Relief Teaching

Part of 'Life on the Road' will be finding casual work. And, for me that will probably be relief teaching. 

Last week on Friday I had my first day as a relief teacher in a year 4 class. It was interesting and exhausting!

There are lots of positives to relief teaching ...

• Good money
• Less planning
• No assessments
• No meetings
• No report writing
• No parent/teacher interviews

But, as I found out - there are some hard aspects to it ...

• When I had my own class I built strong positive relationships with the kids and once you have that, then behaviour management is sorted.
• Being a relief teacher means I won't have the same class. So I it'll be harder to develop those crucial relationships in the short time that I'll have the class.

So, my first relieving day was all about behaviour management. The class was known to have a high percentage of children with challenging behaviour. Wow! Some of the kids in this class reinvented the meaning of 'defiant'!

Yesterday I relieved at a different school. Again, this class of 44 year 2, 3 and 4s had very challenging children. 

But as difficult as it is - it's also an opportunity for me to develop techniques and strategies to deal with defiance.

                                                

Maybe next week I'll get a call to teach in a class that is less demanding in terms of behaviour.