Life News: I GOT A JOB!!

So some crazy things happened to me over the past couple of days and the result is...I got a full-time teaching job!!

I am going to be teaching a class of 22 Year 7 students at a small secondary school in a town north of Southampton. 

I had actually interviewed for the same position in May over Skype and at the time I thought the interview had gone very well.  However, they ended up hiring a guy who had been supply teaching with TimePlan (the agency that I came here with) in Hampshire for a while already.  However, at the beginning of this week he ended up resigning from his upcoming position (TimePlan and the school both are still not sure why).  In a panic the school called TimePlan to see if I had found a full-time job yet in hopes that I would be available to take the position in his place. 

I went to meet with the head teacher and the head of the department that I  will be working in yesterday morning and they basically just explained the details of the position to me and asked me if I wanted the job (since I had already been interviewed previously).

 

The program that I will be teaching in is a new project-based learning and skill development focussed program which also adheres to standard national curriculum expectations.  It is meant to give Year 7 students the best possible foundation for success in secondary school and beyond. 

There are four of us (the other three being experienced teachers) who are teaching within the program and who will have regular planning meetings to share ideas and collaborate to decide how best to meet the needs of each of our students.  We will also have teachers from various departments who are specialists in the subject areas who will meet with us regularly and work alongside us in planning instruction and projects for the students.  I am very excited since project-based learning is an up and coming educational strategy in many parts of the world right now and I feel that this will be an excellent experience for me, especially so early in my career.  It will be quite challenging, but it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up! 

   

I will be teaching a variety of subjects including Science, Technology, Literacy, History/Geography and Art so it will be a lot like teaching Grade 7 back in Canada.  I am a bit nervous about branching out of my areas of speciality but since I am working in such a team-based environment with supportive fellow staff members I think I will be all right!  I will also have a small “Mentor group” of students who I will meet with in the middle each day for tutoring and academic support.  Most of the teachers in the school have one of these groups and there is a designated slot in the timetable for this.  Students also have study hall-type work times during some days of the week and I will be in charge of supervising a couple of these classes. 

It will be about a 45 minute commute for me every day (plus a bit of walking on each end) but since school hours are 8:40-2:50 I think I should be able to manage to get home at a decent time in the evenings even when staying after school for prep work and marking, meetings, etc.

I start school on Tuesday but the first two days are just staff meetings and planning time for the teachers.  Then a week from today I will be meeting my kids!  I will make sure to write more about how I am feeling about the job and what my position will entail after the first few days. 

I am excited to see where this new journey will take me even though there are still a lot of unknowns and I am pretty nervous!  At least I know that I will have a stable, predictable income, I will be working with the same colleagues every day and I will have a chance to really get to know my students and to see them grow and progress.  There is good and bad to both supply teaching and to a permanent position but I just need to trust that God will give me the strength and perseverance to get through the tough times and that there will be lots of positive, rewarding times too!

Like always your prayers are so appreciated!!

-Heather <3