Now for the super geeky, keen teacher bit. I have been sooooo picky about the organisation of the classroom. To be honest I think it was made worse by the two weeks cover I did back in July because I had to teach according to someone else's rules until Summer. I literally couldn't wait to replace the visual timetable, figure out a way around the CONSTANT pencil sharpening and move the desk so things didn't fall off the back.

Visual Timetable - I like my timetable to have a simple image and phrase so that it doesn't take up loads of room on the board. These editable square images from twinkl are really lovely and completely free! They have a huge range of resources and I definitely recommend checking them out. I used their mini-beast borders during placement and the children loved them.

Pencil Hospital - I really hope this works, I can't cope with children spending more than five minutes sharpening their pencil to a perfect point. All children will have their own pencil and when it snaps, they can replace it with a pencil from the 'ready to work pot' and leave their pencil in the 'pencil hospital' pot. Then I can have monitors to use the 'pencil doctors' (sharpeners) to fix all the poorly pencils. Genius. Just genius.

Caught you being awesome! - For a bit of positive behaviour reinforcement, I will be giving away raffle tickets to children who are caught doing something awesome in my classroom. It could be for effort, manners, being a good friend or whatever really. They write their name on a ticket and pop it in the treasure chest at the end of the lesson. At the end of the week I will choose two names from the chest and they get a little prize from the box. Children should soon realise that the more times their name is in, the more chance they have. Probability objective ticked? :P

Lollypop sticks - I'm sure all my NQT friends will be using this idea already. Write the names of your class on lollypop sticks. Obviously I had to recruit Ryan to do mine because of my weird wet wood phobia. Theeen you have a lucky dip of names when you want a 'no hands up' class discussion.

Even though I am totally knackered, I am excited to get back into school and finish sorting out the rest of my classroom tomorrow! :) September NQTs... please let me know if you come accross any other ideas. I will be intently following my Pinterest feed in the meantime!