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Growing up I loved performing. Dance shows, musical theatre, drama productions, memorising choreography, learning lines, getting all dressed up, mastering the quick-change, forming friendship bonds you only get when you’re stuck in a tiny dressing room together for hours on end. And of course the thrill of being on stage.
There was that undeniable feeling that I was in the right place.
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When I started teaching, I loved what I was doing. The chance to organise my own classroom space, create and explore all sorts of learning experiences and nurture my amazing little bunch of students. Learning something new every day. As I’m sure all beginning teachers find, the first couple of years are insanely busy with paperwork, pressure, questions, demands and empty glue sticks flying out of your ears. But I was thriving off the challenge and fuelled with purpose.
There was that undeniable feeling that I was in the right place.
Fast-forward a few years and this feeling started to wane. It’s not that any single thing ‘went wrong’; it was more of a slow process of attrition; all the little things that, as hard as I tried, just weren’t in my control. That feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’d never really done enough. That I should be doing more. That I was fighting a losing battle and the wins were too short-lived.
But I still told myself I was in the right place.
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 "Time to eat your vegetables!")
In a funny way, the pandemic helped me reignite that feeling I’d been missing. With time freed up by working from home, I started learning about all sorts of things I hadn’t delved into before from animation, to blog writing, to even doing a marketing analytics course with an instructor who used a butternut squash to illustrate his analogies (don’t ask me why).
 "Working from home in lockdown")
Springing out from this came the at the minute blog website which became a fun side-project to build during endless time in lockdowns. Hungry to learn and create more, Simon and I found a way to bring teaching and tech together to create at the minute teaching. I wanted to build something that could help other teachers, whether that be through free resources, easy-to-digest blog articles or developing online tools to support learning.
Fast forward to 2022 and I want to jump in head first. I’ve realised that it’s okay to change things up and that if I have the means to do so, why not try something different? So this year full-time teaching is going to take a back seat and I’ll be taking relieving work instead to open up time for me to grow this little-big project. It’s a bit scary to jump off the path I was on, but what’s more exciting is that I sense within myself that I’m getting back on my feet and finding my new right place.
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🎵 Cages or wings
Which do you prefer?
Ask the birds
Fear or love, baby
Don’t say the answer
Actions speak louder than words 🎵
- Jonathan Larson, Tick, Tick...Boom!
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