Yesterday was my first PD in over 2 years. Well, my goodness I have missed a heck of a lot...Let's see where to begin...
Right, firstly the Education Department in my fair city will be changing in the next 2 years (really should have moved my head out of the 'lalalalalala not listening' sand earlier). That was the first bit. Cannot really comment on this as yet, need to do some reading and refreshing of my brain for that.
More fun, is the fact that my union has purchased an AMAZING program called TOPS and have it as a live site on their website for lil old me to use (and other teachers) as a means to store and to utilise in schools as a planning tool. It is pretty darn fantastic, it has all our curriculum details, plus already has some of the new stuff. It has planners and resource type materials. Generally I had a great big old sigh of happiness at the sight of it. Very very impressed.
Add to my overall happy was the realisation that the Union is pretty cool, no one is there with baseball bats or picket lines already set, they are really very supportive. Turns out they even got us Relief teachers a pay rise for this year, so happy me again.
More exciting is the continued phone calls from schools as reactions to my Relief letters...TWO TODAY...I even have an interview at one school on Friday so they can put a face to me :) might need to find a better face hahaha....
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
Professional Development and old friends
Today feels like I really am back on the road to being a teacher. Off to a PD run by the Union. Have not been to a PD in about 2 years and to be honest, I am a little nervous...
However, the upside is that it is a PD to learn how to use a new system that helps with planning, from daily all the way up to a full term. Must say I am very interested.
On a side note, my old tutoring company has gotten back to me!! So excited, it is all cash in hand stuff so cannot wait to get back into that.
Will put more up after the PD....
However, the upside is that it is a PD to learn how to use a new system that helps with planning, from daily all the way up to a full term. Must say I am very interested.
On a side note, my old tutoring company has gotten back to me!! So excited, it is all cash in hand stuff so cannot wait to get back into that.
Will put more up after the PD....
Saturday, 22 January 2011
oooh acknowledgement...
I sent out those letters for relief and to be honest thought I would not hear a thing until term starts in Feb or even later when I have actually said I am available...but...A phone call, an email and a letter later and I have heard from 3, yes 3 schools already!! How exciting is that? Well, maybe not to you, but it sure is to me!!
Don't misunderstand it is not like they have booked me or anything for next term, now that would be exciting, but they have ACKNOWLEDGED my letter. One even asked for transcripts and a copy of my degree (I personally think that is odd, but hey I would pretty much send them my boyfriend if it meant they might give me relief). The other two are just saying, hi, no worries we have your letter and if anything comes up we will buzz you...
Am I doing a little dance? Yes, yes I am...now everyone cross their fingers and hope that more of the school receptionists etc are all getting my letters and filing them in all the right places!
Don't misunderstand it is not like they have booked me or anything for next term, now that would be exciting, but they have ACKNOWLEDGED my letter. One even asked for transcripts and a copy of my degree (I personally think that is odd, but hey I would pretty much send them my boyfriend if it meant they might give me relief). The other two are just saying, hi, no worries we have your letter and if anything comes up we will buzz you...
Am I doing a little dance? Yes, yes I am...now everyone cross their fingers and hope that more of the school receptionists etc are all getting my letters and filing them in all the right places!
Friday, 21 January 2011
Tutoring...
Back when I was teaching, which seems so long ago right now, I also used to tutor kids after school. Never students I actually taught, always random ones from different areas. I stopped for awhile and went back to it while I was teaching disengaged kids (hmm might do a post on that). It was during that tutoring time I discovered I have a dislike for a particular 'trend' in tutoring -- KINDY/Pre-Primary kids -- I was asked to tutor a 4-year old little boy.
I look at it now and wonder what on earth I was thinking, yes I mentioned my reservations to the Tutoring Company and they were great, they said if it felt really wrong, just let them know and I could 'hand the kid back' so to speak. So I went and met with the family - they were lovely, really smart parents, even an adorable little sister and the 4 year old?? He was, well, a 4 year old, hyper as all get up, distracted and generally 4!! I tried I did, for 3 sessions I sat with this little boy and his mum and tried to see 1. what it was that was sooo very bad he needed tutoring and 2. how on earth one can 'tutor' a child who is still only really doing colouring and sticking in his pre-school class...
Needless to say there was not a lot of point to the whole exercise, and to be honest I eventually said exactly that to the mother, hoping she would explain to the father who was the more determined. Turns out they had already decided that the problem was his teacher, not him and were transferring him to a new school...
Now, the reason I mention all this? On Tuesday I have an interview with a new tutoring company...Do I point out I have an age limit, as it turns out?
I look at it now and wonder what on earth I was thinking, yes I mentioned my reservations to the Tutoring Company and they were great, they said if it felt really wrong, just let them know and I could 'hand the kid back' so to speak. So I went and met with the family - they were lovely, really smart parents, even an adorable little sister and the 4 year old?? He was, well, a 4 year old, hyper as all get up, distracted and generally 4!! I tried I did, for 3 sessions I sat with this little boy and his mum and tried to see 1. what it was that was sooo very bad he needed tutoring and 2. how on earth one can 'tutor' a child who is still only really doing colouring and sticking in his pre-school class...
Needless to say there was not a lot of point to the whole exercise, and to be honest I eventually said exactly that to the mother, hoping she would explain to the father who was the more determined. Turns out they had already decided that the problem was his teacher, not him and were transferring him to a new school...
Now, the reason I mention all this? On Tuesday I have an interview with a new tutoring company...Do I point out I have an age limit, as it turns out?
Thursday, 20 January 2011
I need to be registered with WHO??
Yes, you need to be registered over here with a particular 'college' to be allowed to teach in our schools. You need to pay these people each year and jump through many hoops to stay not only registered but also to advance your registration. Of course they must do something in return, right, right? Not, so far as I have seen...
I have had to register with them three, yes three times so far, because don't you just know it, they won't accept that my birth certificate, same one as 5 years ago, same one as 2 years ago, is the same one this time...I do not get it, but I have also given up trying to get it. I just smile, jump through another pretty hoop and pray that this time they will yes "Yes, welcome to our little club". Fingers crossed because I have the rather large desire to be teaching again soon and really, really do not want them to muck it up...Did I mention I have absolutely no idea what it is they do for me yet??
We pay them money, they give us a little plastic card, possibly the most expensive plastic card I own, may I point out, and then they....Oh yeah, nothing. I am sure as I scrabble and slip my way back into the classroom I will discover a delightful amount of tricksey fun things that they have magically been supplying for the last 18months...But until then....
I have had to register with them three, yes three times so far, because don't you just know it, they won't accept that my birth certificate, same one as 5 years ago, same one as 2 years ago, is the same one this time...I do not get it, but I have also given up trying to get it. I just smile, jump through another pretty hoop and pray that this time they will yes "Yes, welcome to our little club". Fingers crossed because I have the rather large desire to be teaching again soon and really, really do not want them to muck it up...Did I mention I have absolutely no idea what it is they do for me yet??
We pay them money, they give us a little plastic card, possibly the most expensive plastic card I own, may I point out, and then they....Oh yeah, nothing. I am sure as I scrabble and slip my way back into the classroom I will discover a delightful amount of tricksey fun things that they have magically been supplying for the last 18months...But until then....
39 Days til teaching....
Right, I took 18months off from teaching...I needed a break, I needed time to think and do something else for a lil while. Turns out other things, well, they are BORING. Full-time jobs have felt like I do NOTHING all day long. It makes you feel like you are failing in your job, it is a very strange feeling. So, I have bitten the bullet so to speak and am throwing myself, minus floaties, back into the deep end that is teaching and RELIEF (substitute/emergency - call it what you will) teaching.
So join me in navigating my way back into the field I previously loved, the politics I hated and the stoopidity that is our enforced membership to a 'college' of teaching that somehow helps us...but that is the next post...
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