An update, and the start of something new (again).

I’ve never been much for keeping things written down, especially in a public blog. So yeah… its been a bit.

A quick update:

From 2020 - 2022 well, you were there. The short version from me is that COVID-19 arrived in mid-January, China slammed the borders shut, and here we were. Our family stayed in Shanghai, and I stayed working in early years. We did literally hundreds of PCR tests. We did the “big” lockdown where we couldn’t leave our apartment for more than a month. It was not great but we muddled through mostly in one piece. But after months of limited access to food and relying on government or company provided food ration boxes, I’m never eating bok choy again.

After five years as an early years music specialist, I returned to the classroom as a lead teacher for the 2022/3 academic year. This was also the year that I went back to school myself. I completed both my Post Graduate Certificate in Education and the new International Qualified Teacher Status as part of the University of Derby’s pilot cohort. It was a tremendous amount of work but impact on my teaching practice was remarkable. I am incredibly proud of myself for having the courage to further my education in midlife, as well of the work I did to become a “real” teacher after all these year.

Autumn 2024 I was given the amazing opportunity to work as a teacher-librarian in our early years setting, working across the international and bilingual schools. This has been such a gift and I feel I have truly found my place in education. I love working with teachers to support the curriculum, storytelling with children, and encouraging literacy. Connecting people and resources is exciting and full of possibilities. Add in the great joy of story time and story telling with young children every day and I have never been so happy at work. This is the place in education I feel most at home in, even more so than when I worked in music. This is the work I am meant to do.

Sarah in the Library at the end of Term One, December 2024

So what now? To be able to continue and grow my career in libraries means doing the work to become a professional librarian. To achieve this, I’ve enrolled in the University of British Columbia’s online Diploma in Teacher-Librarianship, a 30 credit course. I am beginning with two courses this term - Selection of Learning Resources and Information Services - both taught by Richard Beaudry.

Being in a library with access to a collection is critical for these classes. At this time I am not sure what the 2025/6 academic year has in store for me. Things are quite up in the air for me at the moment about where or with whom I will be teaching next year. While all of that sorts itself out, I am delighted to be able to take on these courses and start my journey in librarianship.

So here we go… into the book stacks.