MIA - Part One (this one is for you Andi ;-)

This is my classroom before I 'Rachael-d' it. It's quite different now.

Missing in Action.
That's where I have been - Missing in Action.
Way back in May I secured my very first teaching position. Since then I have pretty much been in survival mode, treading water,.
I teach a year 5 and 6 class (9, 10 & 11 year olds).
It's pretty cool to have your own classroom to decorate, it's kind of like an extension of decorating a house if you are into that sort of thing, which I am.
However the reality is that as a new teacher once you are in the swing of a term of teaching all decorating goes out the window.
The mode of the day is survival...
Survival does not include decorating your classroom.
Survival does include planning weeks of teaching and learning that follows a curriculum and is geared towards your students achievement results at a level that is measured nationally.
Survival does include managing the behavior of your class so that they can work towards those national results.
Survival is not catching every bug that travels the universe and your classroom within a term.
Survival is trying to balance work and personal life and deciding to postpone that till another day.
Survival is resisting the temptation to have a glass of wine every night and 75% of the time (could be higher) failing dismally.
Survival is giving up on having a house where every room is clean - at the same time.
Survival is looking at the pictures in your recipe books and cooking poached eggs on toast - again.
Survival is removing the chipped polish off your toes, 3 months ago, and never getting around to repainting them.
Survival is spasmodic texts to family and friends and single sentence (sometimes a single word) emails.
Survival is saving your social life for the school holidays and still not having a social life because you are either comatose from exhaustion (not wine), sick from being run down, doing a make up of being a bad partner/mother for the last 9 weeks and trying to cram quality time into a two week period while still whipping into school to re-do wall displays, plan something, print something, find something and so it goes on.
Survival is forgetting all of the above because a student has moved forward to the next level in their learning.
Survival is knowing you chose the right profession because of the thrill you get when a student does move forward in their learning.

I do love being a teacher!

Thanks for visiting!
Rachael xo
p.s. thanks to my friend Andi who motivated me to blog again "Rachi, I do miss your blog!" xo