A New Year!

I am very excited to be going back to work tomorrow after a long labour dispute. I will be teaching 40% Grade 1 this year with a bit of TOCing, but not too much. I hope to blog more often this year because I really have missed it. I did a class blog last year for the parents, so it didn't leave much time for my own professional blogging. The blog was great but time consuming. This year my partner teacher and I are going to set up a class Facebook page for parents in order to keep them updated on a daily basis and post pictures, etc.

This year I would like to have a little more balance in my life...especially just being more fully present with my kids when I'm at home. It sounds like it would be easy to balance this when you are just working part-time, however for me it is not. I still feel like I'm making up for lost time after my extended leave of being an at-home mom for years. I'm also new to primary, I have a new partner teacher, and I'm at a new school. I know that I will be spending a ton of time on my own professional development as well as all of my prep. I plan to have two days off for just being a mom and keeping up with everything including my work.

The good thing about all of my hard work in the last few years, is that I'm starting to get my confidence and experience back. Last year I started feeling more like I never left the classroom and I'm hoping I get that feeling back even faster this year. I am starting to calm down a bit and not worry so much about everything being perfect all the time. Because there is no way it's ever going to be in this job!

As I begin the year, I have in the forefront of my mind that relationships are THE most important thing, that for learning to occur kids need to feel safe and cared for, and that kids need to feel THEY MATTER in this world.

I am so excited and I can't wait to meet my students and get started! I think this year is going to be fantastic!