So we’re officially over halfway through January. At risk of sounding like an absolute nana, this month is flying by! Today marks exactly 3 months until our wedding, I’m really starting to get excited now things like my hen do are looming!

I deliberately didn’t make new year’s resolutions for the start of 2016. I made (very similar) ones for 2014 and 2015 and basically didn’t really stick to any of them. Call it a combination of laziness and being too busy.

This year I decided I wasn’t going to bother making resolutions.  My main plan is to have a happy 2016; turning 30 (next month!), getting married, my little brother visiting from Australia, planning a wonderful honeymoon to Italy and a minimoon to Edinburgh. We’re getting married in the middle of my Easter holidays so a short break to Edinburgh to enjoy being married, just the two of us, is planned before our main honeymoon in my summer holidays.

Jonny did, however, make me a resolution. I said I wanted to try and go on at least one big walk a month (he is Captain Outdoors so wasn’t upset by this.) He decided to take this a step further by suggesting that I try a 7 peak challenge he’d seen in one of his geeky walking magazines. So I, potentially stupidly, agreed. I’m now going to walk/climb 7 mountains this year. We’re even starting our honeymoon in the Dolomites to get a peak (or 2) in!

Here’s to a happy 2016, if you’ve got any suggestions of places to visit in either Italy or Edinburgh I’d love to hear them!

 

 

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When I started teaching 6 years ago I thought I knew everything there was about the job. How wrong I was!

Here are a few things I wish somebody had told me back then about being a teacher:

1: It gets easier.

Planning lessons will get quicker as your subject knowledge broadens. (You don’t know everything yet, and that’s OK.)

2: Keep your chin up.

Some days you will go home feeling like your class haven’t learnt a thing that day. Tomorrow is a new day. You’ve got this.

3: Don’t be scared to move.

Just because this school doesn’t feel right doesn’t mean teaching isn’t right for you. Be brave, hand in your notice and find a workplace that suits you. Don’t feel you have to change to suit the school.

4: Embrace your inner geek.

Being a big art loving history geek will pay off. The kids will love you for this (especially when you make exploding volcanoes.)

5: You can’t please everyone.

Some parents are just not nice people. They will take out their frustrations about their child on you. Don’t take this personally.

6: Don’t take the bad kids personally.

Similarly, some children are just not nice people. Just because they’re under 10 does not mean they’re all sweetness and light. You can, and will, survive the days when they throw chairs at you and/or threaten other children with a pair of scissors.

7: Learn from feedback.

Just because you have a lesson observation that’s less than perfect it does not mean you can’t teach. Take the feedback in a positive way, keep you head down and improve. You’ll get there.

8: Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Ofsted and the government are arseholes. It’s almost like they don’t want you to succeed. Ignore them as much as you can and focus on providing the best education you can for the littles. (At best teach the littles to be future-changing potential MPs!)

9: Time management does get easier.

Sometimes it will feel like you’re drowning in paperwork, especially in that NQT year. The paper work, unfortunately, stays a bitch, but you’ll get better at managing it.

10: Keep going!

You might not be the best teacher in the world, but you’re doing the best you can. And that’s just fine.

No doubt I’ll be able to look back in another 6 years with many more words of wisdom to offer! Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Writing this has taught me I still need to have that little bit more faith in my own abilities though, either that or I need a future me to come and give me a reassuring pat on the back on occasion!

Following on from Friday’s post, less screen time is something I need to implement.

I’m a bugger for picking up my phone and scrolling through social media before I even get out of bed. Or for doing so once I get into bed before I fall asleep. Or for mindlessly doing so when sat on the sofa/at work/anytime I get a spare couple of minutes.

I could however be doing something more productive with my spare time. One of my resolutions for this year was less screen time and, honestly, I’ve been crap at this.  It’s a resolution which will be getting rolled over (alongside forcing some more exercise into my life, but more on that in another post!)

Jonny is much better at not being glued to his phone than me. Part of this is because he genuinely doesn’t care about what other people are up to, so long as he is happy. I envy him for this.

The new mission is to make sure I engage with the real world a bit more often. No more scrolling before I get out of bed. In fact, no more scrolling in bed full stop. The evening slot can definitely be replaced by reading a good book. I didn’t realise until recently how much I miss reading. I read voraciously as a child/teenager/into my early twenties, before smart phones were a thing. Reading is something I love and want to do more of.

Do you have any recommendations for a good book, or three?