Day 15- Name 5 strengths you have as an educator

Obviously keeping to this blogging challenge is NOT one of my strengths, after a stall at day 6. But I will try to get back on the horse and try to catch up a few of the missed posts over the next few days.

Today topic is to talk about my own teaching strengths. I'm thinking this question might be a little challenging but here goes...

1. I am a quick learner which means as an educator I am able to quickly pick up new learning, whether it be an assessment tool, a new curriculum, a new programme. I feel I am able to learn about these new things quickly and  independently and then work out the best way to implement this in my class.

2. I am able to make links to prior learning for the children. I find during topics I am always seeing ways that new learning is connecting to the old, and helping children to see how learning is connected.

3. I am adaptable. I am able to judge the moment and make changes to better suit the children's readiness at any given time. I am also adaptable to changes in school wide timetables, they don't throw our class programme, we will carry on with something else we planned to do.

4. I am a risk taker. I am not afraid to try something new. I like to explore ideas with the children in my class, to get them involved in what we are doing between 9am and 3pm. I have brought e-portfolios into my school, explored my own version of Daily 5 and wrote a picture book with 6 yr olds.

5. I am a learner. It is almost an obsession with me, but I love learning. I am always researching things I can do with my home, with my class, management ideas, reading programmes, new technologies, passion projects... Anything that peeks my interest.

Wow...I did it. I found 5 things I think help me to be a good educator.

How time Flies...

A year came and went... and now I find myself suddenly in 2015. Last year was a great year. I was fortunate to be allowed to teach a new entrant class. It was a year of awesome learning.


- Team teaching taught me that two is better than one. Teaching together with an experienced new entrant teacher made my transition to this age group seemless. I was able to build on my teaching philosophy with a likeminded peer, who instilled in me her knowledge and belief in the value of play. We complimented each other with our teaching strengths, and had an amazing time.


- Five years olds taught be about the power of the human brain. Boy, do five year olds learn a lot in just 10 months of school. I feel all teachers should feel the success you feel as a teacher when these little sponges suck up all the information you can put out there. I can't wait to see how these children grow through out all their years at school.


- My inquiry in Maths taught me that five year olds can go beyond what is expected of them. By focusing on remembering an using basic facts, my five year olds we able to start thinking in patterns, and using information they knew to solve problems. Very exciting. I am hoping to test my ideas of skipping past counting on, by promoting use of facts straight from the start, again this year with my year 3 maths class.


- My colleagues taught me that teachers are resilient, risk takers, who are modelling these traits to their classes. I was very pleased to hear that all the year 5/6 teachers(my team I had just left) were willing to throw their hats in and have a go at using GAFE for the first time with their students, and manage individual student blogs. The learning curve was enormous for some... but they made it through with each others support, and said they would never go back.


- I taught myself that teaching can still take a backseat to life. Through having another teacher to share paperwork and teaching with I found I got my weekends back. With two of us working hard Monday to Friday I was finally able to use my weekends for rest. This year I have looked carefully at what helped us to achieve this last year, and am attempting to implement efficient was of meeting teacher paperwork, so I can continue having my weekends to myself this year.


So that's my wrap for 2014.


let the adventures of 2015 begin...