Yesterday, I saw a post on LinkedIn and it said ‘When someone asks you what do you do, tell them “Whatever it takes”. What a great sentiment. I didn’t read it as an arrogant or bullish statement, but very much as an undefined approach to my job. We as teachers know very well that we are not ‘just’ people who impart knowledge. We are carers, we are listeners, we are educators of the whole child and we are people who are very important in children’s lives. (I would like to note that when I specify teachers, I am actually talking about everyone who works in a school. We are all teachers, even if that isn’t our job title.) Earlier this week, I was exchanging emails with a colleague in one of our schools in Thailand. We met as part of the SLP back in 2017 and joked with each other about the conversations we had in the Dubai sunshine on our very first residential. What, we pondered, would our then selves say about having a task based on opening a school without teachers or setting up a virtual school due to a global pandemic. It was so far out of our sphere of reference that I think we would have laughed and say it was unreasonable and ridiculous!
Again, as teachers, we are flexible and we do what the children need us to do because that’s our job. But, teaching as we know it’s not ‘just’ a job in the same way as we’re not ‘just’ teachers. Teaching is a vocation. Teaching has to be something that you want to do because if it isn’t it’s a really, really tough job. I regularly remind myself that I have the best job in the world and I’m now entering my 21st year of teaching. I first uttered those words almost 21 years ago to the day in a staffroom in a girls’ comprehensive school in Birmingham and now I find myself saying the same words in an international school in Shanghai. Back then, as a PGCE student, it was beyond my wildest dreams that I would ever be brave enough or bold enough to do something like this. At that time, none of my closest friends had ever done anything like it and I only had one friend who went any further than a couple of hours away from home to go to university!
In the same way that I wouldn’t have thought I would ever be able to do this when we embarked on this journey of managing this ever-changing situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t think any of us would have believed the strength, determination, and resilience that all of us have. This is the last day of another challenging and eventful term and the last school day of 2021. I wonder what the next term will have in store for us? One of my foibles is it I like certain numbers. I don’t know why, but I always have. For example, I like 15 but my favourite is 22. I am not in any way superstitious, but I do wonder whether 2022 will be a ‘good’ year whatever it has in store for us. I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed things about 2020 or 2021, and indeed have learned a lot from them. One fairly major thing they gave to me was an increased ability to let go, to not stress about things beyond mine or anyone else’s control (this continues to be an area for development) and also the ability or mindset of being grateful for the small things.
I am signing off now to write my letter to parents highlighting just some of the so many achievements from this term.
Music today is Now Christmas and it’s that good old Lennon classic Merry Christmas (War Is Over).
Happy Friday and a very merry Christmas to all!
p.s. I meant to say thank you to the chocolate fairy who brought me a Kinder bar last week. Whoever you are, thank you! It made my day. 😊
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