A question for Primary School Teachers.

Naomi77

Hello! My sister is training to be a primary school teacher. She is due to do her first Teaching Practice in May.
For Christmas, she has asked for "teaching resources". Ideally, I'd buy her a book called "The A to Z of What Every Teacher Should Know" but it doesn't exist. Does anyone have any "resources" that they would recommend? Anything at all???

Insect Overlord

Practical, useful materials for teaching practice:

A few lever-arch filing folders
A packet (or two) of 100 clear plastic A4 poly pockets
Blue-tac
Highlighters and white-board markers
A3 card (in several colours)
Permanent black marker
A decent ruler
Photo-copying paper
Printer ink
HB or 2B pencils
A glove puppet

She'll learn the teaching skills from practice and experience, far more than she ever would from a book!

heldel00

^^^ Agreed. Maybe an Easons voucher (or someplace similar) for photocopying because a lot of schools don't let students use photocopier as freely as they should. She might need to do a lot of external copying.
But also lots of time and help with making posters, displays etc when the time comes.
(My dad used to joke that I was always "head down, arse up" during TP. A lot of time was spent on the floor making posters!)

desperate housewife

All of the above are great. Another thing which is very handy for teaching practice is a laminator and laminating pouches. Also nice stickers and stampers are nice too. You can get personalised stickers and stampers online which would be a lovely present for a trainee teacher, like miss x says well done or similar. One website is superstickers. There's no specific book you would need really, as you will be teaching a variety of classes and subjects for teaching practice. Just because she has infants for teaching practice or whatever class, I wouldn't buy things specifically for that class as she may never teach them again.
Oh and also a good pair of scissors. And nice wavy scissors-with different types of waves on them if that makes sense. They cut paper with waves along the side of page instead of straight.
Nice pens are good too.
If you wanted to make a hamper, you could get sellotape, prit stick, stapler and stables, blue tack, printer paper and ink, coloured paper and card, stickers, a4 pad or notebook

byhookorbycrook

Get to know your local "Mr. Price!"
I don't think I'd bother with a laminator for TP, ditto the wavy scissors.
Some handy websites for resources:
www.senteacher.org
www.seomraranga.com
http://www.do2learn.com/academics/Literacy/index.htm

Pintrest is worth a gander too.

desperate housewife

Wavy scissors are obviously not an essential but I got them as a present on tp when I was in college and still use them every week almost 8 years later
Laminator was my tp essential, after my printer. Myself and my five housemates had one each and we all used them every night on tp, I also still use it weekly now.
Mr price has great stuff but I wouldn't start loading up on random art supplies as you'll have to store these which is a pain, I'd only buy art supplies for a specific art project. But they have stickers, stampers, name labels etc there too which are handy, but similar to stuff you get in easons or art shops

Midnight Sundance

I'd definitely get her a laminator, if she doesn't need it for teaching practice she will use it throughout her teaching years . Mine is 10 years old and still going strong!!
Coloured ink for her printer could also help.
And an assortment of all the stationery mentioned above would help her out too
Oh and maybe a date stamper for dating all her worksheets

Naomi77

Wow! Thanks so much for all the ideas. I've plenty to be getting on with!
Thanks again, N

Jimmy Iovine

A good quality paper trimmer. Worth its weight in gold.

byhookorbycrook

Many children with dyslexia find that it is much harder to read from a laminated sheet.

D4RK ONION

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Many children with dyslexia find that it is much harder to read from a laminated sheet.

I'd never heard that, very interesting!

Best present you could get her is a big sign that says "DON'T PANIC", TP is TP, it's horrible but at the end of the day, she'll be learning to teach for the rest of her career

Moonbeam

A nice winter coat for yard duty.
Song Books and CDs
Fancy lip balm.

There are loads of lovely quotes you could print and laminate and make a little book for her.


lots of smiley stickers and an ink stamp:)

ian87

A guillotine. I have on in my classroom and it makes cutting etc a doddle. Laminator is always great. And stampers are lovely.

She won't need it now but for any lurkers wondering what to get a teacher for Christmas, there is nothing as cold as yard duty. Sitting in a freezer in the nip would give you less of a chill so I couldn't recommend a GOOD warm hat, scarf, and gloves set. I keep a good scarf at school so maybe a set the person can leave in their desk.

Butterfly182

heldel00 wrote: »

^^^ Agreed. Maybe an Easons voucher (or someplace similar) for photocopying because a lot of schools don't let students use photocopier as freely as they should. She might need to do a lot of external copying.

Agreed, when I was doing my teaching experience I was being charged 50 cent a page which was mad, and I only had a one euro euro allocation at the start which I think everything who got a print account at the school got.

Butterfly182

heldel00 wrote: »

^^^ Agreed. Maybe an Easons voucher (or someplace similar) for photocopying because a lot of schools don't let students use photocopier as freely as they should. She might need to do a lot of external copying.

Agreed, when I was doing my teaching experience I was being charged 50 cent a page which was mad, and I only had a one euro euro allocation at the start which I think everything who got a print account at the school got. Anything towards the printing costs would be a huge help.

heldel00

A WHISTLE!!! This suddenly dawned on me today. She'll need one for every PE lesson for the rest of her career. Local sports shop will have one. (Plus I hate havin to share my whistle with the students when they come in on TP)

byhookorbycrook

And speaking of whistles, a tin whistle MIGHT be handy.

Jimmy Iovine

Buy an Acme Thunderer and get a wrist strap for it. Makes it much easier to use. No faffing about with anything. They are very loud. Deafening if blown indoors.

Nopanic.

Laminator and pouches