Over this last week I have been trying to think about what I was going to focus on for my final blog of 2019. I decided to reflect on this year of teaching by re-reading my previous blogs starting with the one that I wrote this time last year (Oh what a YEAR!). This is what I found… 

All I can say to my 2018 self is “ditto”. I still feel like I am part of the furniture and that I have blinked and it’s all over. Yet, I also feel like I am in a very different place now then I was this time last year. On a personal note I have had many changes this year; the biggest being getting engaged! And upon reading my blogs I have realised that I have changed and grown a lot professionally too. During this reading and reflection I have decided that the theme of my 2019 was professional growth and development. Further down in my 2018 blog I also spoke about the feeling of drowning. So to continue the metaphor; if 2018 was all about trying to keep my head above water I think 2019 was all about learning how to swim.

 

I could not have achieved any of this without the help and support of my incredible colleagues. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with such a hardworking and dedicated group of educators. As a result, I have developed and grown in so many different aspects of my teaching. 

 

One of the people I have felt so blessed to work alongside and learn from was my teaching partner @misscalvertblog. At the start of the year Sophie, although having done a couple of casual days at the end of last year, was basically a complete stranger to me. She was a beginning teacher from England bouncing with energy and enthusiasm. Sophie is now a very close friend.  Although it has been an absolute pleasure working with Sophie it also brought it’s challenges. The first being what I call our ‘language barrier’. Sophie, although from an english speaking country, has a very thick accent and there has been multiple times throughout the year where one of us has said something and we have just stared blankly at each other trying to work out if what the other had said was in fact english. I am now (almost) a fluent Sophie translator. 

On a more serious note, communication was in fact a big challenge for Sophie and I this year. Both of us had signed up to work as a part of Activities Club which meant that  between us we were out of class 3 mornings a week. Throughout the year, due to meetings and duties, Sophie and I had no time together before or after school. The only time we had was our joint RFF. This meant we had to be very flexible and creative in how we communicated plans for each day. After trialling many things we settled for an online joint weekly planner. This was something that we could both edit to ensure we were prepared for the week ahead and if something needed to change due to a previous lesson we could communicate on this doc. So thanks to our working arrangements I have been able to develop my flexibility, creative thinking, and communication skills this year. 

 

However, I think my biggest growth has been in the area of teaching literacy. This year I was very fortunate to work quite closely with our leader of literacy @ncolburt1. This year Nat worked alongside Sophie and I to try to create a more meaningful, purposeful, authentic and goal-centred approach to teaching the literacy block. This is still a work in progress but it has been amazing to see the difference it has made to the students in our space. I can’t wait to continue to develop this area of my teaching next year. 

 

Next year will bring it’s own joys and challenges but I can’t wait to see how the metaphor continues as I move into a new decade of teaching. Bring on 2020.