What did I learn from over 40 years of teaching?

20 years of them as a Relief-Supply Teacher?

I created My Ultimate Relief Survival Kit after seeing a desperate need to help Supply-Relief Teachers become more confident when leaping into the unknown world of not knowing what they might be teaching on a day to day basis. I was meeting teachers in staffrooms, particularly new graduates, nervous and stressing about doing Supply Teaching. From the building of the Relief Book created for teachers, this course was created. I remember all too well the feeling of anxiety I had when I first started out. That feeling of having a racing heart when the phone went. Not knowing if and where I would be working that day? What grade would it be? Would there be a plan left? Would it be a 'challenging' class? I purchased so many resources for all grades and subjects and photocopied reams of worksheets to help me feel “prepared” for whatever was thrown my way, all neatly bound into folders and then into tote trays 'just in case' I bought a good printer to save time and have a wealth of resources, especially when I discovered that it was not acceptable for Relief supply teachers to have access to the compurer. My bag of tricks and car boot were my office!! It was packed with resources to help me feel less anxious each day. Did I use all the resources? ...All of the most valuable ones that I used have been included in the resource kit, but I found that the best plan was to build a day around a theme or book...once I changed this to my way of planning, my teaching and planning became so much easier. After years of doing Relief-Supply Teaching I had refined my activities and felt more confident, I learned to have more ready to go activities in my head... and realised that less was best when it came to organisation.