Saturday 27 February 2016

Why My First Class Will Always Be Special To Me


The school year of 2015/2016 is my second year as a primary school teacher. I graduated from uni in 2014 and started working at a bilingual elementary school in 2014. I was teaching 5th and 6th grade in my first year and I was also classroom advisor for grade 6.

I started out the school year with 9 students and ended it with 13. They were my first, so they will always have a special place in my heart. Here is why...

Starting something new is always special. My first job, my first salary and most importantly my first class. The children in grade 6 are 11 or 12 years old. I had five boys and eight girls. All of them very very special and unique and that’s what makes teaching so great. The children come in, with their personalities and learning styles and they form a very heterogeneous group. A great mixture of kids and each and every one of them had their special quality.

Since it was my first year of teaching, they were kind of my guinea pigs. I tried to make my lessons very divers and fun, I always include a game in the beginning, sometimes connected to the topic we are talking about, something not. With group work, different level works, presentations and much more, the lessons were interesting and also challenging for the kids. The feedback I got from colleagues, parents and most importantly from the kids was wonderful and it always motivates me even more.

I was able to build a relationship to every single one of my students, getting to know them and helping them in the ways they needed it. 6th grade is the end of primary school in Switzerland, so it was for me, the children and the parents to decide about the future of the kids. That brought me even closer to them.

A wonderful and fun bunch, that made my first year of teaching special and unique. I have to be honest, I still miss them. Thankfully the school also has a high school, so I see most of them every day.

I decided to write more posts about teaching, so if there is anything you’d like to know and want me to write about, let me know. 

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