I’m really technologically inept but I get asked quite a bit about reading lessons in Y2 and you may remember me saying I was clearing up my computer drive! Well, I’m trying to sort reading bits out and wondered if people would find them helpful? 1/2
Today,when changing for PE, a girl came to me&whispered that she’d forgotten to put some knickers on this morn. I reassured her that it’s ok,we have spares&it happens to us all&‘we’ve all been there’.
I then overheard her whispering to others that Miss C has no knickers either😩
Today marks the day, years ago, that I finally left my ex. It seems like such a lifetime ago. At the time, I was so broken, I didn’t think I’d ever feel human again. We had a 3 hour window when he was at work to get as much of my stuff in a van as we could 🙈😫
#LifeAfterAbuse
My class are now obsessed with ageing paper after we did it last week. One boy brought some in that he’d aged at home and had made into a treasure map. “I made it look really old and dated it in the olden days so people think it’s really old!”
2006. He’d dated it 2006. 😩😩😩😩
I say it every year around this time 🥴 BUT when thinking about setting up classrooms for next year, step away from the laminator. I’m done with being polite about it tbh, but nothing needs to last thousands of years.
We can’t teach children about
#Sustainability
&then laminate
One of my EYFS boys presented me with a flower yesterday and it was dripping wet. He said, “Don’t worry, it doesn’t have Covid - it’s washed its hands with me!” 😫😍 He’d washed it in the sink as he came in. 💖
I’ve just been to Lidl to get treats for my class for my birthday. I’m not allowed to socialise with my nearest and dearest 😒, but I can mix in a classroom with 30 households 😬 so they are my birthday buddies ☺️😍🥳🥳
In
#Year5
maths today we are on
@WhiteRoseMaths
X by 10, 100 and 1,000. To support some of my learners, I find this simple scaffold works well & means they can work independently. They stick the white sheet in their book & use loose tracing paper to move the digits 🥰
#EduTwitter
Politicians constantly talking about giving money to ECT. When will experience be valued? It’s experienced teachers you need to retain. If there are no experienced teachers, then ECTs won’t get the support they need anyway. MPs saying they’ve talked to teachers 😑 Obv not! 😤🤦🏼♀️
Every Sunday,Dad heads off on a bike ride&he usually visits this little cafe for a coffee&cake before he heads back. The cafe has been closed the last couple of times due to
#Tier4
but today one of the locals saw him sat in his usual spot for a break&brought him out this 😩🥰💖
Our world is literally burning 💔 and teachers are still laminating for displays, buying cheap plastic off Temu, being generally wasteful for the sake of aesthetic. I always say to chn that they CAN make a difference. That instead of people thinking that they can’t change…
I’m waaaaayyyy too funny for my class. Today, a boy was singing Baby Shark despite being asked twice not to so I sang:
Teacher Shark —— Do do do do do do your work. 💁🏼♀️💁🏼♀️💁🏼♀️
It was met with blank faces and silence 🙄
#TeacherShark
Keep seeing lots of people getting ready to use The Day The Crayons Quit this term 😍 Don’t forget to use
#ChatterPix
@ChatterPixIt
to make your inanimate objects come to life! The children love it and they’re so much fun to make too ☺️
#WritingRocks
#ReadingRocks
When I left my horrible ex, I had to leave my life in Devon behind too 💔 which made it all so much harder as I had to leave my home, my friends, my job and everything I loved. One of my closest friends has just arranged to visit me on Sunday and I’m so happy 😩😩🥰🥰
👀👀 There’s a hella lot of laminating going on at the moment. I know I’m irritating but it’s important to me. Please ask yourself whether you absolutely need to laminate something before you do. It will last hundreds of years 😔
#plasticpollution
🌍💚
Who else is scared?
I am so happy to go into work tomorrow&care for our chn who need us but I’m also scared of the unknown😫I don’t have my Mam here to hug and tell me it will be ok. Such bad timing for
#MothersDay
this year!
Feel so alone right now 😞
Stay safe everyone xx
I was talking to my friend&explaining how, if I have 1 thing planned in a day, I can’t do anything else because I just think about that appointment or event all day, which is why I make early morning appointments for everything&she thought that was weird. That’s not weird, right?
Anyone else’s class identify whose item of clothing something is by smelling it? It absolutely made me cry today that my class can reunite clothing with its owner just by giving it a big sniff. They have a 100% success rate so far 🤷🏼♀️😂
Teaching needs a massive reset. It’s completely unsustainable the way that it is. The expectations of primary teaching has just become too much and if something isn’t done soon, then the profession is going to lose even more teachers. I’m questioning how long I can do this for 😩
One last time for the people at the back (and
@Telegraph
).
1,265 is not the total number of hours teachers work per year. It’s the total number of hours they can be told *where* to work.
If teachers only did those hours, the school system would collapse.
One of my class’s favourite things to do is ‘be the illustrator’. They have to silently read the sentence and then draw a picture on their whiteboards to show what they have read. Some children might only read a few words but they can draw whatever they read. They love it 🥰🖤
I just had an urge to take a whiff of my Mam’s perfume and, man, smells evoke such strong emotions, don’t they? 💔💔💔
I’m not sure I was ready for that. 😞
#Grief
I’m crying - to keep my (very pampered) cat cool, I put little bits of fish/treats into ice cubes for her to have ☺️🐈 - I didn’t notice Dad had helped himself to some ice for his drink & he’s just noticed there’s something floating in his drink ... 😂😂😂 I think it’s a prawn.
One of my fav parts of my class library is our ‘self published’ area, where chn add books, factfiles, mags, poems,etc. they’ve written themselves. The other chn love reading them and it really helps chn see themselves as authors. I also give a little prize for 50th review 😉😅🦄
My Dad, pulling out all the parent phrases this morning 🤷🏼♀️😂😍
He never did this ‘stuff’ - it was always Mam so it’s so cute how hard he tries now 💖🖤💖
Parents have been told so I can now say that I’m waving goodbye to the world of KS1 for a while and am entering the world of UKS2 for the first time in Y5! It’s very exciting! Hit me up with Y5 peeps to follow please 😬🥰
#Year5
#UKS2
💖
Of course, teachers and leaders deserve more than this joke of an offer, but do you know who else does? Our children! It’s absolutely insulting that the government think their education should be cut more than it already is. Children deserve so much more than this system 💔
Anyone else feel like they’re on a never ending rollercoaster of exhaustion?
Physically and mentally, I’m so tired and the week hasn’t even begun yet 😩💔
This term has finished me 😅
I’ve been sorting out my Y2 maths boxes and thought I’d share as they are such a great way to store maths bits that are easily accessible on tables. Boxes are from Ikea x
#teacherstrikes
1/n I respect anybody’s opinion over striking. I really do. But I’m seeing an increasing number of colleagues judging others over their decision to strike. Personally,I voted yes to strike(my union isn’t striking💔)to try to help fix the system that is breaking…
Today is the day that I finally left my hideous ex. I had a 2 hour window of just jamming as much of my stuff into the back of a van as we could & just left the rest.
Few years on, I can honestly say I finally feel ok about the future & this article is actually really true 🙃
A trainee teacher keeps popping up on my fyp on TikTok and he films so much in the classroom & the children appear to be there.
What is happening??? 😩😩😩
No way would I allow anyone in my class to do this 😔
One of my boys forgot his football kit for after school club&was really upset 💔 He didn’t want to wear his PE kit as he was embarrassed. One of my other boys went up to him, asked him what was wrong, took off his snazzy new football shirt, put his own PE top on…
Everyone knows I’m a glue sponge advocate to stop the mad influx of glue stick plastic that schools throw away each year. Well, I’m super proud that our school is now a glue stick free zone ☺️ We have glue sponges and also refillable pots school wide now 👌🏻
That joyous time of year where your car insurance doubles 🙄 for no reason and they say that’s the best they can do so you go and find one that is less than your current price… and so the cycle repeats every year. Why can’t car insurance companies just keep prices reasonable??
I don’t really do many displays now as my NQT enthusiasm for them has dwindled quicker than my fleeting interest in yoga but I reckon we need to invent staples that dissolve after 6-12 wks like the stitches they use in surgery. No more spending hrs pulling out the little buggers.
I really dislike the apparent normalisation of training for teachers being after school. Can’t believe how many ‘things’ I keep seeing starting around 4😒It’s not teachers’ faults if the system can’t afford release time. That doesn’t mean they should be expected to do it for free
Howling. Today we were doing maths in EYFS. We did some addition calculations and then I said that we were now going to look at subtractions or ‘take aways’. One little boy got so excited and said, “I love a take away! I get a burger and chips from the chippy!” 😂😂😂
To anyone starting their teaching careers in a few days, just take some comfort in knowing that *no one remembers how to teach after the summer and *no one has their sh*t together. Just greet everyone at the door with a massive smile and it will all be grand. 😬
#NQT
#Teaching
Sorting my classroom on my own is one of the few times I wish I had a boyfriend. Surely it’s part of the agreement to help set up your girlfriend’s classroom? 🤷🏼♀️😫
Should have invested in online dating during lockdown 🙈
I can’t even cope with how wonderful Year 1’s paper sculptures are 😩😍
They listened so carefully to how to make the different shapes and then got creative on their own 🖤
#ks1art
I hate going to my Mam’s grave but tomorrow I will as I have nowhere else to ‘see’ her on Mothers’ Day 💔 Seeing her name on a headstone makes me so sad. Thinking of all those who can’t see their Mams tomorrow for a multitude of reasons 😞 xx
The only reason I’m apprehensive about finally checking my work emails later this week is knowing how many ‘useful’ things I’ve emailed to myself over the summer 🙈😩😅
Since I lost Mam,I’ve hated not feeling like she is anywhere.I know lots find their lost loved ones are all around them, but I don’t feel her anywhere. I hate going to the grave because to see her name on a headstone sucks but I’m going to go today&see if it’s any better 😔🖤
I wrote this blog in ‘19 about the use of ‘colour banded books’/educating parents/carers on how they can practise reading at home with their child 🙃 I was discussing this with our NQT &I’ve been updating the PPT/activities- happy to share the link when it’s done if useful 🖤 1/2
My class spent some time with their new teacher today and as I lined them up, one of the boys shouted, “There’s a new sheriff in town!” 😅😂
It really made me laugh 🖤🥰
My Year 1 class were so shocked today when I told them the folder on my desk was my work.
“You don’t work!” they shouted. “You don’t even have a job!”
😑🙃
Do any other teachers hate these times of year when structure goes out the window? Basically, from now, there are so many bits and pieces to fit in that the timetable as I know it gets scrapped. I hate it. I like structure and routine 🙈😫
I haven’t been on here much as Covid turns you into a coughing panda, who sleeps 18 hours a day BUT what upsets me the most about all this school ‘stuff’ is that our HTs are an army of passionate, dedicated, resourceful and hardworking individuals that have done (and will keep...
My sister has been (understandably) emotional about my nephew’s baptism on Sunday because Mam won’t be there 😞 Anyway, I just found a fruit cake that Mam made in the freezer that we can decorate for it so it will feel like she is there with us. ☺️☺️☺️ How amazing is that?
I don’t like it when people talk about quiet people in a derogatory way. I was a quiet child. I’m an observer and just like to suss my environment out before I feel able to contribute. We need all sorts of students in our classes.
I feel so fed up today. I’m so fat and unfit. I’m bored. I miss my friends and family and I’m just generally grumpy 😒🤣 How is everyone else today?
#LockdownBlues
My lovely friend went on a first date yesterday and he took her punting in Cambridge and made a little picnic of scones, cake and wine and it’s just the cutest thing I ever heard 🥰😍🥰 (and he put the cream on first!)
#Keeper
Heading back to
#KS1
means only one thing … using the amazing advice from
@ClareSealy
to teach time. I’ve learnt from experience that this is much better as drip fed learning so will use this little and often throughout the year 😅🥰
Link to Clare’s fabulous piece below 👇🏻
Has anyone got any lovely
#WorldBookDay
ideas that are not dressing up and that don’t involve using food? 👀 Last year we created mystery shoebox rooms for a book character. I’m considering buying wooden spoons in bulk to paint 👀😅
#EduTwitter
One of my fav KS1 corridor displays was of photos of the same viewpoint in the school taken every wk t/o the year. My weekly class helpers took the photos with our LSA, printed, chopped and added to the display and it was such a lovely way to talk about seasons/changes/etc. 🖤
A year ago today was my Mam’s funeral. I’m going to pop to her grave in a bit to take some flowers but yay to getting through all the ‘firsts’ over the past year 🥳🥳🥳
As we enter a new phase of schools being open to more chn, I thought I’d do a thread on what I’ve seen of the education sector over these past few weeks. Grab a tea and here we go.
THREAD ...
#EduTwitter
I love having this book in my classroom. It’s such a handy reference for chn (and me!) to have to check alternative representations of sounds 🖤 It’s beautifully laid out.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tweets or videos on teachers buying so much stuff out of their own money for their classroom than I have this year! Is this it now? 😱 (Yes, yes, it’s a choice - if you have the £ - but it’s a worrying trend)
Read some great tweets about the HT asking the chn in assembly what they’ve learnt this week. One of mine, when asked by someone today, shot their hand up and said, “Miss C doesn’t like the feel of wood in her hands.” 😱😱😱😱😱😱
There was CONTEXT to that comment, I promise!
In a world of filters, Photoshop, inequalities and gendered glass ceilings, how amazing that our children have women like this that they can look up to and aspire to be like. Today is such a great day 💪🏻👸🏼