Hello everyone. My name is Lisa. I am 33 and based in County Laois. I’m in my tenth year of teaching and have taught in mainstream, SET and am presently in my 3^rd year in my ASD class. I trained in the UK and taught there for 5 years and then moved back home to Ireland 5 years ago.

My alarm goes off…

At 5:30, 5:40, 5:50 and again at 6:00! Yes, I am one of THOSE people! I love to wake up and kid myself into believing that I am getting an extra half hour in bed! I get up at 6, eat breakfast and go for a walk, come home and get ready for school. I usually get to school by 8, a habit from working in England where I would usually have been into school by 7:30 each morning!

I am responsible for…

my ASD class (6 children ranging from 2^nd to 6^th class). I am also the staff rep on our BOM, part of the ASD class enrolment committee, part of our School Discipline committee and on the Droichead PST for our school. I also run 2 weekly afterschool clubs (Art and Cookery Club) for the children in our school.

My typical day…

I get into school at around 8 and finish any setting up that I didn’t get done the night before. I check the iPad for any incoming messages from parents on the Seesaw app regarding behaviour or what to expect from the children for the coming day. This allows me to alter lessons if needed or change the demand that will be put on the children for the day ahead in addition to writing reminder notes for the SNAs in class for our debrief at 9. I have a mini meeting with the SNAs each morning for 10 minutes to go through the days tasks and answer any questions they may have.

The children come into class at 9:20 and we greet them at the classroom door. My classroom works like a carousel, so children come to me for direct input/explicit teaching of lessons and then move to complete practical and written tasks based on these lessons, sometimes with SNA support and sometimes independently. We start the day with either yoga or sensory/movement circuits. Up to lunch time we focus mainly on Maths, English, Phonics, FMS/GMS with OT and sensory breaks both scheduled and unscheduled throughout these sessions. After lunch we focus more on subjects like Life Skills, Cookery, SESE, Music and Art as well as children reintegrating into their mainstream classes where possible. As you can imagine, creating timetables to suit all class levels is great fun! 😊

Afterschool I will message all parents using our Seesaw app to let them know how their children got on during the day (behaviour, academics, mood, eating, etc) so they know what to expect when the children get home and then depending on what day it is, I will run one of my clubs (Art or Cookery). After club I tend to tidy up the classroom, set up for the next day (resources, tuff trays, books, marking, etc) and finish writing any reports, reflections, ABCs or assessments that have been done throughout the day.

The best part of my job…

Getting to play a part in my student’s lives and being able to support them on their individual learning journey. There is nothing like watching them grow and seeing them make progress day by day.

The most challenging part of my job is…

How draining it can be at times; emotionally, physically and mentally. There are 6 children in my class, all with differing additional needs and the approach you take to support each child is completely different, depending on each child and the situation you are in at any given moment. Some children have quite aggressive behaviours and you can get seriously hurt both physically and emotionally, while trying to prevent them from hurting themselves or others and even after these moments of crisis you are expected to pick yourself up and carry on as though nothing has happened, providing a safe and calming environment for every child in class. This can be extremely difficult at times and something you need to be mindful of for the sake of your own well being as well as that of the adults working with you and the children in your care. It can often feel as though you are balancing 6 spinning plates all at the same time and running between each to keep them all going and not drop one, while simultaneously teaching lessons, supporting staff and children in class and completing copious amounts of paperwork to justify and explain everything that is happening in your class. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my job but it is challenging in many ways.

I am inspired by…

The children I teach and have taught in the past. Every child you meet and teach has their own story, their own journey and their own difficulties and successes yet with everything that they are dealing with, they are so resilient and keep going. If that doesn’t inspire you to keep going yourself as a teacher, then I don’t know what will.

After work…

I try to leave school by 4:30 and head home). Once home, I pop on dinner and spend about 20 minutes on my Instagram page; I try to post and share one item a day. After dinner I tend to do about an hour of schoolwork (lots of planning, assessment and tracking in my class as well as resource making) and then chill for the evening. I usually spend anywhere from half an hour to an hour most evening replying to private messages from fellow teachers and parents on my Instagram page, looking for support or advice and I try to do 1 Q&A session every fortnight too. To shut off from work and destress from those difficult days I love to get out for a walk, go and catch up with friends over dinner or go to a yoga class once or twice a week.  And in between all of this I am also trying to plan for our wedding at the end of this year. Some days there aren’t enough hours in the day but all you can do, is do what you can and know that that is enough.

The motto I live by…

“Progress, not perfection!”

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