Parents Information Night

So I had my parents night last night and I was incredibly nervous ...over nothing!! They were so nice and because I have first class were only concerned about how the homework was working out for this year. So I decided to put a blog post together on some tips and hints to help you get through the night :)

My Powerpoint slides were laid out as follows;
1) Title slide
2) Layout of the nights events
3) Curriculum subjects: What the curriculum covers
4) Curriculum empasis: Here I discussed group work, literacy and numeracy, assesment, ICT, languages, hands-on activties
5) What we learn in first class: A breakdown of programmes used for each subject
6) Sample timetable
7) Homework
8) Discipline Code
9) Examples of homework
10) ICT
11) Sports Training
12) Additional information: Label everything, not to bring in toys, make sure your child has his/her name on everything.
13) Questions and Answers session

I also had a pen in my hand to stop myself fidgeting with them. There was as much info as possible in the slides so I was just basically reading of them. Also I had post-its beside me of anything I needed to elaborate on.

I would advise to prepare some answers for questions such as 'How do I help my child with reading/phonics/maths/Gaeilge at home".

It really is a whole load of worry over nothing, parents are usually lovely and are there to learn from you so try not to find it too daunting! Good luck everyone :)

1st class yearly schemes bundle available to download

1st class yearly schemes available on teachers pay teachers now to download :) https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/1st-class-1st-grade-yearly-scheme-bundle-2060354

First day done!!

How did everyone's first day go? I for one am knackered!!! I must say I wasn't too nervous this morning as I knew the class I was teaching this year from last year. I was greeted when I went out by last years class who were delighted to see me and 2 new parents of kids in my class that moved to the school this year. My morning consisted of the kids telling their news but most of their biggest news consisted of their teeth falling out :). We went on to write a small bit about my summer then I read a story to them. After break I went through books, routines in the classroom and practiced getting them to line up in alphabetical order. We then began some maths stations. The 5 stations consisted of Bingo, the pegs game i posted on my fb page, a jigsaw game where they pair addition problems with the answer, a dice game where they rolled the dice twice and added them together and some addition board games . That led us into break and afterwards the kids done a self portrait of themselves on an A3 and to finish off I put Go Noodle on for them. I'm not going to lie it was crazy at times and it will take a while to get routines in place. Already feels like I was back for a month, now to plan for tomorrow :)

My plan for the first day of school

Hey everyone! So my first day for the new term is fast approaching so I've put a post together for you all on what I'll be covering for my first day.
8:50-9:30: The first part of the day will consist of the children coming in and spending some time talking about their holidays, I will also talk to them about my holidays and show them some photos of places I visited so they feel we're both sharing our summer with each other. Next, I will hand out a worksheet on 'My Summer'. The higher achievers should be able to write sentences with assistance from me, my average level group will be given a list of words and sentences to help them write their sentences and my weaker children will be given words to fill in on their worksheet.

9:30-10:30: After this I will spend 10-15 minutes revising addition and then I will hand out maths games to each group. I will not rotate my groups today so as to ease them back into group work.

10:30-10:50: This should leave us with 10 minutes to spare before lunch so I will read a story from the library. If it runs into lunch they can eat while they listen to me.

11:00-11:30: After small break we will revise classroom rules and lining up. I'm hoping I will be able to put the kids into alphabetical order for lines so as to to cut out any fighting/skipping in the line.

11:30-12:30: This will lead us into out Jitter Juice activity. I found this poem on the internet and I thought it'd be a nice way to ease the kids into school again. The poem is linked to first day nerves and your class could even do some Jitter Juice if you like. I am getting my bunch to draw a picture on the bottom of the age of the Jitter Juice and the recipe. They will then come up with their own juice and what it may be used for.

1:00-2:30: Their big break will follow this and afterwards the kids will be creating self portraits of themselves on A3 paper. I will get them to complete a written activity on 'Mé Féin' which I will stick on their portraits before hanging on the wall.
And that will bring my first day to a close. I will be posting the worksheets to my Teachers Pay Teachers account for
you to download as Gaeilge agus Béarla before Thursday :)

My first blog post

Hey all,
I am a 1st class teacher currently teaching in a Gaelscoil in Dublin. I am looking forward to sharing my ideas, plans and resources with you as Gaeilge agus Béarla. I'll be putting blog posts together during the week that hopefully some of you will be able to use this coming year. Check out my facebook page Múinteoirí Maithe aswell. :)  https://www.facebook.com/muinteoirimaithe1?fref=ts