It’s good to be back again

I don’t usually do end of year retrospectives, but looking back on 2011, I find myself in a reflective mood. It has been quite a year.

2011 was always going to be a busy year for me – I was still in my first year working at a new school and I had finally embarked on studying for a master’s degree. Everything started off well; I was enjoying my job and my studies. Then things got a bit complicated.

In May my Mum was taken seriously ill, a month later Mr MTM fell and broke his leg – badly enough that he required surgery and an external frame and pins to hold it together [pictures via that link may not be suitable for those of a squeamish disposition].

However I count myself lucky. Both my Mum and Mr MTM received very high quality care from the NHS and both of them have now made excellent recoveries. The head and my colleagues were incredibly supportive when I had to take some time off to care for Mr MTM when he first left hospital. People covered my lessons with the greatest goodwill you can imagine – including when Ofsted turned up. My colleagues are fantastic. I even managed to finish and pass the first module of my MEd – I only just made the deadline date for the final assessment (which fortunately was at the end of the summer holiday), but I made it.

It’s not surprising that the second half of 2011 represented something of a digital drought for me, with very little posted here and several extended absences from Twitter. I was too busy in the analogue world, riding the roller coaster of life.

I’m looking forward to 2012. I’m looking forward to trying out new ideas. I’m looking forward to enjoying my MEd studies again, rather than racing to meet every deadline. Now that normality has returned to my analogue life, I’m really happy to be resuming my digital life again. I’ve missed blogging and picking up ideas from the amazing network of educators on Twitter. It’s good to be back.