Thank you to Olive Sharp for this fabulous guest blog post! Claire

“I taught my first class in 1998, some days that feels like yesterday and other days like a million years ago. Recently, I was asked what tips or words of advice I would give to my much younger self if I could go back in time…

Creating, growing and nurturing relationships with the children in your class has to be my top tip for NQTs and a central part of your life as a teacher. You need to put effort into getting to know the children in your class. What do they like? How many siblings do they have? Do they have pets? What makes them laugh? I am lucky enough to teach in a school where our staff use our first names and I think that really helps make our relationships with our children more personal. You also need to be willing to share your life with them. They will love hearing about your children, pets, parents, silly things you did as a child, like when you dropped that birthday cake out of its box and onto the floor! How your cat won’t sleep anywhere but on your favourite jumper no matter how many fancy beds you buy for her. We need to be willing to share our lives with the children in our class to develop trusting relationships. These relationships are essential for effective teaching and learning and they carry through the children’s time in your school and beyond.

I experienced this when I was at a function about 4 years ago and I met two boys that I had taught years before in 4th class. These boys were now 23-year-old young men. We chatted and laughed and reminisced. It was so lovely to talk with them about old times and the different things we had done in class that year. They both mentioned their favourite part of the year spent in my class (which was when I had gotten them pizza at the end of our month learning about Italy). I laughed, saying that I obviously needed to feed my class pizza more often! These young men had finished college, one was going travelling and the other was beginning a Masters and yet the relationship that had been created years before was still there and it was as rewarding that night to see them joking and laughing about school as it had been when they sat in my class. It’s hard as an NQT to see that far into the future but it happens faster than you think and the relationship seeds you plant continue to bloom over the years. The day will come, sooner than you can imagine, where those same pupils will arrive at your door holding the hand of their little one saying, “Yes sweetheart Múinteoir Olive used to be Mommy’s teacher”.

A second tip I would share with my younger self would be to be flexible. I came out of training college with definite ideas regarding timetables and structure and things that HAD to be done in a school day; my years of teaching have taught me otherwise. I had to learn to be flexible with my subjects and structures. When a lesson is going well, I had to learn to let it flow and allow the children to immerse themselves in their learning. Similarly, if a lesson was not going well and I could see that it wasn’t working, for whatever reason, I had to know when to shelve it and move on and not berate myself too much at its lack of success. This took time for me to really master, especially the shelving part! There are 183 school days in our primary calendar and I had to trust that whatever the lesson was – I would get it covered. Weather is also a factor that I needed to take into account when working on my flexibility. I have planned lessons for the classroom, which were then moved to the yard when the sun unexpectedly shone in my window on a crisp, bright October day. Similarly, my lesson on new beginnings and springtime had to be somewhat altered when we had an unexpected snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures in February. Different things will happen in the school year that you haven’t planned for so, instead of fighting against them and attempting to rigidly stick to your plan, I have found it easier to go with the changes and adapt my lessons to whatever the new situation is. Your relationships with your class will help you with this.

A few years ago I learned that an Uncle of one of the children in my class was coming home from France for a few weeks where he worked as a chef. I invited him into the class and he agreed to join us the following week. In the week proceeding his arrival, we spent a little time looking at France as a country. The children learned the names of some of its cities and we drew the national flag. We explored what chefs do in their job and the children collaborated on questions we could ask him about his job and the country he now lives in. We had a wonderful few hours with him, asking him questions and showing him the flags we had made. He made them crepes on an electric frying pan and they had their photo taken wearing his chef’s hat. The morning was a wonderful success and was one of the highlights for my junior infants that year, and none of it had been my yearly plan. Flexibility is key.

My third tip would be to mind yourself. Hopefully, you will be doing this job for a long time and you don’t want to burn out. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure to be amazing and no one can be amazing every day. I have picked up wonderful hints and tips from Instagram over the last few years and it can be an amazing resource but part of me is really glad it didn’t exist in 1998. Every teacher is different, every school is different and every class you teach will be different. One size does not fit all and something that looks good on Instagram may not translate to your class and that is ok! I think the key is to trust your gut; you do know what you are doing, you know the children sitting in front of you and you know what they like. Something that looks good in a Dublin city centre classroom may not work in a rural Kerry one. If you feel that scrolling through Instagram is causing you anxiety, then stop! I found that my best resources when I started teaching were the other teachers in the school. The majority of teachers will only be delighted to help and share tips to guide you. Also, they might know the children in your class or their siblings and could guide you in the best ways to communicate with the different families.

Something I can still struggle with after all these years is leaving school at school! Really make an effort after school to take a walk, meet a friend, do some yoga, sing really loud in the shower or simply sit in the garden with a cup of tea, anything that will help you to feel recharged and refreshed, you cannot pour from an empty cup. Our job is really important, so it’s really important that we mind ourselves to do our best for the children in our class.

So, to the NQT starting out in a new class in a new school I say, you’ve got this. Trust that you are exactly what these children need at this moment. Trust that you will have a wonderful year. Trust your gut and most importantly enjoy the fun and laughter because believe me, the years really do fly.”

Thank you to Olive for this insightful blog post. Olive has recently set up her own teacher Instagram page and you can follow along @muinteoirlolly ! Claire X