Relief-Insight: A teacher's "insight" into the teaching world of the Casual/Relief/Supply/Substitute Teacher. This collection of ideas,tips and management strategies has been born from the need to share professionally the teaching skills one requires to effectively and efficiently manage and engage today's primary school student.
About Me
- Carmel
- I treasure the twenty plus years teaching experience I have in Catholic Education in Australia both in the classroom and in teaching administration roles. During this time I have had the pleasure of working with all year levels in some capacity from Prep to Year 7. Due to family committments in 2001, I choose to commence relief/supply teaching as well as short term classroom contracts. I am passionate about the needs of the individual learner and I am continually building on my knowledge and skills through study and research. I am pleased to be able to share this knowledge bank with fellow teaching professionals.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Be Professional..Leave a note!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Substitute, Supply or Relief Teachers.... we are all in this together!
“Unless you try something beyond what you have already
mastered, you will never grow.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
No matter what your teaching experience, if you are reading this blog you are preparing to move into a distinctly unique aspect of the education profession known as substitute ,relief or supply teaching.
Congratulations on being prepared to grow. Growth takes courage and on occasions so does substitute teaching! Every day you face a new set of children, a new grade level, a new set of individual needs, a new classroom environment and a new set of ground rules. Don’t be put off by the challenges, consider the positives. Every day is a fresh beginning with the opportunity to do it better and make a difference. One day, one kind word, one learning experience can stay with a child for a lifetime. I am always humbled when a child (sometimes years later) can remind me of a moment when I touched their life or anchored a specific learning concept firmly in their mind. These tiny moments cannot be undervalued. You must never underestimate the power of the moment and how God may choose to work through you in this important role of relief teaching.
Without the team of dedicated professionals providing this service our schools would not function as efficiently and smoothly as they do. However, you must be aware that you are responsible for your own professional growth and development. In the context of the role, you must be proactive in seeking out in-services that may suit your needs, colleges who form part of your mentoring team and resources that inspire you to journey on in your chosen career path.
If you live in the Brisbane , Australia area, I am conducting another workshop for Supply Teachers on Saturday the 31st of July. (More details in following blog) This workshop goes hand in hand with my workbook and many participants give feedback that the three hours of professional fun and learning really make the ideas come alive! The other benefit of this workshop is that you can add these three hours to your QTC professional development log requirements for 2010. Yeah! You also gain the added advantage of networking with other like minded professionals who are experiencing all the same things. It really does help to know you are not alone!
If you are not local, so to speak, don't worry...this is exactly why I was encouraged to start this blog...so you could find me and access the workbook on line. You are downloading the same book with the added advantage of being able to slide it into a display book for longevity and additional pages for ever-increasing ideas you will gain along the way! Should you choose to do this you will find it on the left at the top of the blog page. Simply click on the picture icon the open the link.
Can't wait to read your feedback. Sharing is a wonderful gift...thank you.
The book was primarily generated to give the reader “insight” into some of the key aspects of the relief teaching day. There are already many fantastic resources for lesson content. These humble ideas are meant to be the glue that can hold your teaching day together; the strategies that teachers develop over a lifetime of constant refinement and re-evaluation. As a fellow traveller, it is my hope that some of the strategies and suggestions contained in these pages (and workshop ) do exactly that…..inspire you to move forward, doing more and being more for the betterment and enrichment of the students in your care.
Live,laugh and learn every day!
“Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid of standing still.”
Chinese Proverb