So it is half way through week 4 of term 1… so far this year I have been relief teaching in various classes and various year levels.

I have been thinking about what this year is going to look like for me as a teacher, and I have no idea. For me, this is scary not knowing when and if I will work and who and where I will be teaching.

I am already thinking about when jobs come out and how I will improve my cover letters which also got me thinking of how do I put my ‘best foot forward’ while relief teaching and not having my own class. How do I improve my practice as a teacher while relief teaching in other teachers classes, with their students, and generally teaching to their plans.

While I have been relief teaching I have been attending conferences and professional developments gathering ideas and inspiration, the hard part is organising those notes so that when I have a class I am able to put them to good use. Blogging them has been helpful for this as well as storing them in my drive, now I just need to remember to look back.

I have discovered relief teaching is not for me, although I am pushing through and continuing to develop as a teacher and aiming for my own class as this is where I work best. Don’t get me wrong, relief teaching has its benefits, leaving after school, no reports etc; however, for me, I miss the connections with students, watching them struggle and progress in their learning and spending the days learning and having fun. I have things I want to improve on in my teaching, some I can achieve through relief teaching but others can only be done through having my own class. It is hard having things you know you want to work on but you can’t practically get it done, only do some reading and research to get myself started.

I hope this post didn’t come across as my having a whine for those of you reading this, for me, this was a way for me to vent and get my thoughts down. I don’t even know how much sense this actually made! This is a way for me to try and make sense of my mind and what 2017 may look like for me.