This year is my 20th year as a teacher. My first job was teaching a class of 10 year olds at the primary school where I myself went. One of my pupils was the daughter of one of my classmates. My headmaster was the headmaster when I went there. The teacher who taught my sister was still there. She still did the same class projects, used the same display materials. Holland, The Wild West....can't remember the other ones. I remember thinking that I hoped I would be more inspired after teaching for 20 years. Am I?
I certainly have gained a lot of experience in different educational fields since that first teaching job. Moved to a very different challenging school with pupils from very different challenging social backgrounds. I will never forget my first week in that class. One pupil swung from the rafters ALL DAY LONG. Another one told me to "F### Off". ALL WEEK LONG. After 18 months there, when I told them I was moving to Sweden, these two were the ones who told me how much they missed me.
In Sweden I worked at an international school until the babies started arriving, then was home for 6 years. Re-entered education working at a nursery, where I was the fastest nappy changer ever - well after 3 babies in 3 years, I was a pro!! Then 3 years as a mother tongue teacher, 3 years as a High School Special Education teacher. And now. Twenty years later, I have come full circle and have a class of 10 year olds. This time around it is just as fun ,wonderful, varied and challenging as twenty years ago in Scotland. Just in Swedish. I teach Swedish, Maths, Social Studies and English with my own class, Social Studies in another class of 10 years olds, and English in a class of 11 year olds.
The bonus in all of this, is that I now work at the same school as my children. This means a wink from my son across the lunch room, a hug from one daughter as we pass in the corridor, and today, floss-dancing with my other daughter and her classmates during lunch break. My work is 7 minutes walk from our house - 10 minutes home as it is uphill all the way. I walk to school with my family, and come home to my family. How lucky am I?
This is my life.
