This is so very weird to be writing again. Not that I don’t write every single day, it is just a lot different than pushing the publish button and seeing a post come into people’s feeds. It is 2020 and I am back at work. In fact that is where I have been the last few years, making my way back into the world of teaching.
After spending 4 years on the executive of my children’s Elementary School PAC, I knew that it was time for me to make a decision about going back to work. So, I took some time to do some volunteer teaching and make sure I wanted to go back to the classroom and started applying for so very many jobs. I had principals who wanted to hire me, and a district unwilling. I knew that since I kept up my teaching license and was a volunteer in the schools, I was ready, but like anyone else who has taken off time to be with children, I had trouble convincing HR of that.
Three years ago that changed when I decided to go the Independent school route. I was hired as a Teacher on call for two schools and I managed to work between 3-5 days almost every week. This was actually a great was to get back into both working and teaching for me and the whole family. It is hard to go from having someone able to be around all the time, volunteering for almost everything at the kids’ school, and being able to walk them to and from school, to working again.
This year I am working full time. It is a weird year to be working full time as a teacher. So many different protocols when you are working in an Elementary school in a pandemic. My position is one where I am not cohorted the way the homeroom teachers are. As a specialist or a TOC, or someone like me who is someone who helps out in all the classes, there are different rules. We must be masked or distant in all the classes and spaces we enter. The only place I can reasonably be unmasked is while I am at my desk, which is in a shared work space. The kids are not supposed to be touching you. I don’t know if you have ever been in an Elementary school especially in the JK – 3 classes, but they want to hug you, a lot.
All of this is a long winded way to say that I need my blog again. Not only to maybe write about teaching during a pandemic and watching all the numbers rise, but also to use my blog as a place for reflections on a professional development workshop I am taking called “Making the PYP happen in the early years: Implementing Agency.” It is an IB workshop that will make working at an IB school all that much easier.
So, if you are one of those few readers who wondered, what ever happened to Gwen of Left Coast Mama and you are surprised to have this pop up in your feed, be prepared for a few more of these posts. Some will be fully focused on the workshop and education and some will be back to my ramblings about life.
Sincely,
Me