This morning I went to visit my new kindergarten for the first time. I was surprised by how big the rooms felt with floor to ceiling windows and very high roofs. The rooms were also quite pleasing to look at because they were filled with natural wood furniture and nice big low tables for the children to work at. My room will be room one (hence the blog title) and I will be sharing the space with two beautiful groups of children and two co-teachers. I also discovered this week that the outside space will be expanded with the fence dividing each room being removed, this will leave us with a larger space for the children to play and mix with the other groups.

Whilst I was there I also got a chance to see how my fellow teachers do their documentation and it was nice to see a variety of ways to do this. One of the teachers types up their observations on the days play into a ring binder and makes notes about what to change/ how/ why and links to learning stories - I found this method of observation to be quite aesthetically pleasing however i am not sure if it would be as accessible to parents as the second method. 

The second teacher uses an A3 display folder to record observations and uses sticky notes and photographs to reflect their learning. She also has a small key of the VEYLDF on each page and uses colour to connect her observations to different areas of the framework. I like both methods and I think both would be good ways to record the learning in the classroom however I don't know exactly what my plans will look like until I start working.

Another interesting thing about today's visit is that I got to meet one of the children who will be attending kinder next year and his parents. I don't know if he will be in my group but I think I surprised myself with how confidant I did feel speaking to them. That is one of the scariest parts about this journey for me, answering the questions of the parents. I don't want to give the wrong answer but I don't know all the right ones yet to I think I will definitely have to watch my fellow teachers closely so get it right next year.

Friday is the clean up day at the kinder for 2012 and i am planning to go back in there and pick up the keys and maybe even help to sort out my very first classroom!

Labels: 2013, documentation, kindergarten, learning, parents

I am truly heartbroken about the event that occurred in Newtown on Friday morning. I dont think there's even words to describe what those poor children and teachers had to endure on that day. Now there is 20 families that have lost their joy.

If school can't be a safe place then where can be?
I am deeply sorry for all of those people affected by this tragedy.


So it has been quite a while since I posted on this blog but I thought I should share the exciting news I have received since last posting. Today I found out that I officially passed all of my uni classes and therefore I am now legally a teacher. I won't acutally graduate until May however I am still happy to know that I passed.

A few months ago I also managed to secure a job for 2013 working as a kindergarten (pre-school) teacher for a hopefully lovely bunch of four year olds.

I wont officially start until the end of January so for now I am simply trying to survive the disgusting Victorian heat and scouting many many ideas to put in place for next year.

I decided to change the name of this blog now that I know I will be teaching kinder and also to maintain some privacy.

Hopefully in the coming weeks/ months I will post some real reflections of what life is like as a REAL teacher