Wednesday 21 August 2013

Getting Ready to Go Back to Work... Again


It’s that time of year again. For parents, everyone is celebrating, you get to send them to ME again 5 days/week! For teachers, well, there’s often a bit of resistance. Last year looked very different for me. I had just completed 14 months of maternity leave and discovered there wasn’t a position for me to return to. I was told by Human Resources, that because of my experience and Masters Degree in Administration and Leadership, I could be considered qualified for Learning Assistance jobs IF I returned to school, yet again, to complete a credited course in Level B Psychology Testing. Psychology isn’t what I would consider my strong subject, given it alone accounts for my only 2 C-’s ever in my academic career. I tried to be optimistic, told myself I was a “mature learner” now and signed up for the 4 credit, 4th year course through Athabasca University. To make things really interesting, HR added the addendum that I had to complete this 22 week course in... oh say 6 weeks... to keep my contract.

4th year Psychology course in 6 weeks. Oh and did I mention I actually had not one, not two, but FOUR different teaching positions at the time? I went from the bliss of maternity leave to 4 different jobs and a student, on a condensed schedule, in my weakest subject. I worked hard. So hard. Way harder than I worked in my Undergraduate Degree, Teacher Training or Masters Degree. When all was said and done, HR granted me 2 extra weeks to finish my final project and I got it down with just the 1 extra. I finished the course with an A-, not too shabby for a C- Psyc. student operating on a condensed schedule and through Distance Education. The real laugh came when my professor suggested I “re-do the first quiz to improve my mark to an A or A+ to reflect my true ability.” To that suggestion I just laughed and assured her that as a working parent, with 4 different teaching assignments, and the course counting for nothing more than a completion mark, I was MORE than happy with my A-!!!

This year is very different. I won a job in our second round of job postings and then won a different job in our third round, back at the beginning of summer. Not just any job either, my dream job. I am going to be my school district’s Elementary Behaviour/Social Skills Teacher and I couldn’t be more excited... and terrified. Despite years of classroom and work experience working with what I like to refer to as some “tough cookies,” I can’t help but feel unprepared for this job, but then I think, is anyone ever prepared for a job as complex as this? It’s like the journey to parenting, no matter how much you read, and discuss and prepare, you always end up in an entirely spontaneous situation that requires you to think on your feet at all times.