My 2021 Year in Review

My memories and recollections of 2021 reveal the nature of memory; so bound to locations and images; that it is a strain to recall what occurred. With much of it being bound to the interior of my home. As a resident of the inauspiciously longest lockdown-ed city in the world there was no other choice.

Yet from within the confines of my home I found time and space, between baby cuddles and play time, to explore new ideas and new possibilities.


It was a year of firsts, but not the first year of its kind. Each moment of commute and administrivia that would otherwise have been wasted became a moment for reflection and consideration.  


I realise now, that much of my energy within a standard day of teaching is employed to drive and manage my own excitement and joy at sharing a love of learning and new knowledge. Whereas teaching online requires a certain burst of energy to start anew each session. For me this type of energy use is all too familiar, a practice trained and honed through a 2020 spent teaching online full time and presenting at many online conferences. Online learning by contrast felt like quitting sugar, having a constant and reliable level of energy, rather than the peaks and troughs of emotional expenditure all too familiar to the world’s teachers. 


My year, COVID aside was a rather interesting one, during December and early January my heavily pregnant wife and I travelled to Brisbane by car. Which resembled being ‘on the run’, checking the news every break in driving to see if we were still in a legal ‘green zone’, or if border crossing rules had changed. We made it there, and enjoyed family time, but having to fly home and freight our car back at our expense.


During February I taught for three weeks before my son arrived and begun my long service leave until the end of the term (7 weeks + holidays). My hospital stint included not being allowed to leave the building or risk not being allowed back in. 


Term 2 began as normal, before by week 6 we were back to remote teaching and parenting my little one at the same time. This was truly a rare blessing for a working father, being around my son so constantly during this time was wonderful and joyous. 


Term 3, three weeks then back to lockdown for the rest of the term. Term 4 returned to school at the end of week 5, with a lengthy and painful end to the year with all key events and milestones still occurring for our students, but pushed back, requiring even more from an ever strained group of professionals.


A year of many firsts 

  • most importantly: the birth of my first child 


The other firsts

  • Named among the top 50 finalists for the global teacher prize (worth noting that this occurred after being nominated for several other things unsuccessfully in 2020)
  • Submitted the manuscript of Keith and my edited book title with Springer ‘Empowering Teachers and Democratising Schooling’ 
  • Had two academic articles approved for publication after blind review
  • Appeared on ABC news speaking about teachers returning to school after lockdown, important to me, as appearing with my name and the title ‘teacher’ below it, is something I value highly 
  • Presented at the AARE conference with Keith Heggart on the #edureading group and it’s activities 


Books 


This year I again tracked the books I read using Goodreads, with a notable shift to audiobooks post baby-birth in a trend that will likely continue for a good little while! 


Highlights were Brendan James Murray’s ‘The School’, which captured a view of teaching and school life rarely mentioned. 


Dave Eggers ‘The Parade’ was a gripping and focussed listen that captured a real sense of tension and tautness.


Craig Silvey’s Honey Bee built on the style of Jasper Jones but modernised and brought the content matter into the real world in a harrowing and wonderful way. 


Running with Kenyans by Adharanand Finn was a superb non-fiction tale that was a super interesting exploration of distance running mixed with a travelogue and human interest tale, a must read, even if you’re not interested in running, as I was before beginning this book. 


All in all, as uncommon or unpopular it is to say so, a lovely year, 10/10, as Chris D’elia says, life rips. 


Running word count: 58, 115

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