Pinkalicious Holidays!

Pinkalicious- I'm assured that it really is a word by the year 2 girl who used it to describe me last week. She had noticed the shoes, watch, lanyard pen, tshirt and bag (all pink of course) and was talking to her friends as we were walking back to her classroom. So I hereby declare it a Pinkalicious Holiday!

A Pinkalicious Holiday means that I have time to catch up on emails and make some useful posts for you guys... so far I've been asked to tackle:

• resumes
• provisional to full registration help
• reflective practices (and how to document them)
• myHR
• using smartboards/laptops at school

O- and I'll be finalising dates for the next round of workshops- and of course creating the workshops (eek!).

Well at least I won't be bored over the holidays! Comment or email if there's any other topics you would like me to tackle for you and have a great holiday.

Timing is Everything

After a very successful workshop I have had requests for another one. I am hoping to re-run the "Surviving and Thriving" workshop and also add a couple of shorter workshops- one with games to play and another on behaviour management strategies. What I would like to know, before I begin planning dates is when you would like the workshops run. So take a moment to fill in the survey on the right side of this screen or email me at thepinksupplyteacher@gmail.com to let me know when is the best time for workshops for you. So far I have stuck with Sunday afternoons as they seem to suit most people- but I am open to other times too.

The Dark Side of Supply Teaching

Though I've never been tied down to a railway track, I have spend the occasional day of work feeling like I've been hit by a train... but where possible I've still gone to work.

The dark side of Supply Teaching is that when we don't work, we don't get paid. So there are weeks where despite our best efforts to stay healthy we do get sick, and if we want to get paid we work. So we take a cold and flu tablet, put a smile on our face and do our very best. Then we come home and get as much rest as we can.

So that has been my week.

Work. Sleep. A paycheque.

It has meant some social engagements were cancelled, that they gym is a distant memory and that I'm only just finishing up the paperwork from last week's workshop tonight. But the very best bit? I still love my job and love teaching.

It also means that I'm going to wait until tomorrow to email the receipts out to last week's workshop participants as I am quite sure that they need another proof-read before sending them...

Thank-you-

I'm working my way through a flu (no work, no pay you see) but have emerged from my doona long enough to find some lovely emails from my workshop participants. It seems they found the workshop useful and are telling all their friends about it!

I'd love to put another workshop on soon- and so I'm putting the question out there- when is it most convenient for you guys to come to a workshop?

• School holiday weekdays? 
• Weekends? (If so- which day?)
• Mornings (leaving your afternoons free)? 
• Afternoons (allowing a sleep-in)?

Since so many of you came from the Southside I'm looking into alternative venues too. And for those of you who came to the first workshop, I'm considering doing a pair of shorter workshops on behaviour management and games. Any other suggestions? Email me (or leave a comment- you can make it anonymous if you aren't logged into an account when you read this blog).

Reflections on Laminating

Not the most imaginative post title in the world, is it? It doesn't really inspire excitement.

But here I am on a Saturday night- laminating. I left friends at the bar after impro and said "Well I have to go home and get my laminating done." They looked at me like I was a crazy person.

"You have a laminator?" they asked, stunned by the idea. They weren't teaching people. They just didn't get it.

Not that I'm really complaining- this is laminating that I put my hand up and volunteered to do. It's work that is over and above my day-job. But it also reminded me of what I used to do as a Classroom Teacher. What was quite simply expected of me in my old day-job. Tonight's effort is about 55 sheets, which, if it were for school would translate to slightly less than two class sets of something. That was about half my weekly literacy photocopying. Maths often ran to the same amount. I'm still trying to figure out how I used to manage it.

I guess what I'm saying is, next time a Classroom Teacher hands you a laminated literacy card, remember that they have been hard at work, well beyond three o-clock, printing and laminating and cutting away. And remember, if you are thinking of sticking with Supply Teaching, that you won't have to (unless you are silly enough to run a workshop or two).

Pink Shoes!

Each and every day I could try madly to fill someone else's shoes, while not stepping on anyone's toes. They are very big shoes (I fill in for some truly amazing teachers), and I am quite the clumsy girl.

Put it quite simply, it's an impossible job. A job I could go crazy trying to do. It's a good thing that I don't try. I have learnt that I can't ever really fill anyone else's shoes, and that I'm bound to step on someone's toes occasionally.

Now that sounds like I don't like my job... and nothing is further from he truth. I adore my work. But each and every day I need to remember that it simply isn't possible for me to do anything other than my best.

And that is why I wear my silly hot pink shoes- they remind me that I can't really fill anyone else's shoes, but as long as I'm smiling- that it's ok. They remind me that I really can only be me. Also, when wearing shoes that were a gift from a teaching colleague- well then the smile is impossible to wipe from my face.

There are still a few places available at the workshop, email to reserve your place now.

Read All About It...

And it seems you are. We have a lovely little group together for the workshop on Sunday, and readership of this little blog is picking up. People are saying nice things and I really think that this is going to be a great year for Supply Teaching. So as I sit here amid a mass of pink laminated sheets (for the workshop) I think I can take the time to pause and smile, and call it a night. But first, a big thank-you to all of you who are also working towards making 2012 a great year for us Supply Teachers. Tomorrow's post will be longer, and it will have shoes. I promise.