Reflections upon 2009

Right, so regular blogging is not really happening given that this is my first post for over four months...

Moving swiftly on.

2009 is coming to an end. It has to be said that this has been a good year for me. I am perfectly settled: I have a wonderful fiancé whom I am due to marry next year; I currently live in a lovely town flat but have just bought a house; I have a job which I love and which I am good at; I have a fantastic family, with whom I have been reconciled following the drama and breakups of last year; I have a brilliant set of friends.

Life is good right now.

There have, of course, been periods of tension throughout the year. Getting divorced was pretty traumatic for many people close to me. However, I felt very disconnected from the whole process, like it wasn't even happening to me, but to somebody else. Despite this, it is still a key event that has taken place this year; a defining colour on the canvas of me. Once the divorce was made absolute, I was able to really close the door on that chapter of my life, for myself, my ex-husband and our families, and look forward to the future.

Obviously, 2009 has been a testing time for myself and Chris, too. There was always a danger that coming out of a broken relationship and leaping straight into a new one would drag us both down. In fact, the opposite has happened: we have grown so much as a couple over this past year. There is a certainty, an inevitability, to our future now that was not there a year ago. This is a relationship that we have both had to work at: a relationship that was confronted with initial instability and opposition. I am more in love now than I have ever been; I love Chris more with each day that passes. He proposed to me in August; some say it was too soon but it felt absolutely the right time to us.

My family has accepted 'us' now. I realise now that it was naive of me to have expected them to come to terms with this quickly. My dad invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner last week: this made both my mother and I very happy; it honestly felt like my family was back together with Chris being an addition to that family. I hope that relations will continue to strengthen here.

Starting a new job is never easy but I think I made exactly the right decision when I decided to leave George Farmer and move to Springwood. I work in a Faculty that I feel I truly belong in and contribute to. There have been moments of angst and I am, indeed, prone to stress (it comes with being a bit of a perfectionist), but I love the school; I love the people I work with. I am content. George Farmer was a great school to begin my career at but I don't think it was the sort of school that would've really allowed progression and development as a teacher; I believe that Springwood will do this.

We have bought a house. Well, nearly. We have put in an offer that has been accepted and we have been approved for a mortgage. Again, we are in a state of trepidation: is this the right house for us? Will we move in and hate it? I don't think so but it is natural to feel such nerves. This is the biggest thing I have ever done: bigger than getting married. We are excited, though we realise the scale of such an act. As we have learnt, buying a house with someone is far more legally binding than getting married. It took a long time for Chris' house with his ex-partner to sell and, until it did, we could not make any progress of our own towards buying property and moving forwards in that respect. However, we are ready for this; it seems to be the next step for us.

So: 2009 has been a year of progress; I suspect 2010 will follow in a similar vein.

Happy New Year; apologies that this has been a rather self-indulgent post.

9R3

This post will most likely sound disgustingly patronising, but it really is not meant to be.

As I approach the end of my time at George Farmer, I'm starting to feel little pangs of sorrow over the pupils that I'm leaving, particularly my bottom set Year 9s.

Ironically, 9R3 was the group that gave me the most hassle when I first started teaching. I was forever dishing out detentions; writing yellow slips; sending numerous reprobates to Ben (Head of English). As a class, they rarely displayed acceptable behaviour, let alone good. However, I was more exasperated by the fact that they simply could not undertake--to any degree of success--what I considered to be rather simple and straightforward tasks. After some reflection, I realised that the problem was me: I was expecting far too much from them in terms of what they are capable of academically; consistent, limited achievement inevitably produces poor behaviour. Thus, I had to modify my teaching methods: this involved breaking tasks down into smaller steps and providing much greater scaffolding around the tasks.

Several months down the line, and I can truly say that I feel proud of the pupils in 9R3; they have made such great progress in terms of their attitude towards work, their achievements and their behaviour. I have started to raise my expectations again, as I know that they can, indeed, carry out more challenging tasks if the provisions are in place. This morning, I put them into groups of three to prepare for a speaking and listening assessment. Six months ago, group work was not an option. Today, though, they worked sensibly, co-operatively and successfully on a task that I know was pushing them a little beyond their boundaries.

This class has gone from being my four-times-a-week-horror-story to being my favourite. I know that I will probably forget their names as soon as I stop teaching them; I know they will probably bitch about me to their new teacher (they claim to be upset that I am leaving, but teeagers are fickle). I don't for one minute think they've become angels; neither do I attribute any of their achievements solely down to myself, as I still have a lot to learn as a teacher. However, I do think that we've all grown: class and teacher alike.

I am really glad that I had the opportunity to teach 9R3 this year.