Back to the books

As I mentioned here, I recently applied for a transfer - to my own school! - as the next teacher-librarian.

On Friday afternoon, I tried to ascertain just where in the continuum my application had progressed, but to no avail. Yesterday, my principal tried to find out the same information. While at first he had no news, later in the day he was contacted about what codes were required for the filling of the classroom teacher position I'd be relinquishing.

Today the confirmation came through: I've been appointed to the position of teacher-librarian. It's a four-day position, with the additional day per week being made up from our Priority Schools Programs (PSP) funding budget. This means that our school library can be made available to the school population five days per week, a similar strategy to the one I suggested at my first school (when I "fell" into the job as an untrained teacher-librarian, after I'd been doing the relief-from-face-to-face (RFF) teaching position the previous year).

So I start the new job in 2007. The last time I was in a school library, as the fully-trained T-L, was in 1997, before I was seconded to Scan as editor. A decade ago?

I shudder to think how much has changed. But I can't complain; my teaching colleagues are excited for me, and I'll be back in the unique teaching and learning niche that I find the most rewarding and exciting. Teaching is certainly a job that opens many doors and new challenges, often without even leaving the security of the Department of Education and Training.