My Teaching Partner

I started my 1^st year as a contract teacher on October 10, 2024, and wrapped up on June 27, 2025. There is so much I can write about; however, I want to focus on just one person who made it the best school year. I am going to call her Miss Bean.

Miss Bean is a CYW, Child and Youth Worker, and she was my teaching partner in our classroom.  (The name I chose for her is because her last name gets mispronounced sometimes and it becomes Ma Bean or Miss Bean.) The 2 of us were perfect strangers thrown in together on October 10^th, and she didn’t have a contract yet, permanent or otherwise. It didn’t deter her from giving it all. We put together a semblance of a classroom as we waited for students and equipment to arrive.

A couple of weeks later, students started trickling in one by one. As they made their staggered entrances, Miss Bean and I started learning about them and programming for them. After we had 4 of our 6 students, the CYW position was posted online. Miss B applied and did not get it. I was devastated. I think I cried. The following week, I was at work expecting to meet the last 2 students and the new CYW. Although Miss B and I were barely together for 3 weeks, we built a classroom from scratch and made it a welcoming home-away-from-home for our students. Without her there, it felt like a sad and empty house.

That week was challenging. I had my full roster and the new CYW declared at the very end of her first day that she was overwhelmed. She had 2 young children of her own and she was drained of all her energy by our mighty 6, and she felt like she couldn’t go home exhausted at the end of each workday, and so she decided to quit at the end of that week. Imagine my horror!

I immediately reached out to B, and she didn’t seem very enthusiastic about coming back. She felt she didn’t get the job because she wasn’t deemed competent by the powers that be. Since it was a situation of urgency, there were others who reached out to B as well. Finally, we all convinced her to return. The day she came back was the best day of the school year. After that, even the most challenging day was a walk in the park.

In a classroom, with students who have special needs, staff need to trust each other and make students the centre of focus. B and I were able to do that. One of our students told us that we were like her “parents at school”. The real parents were happy as well. It was a wonderful school year.

Today, Miss B will find out if she has an interview to get back to her job for the upcoming school year. I went to sleep thinking about it and woke up thinking about it. I want us back together in our classroom on September 2, 2025. Recently, my work has become an essential part of my being. I can give it everything and always feel appreciated in return. Half the credit goes to B, and I hope to come back here to share some good news. There are all sorts of heartbreaks, and I am hoping desperately to avoid this one.