Milestones to registration

At the end of this term, I wil finally be applying for full teacher registration. I thought I might share some of the milestones and magic that got me to this point...

Teachers college: First time I fell in love with teaching! For weeks on end I couldn't sleep because I had such severe mental chatterbox going on. You know when you are exhausted but a particular challenge your are facing is so exciting that you just can't seem to stop thinking about it? There was also a week of dreaming about electrons.

My first teaching job: For the first six months of my career, I taught at the Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate, England. As schools go, this one was a pretty tough one to start in. Officially labeled as the worst school in England, the Marlowe Academy had large amounts of students who lived with foster families, poverty or were refugees and had experienced some terrible things. Although teaching these students is difficult, the reward when they begin to trust you is incredible. I am 100% sure that my students at the Marlowe Academy will be in my heart always.

Moments at the Marlowe

• Teenage girl standing in my class' doorway asking "who's this b*&%#?" and one of my super cool, Mr popularity kids replying "Oi! Don't talk about Miss that way"
• In a year 8 class with lots of autism, ADHD, students who are unable to read, etc. finally managing to engage everyone in a lesson so much, that nobody kicked, punched or had broken anything in a lesson!

The junior high experience: My second job and my current position is at a Junior High School in New Zealand. I work with an amazing team of people and have been given the opportunity to lead many initiatives in the school. The school is the complete opposite from the Marlowe Academy. Most families are middle class, well educated and many are immigrants. My current school has really allowed me to extend my teaching abilities through providing me with an incredible mentor who encourages innovation within the classroom but also at a faculty level.

Moments at my current job

• Reading the responses from a teacher evaluation where a certain very difficult young man let me know very clearly that he genuinely felt that I never gave up on him.  

Starting #edchatNZ: Last year in October, I started #edchatNZ. It is a fortnightly chat for New Zealand educators on Twitter. The chat is still going strong, seven months later! I absolutely love the positive interaction that I have had with educators from all over New Zealand, and the satisfaction of knowing what greatly quality educators we have.

Here's to many more years in teaching!