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(This article also includes ideas on why you should Broaden Your Teaching Experiences)
I graduated university at UTAS in 2001. My second year is just about to end and I am still looking for my first full time teaching position. However, the experiences and skills I have gained in the past two years, I believe, are far more beneficial to my future teaching career than I suspect they would have been walking straight into a full time classroom position. When I do finally find a full time classroom position, I have no doubts that I will have a successful start to a fulltime teaching career, based on the experiences I've had to date.
In the past two years, my teaching timetable has looked like this:
2002
Term 1 Relief Teaching
I worked in about a dozen different schools, mostly in the Early Childhood sector. It took quite a number of weeks to find regular work, and even longer for particular schools to begin calling me back as they got to know me.
Term 1 Flying Start (Literacy Specialisation - grades 1/2)
Towards the very end of term 1 I received a phone call from the school I had done my Internship teaching at the previous year. They were looking for a Flying Start teacher, to teach groups of children from grades 1 and 2, 4 mornings a week. I took the position because the steady income would be a great help but also because I really felt I needed an edge on the teaching field - and specialising in literacy I hoped would give me that. It was a great experience and although I would not do it again (for the simple fact that it was not a full time position) I am so thankful the opportunity came to me.
Term 2 Classroom Teaching (grade 1)
During my time at the school I was employed at for Flying Start, a grade 1 class teacher had made the decision to drop back her full time load to 4 days a week. She knew I was looking for more work and it was arranged that on my free day, I would take her grade 1 class for the rest of the year. Although it was only 1 day, it was an excellent opportunity. Again I was guaranteed income on that extra day (which removed a huge stressor from my life) it gave me an opportunity to run some lengthy programs and trial my teaching methods. I learnt a lot in a very short time during that teaching phase.
2003
Term 1/Term 2 Relief Teaching
I had not been successful in securing a teaching position for this year (there was very little going unfortunately) and my teaching positions from the previous year were not continuin so I had to return to relief teaching. I returned to a lot of schools from the previous year and was also called to some new schools. There were no new positions available during the first two terms so I worked extremely hard to prove my abilities to the schools I went to for relief teaching. The experiences from the previous year had definitely boosted my confidence immensely and also given me some fantastic ideas to develop.
I began to teach regularly at about 5 schools regularly but as time went on, two of those schools had enough work for me to almost be teaching casually on a full time basis. I began to treat relief teaching almost as though it was my professional career, giving a lot of attention to regular teaching plans, my communication to schools and teachers, and I found my regular relief schools becoming very impressed with my relief teaching. These experiences have been my biggest confidence boost to date and I am very thankful for the opportunities that presented themselves to me.
I began to realise that to make a living relief teaching I had to let go of my main interests and accept everything and anything that came my way. As a result, my willingness to teach at any level - Kinder - grade 6 - at any school (easy or tough) gave me a reuptation as hard working, highly motivated and showed my skills of flexibility and adaptability, which are admired amongst teachers. I finally began to feel as though my hard work was paying off and my teaching efforts were being appreciated.
Term 3 Classroom Teaching (grade 5/6)
My hard work began to pay off when I was asked to teach a grade 5/6 at a very challenging school for three days a week during third term. I had been accepting work at this school because I was in need of money, and I gradually became a regular relief teacher at the school - teaching primarily upper primary classes, as I had developed a reputation of being able to cope :) but it had also been a huge test of my teaching capabilities and behaviour management strategies. As an early childhood specialist, the idea of teaching a 5/6 class was incredibly daunting, but the staff were very confident in my abilities to adapt to this class - which just happened to be ALL BOYS!
I eventually said yes to accept the job and I believe it has been very successful considering the challenges I have faced and it has proven to me that I am a capable and ready teacher - ten times more capable and ready than I was after graduating from university.
At this present time I am writing applications to find a teaching job for 2004, but I am now confident that if a job does not become available to me for whatever reason, I have some fantastic teaching challenges and opportunities ahead of me in a huge variety of different teaching areas and I look forward to what is headed my way. The experience has definitely taught me that these early and varied teaching experiences are definitely valuable and I'm almost thankful I didn't walk straight into my own classroom. Don't be afraid of the unknown - try a bit of everything which is thrown your way, and throw yourself into it - it can not only push you along the path to becoming a full time teacher, but teaches you many things about yourself along the way.
Try to get as many different teaching experiences as you can. Everything you do should have the aim of trying to secure more work, and hopefully put you in a good position for a full time class of your own. Here are just a few simple comments on the different types of teaching I've experienced and how each has helped me as a beginning teacher.
FLYING START
- Extremely rewarding
- Being a literacy specialist for grade 1/2 students allowed me to become very skilled in one area (an important curriculum area)
- Responsible for small groups and individuals
- Work very closely with class teachers - great for developing interpersonal skills
- It gives an opportunity to be very independent in planning and assessment
- Become very knowledgeable in individual learning styles
PART-TIME CLASS TEACHER
- Fantastic experience in lieu of whole classroom teaching
- Great classroom teaching experience independently without as much stress
- Need to be very good at communication and developing working relationships with students
- Can be hard to maintain routines (as you'll most likely be following the primary teacher's routines)
RELIEF TEACHING
- Gives you a variety of experience
- Opportunities to test your new skills
- Keeps your face in the schools whilst waiting for a full time class room
- Need to be extremely organised and flexible - and be WELL RESTED for each day
- May need to be available to work at very short notice
VOLUNTARY WORK
- Always keep thoughts open to new opportunities
- Grab opportunities that come your way
- Treat any voluntary work in schools as you would a paying job.
PLANNING FOR MULTIPLE JOBS
* Keep information, notes, planning for each class and schools separately (develop a workable and productive filing system)
* Understand that each job IS a different job. Remember that each school and each child is different to the next and so will their needs be different.
* Must have very effective communication between yourself and other teachers, principals and other staff that you work with.