While everyone is celebrating the end of this school year here in Aus, I am just getting started for next year!

My new school brought me in today to give me my timetable, curriculum plans, text books, resources, and to meet the other staff. I feel so organised, wanted, and welcome!

I will have a lot to learn over the holidays, so while most teachers are taking a well-deserved break, I’ll be hitting the books.

I am teaching the new senior biology curriculum next year, and I’ve had next to no exposure to the changes being made. I have obviously been out on maternity leave this year, and last year I didn’t teach biology so I wasn’t really involved in any of the planning. It’s going to make it a bit more difficult than if I had all junior classes, but I am excited for the challenge. Having seniors again will be a nice change too – they’re so very different from juniors and it can make such a nice and different break in your day.

I’ll also need to re-visit the junior curricula to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. Comparing my resources to the ones provided to me will likely be a tedious task, but if I can avoid re-creating lessons it will save me so much time in the long run. As is popular to say in teaching, why reinvent the wheel?!

I will be taking on a school sport next year – something I haven’t done in a very long time. As a rule, sport and I don’t get along, so it will be an interesting part of my week. Hopefully I can nominate for something I at least find vaguely interesting, and hopefully I get it. We shall see. I suppose now that I have a child of my own, sport is something that may become more important (or at least present) in my life, so perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.

I know not to plan past the first week – if you’re a beginning teacher please don’t make that mistake! Timetables are still in flux for the first couple of weeks, and activities are planned that you need to do on behalf of the school and/or department, so there is little time for content in the first week. I will be planning an introduction lesson, but it will be in chunks that I can chop and change and do at different times as necessary.

All of this will be done in amongst the Christmas rush, various birthdays, hospital appointments, my husband’s crazy time at work. Instead of sitting down while bub is napping and watching a tv show or playing a game or cleaning, I’ll be studying and planning!

After being in at the school today, I am feeling very guilty and excited. I feel like I shouldn’t be excited because I will be putting my bub in day care so I can return to work, but I know it really is the best decision for us all. I didn’t realise how much it was affecting me until my husband stopped me this afternoon and said how happy I was while I was talking about my plans and all the things I needed to get done for next year. He said I need to remember that working is a big part of my identity, and teaching is just as much of who I am as being a mum is. I don’t need to give up my job that I love just because I’m a parent, and in fact it will likely benefit our child in the long run on so many levels.

Cue teacher-mum-Emily for 2019!