Casual Teaching: Day 2

Finally!!!!! I am an actual, real life teacher. The NSW Government actually allows me to educate the future of Australia....even in primary schools when I'm a qualified high school teacher.

And it's been such a nice change! I did teach primary school whilst in Spain but it was very disorganised and didn't really make the most of all the invaluable resources that they had. However, at least in the school I taught at today, it is so organised.

I had some early arrivers fill me in on the daily timetable and wrote it on the board. Something I will endeavour to do again when casual teaching! So off to a good start. First up was a spelling test, with more of the kids teaching me than I them and marking of Maths homework. So nothing too strenuous. I was beginning to think this primary thing was a piece of cake.

Then we continued work on their assessment. It was slight mayhem as all the students had completed different amounts of work and it was impossible to get everyone to the same place. How do teachers normally manage that? I provided some extension activities for students who were finished and also had some older students in the class because of PSSA Sport so I had them proof read students work which seemed to work well but overall it was just a bit noisy. In the end they all got the work finished though so I suppose that's good. It just wasn't perfect so I guess there are a few aspects I would like to work on. Giving very clear instructions to students about what they are doing and making them accountable for sticking to that. I had discussed with them what they were to do and written it up on the board. There were different options for the students depending on where they were up to but as I was marking a lot of their drafts it left those not lining up the chance to make a lot of noise. Also the students in the line waiting for their work to be marked were quite rowdy. I'm not exactly sure how to manage that. They were bored and I couldn't go any faster. Are they just like this with casual teachers?

The afternoon session was by far the worst. We had sport and it was soccer. I have no idea how to play soccer so that was probably the biggest problem. The kids were bonkers as it was last thing on a Friday and after lunch. Half didn't want to get involved and then a few students were incredibly rough and hogged the ball. On top of that was the constant dobbing about cheating. I wouldn't even have known because like I said - no idea how to play soccer! I considered doing soccer drills instead but we were sharing the oval with all the other classes and all the other teachers could see the class so I didn't want to be seen as not doing the conveyed activity.

All in all  think the main issue is still behaviour management and  the more I get to know their routine the more effective any strategies will be. I think next time I need to employ some basic strategies such as having students stand up behind their chairs if they are talking too much, using praise to influence the class and learning the students names!