Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag

I know that 25th February is probably more recent than it sounds, granted that March started four days later, but I felt that it was time to re-engage my blogging-brain and update this site.

I actually blame my wife who complained that my blog was turning into a repository for other people's articles. She has a point, even though I still maintain that the purpose of this site is to inform, entertain and maybe even get someone thinking, irrespective of who is responsible for the content therein.

Her comment jolted me a little and although I could see her point of view, I decided that I'd take a little break from posting.

So here I am, back and raring to go.

In fact, I've been a little coy with you.

About a month ago, I saw an advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle for a new teaching post in a Jewish secondary school. After a little hesitation, I decided to go for the post, filled in the application form, went for the interview/observation and to my delight, got the job. I will be starting Please G-d in September.

It makes a lot of sense for me to work in Jewish school - even more so now, because I've managed to accumulate four years of really solid teaching experiences in a Gentile environment.

Working in Jewish school will afford me the luxury of being able to take Jewish holidays off without:
a) losing money - I had quite a bit docked for taking off four days of Sukkot/Simchat Torah
b) having to prepare cover lessons for these days and then having to get my classes back on track because kids don't generally work when they have a cover teacher.
c) worrying about how I am going to get around having to leave early on Friday afternoons in the winter-time.

All in all, it will be lovely to celebrate my festivals in an environment that is more familiar to me. I'll have to also deal with annoying Jewish parents (of which I am one too!), so that's not necessarily something I'm looking forward to...but it's part of the package.

That said, I'm very happy in my current school and will be sorry to leave. It is difficult to leave the teachers and kids, but as soon as the new term begins and they get engrossed in their work, I doubt they'll give me a second thought!

So here I am, waiting for Purim to arrive, not looking forward to the Fast of Esther tomorrow, but knowing that something new is awaiting me at the end of the summer.

It's good to be blogging again.