4 Must-Haves When Teaching


Hello fellow educators! 

It has been a while since I last spoke to you all. In my last blog, I was eagerly awaiting my start date for teacher training and now here I am – seven weeks in! I’ve have already completed two small placements and from this week I have started my first eight-week placement. 

Amongst all of the excitement, there is a little dread. It is the season of the cold and flu (as well as everything else that comes before and after). Lucky enough for me I did invest in the flu jab! But I’m now in a new class, a new learning environment full of thirty children bursting with new germs trying to get me. 

Would the flu jab stop the rest of the germs manifesting into something nasty? Who knows! And if that isn’t enough, the days are getting darker earlier. I’m leaving in the dark as well as coming home in the dark (which I’m sure is the same for the majority of you) so it won’t be long until the winter blues come for me (or us!). 

So…instead…I’ve used the inner lining pocket in my bag to keep some bits and bobs that will help me power through. I’ve called it My TLC pocket. And I’m sure that if you work in education you know exactly what I’m talking about! But for those, thinking of applying for their training or gaining their first experiences in school, you will need this! (Although, of course, it doesn’t need to be a pocket in your bag – it could be drawer at a desk...)

In this delightful pocket I have: 

• Tissues - Who’d have thought it? There are going to be (hopefully) boxes of tissues in the classroom for those runny noses. But sometimes your nose and your face will need softer stuff! That’s when your tissues come in! 

• Anti-Bacterial Gel – This is so handy! You don’t have to be a germophobe to have some anti-bacterial gel in that pocket! Washing your hands is great but just before you eat your lunch, this extra precaution won’t hurt!

• Lip Balm – Male or female! As the weather gets colder your lips will dehydrate and become dry. Why not get ahead and be prepared before your lips start getting sore? 

• Effervescent Vitamin Tablet – A tube of Berocca is always in that pocket for those slow and sluggish days. Not something I have every day but it is something that helps with the winter blues (I’m sure you will know if you can take these or similar). 

The best thing about this is it is always there in my bag for when I need it and I’m ready for whatever the day throws at me. They are small and light which means they’re really not an inconvenience at all! These items will help me look after myself against the cold, the flu and the winter blues. Please share below any other handy products you keep in your TLC pocket or equivalent! Or any tips to protect myself from those pesky viruses. 

Until then I will continue working in my placement which I am really enjoying. I’m teaching groups of children at the moment so I’m getting time to build the rapport in my class (whole class teaching starts next week…wish me luck!). 

And to leave on a funny note, I took the whole class for twenty minutes on my second day as a small introductory session and I arranged to play Pictionary. I wrote down items/things on a small whiteboard for the children to know what to draw. Little did I know that the small whiteboards are actually quite transparent and six very short games later the class decided to share how they kept winning…oops!

Following Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day, if you're still celebrating with the odd few fireworks, check these 10 firework safety tips to ensure you stay safe.

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