Tag: teaching

Northern Lights and February 2014 Update

Plan coming together

Our plan to move to the Yukon and for me to substitute teach is going pretty well. I’ve been working more than not over the last month and the last week I have been in school everyday. I’ve been covering a year 7 class and it’s been fun.

Our first peak at the Northern Lights. Photo courtesy of Christa Galloway. You can see more on her blog theroadnorth.ca 
Our first peak at the Northern Lights. Photo courtesy of Christa Galloway. You can see more on her blog theroadnorth.ca 

Plan coming together

Our plan to move to the Yukon and for me to substitute teach is going pretty well. I’ve been working more than not over the last month and the last week I have been in school everyday. I’ve been covering a year 7 class and it’s been fun. Mostly. Of course as a substitute there’s no real responsibility beyond making sure all hell doesn’t break loose and delivering the lessons as best as you can that are prepped by the class teacher. I have enjoyed working with the older students although truth be told I am a little aghast at the levels they seem to be performing at, their attitude to learning and their inability to work independently. This is in no way a reflection of their teacher who I think has worked miracles to get them to where they are. Personally it has got me thinking about standards and how to improve attitude and attainment in students such as the ones I have been teaching the past few days.  A by product of these thoughts has been to catch myself starting to care about such things which is only possible when you start getting to know students. Of course as a sub, teaching here and there that doesn’t really happen so the last four days have been a real treat. 

Bad Blogger

The last little while has been busy and I have found myself neither writing my journal nor my blog. It is becoming obvious that I will need to be much more disciplined, which ironically I was discussing with the class today.  What is going to help me is that we are on a limited bandwidth here which means that unlimited streaming is not an option. Consequently I will not be able to come home from work and just plonk myself down in front of the TV for the  duration of the evening. Getting into some sort of work ethos now will not only help my blogging efforts but will also help once studies come my way.

Why I left teaching

Looking back, as with most things when you look back far enough, you start to second guess yourself. But I remember very clearly the main reason I left teaching and went searching for something different. 

 Looking back, as with most things when you look back far enough, you start to second guess yourself. But I remember very clearly the main reason I left teaching and went searching for something different. 

Shortly after my 26th birthday I woke up one morning and thought I could see my future. At that time, teaching at The British School in Manila, I loved what I was doing. But the thought of doing the same thing for the next 39 years filled me with a sense of foreboding that I couldn’t shake. I wasn’t ready to dedicate my life to anyone thing at 26. A sure sign the 26 year old was going on 16 – but still I  felt the need to do something else for a while. I didn’t want to be one of those teachers for whom retirement can’t come quickly enough. 

If you read my bio you would quickly understand I was one of those young adults who had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives. If you read my P.E. thesis you would also see that I wasn’t what you would call studious, thoughtful or particularly eloquent. But I have always been brave, I think, or foolish depending on your point of view. And occasionally I’ve also had moments of clarity (not often granted) and  knowing I was not equipped for the next 39 years in a classroom I left. 

What I did for the next 15 years or so isn’t important (photography) but the result of that time away from the classroom gave me insights in to who I am and what I want from life. It is odd to think I am now more thoughtful, studious and ahem, eloquent than I ever was. And it is also more than a little odd that given all this introspection over the last few years the conclusion I have come to is I want to be a teacher once again. 

My history teacher, a marvellous man called Warwick Brookes, once told us that history was like a wheel. It would seem he was, as with so many things, right again as I find myself returning towards a life as an educator.