Teachers College and parenting - not the ideal marriage

Teachers' College is very demanding.  There is a lot of reading, even compared to when I did my Masters Degree in History.  And there are many, many projects, most of which are group work.  Everyone in my program is feeling the pressure and the very few of us who have kids, are feeling it especially because the pressures of home do not let up just because you are a full-time student again.  And being me means that I haven't let all of my extra-curricular volunteer activities go.

I've realized that it is foolish to expect to get much of anything done on weekends because the kids want to do fun things and I don't want them to languish in front of glowing screens which is what would happen if I spent hours on school work.  Also, John loves the NFL.  Enough said on that front.  Much as I have tried to push him to revisit his Sunday afternoon schedule, it is to no avail.

So, I spend late nights in front of my computer during the week and I don't get all my readings done.  That's just the way it has to be.

This coming week is Fall Reading Week at OttawaU.  Unless you are doing a Bachelors of Education, in which case you have classes and professional development.  On the upside, there are fewer readings.  So I guess that's a concession.

The reality is that I will get this done, and I will get it done well, but not as well as I would if I didn't have kids.  But having had my kids already gives me certain advantages and confidences and knowledge about kids and their brains that I didn't have before I had children of my own.  And thankfully, they are, so far, pretty understanding about Mummy's schedule and demands.

Also, I've figured out I can pay Emily $2.50 for looking after the other two while I work at my computer for a couple of hours.   GAME-CHANGER.

Now, back to my readings.

Great changes

So, yeah.

It's been a while....

And although it may sound like I am writing assuming someone is actually out there reading this, I am well aware that these words are blowing off my corner of the internet into the great ethos, with no other eyes taking a gander.

That didn't use to be the case.  And I'm okay with that.

Blogging used to be a huge part of my life.  Until life took over as the kids got older.  Which meant my wee Henry didn't get his fair share of face time on here.  Instead, his life, for the past two years anyway, was chronicled on Facebook, which means it hasn't been chronicled well.  And for that, Henry, I am so sorry.

And then, when life was already getting busy, I ended my glorious existence as a stay-at-home mum (something I relished and excelled at for seven lovely years) and returned to paid employment for Her Majesty.  I went back to a posting at Foreign Affairs and two months later landed a better-paid position at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

And then quickly realized that I needed to finally do what I had wanted to do for over ten years: become a teacher.  Because working for the government was not going to work for me long-term.  In fact, it wasn't working for me short-term.

I applied to teachers' college ten years ago and got into to the University of Ottawa's Teacher Ed program but at the same time found out I was expecting Emily.  And so that plan had to wait in lieu of my three amazing children.  And now, those children are older and Henry has started JK and, oh yeah, the Government of Ontario is about to turn Teachers' College in Ontario into a two-year program so my plan morphed into "now or never."  I chose "now".


In the past ten years I have never really questioned that I was meant to teach and every waking moment of my volunteer time was spent with kids (and there were many waking moments spent hiking, camping, running meetings and selling Girl Guide cookies), honing teaching skills and figuring out my goals and my philosophy of working with kids.  It was extremely worthwhile.

So, here I am now, one and a half months into my Teacher Ed program at Ottawa U.  And I am exactly where I should be and want to be and I am so excited to finally be here.

I've decided that in order to keep my thoughts straight and figure out my goals and intentions for my teaching career as well as chronicle this year and my imminent search for teaching work in the Ottawa area, it is time to restart this old rust-bucket and get back into blogging.  Because I do miss it.

So, I go back to the beginning.  The beginning was blogging just for me and for my kids.  So they know what I was thinking and feeling at certain times in my life.  So they can go back and read about themselves and our family.  So I can go back and reflect and remember and relive these moments of knowing exactly where I wanted to be and why.