Preparing the new school year

Most of you probably know that I am a primary school teacher. I have a new class each school year, it’s always a 6th grade, so the last year of primary. I know of my students already, because I teach French in 5th grade. My school year starts on Monday, so thought it would be time for another job related blog post. 

We get eight weeks off in summer, but of course it’s not all free time, we have to prepare a lot fort he new school year, I thought I will tell you what we have to prepare. I wrote a post about teacher holidays, have a look here: The Truth about Teacher Holidays

The basis for the preparation is of course the timetable for the new school year. You then know exactly what classes you teach and what lessons/subjects you have to prepare. I have a planning book fort he whole school year with the each day in and then space for every lesson. For all the subjects I teach I have made a yearly plan, with the topics, the book pages, curriculum info and other instructions. That’s a lot of work the first time you do it and then you can always use it. I tend to change the plan sometimes, especially when it comes to topic order. Occasionally we have to change them, because we have to use a different book. If you of course start teaching anew subject to you, you have to write that kind of plan. I then take these info and start planning out my lessons. I usually write short notes about these lessons in the planning book, like how I start a lesson, where we work and what I want to do with the children. I of course do that for every subject I teach. Coming with this is adding tests and announcing tests, I write that in the planner as well. I usually plan until the first holidays. In the first week I do something special with the class, like handing out books etc. (more afterwards), so that’s a bit different, but I write that in the planner as well. 

A new school year means getting to know each other and filling the classroom with pictures and more. During the summer holidays I always come up with an idea for the classroom door and prepare things for that. This year, it’s a world map and each child will make an individual picture themselves, with a photo, their countries and hobbies. I do the same, so that the kids have an example. We then scratch off the countries, where we are from and make a line to our picture. On top of that the children fill out two profiles (one in German and one in English), which we’ll hang up in the classroom. I also prepare cards with their names on. Yellow and red for my consequence system (Classroom Behavior Systems) and green for my question system. Of course I print lists and make my own for homework completion and grades. The kids write down their goals at the beginning of the school year, I prepare that paper and envelopes to put them in. Each child also gets a little present, so I have to get that as well. We make name cards, to make the classroom look nicer. Moreover, I have to copy things for the first week and then also the weeks after and all the labels have to be printed (we have a labelling machine). We put labels on books, drawers, drinking cups, pegs for different systems etc. 

In the classroom a lot has to be ready: all the material, as well as all the school books. I prepare a nice white board picture and hang some things on the wall, like a world map, rule posters etc. I have to think, how to seat the children and arrange the desks. I always put the cards and the present on the tables for them to know, where to sit down. I need to take out things of my cupboards, because everything is in there for cleaning. I like my classroom to look pretty, so I get flowers as well. I have to make sure the laptops are in the right position and charge. Other material needs to be ready to, like papers for homework etc. 

We have to kick off days with the team, where we have lots of meetings about the school year. We plan certain events, talk about the new children etc. During these days we also have the time to prepare the classroom. I usually go up once before to do things like copying and labelling, because everyone needs to do that. 

You also have to be clear about the rules in your classroom and maybe a system of how to deal with their behaviour. It’s best to write these rules down and when you go through them with the children you can make sure you really mention them all.

Extra material needs to be ready as well, like mandalas, logicals, games etc. I also like to have a nice bookshelf and reading corner. 

I work at a private school, so I don’t have to do these things but of course a lot of teachers have to think about how to communicate with parents and also send out letters with all the important info. 

I’m sure there are many more things and every teacher does it differently. I’m very excited to start this new school year. 

If I wasn't a teacher...

In my last post I talked about the dream jobs I had as a child. Today I am naming a few jobs that interest me now. I love being a teacher, but there are other things that fascinate me too.

Being a translator fascinated me as a child already. I still really like the idea, but I wouldn’t translate everything. My dream would be books probably.

Speaking of books. Working in the publishing world would be really interesting or being an author.

Traveling is a big passion of mine and doing something in that field would be fabulous. Something like testing luxury hotels or guided tours through one of my fave cities. There are endless possibilities. I know bloggers travel a lot, but that wouldn’t be something I want. I find that their way is not genuine and real.

I’d still love the be a musical actress and sing with Aaron Tveit ;). I love singing and performing, so I definitely wouldn’t say no to that. Generally doing something with music appeals to me, musical therapy or writing songs.

Interior design is still very interesting to me, so working in that field would be very interesting, maybe even going into real estate.

How about you, what would you do, other than your current job?

Christmas at School

As promised I tell you more about Christmas related things we do at school. 

The first thing is our Christmas Musical. We have two musicals per school year. One in December and one in June. The one in December is usually themed around Christmas. This year we did "The Little Star". I'm responsible for the drama part of it all and our music teacher does the musical part. It's always lots of fun and the kids really enjoy it. After the show we always have a Christmas dinner together with the parents. 

Our whole primary school has a Christmas Crafts morning in the last week before the holidays. Each teacher decides on an activity and the kids can then sign up. I sometimes make Christmas cards with them or we make baubles, trees, stars etc. 

Santa visits us as well, actually first to forth grade. He then tells the kids how they have been doing and they get a "Grittibänz", chocolate and oranges. 

In my class (6th grade) I have an Advent Calendar with chocolate and we play the Secret Santa game. I also decorate the classroom with the students and they last day before the holiday is usually dedicated to watching a movie and playing games. I always get little present for them as well. 

Applying for your first job

Three years ago I was in the middle of applying for my first teaching job. I was in my last year at uni, so I didn’t finish my degree yet. Since I wanted to start working right after uni, without a gap year, it was time to get started.

I actually started applying in January of 2014, so during the Christmas holidays I put everything together, ready to start sending applications to schools. We have a great website here in Switzerland, where you can see which schools are looking for teachers in the new school year, what grade they want etc.

I was very happy with my title page and of course also my CV and everything else needed. I got invited for my first job interview in January and the week after I had another one. We learned what to prepare at uni, but I was so nervous. They both went ok and I got more secure. A few weeks later I got a rejection from both schools though. The reason was that I don’t have the experience. Well, how do you want me to have the experience, if I come straight from uni?!

I continued applying and got invited again and again. However, there came rejection after rejection. Experience was a popular reason, sometimes they preferred a man (not many male primary school teachers out there) or they took somebody, who did their internship at that school. That meant that during their studies at uni, they had their practical training at the school. If you’re doing a great job then, it’s an advantage, because you know the teachers, the principal and maybe even the kids. I went to uni in another area, further away from home, so for me the question of applying at these schools never came up. On top of that, these schools didn’t have an open position anyway.

Although I went to uni a bit further away from home, I knew from the start that I wanted a job close by in the state I grew up. I just love the area and the salary is a bit higher. So, it’s no surprise that I limited my applications to that area. At first anyway…

After getting rejection after rejection I started opening up the area and also applied at schools in other states, but still close by.

I knew that I wanted 5^th or 6^th grades, so I never applied for 1^st and 2^nd grade and only considered a few jobs for 3^rd and 4^th grade. A lot of people thought that was a mistake, but I don’t regret it. It’s the grade/level I want to teach and I want to be happy in what I do.

Most of my friends at uni got their jobs pretty fast, after one or two applications and more and more got the yes. This was very hard, seeing all the people around my getting their teaching job and me, still searching. There was a lot of crying, but I never started doubting myself, it’s their loss right?! That’s very important! Never give up and believe in yourself, it’s fine to cry, it’s fine to be disappointed and you need time to get over it, but then get up again and fight.

The process of some school was very disappointing. From one school I got a rejection email an hour after my job interview. Some just took forever to decide and other never answered and after weeks they finally sent back my application. I had one principal, who said I wasn’t ready yet, but I didn’t like the school anyway.

It’s very vital that you yourself have a good feeling about the place and the people as well, otherwise you just won’t feel comfortable.

It was very interesting to see, how the schools did their job interview. In most of them I had the interview with one, two or maybe three people. So there was the principal, maybe a teacher teaching the same grade level and one other teaching, who is responsible for the kids who need more attention.

Well, anyway, I had to wait until the middle of my final exams in June to finally get a job. I had a job interview in May with the big boss of the school and then another one in June with the director of the school and the primary school principal. It’s a private school, so the process was a bit different. A few days later I got the YES and it was the best thing to happen to me.

A job at a bilingual primary school! I always had in the back of my head that working at an International School would be great, because I love languages and the international atmosphere. Now, three days later I’m still there and still very happy with what I’m doing.

So, I guess my main message is that applying for your (first) job is hard, full of ups and downs and not as easy as it looks. The main thing is to stay confident and never give up!!!