Jack of All Trades
Honestly, diving head first into the 'on-call' life of a substitute teacher was hard. Not hard in the sense of I didn't know what I was doing. Hard in the sense that I was lucky enough to walk into my own classroom and teach everyday for the past four years, and now my phone rarely leaves my site so that I won't miss an assignment to cover someone else's class. Trust me when I say I'm not claiming 'woe is me'; this was a decision that was not made easily, but made nonetheless. I've started my career backwards in a sense. Most teachers fresh out of the institution find themselves in the shoes I now wear. The inconsistency of scheduling your week, the frantic dash to your phone when it rings between certain hours, and that moment when you're overcome with the sad realization that you don't get to teach today. I'm speculating, but perhaps many of those who find themselves in my position would turn their noses up at the possibility of 'demoting' themselves to occassional. I'd like to view it as a different experience, more along the lines of reimbursed professional development.
As someone who has taught in a permanent capacity over the past four years, I found my groove. That comfortability of routine in my classroom. The certain tools that worked for me; the Twitter Project, Project-based Learning, blended learning. These were all very successful in student engagement and learning, and I knew how I was implementing them. I probably would have kept implementing them in similar ways for the rest of my career. That's why I see this 'step back' as an invaluable learning opportunity. I actually get the opportunity to visit a new classroom everyday. Think about how many times you acutally get to see your colleagues' classes in action. How often do you get to visit another classroom for ideas? How often do you get this large of a sample of students and observe the various ways in which they learn? I have visited more classrooms in the past two months than in the past four years combined. It's my own personal professional development series.
I'm privvy to the hands on experience of inclusive education. Each day I get to experience the myriad of methods used in practicing inclusivity, how various teachers differentiate and tier their lessons, get hands-on experience with Google Classroom, and learn alongside a grade 9 cohert that all received iPads this year. I also get to widen my career while being emerged in curriculum that I wouldn't have otherwise enjoyed. I've been a chef with students who've made incredible cheescakes, soups, and cultural cuisines; a chemist explaining the notion of double displacement and calculating yield percentages; a historian exploring the slang of Canadians during the roaring twenties and dirty thirties; a mechanic testing students knowledge of engines and transmissions; confused as I tried to go through linear algebra with senior students; I've refamiliarized myself with the Periodic Table of Elements; taught literacy skills to those students practicing for the OSSLT; headed the learning commons for students to collaborate and inquire; worked with students in our COPE programs and self-directed learning classrooms (SDLC); and spent some quality and invaluable time with our Life Skills students.
I've received an opportunity to keep learning through my decision to step away from what I believed to be my dream job. An opportunity to reassess my practice in a formative way, whlie I wait for my own classroom again. I have to view this transition as a positive experience, and hence, at the moment I'm a 'Jack of all trades'.
