Finally Back!

Ok,, so apparently when I said "the next few days" I really meant "in two weeks" .   I'm not really sure why I haven't blogged in so long - I've had quite a few ideas for posts (the last two weeks have had plenty of things for me to post about) but I just haven't seemed to get around to it.  Guess my head hasn't really been in the game... though that begs the question "what game has it been in?" :)  Could be a symptom of little sleep...

I've started my new assignment at the nursery class and I'm loving it!  Since I've supplied there previously and there's a very experienced team, its was easy to slide into the routine and the kids have gotten comfortable around me.  Every now and then though I'm reminded that I'm in charge... there's no other teacher to do the daily planning, room organization, comment books, paper work - I'm ultimately responsible.  As well, I set the lessons (though its quite unstructured in nursery) as opposed to simply following them as a supply teacher so I'm free to choose the topics and direction and deviate whenever I see fit.  The power - the awesome new power! :)

On a serious note again, its so nice being in one place - knowing that I have a job, where I'm going and what I'm going to do in advance really decreases my daily stress.  Seeing the same children each day helps build the teacher-student relationship and let's me watch the improvement.  Being able to see that I'm making a positive difference is very rewarding and really adds to my job satisfaction.  Some days, I'm having so much fun with my children that it doesn't seem like work at all - though these kind of days are invariably the most draining by the end :).

I'm also seeing the importance a stable environment makes in their development.  Stability gives the children a framework in which to explore safely - too much uncertainty or new things can be scary.  Changes or interruptions of established routines (even briefly) have the potential to throw children off for the entire session which means I have to keep things interesting and engaging while familiar enough so they know what to do and can have fun.

So the final Ireland albums have been posted (6 in all) so check them out!  I'll make more of an effort to get more consistent updates ("ya ya", I hear you say, "we've heard THAT before".)  Well... I mean it this time :).