I'm embarking on a new journey in my life and I'm taking the huge step back into teaching. I weighed up my options and realised the best way for me to get back into teaching was through a return to teaching course. Now I don't know if you've ever wandered the lonely halls of Google but there aren't that many return to teaching courses out there, especially ones that don't involve teaching in London...slight distance for me to travel from the North East and...well....you know it costs an arm and a leg to rent down in London so that was never going to happen.
I had to weigh up whether I would get the experience I needed through general day to day supply (since I waiting 5 years to start my NQT year I can now only do HLTA or TA work so that kind of limits my chances) or if by some miracle I could get a course that allowed me chance to teach in school as a returner.
After weeks of scrolling I was about to give up and stay where I was, out of teaching and in the fitness industry, when I tried one last search. This search apparently became one of the best searches in my history of Google searches which for someone who enjoys Googling and Pinteresting in her spare time is a challenge!
In this Google search I found Teach Again; a company that help get returning teachers into schools with a mentor for 12 weeks, 12 weeks of observing and teaching and generally getting your foot back in the door. So I quit my job....yep...I quit my job and 5 weeks later I'm in school 3 days a week observing and preparing to make the most of this awesome experience but still having 2 days to gain some supply work. A girl has to earn some money some how.
This morning I woke up early, sorted my life out, got myself dressed and ate breakfast with my mobile permanantly glued to my lap. Come 8:30am I finally decided enough hoping, I wasn't getting a phone call with supply work today. Have I picked the wrong days in the week to be free? Should I have picked the beginning of the week? How am I going to cope if I don't get money for the 12 weeks? The whole weight of this realisation is setting in and I'm going into panic mode! Do I need to sign up to more agencies? This agency rang loads when I wasn't available and I rang explaining I wasn't available, now I've told them I'm available and sat waiting, I get nothing!
Ok, now is the time to focus on the positives. In December I was unhappy, now I'm in a school with the loveliest teacher I've ever met. She is like a little pocket rocket and I know I'll learn so much more from her than I did off any of the mentors I had during my Degree placements. I got to see how her inner mind worked and flitted from one idea to the next in the space of a second and we went from learning about electricity to using large 5ft cardboard tubes to make a large pylon for a display, to making a wind turbine too, to then making individual wind turbines out of paper straws. I was seriously magical to see how her mind just flitted over the endless possibilities. To see her light up over planning Literacy lessons round Roald Dahl books and linking them with Science. She eats, sleeps and breaths her class and that is clearly what makes her an amazing teacher. Years ago when someone asked who inspired you to become a teacher I said my primary teachers. Now if they ask who inspired me I say they started it but without a shadow of a doubt this teacher inspires me to be the best that I can be.
I have the opportunity to make this experience amazing and get the most out of it that I can. Yes it sucks that I didn't get supply work today....but right now I think about the positives to get me through a very scary prospect of very little income. So far I think this Teach Again programme is going to be very exciting and just what I needed.
I may change my mind if I don't get supply work but for now I'm positive...much more positive that I was when I started writing this post. Life's little mumblings for the win.
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