I finally have work! Well, sort of. I'm working half days in a Nursery (3 year olds) until next Friday (though I wound up staying a full day yesterday). It's a really lovely school and the staff have been extremely friendly to me (quite unusual!) and the kids are actually well-behaved (even more unusual!).
I remember last year when I was doing supply, I always felt as though I was fumbling through the day. Every school/teacher was different and I never knew exactly what was expected of me, much less where to find things or what the kids' individual needs were. But I guess a year of experience has done me some good, because I haven't felt that way at all this time. It was actually shocking to me, how confident I felt. And the other teachers seem to have noticed it too, because they made it abundantly clear they wanted me to apply for their permanent position. Of course, the application deadline was yesterday and I didn't find this out until after lunch, so I had to stay after school and write as quickly as I could in the half hour between the end of school and the deadline. (It meant missing capoeira too, grrr!)
There are a few cons to taking this job (the long, boring bus ride and the lack of challenge being two) and I don't even know whether I'll get it... but it feels really good to be appreciated and to have it confirmed that I can do this work. Sometimes I doubt myself. Being an agency employee in London can be pretty rough. Often the permanent staff will treat you like you're disposable and not a real human being.
It's also grad school application season. I'm applying for PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) programmes at both the Institute of Education and Roehampton University, but I also found a sweet MA in Special and Inclusive Education programme (about as ideal as it gets, seeing as I want to conduct my research on how children with Autism respond to creative education) at Roehampton that doesn't necessarily require me to get my PGCE first, so I'm applying for that too. The only way I'll be able to afford school is to go part-time, so heading straight into my MA would cut 2 years off my completion time. But it might also limit my career options when I'm finished. I'm not sure which option is better.
Other things:
- I'm continuing to stay busy and meet new people. I'm having a blast, but I'm also exhausted now that I'm back at work (I'd forgotten how tiring teaching can be).
- I'm in the process of becoming a Mentor for Kids Company. I can't even tell you how excited I am about that.
- I'm now in charge of planning workshops for Blues Revolution (which I have finally officially joined), and I have two coming up... a brand new one that I'll be teaching in October and our usual Beginner Intensive that my lovely friend Kavita will be teaching in November. Carter will of course be teaching both, because he's awesome like that.
- I have used parentheses excessively in this entry, and I will not apologise for it.
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