Planning Ahead

Now that I have finished my Degree I need to move on forward with my plans.
You know the ones....about becoming a teacher.

A few weeks ago I happened to see the application form for the course and realised that I am not ready for the course just yet.

I have no experince and my references would be weak.

So I decided that I need to plan for this course and get active in gaining the experience I require to stand me in good stead to get through the acceptance process when I finally go for it.

The application spoke about getting references from people who know you and have history with you in experience around children etc. Despite having my own 2 little people, this is an area that I do lack.

1 of my references will be my old manager, she has evidence of my education skills within nursing and would happily support me with a personal reference.

However my contact with school experince is limited, so I decided that maybe I need to spend sometime at school, maybe as a parent helper in a class room.

This would allow me to be in a class room setting and work along side a teacher who would hopefully be prepared to support my application at such time as I am prepared to submit it.

Today I approached our Principle to tell him of my plans and see how this fits in with the school.

Now luckily I know him on a personal basis as well so he was all open arms to my suggestion.

He is happy for me to spend 1 day a week in the class rooms next year, maybe even spending time in different age groups to gain experince in all areas of the school.

He also has ideas for some extra curriculum activites he wants to start within school time and thinks I would be super to support these with him, thus allowing me to also add to my experience the ability to coordinate and run a small class activity.

I really liked his thinking and feel this is going to be great for my plans. I love the idea of spending 2 terms in one area maybe Yr 5&6 (10/11 yr olds), then 1 term in another area, Yr 7&8, (12/13 yr olds) and splitting the 4th term between the remaining areas Yr 0-2 ( 5-7 yr olds) and Yr 3&4 (8/9 yr olds). This would allow me to spend a decent amount of time with the age group I would really like to be involved with but also get a small feel for the other areas involved in this type of teaching, cause you never know....I may have an area in mind but actually like a different age group once I have been involved with them!

So I am moving forward with my plans and feel great about them too.

Roll on next year, I am actually excited about it and can't wait for the summer holidays to get here so school can start again next year, with me there too!