A Long-Expected Update

Hello all!

Since it has been awhile I thought I would split this update into two posts, one about my regular school/Southampton life and one about my first trip to the continent!  For those of you who I speak to regularly most of this will be old news, but there are still lots of you who I have been failing at communicating with and who I owe a serious update!  I am feeling fairly refreshed after my half-term break and ready to tackle the next six weeks before Christmas.  The first week back was crazy-ish in typical fashion but I’m getting used to the stresses that tend to present themselves in this particular job.

The last few weeks of term went on pretty much as usual.  I feel like I am getting into a routine and getting used to the two week timetable with different classes to teach during each period on each day.  It is totally different than the system I am used to but I am gradually starting to see the merits (as well as the drawbacks) of setting up the school year this way.  I am feeling more and more comfortable with my classes and with the school environment in general.  I have had to phone a few parents lately which I find utterly terrifying for some reason but now that I have done it a few times it does not seem as bad.  I have an intense fear of being berated by parents and being told that I am doing a horrible job of taking care of their child (but luckily this has not happened yet).  I am sure I will get over that someday.  The teachers who have been around for a long time seem fairly desensitized to it now.

Another recent work-related development is that I got my official Qualified Teacher Status for the UK which just meant sending a form and a letter from the OCT with proof of my qualifications to the Department for Education and waiting for them to send me confirmation.  It does not make a whole lot of difference to my teaching career here since I did not need any additional training to get it but I do feel more official now!  Plus it’s always fun to have more letters behind your name (I am now: BA, BEd., OCT, QTS).

I also made it through my first parents’ evening on the last week of half-term!  We spent the beginning of that week frantically making sure that the students had the final drafts of all of their projects finished so that we could mount them and get ready to display for the parents.  The kids were so exhausted by the time the evening came and they could definitely feel the teachers’ stress as we tried to get everything together.  We set up the theatre classroom with the final projects displayed and with the students’ books on tables with their drafts and feedback inside so that the parents could see the progress that they had made as they reviewed and revised their work in all subjects.  It all looked very impressive when it was set up.  As an added touch, some of the students even served the Japanese food that they had learned to make in food tech and a video of the students’ final routines from Dance class was projected on the wall so that all subjects were represented.

In a nearby classroom I had my little desk for brief interviews with parents.  Many of the students came in with their parents which was nice because I felt like I was talking to them and not behind their back and being open and honest about their progress.  For most of them it was a great chance to praise them and to share what I appreciate about them individually beyond what I get a chance to tell them in class on a regular basis.  I enjoyed meeting most of the parents and none of them seemed to surprised by what I had to say about their children, for better or for worse.

The last BIG thing that has happened at school is that our Head Teacher resigned on the last day of term and we got a new Head at the beginning of this week.  Basically, he was pressured to go because of unsatisfactory exam results, even though in the years that he had been serving at the school he had improved school culture and academics immensely.  It is all very political and even more so now that our school has been an academy for a year and their board has control over staffing and school operations to some extent.  It’s complicated but no more so than teaching is in Canada, just in different ways that still confuse me.  I think I will do a British education system evaluation/rant in a future post where I point out the merits and flaws that have struck me most.  I’ll wait for a night when I am feeling especially fired up about something and use it as a way to vent my frustrations. 

Regardless, the new Head she seems really lovely and she has set up half hour meetings with each of the teachers to get to know us and to hear about what we like and what we would change about the school if we could.  She really seems to have our best interests at heart based on what I have seen so far and I am quite pleased with how things have turned out after the abruptness of the situation at a strange time in the year.  She will likely only be there until the end of the school year but at least we know we will be in good hands until then.

Believe it or not, I have been having some social, fun times outside of school over the past few weeks as well which have been keeping me sane.  Home group and church are great as always and I am really feeling more and more at home at Above Bar.  Other notable fun times over the past few weeks have included my first bowling and cinema experiences over here and my first ever bonfire/firework/Guy Fawkes night festivities at the beach outside of town.  It’s pretty bizarre, celebrating attempted terror plot by blowing things up and setting fires, but I have to admit it is pretty fun.  A bunch of us are are going to the Southampton fireworks display tomorrow night as well so I have become well immersed in the tradition this year.

I definitely have met a couple of kindred spirit, life-long type friends here and I feel like I am always getting to know new people through Glo events and hangouts.  I discover more and more what a definite extrovert I am since I am really enjoying constantly meeting and talking to all kinds of people and I am sometimes really struggling with living on my own!  If all goes according to plan in the new year I will be looking for a flat to share with a friend or two so that I will not be on my own forever.  I am still loving all of the newness and excitement and adventure and spontaneity in the form of deciding a few days in advance that I am going to fly off to another country for a few days (which I will write about later this weekend).  I feel like I am living my dreams and they are turning out to be super awesome. 

Of course my life is not all rosy and perfect.  School is exhausting and difficult and frustrating and even maddening at times but still I love it here.  When I was in Amsterdam by the end of the trip I felt homesick for England and Southampton and I had people here that I missed and could not wait to see when I got back.  It’s so cool that I am at that stage after being here for less than three months.  When people ask if I miss home all I can think is that I honestly don’t.  I miss people, but not places.  In other words, if you could all come over here and live closer that would be a fairly ideal situation :) 

I will write a travelogue-type post giving you the low-down on my trip to the Netherlands (aka the motherland of nearly EVERYONE I grew up with in my school days).  It was so lovely. 

For the moment I will say ‘so long, farewell…”

-Heather <3