Will Work

For the majority of the 2017 school year, I had regular work at the same school, and feel somewhat into a routine. I got to know the same kids and staff over a period of time, and have the same general schedule and responsibilities from week to week. Even though I wasn't full-time staff, I was essentially treated like I was. 

Since I am planning to go on maternity leave after the first few weeks of this school year, I don't have anything longterm set up and I am just on-call as a substitute. The first few days of the year are expected to be slow, and then after that work usually picks up. It has been several months since I had to play this game of getting up around 6AM, getting dressed, packing a bag for the day, and then seeing if I get a call. Aside from the very first and last days of the year, most of the time I get booked a day or more in advance, and if not, there's perhaps an 85-95% chance that I get a call to go work on a given day. But, like I said, the beginning of this year is a little different. For two days I've gotten up and gotten ready and not gotten a call. The third time's a charm, and I got a call at the last minute this morning at a school in my old neighborhood, where I used to work from time to time but hadn't worked in a year. It was good to be back at the old stomping grounds, and to run into a few old familiar faces. The demographics in that area are less challenging than the school where I had been recently teaching a lot (there are a lot fewer kids and parents that speak English as a second language, or don't speak English at all), so it was just nice for the temporary change. 

I can now rest easy knowing that my paid parental leave is safe (I cannot have an eight week gap in my employment, and with the recent summer holidays it had been six weeks).