I'm very happy to have my first guest blogger this week. Sam is an experienced teacher, discussing the challenges of effective communication in the classroom. I was thrilled to be contacted by her regarding how TPTC has helped her with this, so asked her to put it 'on to paper' as I believe her story may resonate with many fellow teachers out there. Thank you Sam…
Gulp… I have just moved from teaching Year 3 for 8 years to Year 1. Before teaching Year 3, I taught Year 5 for 4 years. Yikes! I’ve never taught KS1 before and have had to start everything from scratch. All of my lessons and resources have been made by me to suit my class this year. I’ve not had the option of adapting planning or activities from previous years as I’ve never taught Year 1 before. Therefore I have been busy. Seriously busy, getting to grips with 'the jump'! However, I like a challenge so I was very eager to get stuck in!
So far it's been fabulous but a bit of a whirlwind for me and my TA. Time was already scarce, but recently with my other roles in school, it's nearly impossible to have quality time with my TA that our working relationship deserves. We were like ships passing in the night. As so many other members of school staff find, we would say hello in the morning, goodbye at the end of the day and not much else in between, other than a snatched conversation at lunch and even that was when we weren’t setting up resources or on duty. Post-it notes and spare exercise books definitely played their part in terms of communicating with my TA, but when I saw the planner pad that The Positive Teacher Company was offering, I just had to have one.
You can just tell that they are 100% made by a teacher. I mean, who doesn’t want to save a bit of time here and there? It was a no brainer. And I don’t regret it. For a minimal price, I can now communicate with the TA and we both know what’s to happen during the day. We both feel a lot more organised and like we have much more time. Not only that, but it’s even got space to put extra information and jobs on. The TA loves it too. She pins it up on her noticeboard with pride every day. She ticks off the jobs as she does them. She makes notes to herself on it. She’s even told me how much she loves it and how it helps her during the day.
Honestly, it takes minutes for me to fill in by hand and she’s got all the information she needs right there as soon as she comes in. It’s also a great tool for her to refer back to during the day if she’s not sure how to do something or if there’s something she’s forgotten.
Have you used any of our products successfully in your classroom practice? Would you like to write a guest post for us? Email enquiries@thepositiveteachercompany.co.uk
