5th November, 2015
In Conversation with ... Louisa
Louisa is a year 6 teacher, as well as the sustainability and years 5/6 co-ordinator at her school. She completed a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching in 2008 and is in her seventh year of teaching. Her favourite aspects of teaching are being able to perform a multitude of different roles, and sharing in the joys and struggles of her students’ lives. Louisa’s specialty is mathematics teaching; it’s one of her passions and she is involved in developing the school’s mathematics curriculum.
Hi Louisa, thanks for chatting with us!
Can you remember your first day teaching? How did it feel?
I was a crazy mixture of nerves and excitement. I remember feeling like a bit of a fraud and waiting for someone to realise that I should not be left in charge of a class of 22 seven year olds all by myself; surely everyone would find out I had no idea what I was doing! Of course I was more than prepared to teach that class but being left on my own with a class for the first time, being the one that was completely responsible for them was pretty daunting. I have almost no memory of what happened throughout the day but I remember it all went well and I was exhausted at the end of it.
Did you feel unprepared? If so, in what way?
I don’t know that you can ever feel fully prepared when you first start teaching – there is an enormous amount that you learn on the job. In fact that is one of the things I love about teaching; it is always a challenge and you are always learning, not matter how long you have been teaching. I remember the main things I felt unprepared for was the administrative side of teaching. When you are a student teacher you really only have to worry about the lesson planning and teaching so I felt prepared with that, but as a student teacher you don’t really have to deal with all the other stuff that makes up teaching – the record keeping, the reporting, permission forms etc. It was that stuff that I didn’t feel prepared for.
What do you know now that you wish you had known on your first day?
I wish I knew that I wouldn’t use the majority of resources that I spent hours printing, cutting and laminating. I was so excited to finally be a ‘real’ teacher so I spent the summer holidays scouring the internet and books for resources and then making them. However you don’t know what is going to be useful until you know the kids and are planning your lessons. Plus most of the best resources are really simple like playing cards or kids books or are the resources that the kids make themselves. Most of what I made when I first started teaching spent a couple of years gathering dust before I finally got rid of it.
Do you feel your qualification adequately prepared you for your first few years teaching?
Overall I felt like my qualification had prepared me. There were definitely things that I learnt at uni that I have never referred to again but those things probably did help to shape my philosophies. It was definitely what I learnt on my rounds that prepared me the most. I do think that my uni prepared me really well for maths teaching and is why I became so passionate about it.
How have you developed as a teacher?
That is a really tricky question because I’m constantly developing my teaching practices. I’m getting better at being a tidy teacher with a neat desk but that is still a work in progress. One day the phrase “does anyone know where I put such-and-such” will not come out of my mouth.
What are three essential tips that you would give to any Pre-Service Teacher about to start their first day?
On my first day of teaching my principal gave me some really good advice: she told me to not worry about teaching anything on the first couple of days but to just focus on building a positive classroom environment. She said to me that as long as the kids and I left the first day smiling then it was a success.
Three essential tips:
What do you think are the most important elements to being an effective teacher?
You need to be flexible and expect the unexpected. Rarely do things go to plan in schools so you need to be prepared to adapt and think on your feet.
You need to be rich in patience and have a sense of humour.
You need to love learning new things and be reflective about your own practice. What is working well, what isn’t and why. It is ok not to know things and you need to be willing to seek help from your colleagues.
You also need to be organised.
How could we improve Pre-Service Teacher education courses?
This is another tricky question. I would say the main thing is that there needs to be more emphasis on the practicalities of planning – looking through the curriculum to make yearly overviews and term overviews and taking these to make unit planners and then most importantly creating your weekly teaching program. How are you going to organise your week to fit in the maths and literacy you need as well as specialists and the myriad of other things that happen in any given week. Creating your weekly plan is something that I think unis need to spend more time teaching.
Really though, unless you have a class most things are just theoretical and easily forgotten, you learn best by doing. That is why rounds are so important and the more time pre-service teachers spend in a range of classes the better.
Louisa, thanks for taking the time to respond to our questions and good luck with the remainder of term 4!
Louisa has also been kind enough to answer some questions regarding the interview process of getting a teaching job, but they weren’t included here in an effort to keep the article short! Her responses will feature in an upcoming blog post.
- Alex
Although Alex has regular contact with Louisa this interview was conducted via email, with the view in mind of allowing Louisa time to consider the questions and respond when she could.
In Conversation with ... Louisa
Louisa is a year 6 teacher, as well as the sustainability and years 5/6 co-ordinator at her school. She completed a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching in 2008 and is in her seventh year of teaching. Her favourite aspects of teaching are being able to perform a multitude of different roles, and sharing in the joys and struggles of her students’ lives. Louisa’s specialty is mathematics teaching; it’s one of her passions and she is involved in developing the school’s mathematics curriculum.
Hi Louisa, thanks for chatting with us!
Can you remember your first day teaching? How did it feel?
I was a crazy mixture of nerves and excitement. I remember feeling like a bit of a fraud and waiting for someone to realise that I should not be left in charge of a class of 22 seven year olds all by myself; surely everyone would find out I had no idea what I was doing! Of course I was more than prepared to teach that class but being left on my own with a class for the first time, being the one that was completely responsible for them was pretty daunting. I have almost no memory of what happened throughout the day but I remember it all went well and I was exhausted at the end of it.
Did you feel unprepared? If so, in what way?
I don’t know that you can ever feel fully prepared when you first start teaching – there is an enormous amount that you learn on the job. In fact that is one of the things I love about teaching; it is always a challenge and you are always learning, not matter how long you have been teaching. I remember the main things I felt unprepared for was the administrative side of teaching. When you are a student teacher you really only have to worry about the lesson planning and teaching so I felt prepared with that, but as a student teacher you don’t really have to deal with all the other stuff that makes up teaching – the record keeping, the reporting, permission forms etc. It was that stuff that I didn’t feel prepared for.
What do you know now that you wish you had known on your first day?
I wish I knew that I wouldn’t use the majority of resources that I spent hours printing, cutting and laminating. I was so excited to finally be a ‘real’ teacher so I spent the summer holidays scouring the internet and books for resources and then making them. However you don’t know what is going to be useful until you know the kids and are planning your lessons. Plus most of the best resources are really simple like playing cards or kids books or are the resources that the kids make themselves. Most of what I made when I first started teaching spent a couple of years gathering dust before I finally got rid of it.
Do you feel your qualification adequately prepared you for your first few years teaching?
Overall I felt like my qualification had prepared me. There were definitely things that I learnt at uni that I have never referred to again but those things probably did help to shape my philosophies. It was definitely what I learnt on my rounds that prepared me the most. I do think that my uni prepared me really well for maths teaching and is why I became so passionate about it.
How have you developed as a teacher?
That is a really tricky question because I’m constantly developing my teaching practices. I’m getting better at being a tidy teacher with a neat desk but that is still a work in progress. One day the phrase “does anyone know where I put such-and-such” will not come out of my mouth.
What are three essential tips that you would give to any Pre-Service Teacher about to start their first day?
On my first day of teaching my principal gave me some really good advice: she told me to not worry about teaching anything on the first couple of days but to just focus on building a positive classroom environment. She said to me that as long as the kids and I left the first day smiling then it was a success.
Three essential tips:
- Be consistent – set up your expectations from the start and stick to them. You need to be firm but fair and the kids should always know what to expect from you (kids love boundaries). If you say you are going to do something then make sure you do it because kids never forget.
- Get to know the parents from the very first day. Be out in the yard saying hello and introducing yourself. Building a rapport with the parents is really important.
- Don’t live at school - Even if you spent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at school, you’d still find things to do. Learn to prioritise and let go. Set a reasonable time to leave school each day and stick to it. A tired, overworked teacher is a bad teacher so take care of yourself and get enough sleep.
What do you think are the most important elements to being an effective teacher?
You need to be flexible and expect the unexpected. Rarely do things go to plan in schools so you need to be prepared to adapt and think on your feet.
You need to be rich in patience and have a sense of humour.
You need to love learning new things and be reflective about your own practice. What is working well, what isn’t and why. It is ok not to know things and you need to be willing to seek help from your colleagues.
You also need to be organised.
How could we improve Pre-Service Teacher education courses?
This is another tricky question. I would say the main thing is that there needs to be more emphasis on the practicalities of planning – looking through the curriculum to make yearly overviews and term overviews and taking these to make unit planners and then most importantly creating your weekly teaching program. How are you going to organise your week to fit in the maths and literacy you need as well as specialists and the myriad of other things that happen in any given week. Creating your weekly plan is something that I think unis need to spend more time teaching.
Really though, unless you have a class most things are just theoretical and easily forgotten, you learn best by doing. That is why rounds are so important and the more time pre-service teachers spend in a range of classes the better.
Louisa, thanks for taking the time to respond to our questions and good luck with the remainder of term 4!
Louisa has also been kind enough to answer some questions regarding the interview process of getting a teaching job, but they weren’t included here in an effort to keep the article short! Her responses will feature in an upcoming blog post.
- Alex
Although Alex has regular contact with Louisa this interview was conducted via email, with the view in mind of allowing Louisa time to consider the questions and respond when she could.
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