A Reflection on Life After Teaching Part 1; That's When I Saw The Tweet

I've just passed the first anniversary of leaving teaching and what a year it has been. It seems fitting to reflect on what this year has taught me; on both a professional and a personal level. 

I had not planned to ever leave teaching but the universe conspired and I found events began to take a turn and lead me along a road I couldn't have dreamt of. 

Teaching isn't just a job, it is not something any of us does for the money (although many might believe otherwise according to the recent #TeachersMake campaign). Teaching is a vocation, I know this is a cliche, but it is true. One has to be drawn to teaching, to have that certain je ne sais quoi that gets your lessons going, that inspires young people, that gets you through the long winter days. I always had that drive, that belief in teaching, even after badly injuring myself during my PGCE year I continued on my course and school placements with two crutches, then one crutch and then a walking stick because all I wanted to do was teach.

How could I possibly ever want to leave that all behind then? What happened to make me choose such a drastic change in my career? LIFE, that's what happened. In 2013, my personal circumstances changed significantly, I found myself living with my mother after the breakdown of my marriage and I was at an all time low. Something had to give. I had to make a new path, a better path, and start a life on my own. 

I had worked for the last ten years for a British Online High School. Now, I know, many of you may never have heard of such a thing so let me assure you that they do exist. They are very definitely real; the pupils are real, the teachers are real, and life every day is as close to a normal school day as possible. I am drafting another blog about this, hoping to dispel the many myths surrounding online education, so I will save further explanation for another time. I was Senior Teacher and Lead in three subjects. I knew the syllabus inside out, having designed the school syllabi for those subjects. I was at a stage where I began to feel I had gone as far as I could go and needed a new challenge. That's when I saw the tweet.

It was February 2014 when a new, fairly unknown education business called La Salle Education was looking for Maths teachers to do some authoring for a new project. I thought it looked interesting so I replied to the tweet and was asked to send in my CV. CV?? What CV?? I'd been doing the same job for ten years, I hadn't written a CV in over a decade! Nonetheless, I managed to pull together a ramshackle document and duly emailed it. A little while later, I received an email asking me to attend a working weekend at a hotel in Corby. Corby was a long way away, but something was telling me to do this. I booked my train and hotel and told the family what I was doing. They all thought I was BONKERS, traveling hundreds of miles away, alone, to a hotel, to meet people I'd never heard of! I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever this was, it was what I was meant to do. 

Off I went, my first experience of what is possibly one of the longest, most tedious train journeys possible. Anyone who has ever caught the Liverpool - Norwich train will know exactly what I mean! Little did I know that this particular 6 - 8 hour trek would soon become a regular commute. I booked in at the Holiday Inn and had possibly the most wakeful nights sleep I'd had in a while. The following morning I was up sharp, dressed and desperate not to let my nerves show. I walked into a room where there were lot's of other people, each sat at a small table with laptops ready. Someone suggested this arrangement was rather like school and so we rearranged to make a larger set of two tables where we could face each other. The day began with introductions, and what do you know, who gets asked to go first? So I introduced myself, said a little about my background, and then threw in the fact that I was a Scout Leader. My heart sank as we went around the table and I heard some of the most illustrious education CV's possible. What on earth was I doing in a room with these people? What did I possibly think I could bring to this project when such great minds were already involved? 

Mark McCourt then began talking about La Salle, who they were and what they were planning to achieve by creating something called Complete Mathematics. I identified with everything he spoke of, especially when it came to the greater use of technology in education. I was enamoured with the ideals of this new project and I was interested to get involved. 

Lunch was provided and it was a chance to circulate; as if I wasn't already nervous enough in this set of social circumstances, I now had to cope with finger food! I did manage to strike up some conversations, with people who I can now actually call my friends, looking back I can't believe how nervous I felt then especially when I think of how easily and often we chat or tweet today. For the first time, I met the lovely Linda Hooper, Eddie Orija, Julia Smith and Bruno Reddy amongst others. It may have only been a courteous conversation on that day but since then I have had the pleasure and pride of working with these people on many occasions. 

The afternoon came and it was time to have a go at some authoring. Mark mentioned that he knew some people at the table were considering the Lead Author position and that he would be looking more at that at a later date. I could never do that, I thought to myself. 

Topics were dished out and I was given Year 8, Parallel, Alternate, and Corresponding. Suddenly my mind went blank as if all Euclidean knowledge had been zapped out of my brain, probably due to the stress of the finger food. I made some rough ideas and spent time getting to grips with the online system we needed to use for the work. A system which, even in it's early days, was a sophisticated piece of technology. I liked the system and found I could easily find my way around and put things where they needed to be. Time was ticking and the afternoon went on, I was so relieved when Mark said that we then had a week to finish the first objective. 

The worst bit about train travel out of Corby is that there is only one train an hour, and an extra hour is a long time to wait when you are already 8 hours from home. Looking at my watch, I knew if I could get out of there quick smart I could make the next train, or else I'd have that extra hour wait. Thankfully Mr. Reddy was also thinking the same thing. He'd called a cab and said jump in, with moments to spare Bruno grabbed my case, we legged it out of the cab, onto the platform, and managed to dive onto the train just as the doors were starting to beep. Thank you Bruno. What a day that was!

I finished off my objective as requested and awaited news. Mark contacted me and asked me if I could go down to Corby again to the La Salle Offices.  So, off I went again on the train journey from hell....

There were a couple of other authors also attending on that day, we got to meet the team at the office and Mark went over some finer details with us about the authoring work. He said he'd like me to continue working on the project and was pleased to have me on board as an author. I was thrilled at this and very happily took on some more units of work. 

This authoring work was carried out alongside my teaching commitments for the rest of the school year, and then I authored full time during summer 2014. That was the summer when everything changed.

Find out what happened next in Part 2...

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