The first 2 weeks

School has been a bit of a blur. So much to do and learn every single day. It is a complete sidestep from regular classroom teaching. I learn something new about the system or the kids or my planning every day.

I already have two home visits planned for in the next 2 weeks which will be really exciting to actually go and visit new places and to actually get to meet some of my students and work with them face to face as a posed to via the internet.

The whole internet system, I've found out, can be the most frustrating part of the whole process. Connection issues, microphone issues and typing issues are frequent and more often than not are completely out of our hands and we just have to find a way to work around it, which can be tricky at times.

The way our system works is that the children get their work in advance to complete as they would during a normal school week. So I have had a bit of a freak out trying to understand what they are working on and what was actually sent to them for the year from last year's teacher. I've also had to be conscious about planning for the term because anything I want to do on the air lessons that requires the students to have something specific like a worksheet needs to be planned well in advance to be sent out to the students. Some times mail will arrive to them in a few days, others in a few weeks. It all depends on the weather on whether or not mail planes can get to them Some have PO boxes in town here and can only get in every so often, so if that happens then it can take a while for things to reach them.

Weather is also another issue which creates problems with our technology, the slightest cloud coverage can knock people offline or just generally cause whole power outages. It's also why our travelling to see the kids can be restricted too. If the road is impassible then we simply cannot get out to see them.

The great part was having one of my students coming into town yesterday and getting to meet her. This was a massive 1 up in my planning and understanding of her learning which has been super helpful in terms of my future planning for her teaching and learning, which will benefit her immensely.

I am so interested to see how assemblies are run through our school when our first one of the year happens on Wednesday. It's so strange to picture how it works, but will be really cool at the same time. I already had a brainwave during the week of what I'm planning for my class to do for our assembly at some point in the year so hopefully that runs smoothly.

I have so much information swirling around in my head it's a bit overwhelming and a bit of a blur, but I know it will all start to make sense as the year continues.