Update Time!

Wow it’s been a long time since I last wrote a blog entry! Didn’t mean to leave such a big gap between blogs but anyway, will see if I can remember everything that has happened since my last post.

To start with I didn’t get any work during the teachers strike. Most schools didn’t hire relief teachers because they had very little children show up and the ones that did (from what I’ve heard) had their parents called to collect them otherwise they were supervised by teacher aides. There was also meant to be another state wide strike happening but that was stopped because apparently the union didn’t officially give the education department enough time to respond, there still may be another strike though. Teachers in this state are the lowest paid in the country so it’s understandable they want to be treated fairly but I can’t help but think they are lucky to at least have jobs to go to each day! I haven’t worked since April!!!

Cartoon appeared in local paper 19 May 2009, when teachers striked.

I had my first paid job two weeks ago in a grade one class that I have taught before and taught most the children last year when they were in prep. It’s a lovely class and I really enjoyed the day. Nothing too dramatic happened, had one little boy who was new to the school try to test me but he didn’t get far! He did however manage to annoy the music and a specialist teacher.

Have been very sick lately, for over a month now! It started out with a cough coming and going and then my body felt like it just shut down. Went to the doctor and got some antibiotics for the cough but two days later I couldn’t move because I was too dizzy, so back to the doctors I went. He sent me for a blood test and a chest and lung x-rays and I will get the results back tomorrow . . . and am just so sick of being sick! Have tried everything to get rid of it and nothing has worked!

Also I have officially finished and graduated from my business degree :-) Yay! Don’t know what I’m going to do with it but it’s there if I ever need it. Going back to uni three years after originally finishing made me realise how much I hate it and I vowed to never return again!!! But. . . I have since signed up and am now studying for my Masters of Education, majoring in Special Education! haha I figure I already have a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) majoring in Primary Education so now I will have more areas covered :-) And hopefully have a better shot at landing a full time job! Since I’m not working much I figured I may as well study full time (am doing it externally) so I have four classes at the moment and then will do four over the Christmas break I will have it all finished by February 2010 :-) Well that’s the plan anyway!!!

Ohh! And a little update of trying to get in contact with the new lady at the education department in my local area. . . finally she called me! Early one morning when my booking agency normally calls and she was very rude about the whole thing telling me there is nothing she can do (never mind the fact that it’s her actual job!?) in helping me and that my name is on a list (well duhh I already knew that! Not that this special little list has helped me!!!). I was actually very disappointed in myself after getting off the phone because I didn’t feel I argued my point better to her because my mind was on the fact that I could be losing work while talking to her.

Until next time (hopefully sooner than later),
Miss Snix!

Stressful and Wonderful in the Same Week!

Last week I worked two days at the same school. ANd the two classes could not have been more different to each other!

I worked Wednesday in a grade one class, next door to the prep/one class I just had a contract with. They were so different to the p/1 class! They were very chatty the whole time and lost focus easily! I had one child (thankfully I was warned about prior) who refused to do any work and at one point I thought had ran off, well he did but he just went to the drink taps without asking but came back - this set off the panic in me which I had to keep covered since it was a few mins before the bell went and the parents were all outside waiting. . .and watching. Was a very long day!

I got home that night and had a very sore throat, haven't had to raise my voice in so long! Thankfully I had Thursday off to recover.

Friday I was back at the school teaching a prep class. They were so lovely!!! We mixed with the other prep class and we did rotations so I got to meet them all and they were all so nice and lovely! I am going to love teaching them in the future this year. We actually had to quickly change our plans for rotations because my group was meant to be outside and as soon as we get out there it starts raining! Normally when it rains children's behaviour turns bad but they were so well behaved and we just went inside and read a story. Inside activity time is also normally a stressful time as the children are all over the place doing whatever they feel like but they all played quietly and there were no dramas. To end the day the teacher I replaced left a video for them to watch, so we joined the other prep class and ended the pleasent day. If only all days could be so wonderful!!!

Miss Snix.

Mad Mad Monday!!!

I wasn't going to write a blog today but after the day I've had. . . . I need to get it out! lol My day started a little past 6am when I got a phone call booking me for the day working at the school I was at on Friday (the same one I had the yr4/5 contract and where I work a lot ~ I really need nicknames for schools so I don't get confused about which ones I am talking about on here lol) Anywho it was for a grade 2 class, I have never had a straight gr2 class there before but am prebooked to work with them Thursday, so the kids don't really know me aghh lol

The class works with the other gr2 class next door so the morning was okay with the other teacher doing all the morning/carpet stuff. Although I found it a little rude the children talking over and mucking around while she was talking, but who was I to step in when the regular teacher found this behavior acceptable. When we split up and went to our own classrooms my lot of children just behaved ridiculously! Which resulted in me moving children, giving warnings and the occasional bribery of positive rewards not that it had much affect. How teachers can put up with such horrible behavior in their rooms everyday is beyond me!

Anyway the fun continued at morning tea when just before heading off to do my duty that I was aware of my teaching partner informs me I have to do two duties today (yay), normally a teacher only has one a day but the one I was replacing request to have two for Mondays (who does that to themselves!?) The first duty was during eating time, I was watching all the yr2-5 children alongside the deputy (who last time I saw him left the class he was teaching to come talk to me while I was teaching, drinking his coffee - he's an idiot and full of himself lol The other staff members call him the Principals handbag) So Mr 'I have no brains but sucked up to get a deputy job' (lol I am in a great mood aren't I!?) decided half way through the duty to walk off talking to another teacher and left me with all the year 2 to year 5 children! Do you know how many damn children that is!!! The next duty wasn't as bad, it was just watching the prep and yr1 children play, although the teacher before me was cranky because I was 'late' (I was actually a couple of mins early!)

Back in the classroom the children's behavior was still shocking, during the middle session I had to move three kids to my teaching partners room. One ended up getting a behavior slip that gets sent home because she was that bad. She thought it was funny and wanted to show off the slip to her friends (she is 7 and thinks being in trouble is cool!).

I pretty much just counted down the time for the session to be over. In the afternoon they were actually very settled and sat nice and quietly doing their Santa coloring in, it was so nice!!! Until I heard a barking at the door 10mins before the bell. A mother showed up unannounced with a giant dog! Aghh so I got the children to sit in a circle on the floor and had the child (who was almost smaller than the dog!) in the middle trying to talk about it. The children went berserk! It was ridiculous!!! The dog ran around jumping on kids (some got scratched). Finally the mother woke up and took the dog away leaving us two mins until the bell and a pig sty of a room. The children were so worked up now instead of cleaning up they played up and we had to finish putting chairs up after the bell had went.

Aghh I was so glad to get out of there in the afternoon lol They asked if I could work there tomorrow but I have my dentist appointment (which I seriously thing will be more fun!) and besides I am booked there for Thursday so I need to recharge myself for then!

Walking in this morning I also saw all the gr4/5s waiting at the gate ready to go on camp, I thought to myself if I was still there teacher I would be going with them. At the time I was thinking I am glad I didn’t have too although by the end of the day it didn’t seem like such a bad idea! It’s funny thinking if I had kept my job teaching them things would be so different, I wouldn’t have had any of the experiences I have had since; both bad (like being attacked my a weird parent and dealing with horrible behavior) and good (like teaching the amazing prep class I had a contract with and meeting and getting to know some wonderful people). I guess everything happens for a reason.

I need a rest lol,
Miss Snix.

Crazy Days!

This week I had a couple of crazy days! Tuesday I had the grade 1/2 class that I've had before that can some times be wonderful and other times be real hard to teach. Unfortunately they seemed to be very worked up and to add to things there was a 4th year uni student in the room. Which meant I was supposed to be there to supervise the uni student doing all the teaching (sounds so easy lol) but I felt for the poor girl as I could see the classes behaviour getting worse and worse; and before I knew it the teacher in me was coming out and I stepped in to settle them down a few times. They really are a nice class, they are just young and very chatty and a bit cheeky. And they were nothing compared to the class I had on Wednesday!
On Wednesday I was at a different school teaching a grade three class that I have also previously taught. Of course when they called to book me they didn't want to say which grade three class it was until I got there. I knew that was a bad sign! It was one of those days where whatever the worse is you could imagine happening in a classroom - happened to me that one day! The bell rang in the morning they came and sat down for the roll but half the boys decided to hit and swear at each other and backchat me (all within the first few mins of the day!) We then went to parade where on the way one boy (who thankfully spent the majority of the day at SEU!) decided to hit everyone near him and swear at me repeatedly. After that we came back to do some maths, again half the boys decided to act like rude idiots; fighting and swearing at me, so I sent them to the office and gave them detention (which they thought was funny). The principal came down and 'chatted' with them, they in turn back-chatted to him. Before lunch I thought I would be nice and play a game with them but every time they went to sit on the floor the boys were physically fighting each other. So I sent the whole class back to their desks and tried another three times and each time they kept fighting so I made them return to doing their work. After first break they came in more worked up then ever and half the class wouldn't work so I called the office and had some of the boys sent up their and had an aide come into the room to help me (they were rude to her too) and we got a little bit of work done. Half way through lunch I had to call them over the announcements to get them so I could take them swimming. They had been looking forward to this all day so you think they would behave for this but no. They wouldn't sit down, be quiet or keep their hands to themselves. Also the SEU boy that swore at me was back with the class with an SEU teacher to watch him. She was getting angry at the class and they wouldn't even listen to her. The swimming pool is at the high school next to the primary school and takes less than 5mins to get their. But from the time I made the announcement to the time we finally got their (walking with them was hell!) it took over half an hour! But at least I could hand them over to the PE teacher and relax a bit. Watching their lesson was ridiculous though, they were so rude and disobedient to their regular PE teacher that he kicked half them out of the pool. After their lesson it took them 20mins for them to get changed which meant we had to race back to school before the bell went which of course meant a lot of hitting and swearing at each other on the way. These are 8 year olds by the way. Ohh and how could I forget one incident where a boy refusing to do his work decided to cut up his work book and ended up cutting his finger and complaining to me he was bleeding, yeah I was real concerned. Not.
I talked with the teachers I worked with that day, the aid and the principal who all said it wasn't me (after seeing the PE teacher being treated the way he was I know it is true) but they are just a rude challenging class in general and their normal teacher struggles with them. I am just thankful I could walk away and not have to teach them again (and I won't be!). I don't know how anyone could put up with that time of behaviour on a daily basis and still be sane. If that was any other school in the area and children behaved that way there would be serious consequences for them. I don't see how the school can accept that behaviour. And to tell me they struggle to find relief teachers; you wonder why!!!
Miss Snix.

Contemplating Things

It's been 13 days since I last worked. Originally by choice; I took last week off because I was fairly sick but have gotten somewhat better and feel ready to return to work. Unfortunately work has decided it is not ready for me haha. Monday was a pupil free day which was great! I went to the beach with my mother, sister, her three kids and my dog. I had a lot of fun swimming and playing in the water with niece. I was even good and went to bed early so I was prepared for an early morning call telling me where I was working that day, no call. So last night I went to bed early again (very unusual and hard for me!) and this morning still no call. So now I have 2 days left to get work otherwise my next payslip will be a big fat $0! I have never had that happen before so I wonder if they would even bother sending a payslip out. After this week there is only 7 more weeks left of the school year, which is about 3 or 4 paydays left before we break for 2 months so I need to start working hard and earning some money because I wouldn't be getting paid for the break. Kind of sucks how the one time of the year a relief teacher doesn't get the chance to earn any money is the same time of the year there is a lot of expenses to be paid with Christmas then New Years and then my birthday.
There was an article in my local newspaper's employment section today talking about which carers have skill shortages at the moment. And you guessed it! Education was listed as one of the top jobs where there isn't enough people. Are politicians blind or just plain stupid (please feel free to answer that!) because they are also talking about paying people to go to university to study education (nothing new they have been talking about it for a while) but I want to know how they can just blindly ignore all the fully qualified unemployed teachers there all ready is! The truth is classes are getting more and more over populated and it is not benefiting anyone. Why don't they just bring in more full time teachers so they can have smaller (or at least stay under the legal limit of children in a class many schools seem forced to ignore) classes. That way children get more attention they need and teachers actually get employed. But I guess that would be too easy. I graduated two years ago and in that time only one person that was in our Early Childhood group is now a permanent teacher. Out of the Primary graduates of my year I know only a few of them are permanent too. Some have become so disgruntled at it they have already left the profession. Just today I was talking to a friend who graduated with me and she has decided to go back to university to study for her Masters degree, not because she wants to continue her studies (she is not looking forward to returning to uni at all) but she hopes that when she finishes it will lead to other work opportunities that aren't too far away from what she originally wanted to do.
I have been looking at university courses online too (have been on and off for a while now) but the thing is I don't know what else I would want to do. And I think it would be horrible to just throw away four, long, hard years at uni studying for it. I started studying childcare when I was in year 11 and after high school went straight to uni to study teaching. I wanted to be a teacher and still do. But being a relief teacher can be hard work (don't get me wrong there is great bits too, it's good pay and if you get a bad class at least you only have them hopefully one day) and after a while it does make you question if you really want to keep doing it and if so for how long.
I love how I always think I don't really have much to write about and then it always turns into a rant haha it's very therapeutic!
Miss Snix.

Sick Blah

Still sick. Still miserable. HAHA Thought I would share that. My nose is so blocked up I can barely breath. When I am not sneezing my head off I am coughing to the point of choking. But at least I have the sense this time to do something about it before it gets too bad (well badder than it already is). I took the day off today to see the doctor; I called at the start of the day, was put on hold for a long time and then told the earliest time I can see him is tomorrow. Agh typical! Whenever I get sick so does everyone else. So now I am taking tomorrow off too so hopefully the doctor will give me some happy pills and make the misery go away (far far away). Not overly concerned about taking some time off work, I got paid over the holidays so I can afford to take some time off and get better.
All I can say is thank god for the person who invented Vicks Inhaler; I've had that thing up my nose more times than I would like today but it seems to be providing some short term relief. I highly recommend it to anyone that gets to enjoy the pleasure of having a stuffy nose.
Later,
Miss Snix.

Back to work!

Well I am back at work after the holidays for term four and have already finished one week (only 9 more left for the school year!) and have also finished my contract. I am going to miss it. It is a really nice prep class with some lovely children and a great aide, actually all the staff were friendly and helpful which is so great! My time there went by so quickly it hardly felt like work, I guess it's true what they say 'time flies when you're having fun'. I had some really great experiences there, like a little girl who was afraid of everything (literally!) was freaking out (screaming and crying) everyday doing the obstacle course but on my second last day I managed to get her to try out the monkey bars with the other girls and she loved it! That is something I miss doing relief work; watching a child grow, learn and accomplish things over time. Also getting to know the children on a more personal level; like one child had a wobbly tooth before the holidays and when he came back it was still wobbly, it finally came out on my last day and he ran straight to me to show me and was so excited because we had been talking about it and building the excitement up to this moment for a while. Also on my last day one of the little girls decided to make a picture for me 'secretly' and got the aide to help her, they got all the children to sign their names (they are still learning to write!) during inside time and gave it to me before the aid was about to leave for the day. I thought it was so nice. And the girl in the bottom picture is ment to be me! haha It kind of looks like me too! Very artistic!
The aide was so lovely and thanked me and said she enjoyed working with me, which was more than mutual! The teacher from the class next to me who I worked along with also thanked me and came in to the room before I left to say goodbye and even a grandmother who looks after one of the girls I was teaching (who was away sick that day!) even came in to say a thank you and tell me how much she appreciated having me their. It was so nice because you don't normally get that kind of reaction when you relieve; you're there one day and gone the next and rarely have time to leave any impression so this was very special to me.
Something else I picked up during my last week there; a fresh cold! HAHAHA I think I have been sick more times this year than ever before! It started half way through the week with a sore throat (my aide was coughing all week and the kids were getting sick too) and then my body started aching and I was feeling miserable and now today my nose has started running :( At least if I am still feeling bad by Monday I can now take the day off and it won't affect anyone.
Not really looking forward to returning to relief work, I just hope I get good classes and the time flies by . . . I know it won't but I can dream!
Ciao,
Miss Snix.

Sick of Being Sick!

Well I have done it once again, I have got and found myself another illness. It started Wednesday night. All I did was sneeze which made my throat sore and when I woke up in the morning I felt horrible, and after working all day I realised I had a full blown cold. Aghh I hate being sick! My whole body ached and felt like it was turning against me! I am feeling a little better today; not sneezing but still have a stuffy nose and now have a wonderfully horrible cough that is annoying! At least I have a long weekend to get over it. Friday was a holiday here and I have taken Monday off (have to take my dog to the vet so I thought that deserves a day off).
Last week was an alright week. Monday was actually very nice, it was a TRS day and I taught 3 prep classes and 1 grade three class. The day was fairly easy and flew by. The next three days were a different story. Each day was so long and it felt like the week was never going to end! I had the same grade one class all three days and they were little monsters! All the teacher aids that came into the room kept warning me how bad they were. The majority of the class were wonderful but a handful were just so full on it was unbelievable! And on the Tuesday as I was signing in at the office I was presented with . . . you guessed it . . . a contract to sign! I was not pleased with this since I had been booked for supply work and only took it all because the money would be great going into the holidays. I just don't understand, if they want you to be on a contract then why don't they just ask you! Instead they book you, get you there and then slap you with a damn contract! I have a contract coming up soon and I have no problem with that because that school called and asked directly if I would mind taking the contract; it is nice when they are honest with you. I told her I was unaware it was a contract and I got the response "Well when we book teachers to replace ours that are doing training it is always on contract" . . . well how was I to know I was replace a teacher doing training or that is how their school runs, no-one said anything about that to me when I was booked! And apparently only 6 of the 9 days I was book is on the contract (the office lady started running dates off to me like I had a diary or calendar in front of me!) and when I told her I couldn't work Monday anymore I was told "but that's one of your contract days" . . .bad luck lol so I guess I know that I am at least getting paid supply pay for 3 days. I am meant to be doing more TRS this week, I think this is were they might give me the grade fives I previously ranted about (I know I am getting good at ranting lol) and then the last two days of the week are booked for a year one class (not sure if it's the same or a different one) unless they change their might and do something else with me (wouldn't surprise me).
Anywho that's my little rant of the day lol
It is a very nice day here today, the sun is out shining and the weather is starting to warm up and . . . I sound like Snuffleupagus lol
Only 3 more weeks until the holidays :-) Where has the time gone???
Miss Snix.