The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve is a podcast from The University of Queensland’s School of Education that bridges the gap between what you learn about teaching and what actually happens in the classroom.
The Learning Curve
Year one: From pre-service to early-career teacher
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The move from being a pre-service to an early-career teacher can be exciting, overwhelming, rewarding and confronting, all at once. Parris Smith has recently completed her first year in the classroom and helps answer the core question for today's episode: "How can beginning teachers sucessfully transition from pre-service teacher to early-career teacher?"
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After listening to this episode, start here:
My Teaching Advice (AITSL)
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/improve-practice/start-your-career/my-teaching-advice-overview
A free online platform that connects beginning teachers with experienced teachers for real-time, one-on-one advice. You can ask specific questions about your context (e.g. behaviour, planning, workload), get matched with a suitable mentor.
Starter pack of articles for new teachers (Edutopia)
https://www.edutopia.org/package/edutopia-resources-new-teachers/
A curated collection of articles and videos covering classroom management, routines, relationships and working with parents. A useful ‘go-to’ hub you can return to throughout the year when you need practical strategies.
Try this tomorrow
Essential strategies for success as a first-year teacher (SOS Teacher Agency)
https://www.sosagency.com.au/essential-strategies-for-success-as-a-first-year-teacher-in-australia/
A practical article with simple strategies for managing the transition into teaching, including staying reflective, seeking support early and avoiding isolation.
Curriculum resources (NSW Dept of Education)
https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum
A comprehensive hub of curriculum and teaching resources across K–12. Click on your teaching area under ‘Key learning areas’ then ‘Resources’ to access a range of resource catalogues.
If you want to go deeper
AITSL High quality professional learning toolkit
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/improve-practice/high-quality-professional-learning-toolkit
Helps you choose PD that actually improves your teaching.
Download the AITSL My Induction App
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/my-induction-app
A practical, on-the-go support tool for early career teachers. Includes curated resources, videos, tips and advice for common classroom challenges, as well as a wellbeing tracker to help you monitor stress and confidence over time.
You're listening to the Learning Curve, turning education theory into classroom practice. I'm Anna Sibthorpe. If you want to know what it's really like in that much anticipated first year of teaching, this episode is for you. Today we're asking, how can beginning teachers successfully transition from pre-service teacher to early career teacher? We talk about what it feels like to finally be in charge of your own class, the habits and strategies that make a real difference, and practical advice to make that first year a little easier from someone who's just been through it and come out the other side. I'm joined by now second year teacher, Para Smith.
SPEAKER_09When I think about my first year as a graduate teacher, I imagine it's going to be extremely difficult trying to get into a good routine, and I'm very, very nervous.
SPEAKER_01When I think about my first year as a graduate teacher, I imagine I will be very busy and run off my feet, so I'm starting to prepare for that.
SPEAKER_05When I think about my first year as a graduate teacher, I imagine I'll have to ask lots of questions to my colleagues.
SPEAKER_00And that my students feel like they can trust me.
SPEAKER_02Hello, I am Paris Paris Smith, and I work at a large state high school in Brisbane. I'm a French and music teacher, and I'm fortunate enough to teach French immersion. So I'm teaching humanities in French. And I have just finished my first year of teaching, and I've started my second year of teaching. It's a bit exciting.
SPEAKER_04Can I ask, what was the moment, thinking back when you were, you know, starting your first year of teaching? Uh, what was the sort of, I'm not in Kansas anymore, I'm not a student, I'm not a pre-service teacher, I'm an actual teacher. What was that like?
SPEAKER_02I do think it was my first year of teaching. I had my moment of, hang on a second, there's no one else that's here watching me when I went to my first class. And I realized I'm actually walking in and I get to shape my expectations. I knew that intellectually, and I'd written up what my boundaries were going to be. I had my PowerPoint ready. I was like, yep, these are going to be my class rules and class expectations. But actually walking into the classroom and going, oh, I'm I'm the real teacher now. I have to show them and start how I want to finish and be that person. That was my awakening moment. That and I would also say the week before school started. Like your orientation week when you started a new school.
SPEAKER_04Oh, the student-free week.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the student free days. For me, that was a hang on a second, I'm having professional conversations and I don't have to refer to anyone. I have to walk my own path and go to my own class things to whatever sessions I'm attending on my own now. So that was my start and then teaching my first ever lesson.
SPEAKER_04What were your expectations going into your first year and was it what you expected?
SPEAKER_02A lot of people had warned me about burning out. I was told, oh, you've got to be careful, you'll burn out in your first year. Your first year is so difficult, you'll burn out. But I found the opposite. So my expectations were burnout and feeling overwhelmed and feeling like everything would be so much harder because I'm on my own. But I felt such a sense of relief. When I was on placement, I felt like I was doing a six-week job interview, which I do think is a good tip. You should consider it like that, because at the end of the day, you're showing the version of yourself that you would want to be as a professional. But I felt this sense of, I suppose, pressure. And I had to do lesson plans and get them in the day before. So making sure lesson plans were in 24 hours before when I was on placement, making sure that I was there early and staying the right amount of time, finishing my work, being that version of myself and having a sense of pressure on myself when I was in my final year of my degree compared to my first year. Oh, it was such a relief because I didn't have to worry about my detailed lesson plans being sent in 24 hours before. I didn't have to stress about having to make sure that I was fitting the behaviors that my supervisor teacher lacked and doing all those strategies that my teacher wanted to see. It was a lot more freeing to be the teacher I wanted to be and putting that in action and putting it in place. That's so interesting.
SPEAKER_04I've never heard anyone describe it as a relief. But I totally understand what you're saying. Like you didn't have anyone looking over your shoulder the whole time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's not to say that there weren't challenges in my first year, but it's to say that I finally felt that, yep, this is where I meant to be. This is my class now, this is me.
SPEAKER_04And you said there were some challenges. So what kinds of challenges, whilst you found it a relief and and maybe a little easier than placement, what were the challenges that you faced as a first year teacher?
SPEAKER_02In my first year, I didn't have the resources that I found other experienced teachers had. I had collected some resources while I was on placement from teachers. In my orientation week, I found out what classes I was teaching, and I found out the units that I was doing. And I had to make my resources. So I felt like I was starting from behind everyone else, in a sense, because other people who had been teaching for so much longer, when they found out they were teaching grade seven, for example, oh yep, we're doing this similar unit, I'll just adjust my PowerPoints that I already have. So I felt like I had to create so many things and just feel like I understood my content and knew what I was going through before I taught it. So it felt like I was having to constantly create, create, create. So that load of work was a challenge. I was very lucky though, so I had support at my school where my school actually gives you an extra line off if you're a first teacher. So instead of teaching five classes to be a full-time load, you're teaching four classes and they pay for you to have that extra line of spares. So you're still paid as a full-time teacher, but you have one less class. So that helped me manage that load, but still that resource creation. I think another challenge.
SPEAKER_04Just very quickly, why you weren't able to get resources from other teachers or from your head of department?
SPEAKER_02I was for some resources, but I maybe this is the perfectionist for me a little bit. For me, they were quite outdated because we'd been using the same textbook for a number of years, and we were actually going to go through a change this year. We've completely changed the textbook we're using, so we needed to revamp things anyway.
SPEAKER_04Right. What was really exciting, do you think, about starting to teach?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I loved it. Yeah. I really enjoyed starting to teach. I felt like it was right. I started my first, even just my first term, my first few days, I would leave my classes smiling because it felt right. I felt like, oh yeah, this is what I've worked so hard for, and it's finally paying off. And it doesn't mean that there were always perfect behaviors or anything like that, or I delivered the most perfect lessons known to man. That's not what I mean. I mean I just felt like I was meant to be there.
SPEAKER_04What was your favorite part? Meeting my students.
SPEAKER_02I love my little my little kiddos. I get to have that relationship and rapport with them. And that to me is the center of my teaching philosophy. Is that teaching at its core is about relationships that you build. You can give a kid a textbook to learn the content, but you're the teacher. You're building a relationship with them so they understand the content. So the most exciting thing and my favorite thing has just been getting to know my students and building that relationship.
SPEAKER_04What's one habit that you would recommend for pre-service teachers to start on placement to help them when they start first year?
SPEAKER_02The number one thing I would say is start trying to make the habit of leaving work at work. This job can consume you if you let it, especially if you're a perfectionist or lean towards the sides of wanting to make things great. The class that you teach will change how your lessons delivered anyway. So you can't make a perfect lesson for every single child because the children are going to be different. So leave the idea of perfectionism out the window. On placement, try to do work at school and finish it off as much as you can and be happy with it and then keep going. And that's a strategy I've used in my first year of work as much as I can, leave work at work. That doesn't happen all the time though. There's obviously moments where it doesn't work out like that. But for the most part, leaving work at work.
SPEAKER_04I know one thing that pre-service teachers sometimes worry about with first year is making a big mistake, not dealing with a parent very well on the phone or saying something in class to a student or to the class that they really, really regret. What would you say to someone who's wondering in the 24 hours after you make a big mistake, what should that look like?
SPEAKER_02Hopefully you'll have a mentor teacher or someone else that you know at the school. You can talk to the mentor teacher for steps to take and then talk to your head of department. At the end of the day, your HOD should be there to support you, and they'll want to support you. If your head of department you find maybe difficult to talk to, find your mentor teacher or someone else, because there are people at the school that can support you with that. At the end of the day, they want you to succeed and they want to support you as a teacher. Don't feel like your mistake defines you. It's a moment in time. You can continue and move on from it.
SPEAKER_04How would you expect your mentor and your head of department to react when you say, I've made a huge mistake?
SPEAKER_02My mentor teacher would give me a hug and go, Oh, it's not that deep. That's one of my little mantras, it's not that deep. At the end of the day, it's going to be okay. They would give me strategies of what to do.
SPEAKER_04Is there anything you can do in term one that will save you time in term two, three, and four?
SPEAKER_02I love to use OneNote for my lessons and setting up my classes. So I finally got a good template and I can just copy-paste. It took ages for me to do at the start. So setting up something like that and having a system in place for yourself, on Mondays, I get my lessons planned for up until Wednesday. Make sure I've got all of that prepared. I like to make weeklong PowerPoints as well, which sounds intimidating to say. I make my PowerPoint and then I split it into sections. If you're wanting to follow the tutorial at home, right-click on the slide and then click add section, and it adds a cheeky little section for you. So I split my lessons up that way so I know what I'm doing roughly, and I can just move slides around, add slides in where I need to. That saved me a lot. Finding that method of making my PowerPoints meant that I could just save so much mental load because I knew what I was doing each week. I didn't have to experiment with different PowerPoints. It was just, bam. This is the type of PowerPoint I'm doing. Here's some rough lesson ideas. I can shuffle things around if I need to. So making a template of a s or a structure of how you want to write your little lesson plans and make your lessons.
SPEAKER_04Do you have any advice for pre-service teachers about how to start building professional relationships with people you work with in the staff room or in your faculty?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, in first year, I still felt a little intimidated, I'm not gonna lie. I felt like a little first year, which is ironic because before that I felt like a little pracky. And I had to realize, oh, I do actually know things. I do belong here. It's having curriculum conversations and things like that, and that curriculum planning time and asserting yourself as a solid teacher, knowing that you're confident, and then being able to have conversations at lunchtime that aren't related to school. So building connections in that way, just being a sociable person in a sense. Find something to connect with each person about. It doesn't have to be a long conversation, but finding something to connect with each person so you feel more com comfortable and confident approaching them if you do need help on a curriculum conversation.
SPEAKER_04How should a pre-service teacher or first-year teacher, I should say, find the balance between getting stuff done in your breaks and your spares and isolating yourself in the staff room? Where's what's the middle ground?
SPEAKER_02I have made the rule for myself that I eat lunch with everyone else. Lunchtime, I'm not working at lunchtime. If even if I'm under the pump, I just have to take a breather and go, no, this is my time to eat and to mental reset. Because I'm not going to be my best self for my students. I use my spares as effectively as possible. If I know that I haven't got things planned, I'll arrive to school earlier. But my break times are my times to connect and socialize with my co-workers to try to feel more sane and just maintain that connection. Otherwise, you'll just consume yourself and yeah, isolate yourself, as you said.
SPEAKER_04In what ways do you feel like your first year, now that it's done, has kind of set the groundwork or the tone for your career moving forward?
SPEAKER_02I said yes to a lot of opportunities. A lot of other first or second year teachers or early career teachers will say, make sure you know when to say no, which is important. I wanted a taste of all the things, though. By having that taste in my first year within reason, I'm able to know what I want to commit to this year. So I do a few extracurricular things at my school. So there's some extracurricular opportunities at my school that I partake in. Having the chance in my first year to just be a fly on the wall sometimes was really valuable for me to know what I wanted to do moving forwards. Other things, professional conversations. I did a lot of PD last year. And it helped me know what I wanted to one teach like. Helped me just explore different different ideas, different methods, because we're always learning, even though you've graduated, you're still learning. But it also made me know, cool, I want to make sure that I do beyond your mandatory hours. Made me go, I know what type of PDs I want to. If I see them come up again, I'm gonna do them again because that is really valuable use of my time. For my career moving forward, my first year being done and dusted, it was knowing what opportunities I want to say yes to and knowing what to make the most of.
SPEAKER_04I also kind of want to talk about sometimes the negative part of first year. The teacher attrition rates for the first five years, the numbers are not good. So, what do you think the influences are that make the big difference between teachers like yourself who are loving it, teachers who are surviving, and teachers who don't make it through to that fifth-year mark?
SPEAKER_02There are so many factors. One, which is the more obvious answer, I'll say, is the school you're at. If you feel like you don't have a support system in place, if you feel like you're going into work dreading it because of the people around you, then it might just not be your school. It's not that it's teaching, it's just the school situation and environment. So that's a massive, massive part of why I know personally some people from my cohort aren't teaching anymore. Because they went, I hated that school and they decided to leave teaching altogether.
SPEAKER_04That's what teaching is for school.
SPEAKER_02And it's not, it's not. I have so many wonderful coworkers, and I'm like, oh, you're amazing. In saying that at the same time, though, there's always going to be someone that you don't get along with amazingly, or someone that you might not align with perfectly professionally. Doesn't mean you don't have professional conversations with them, but don't let that define your whole view of teaching and the career there. So that's one factor. One factor is the school you're at. The other factor, taking on too many things, letting it consume yourself. Perfectionism, you can't really be a perfectionist in teaching. There's no lesson that'll be perfect for every single child that you teach. There's always something that will change. So perfectionism and managing that workload. Try to leave work at work, try to manage your break times. Ask for resources from other people, other schools as well. Some people use AI as well. Modify it before you just copy and paste. So it was my recommendation. Be careful. Because it's not always perfect. So please make sure you read it. Don't just go, cool, I can copy and paste and become a lot of people.
SPEAKER_04Same thing with other people's resources too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you need to modify it to fit you. It's not always gonna work, but at least I can tell help take off one part. So first thing is school you're at can lead to burnout. The workload can lead to burnout.
SPEAKER_04I think sometimes people sort of shoot themselves in the foot where they go into it thinking it's gonna be an easy career where they'll get lots of holidays and they won't have to do much work, and then it's a big rude surprise.
SPEAKER_02Reality check. Sorry guys. Like your big summer break, it is fantastic, not gonna lie, it's great. But you still have to work in your other holidays. For me, as a first year, I found that I had to dedicate a few days to make sure that I felt like I was ready to teach term two. Because you don't get a lead-in like you do in term one with student free days. You don't get a lead-in for term two. So some of your holidays, you're planning, you're preparing. Sometimes you're doing marking as well. You've got to begin it because you like kids. You've got to begin it because you want to foster a relationship and inspire people. That's gotta be your purpose. So think about your purpose.
SPEAKER_08The kind of teacher I want to be in my first year is one who the students can come to when they have issues with their friends, with their learning, and not feel scared or worried about coming to me.
SPEAKER_07The kind of teacher I want to be in my first year is one who is adaptive and resilient, who can take on board constructive feedback and implement that to better my teaching.
SPEAKER_06The kind of teacher I want to be in my first year is one who can gain the respect of my students as well as show my students that I respect them and their opinions as well.
SPEAKER_03The kind of teacher I want to be in my first year is one who students can come to and rely on and ask questions and always feel comfortable asking questions regardless of the topic.
SPEAKER_04I collected a few first-year myths from pre-service teachers. I'm just gonna read a few of them and hopefully we can do some myth busting. All the other beginning teachers are coping so much better than me.
SPEAKER_02Everyone's got their own struggles. I knew a first-year teacher in the same batch as me at my school, and she felt like she had to teach herself the content because she was thrown into a subject area she wasn't that confident in. And it was a grade 11 subject, too. So a senior. So she didn't feel as confident and felt like she was thrown in the deep end. So she was spending all of her time making resources and doing everything because she had to be good, because this was grade 11 and it mattered. So she felt like all the other first year teachers were doing great because we weren't having the same meltdowns as her and as openly. But it didn't mean we weren't having our own struggles. Everyone's got at least one moment in their first year where they go, oof, this is hard or not what I expected. First year, while it might seem like on the surface people are great, it isn't actually translated into reality. People don't always want to be honest about the struggles they're going through.
SPEAKER_04Especially with other teachers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, with other teachers, they don't want to feel judged. And fair enough, but just know that people are going through their own things. You don't see what's happening. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I think it's it's healthy to tell people when you're struggling and when you need help.
SPEAKER_02Ask for help. People can help you all the time, but you have to ask. They don't know if you don't ask.
SPEAKER_04We had a first year, I was in a staff room, and we had mostly experienced teachers. This was several years ago, and we had one girl start and she was a first year, and we all thought, she's amazing. Like she used to do these amazing resources that she would send around to share with her teaching teams. She was there early, she would stay back and have all these great ideas. She seemed so confident, her kids loved her. And she quit after six months. And then when I asked her what happened, she said I was staying up late every night. I was working all weekend and I just started hating it and I couldn't do it anymore. That's burnout. Like that's pure burnout. And no one would have known. We used to say to her every day, you're amazing. You're the best first you've ever seen. And sometimes you just have no idea. And if they do, if you don't tell anyone, no one can help you.
SPEAKER_02Sometimes as well, though, having those compliments and be like, Yep, I am doing amazing, that means that I have to keep doing what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04I know. We didn't realize that we were putting that pressure on. Like we were just trying to encourage her. But yeah, looking back, I wish I mean I didn't work directly with her, but I wish I had so that I could have said to her, like, are you really okay? And last one, class didn't do well on the assessment. I must be a bad teacher.
SPEAKER_02Oh no. I teach French. I have some students that cannot speak French to save them. But that doesn't mean that I'm a failure as a teacher, because I've got some kids that can speak French amazingly. But that doesn't also mean that I'm an amazing teacher. How you deliver the information and teach and help your students understand things, that's what you want to focus on. But their assessment result is a moment in time, it's a snapshot. There are so many other factors that could have influenced your students to produce that result that goes beyond you. They might have not eaten breakfast that day. For example, at the moment, I've got a lot of my students fasting for Ramadan. They could be fasting at the moment and you don't know that. Anything could be impacting their day. They might have had a really rubbish conversation and then they do poorly on the exam. That doesn't mean that it's your responsibility as a teacher. You can teach them the information, deliver it, help them out, offer them support. But at the end of the day, how they perform on an exam is not entirely you. You need to give your children some responsibility too. You need to trust them to do their job.
SPEAKER_04And even if you feel like you could have done a better job to prepare them for an assessment, you've got to give yourself a little bit of grace, I think, in the first few years. We get better every year, but we can't be perfect the first year. How did your dynamic in your classrooms change across that first year? How was it different from the beginning to the end?
SPEAKER_02I would say that across my first year, I became more clear on what my non negotiables were and what my boundaries were for my students. I started wanting to make sure that I could be as assertive as possible in still a kind way, and now I I am certain in myself that I can still create a relationship and rapport with my student and create a classroom that's got great dynamics without needing to be, don't smile until Easter teacher. That impacted the dynamic in my classroom too. I knew what I wanted to do, and I thought I had my identity pretty sorted, but just knowing that it worked as well, seeing it work in my first class was like, oh cool, I can do this. This is actually going to work ongoing.
SPEAKER_04Maybe that's also why there was a bit of that relief.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, maybe. In my teaching degree, I didn't find many teachers that mimicked or replicated the type of teacher I wanted to be, which is fair. We're all unique people. We can't be exactly like someone else. But I didn't have many teachers that I went, that's a lot like what I wanted to be like. I'd pick and choose elements from each of my supervising teachers to add to my toolbox of the type of teacher I want to inspire and the environment I want to create. But I think that certainly impacted having my first year and having my classes and go, cool, my identity is sorted. I am a decent teacher. I am setting up boundaries. And yeah, that sense of relief that it did all work out, regardless of not being like my supervising teachers, I was me.
SPEAKER_04Can you tell me about a moment of growth from your first year, either in you or in your students where you feel like I'm learning or you could see that they were learning and changing?
SPEAKER_02In my grade nines teaching them, I've noticed that I can see them thinking. I'll be explaining a concept, and at the start, it was like I was trying to pull answers from my students, and I'll go, for example, the word for staircase is unescalier. And it kind of looks like the word escargot, and it kind of looks like the word escalator. So I get my and I'm like, all right, this is about two weeks in. What do you think this word looks like? And for once they were just hands up, well, it kind of looks like escalator, kind of looks like escargot. And I went, cool, you're thinking, why do you think they're connected? Some schools you might be met with groans. On PRAC, you might be met with groans of students being, but why? But because I'd fostered a relationship like this with my class already, they knew the why question was coming. So I could see them turn to their friends and go, oh, why would staircase kind of how could I use the word snail to remind me of the word staircase? How can I use that connection to help me remember that vocab word? And we came up with the answer of medieval towers with spiral staircases. A spiral looks like a snail's shell. And that was our whole connection because we're talking about things in a home. And that's how we connected that knowledge. And my students came up with that answer. That was the one that I was hoping they would go towards eventually. But seeing it in that moment and watching my students just think and having conversations about what I'm talking about that are so perfectly on point and watching that moment of their eyes flick and they go, okay, I know that I'm thinking now. So seeing that moment of growth for my students, I'm like, cool.
SPEAKER_04So deeply satisfying, you know.
SPEAKER_02Very cool. You see the light bulb moments for students as well. Supporting a student that maybe isn't as strong in your subject and watching them grow. For them, going from like a D to a C is a massive growth. They're passing.
SPEAKER_04Do you have any sort of top tips that you would give to first-year teachers?
SPEAKER_02Your priority is to survive. You don't need to thrive. There's no mandate to work twice as hard and to thrive yet. You just need to survive. It's a marathon. Term three, note to first year teachers, term three is gonna hit you hard.
SPEAKER_04Oh god, term three is the worst.
SPEAKER_02You will catch some sort of sickness and bug at some point as well in your first year. Expect it. It's a little unavoidable. You're gonna get sick, so learn how to manage and navigate that. But it's a marathon. You need to prioritize your well-being. Don't turn up to school crazy sick. You're going to infect everyone else and start that cycle of illness again. Infect your coworkers. Your students, while they love you, I'm sure they will, they can survive a day without you. They can survive without you. You can leave a bare bones lesson plan for them, and they'll still do it. They'll still survive. Some other tips beyond it's a marathon. Be friendly with everyone. You don't know who knows who. Admin staff, they can make sure that your work takes extra long to be processed if you are awful to them.
SPEAKER_04Librarians, they have lots of power.
SPEAKER_02Yes, librarians. See? And there are so many people that I could mention right now that are important at a school. Blanket rule, just be nice to everyone.
SPEAKER_04The last part of our podcast episodes is I ask five rapid-fire questions, no follow-ups, and there's no right or wrong answer, just the first thing that comes to your head. So, what is one thing you stopped doing that made you a better teacher?
SPEAKER_02I stopped writing incredibly detailed lesson plans and thinking I had to prove myself. What is one thing you heard about at uni but didn't understand until you're a practicing teacher? How much admin is involved in teaching? I didn't realize all the behavior reports you have to do, phone calls to parents, making sure things are uploaded, telling students what their homework is, making sure you've said it, things like that. I didn't realize how much of that was involved, even though people had said it to me. Seeing it and interacting with it was different.
SPEAKER_04What is one thing in your teaching you've become more confident about over time?
SPEAKER_02I'm good at building relationships with my students. So I've become more confident in the fact that I can manage a great classroom and I've got behavior management skills, even if they're different to other people's, they're mine and I know they work. So I've become more confident in knowing that what I do can work.
SPEAKER_04What is one's part of teaching you still find challenging?
SPEAKER_02Creating my resources and managing that workload. I think that's going to be a continual struggle though, of just knowing when to stop and when I need to make something else and keeping on top of that workload there.
SPEAKER_04And last one, what is one thing that keeps you in the classroom?
SPEAKER_02The students. But it's true when you just see their smiles, you see them waving to you around the school, students going, oh my gosh, miss. I had a student give me feedback after my lesson and say, Miss, that was such a good lesson. And that was my moment of going, oh, it just feels right for me because I'm in it for the right reasons. So that's what keeps me in it. Thanks so much, Paris. Thank you for having me. This has been so much fun.