Yet again it has been a long time since I blogged. I didn’t mean to leave it this long, I felt like blogging before, but have been either too busy or too tired to actually write anything. Anyway I worked the contract I talked about in my last post.
They were a lovely class of grade two. There were a couple of little challenging children but nothing compared to some of the children I have come across in the past. Looking back on it now it was one of the better contracts I have taught, even when returning from playground duty one day I found the classroom door locked with two of my children locked inside running around. Not that they learnt from the consequence they were given as they repeated this the very next week. But even the little challenging ones were absolutely lovely to chat with on a one to one basis. The contract was only meant to be for the last two weeks of term three but the teacher I was replacing was unable to return directly after the holidays so I was offered to continue the contract for the two and a half weeks after the holidays. I was unable to take the class for the first week back as I was busy finishing off uni assignments, they all like to be due at the same time! But I took the class again after that. The teacher I was replacing didn’t leave any set planning only boxes of photocopy work and text books that I was meant to teach however and whenever I like and coming back after another teacher (three different teacher had them the week I couldn’t be there) so I had no clue what they had and hadn’t been taught. So when I managed to work all through the box I thought I had done fairly well. Only to have the teacher I am replacing come in towards the end and ask me to collect a range of booklets from the children for her to mark and use as part of their final reports she wanted to write before she returned. After collecting all the booklets there was apparently one set I hadn’t collected because they weren’t there. I can’t collect something that wasn’t there! She didn’t seem overly happy that the work in the booklet had not been taught, but again it was never left for me and if it was so important you would think she would make a point of pointing it out or leaving some form of planning for it for me to teach rather than a box of resources for me to use as I please.
I was also left to run a ‘play day’ where children had to get a bunch of sporting equipment out, set it up and then play different games in front of their parents that had come for the day to watch. I wasn’t really left any instructions on what I was meant to do, rather the class had to tell me. While in theory they all had their ‘jobs’ to do in reality this didn’t really pan out and left one very stressed out Miss Snix trying to do it all while keeping things on track, while stopping unhappy children having tantrums, while also trying to save face in front of parents. Ahh fun times, not.
While I was there, there was also a ball games day for the whole school which each grade had to play two different ball games. Myself along with the other regular grade two class teacher the week before had to teach the games to the kids and run through it several time which was fine. But on the day the other teacher was away and the relief teacher didn’t know what to do so when it came time for the grade twos to play their games I had to run around like a headless chook trying to set it up, organise children and save face this time in front of the whole school. Again fun times hahaha
I wasn’t able to finish off the last half week of the contract because I became very ill but all in all I really enjoyed my time with them. That was back in October and unfortunately was the last time I worked this year. I took a couple of weeks off to finish off uni assignments. Was studying four master level classes at once which was very stressful but thankfully passed all classes with flying colours and am now half was through my Masters!
And now it is holiday time and while most teachers are enjoying their break, I am enrolled in two more uni classes. I wanted to enrol in four classes so I could finish my Masters at the end of this semester but wasn’t able to do that. I am not enjoying studying during the Christmas holidays, normally I love Christmas but this year have been so busy and stressed out with assignments I have barely had time to enjoy it at all. But hopefully will be able to finish my first two assignments within the next couple of days so I can at least have one week before Christmas to enjoy it! Also I have a friend I have not seen in three years coming to staying with me for about three weeks so I want to be free to spend time and have fun with!
The bad thing about not working that much in the past year (had a letter from the union about fees and for the first time I had to tick the box that said “worked less than 50 days this year” so my fees are reduced) is the lack of money that comes with it. While I get payments from the government because I am studying again it really is not much, especially when each fortnight straight after I get paid more than half the money goes out to make payments on my car (that I bought when I was working full time and thought I would continue to be doing!) not to mention other bills that keep popping up in the end I am paying out more money each fortnight than I have coming in. Which has lead me to look for work in other fields away from education. But so far I have had no luck, I never thought it would be so hard to get any paying job! I have a bachelors degree, a post-grad certificate and am half way through my masters and yet can not find a job. It just sucks.
Anyway, until I remember to blog again hahaha Have a Happy Holidays everyone!
Miss Snix.
A Whole New World
For the first time in a long time I have finally been getting a decent amount on work. But not in the states schools. Instead I heard about a job at a private school so sent them my resume, had an interview and got the job. It’s only a two week job in a grade two class but it might go for an extra two weeks after the holidays. Also the Principal was so impressed with me he has been hiring me for supply work until the contract starts.
The first day of work I had at the school was the day straight after my interview with them and was with a grade four class. The class wasn’t too bad, they were fairly chatty and at times a little bratty. Like when I took them out for fitness some of the children decided to run under the sprinklers. I was actually quite annoyed with them at the end of the day but then I thought about all the classes I have taught in state schools and that made me realise they weren’t so bad, after all there was no swearing or physical violence hahaha Kind of sad when you are no longer surprised to see that with kids.
The next time I was at the school was this Monday when I was the librarian for the day. I loved this job! To start with I was meant to work with a prep class for an hour first up but they were playing sport at another school so I had free time, then was ‘administration time’ which basically meant put away any books but there weren’t any children through yet so I basically sat around the library reading books for two hours. . . and getting paid for it!!! After that was first break and I had a duty but at this school if you do a duty you get paid extra for it! State schools would never do that! My duty was in the library so I just had to watch kids on the computer. After that I had two year seven classes for an hour each and I just read them a story and then we summarized what happened. I also got to use the scanning thingy to return books and borrow them out to kids. . . that thing is seriously fun! Could really see myself as a librarian! Then it was lunch time again, no duties this time. After lunch I was meant to have more ‘administration time’ but instead the principal sent me to the grade two class I would be getting to observe the normal teacher but the class was at sport so I chatted with the teacher for a while. Then I was meant to teach a grade six class in the library but another support teacher took them for me so I could actually get to see the class. They seem like nice kids.
Then Tuesday I was back at the school relieving teachers while they do their planning. First up I was with a grade five class whose teacher actually used to teach at a school I went to and we worked out at some point he would have been my physical education teacher. . . small world. The class wasn’t too bad, kind of like the grade four’s with their chatty behaviour. We we out for a game and then some maths, then I read a bit and then it was lunch time, after lunch I took them to the library for the librarian to read to them while I got to use the scanning thingy again to return and burrow out their books. Seriously love doing that!!! Then half way through my day I went down to the grade two’s in the class I would be taking to relieve that teacher. Was good to get to see the kids with just me in charge and not their normal teacher, got to have a taste of what was in store for me and to see some of their personalities. We did some maths and coloured Fathers Day cards and then it was lunch, had no duties at all that day. After lunch the children came back inside and brushed their teeth (first time I have ever seen that in a school!), did silent reading and then we did some literacy followed by their unit work. They seem like a nice class so I am looking forward to teaching them.
There are a few things at the school that I’m not too used to though. The school is a religious school and the children are required to pray first thing in the morning and just before leaving in the afternoon, so far I have worked out half of their prays. Also they attend Mass, something I haven’t done since I was a child so that should be interesting. Ohh and one of the kids in my class has a parent that goes to my dance class and the other grade two teacher also goes to my dance classes.
So that is a very long recap of events of late. I start my contract on Monday and am really hoping all goes well.
Miss Snix.
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!
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!
Rare Work and Strike!
Have been a bit slack with updating my blog lately, mainly because nothing has really been happening. I didn’t work last week but the week before that I did two days in the same grade three class. They were a fairly nice class, had a few little challengers but nothing too bad. I had a different mother each morning in the room to help which was nice. My first day I walked into the room and found a very neat teachers desk with absolutely no planning on it! I asked the other grade three teacher who came in and looked around with me, we asked another teacher who didn’t know anything about it and then rang the office who couldn’t help. Eventually (just as the bell rang) the teacher who I was replacing partner came in and gave me the two days plans. Was happy to have it but by this time the bell had gone and all the children are sitting there looking at me while I am quickly trying to read and decode the planning and figure out what needs to be done and where things are. The second day I thought I might have a little free time because the children had PE, Music and Dance lessons and since I have taught at the school and had children go to other lessons and been allowed to have the free time I assumed that was going to be the case, it wasn’t! First I was sent to the library to cover books, something I have never done before and took me half an hour just to do three but I kind of enjoyed the peace. Then I was sent to another grade three class (that I have taught before, were so much better behaved this time!) to watch them read and then I read a book to them. And then after that was sent (felt like I was the parcel in a game of ‘pass the teacher’) to another grade three class where I watched them do a find-a-word, I started doing it myself but those 7/8 year olds are quick at them and beat me to finishing! So then I did good old show and tell with them and the bell rang and so ended my time there.
Just heard on the news today that next Tuesday state teachers are striking because they want better pay! Try being a supply teacher who if she is lucky gets two days work a fortnight and then complain about lack of pay!!! I don’t even get the choice to strike and have my voice heard – I strike I don’t get paid; they strike and still get paid! I am a union member, I am a fully qualified teacher but it feels like I don’t have any rights because the education department won’t/hasn’t given me permanency or a full time job! I am merely an ‘on call casual’ to them, hardly seems fair! But anyway since they are striking I am going to guess that I will get work that day to cover for them. Will be interesting to see what (if anything) happens from it all.
Miss Snix.
Just heard on the news today that next Tuesday state teachers are striking because they want better pay! Try being a supply teacher who if she is lucky gets two days work a fortnight and then complain about lack of pay!!! I don’t even get the choice to strike and have my voice heard – I strike I don’t get paid; they strike and still get paid! I am a union member, I am a fully qualified teacher but it feels like I don’t have any rights because the education department won’t/hasn’t given me permanency or a full time job! I am merely an ‘on call casual’ to them, hardly seems fair! But anyway since they are striking I am going to guess that I will get work that day to cover for them. Will be interesting to see what (if anything) happens from it all.
Miss Snix.
Union and Dream Classroom!
Well we are now into Term 2 of the school year and one week down and no work yet, not overly worried as it has given me time to work on my uni assignments. But hope it does pick up soon, I seem to have more bills than payslips which is never good. Also the union guy that responded to my email I wrote last term has sent me a form to fill out to look for permanent work. Didn't know I had to keep filling forms out to look for it, I naturally assumed I would still be on the list of teachers looking for it until I was offered somewhere. . .guess I was wrong. And it's a little odd that I have to fill the form out with the union and not the department of education. The union is not compulsory, so how do people get on that aren't with it!? I still haen't heard from the department so I am happy at least I am with the union to look out for me!
Been looking at online blogs of other teachers, love seeing what others are doing in their classrooms and gives me great ideas for when (or should I say if!) I ever get my own. Anyway, I came across this one which looks like a dream classroom:
http://blogs.scholastic.com/3_5/2008/08/tour-angelas-4t.html
Until next time,
Miss Snix.
Been looking at online blogs of other teachers, love seeing what others are doing in their classrooms and gives me great ideas for when (or should I say if!) I ever get my own. Anyway, I came across this one which looks like a dream classroom:
http://blogs.scholastic.com/3_5/2008/08/tour-angelas-4t.html
Until next time,
Miss Snix.
Half a Day Never Felt So Long!
Today I had a grade four class for half the day. The first hour was okay, they rotated around maths games and I just had to supervise, they were all fairly well behaved and I didn’t really have to do much. Then at lunch I got to do duty (don’t I always!? lol) with the grade 6 and 7’s.
After lunch I took the class to watch the younger grades run their cross country. All they had to do was sit and cheer while the little children ran past, that’s it! Of course they rolled around, mucked around were just played up! I couldn’t take them back to the room either because we were surrounded by parents and other classes and were stuck on the wrong side of the running track. One of my girls even ran off into some bushes to ‘help the little ones run’, she never asked me and when I sent responsible girls to get her (several times) she told them she wasn’t coming back and didn’t care. I had to send a note to the office to get help and as we were finally going back to the room the deputy principal came down to look for her. Meanwhile back at the room I put a dvd on for the last 20mins and they sat there quietly watching it. . . why couldn’t we have just done that all afternoon!? The runaway also quietly snuck back into the classroom and the deputy came looking for her.
I only worked for three hours today but it was the longest three hours I have had in a long time! Thankfully there are only two more days until the holidays!
I also wrote an email tonight about my frustrations over still being a supply teacher after 3 years while I am seeing new graduates get permanent positions and full time contracts and how hard it is to survive on the lack of pay due to lack of work. I sent it to the head of my districts union and the state district officer, I doubt it’ll do much but I felt I needed to get my frustrations out. I know I am not the only one feeling this way, there are so many other teachers in my position. Anyway, will wait and see if I get a response. Miss Snix.
Split days!
Last week I worked with four classes in two days at one school. Sounds fun doesn’t it! I could have worked an extra day but when they pre-booked me I turned down the year 6 and 7 classes. It was a little weird actually, the agency that books my work has been told I only work to grade 3 so why they were offering me grade 4, 6 and 7 are beyond me! I did accept to take the year 4 class though because it will only be half a day tomorrow and I figured it’s still early in the year they would still be young.
The first day I started with grade one, many of whom I had taught last year. Faces I remembered, names I didn’t! They weren’t too bad I guess, a little chatty but they did their work not that the teacher I was replacing left much so I had to drag things out a bit to fit the time. Half way through my day I went to the grade threes. The majority of them were well behaved too, except for a few that thought they would try and act silly and get out of work, that didn’t work too well. I had one girl that wouldn’t do any work, wondered around the room taking other peoples things and bugging me to go to the toilet. I eventually let her go (she just wanted to get out of work!) so while she was gone I called the office, packed her stuff up and handed it to a well behaved student who stood by the door. So when she walked in one door I instantly sent her out the other, and she didn’t have time to throw a tantrum! This class were also very chatty and noisy!
Two days later I was back at the school and started with grade two. They had parade first up which was nice; I just had to walk them there, sit down and watch the parade for about half an hour. After this we went back to the room to do work, and they were yet another chatty class! Aghh am I attracting them this year!? haha I also had a couple of grade three children in the room who weren’t allowed to go on their excursion – they were so annoying! They wouldn’t do their work and kept annoying the grade two students. I also had one annoying grade two child though who kept calling out the answers during their spelling and math tests. I spoke with their teacher during lunch and she thought it was funny that they are a chatty class hmm I personally don’t find it funny but then again I like it when children actually listen to me, but each to their own! Half way through my day I was so glad to be leaving and I got to go to the preps! I love the preps!!! I had a month contract last year teaching prep at the school and had done relief work in all the other prep classes so I know all the teachers and aids. But the one I replaced was new and treated me like I knew nothing about preps which was annoying! Anyway it was the first time I had taught preps at this school this year and they are a lovely bunch! I had fun building box dinosaurs with them and then taking them outside to play. We even mixed with the prep class next door to watch a video and they were just as nice!
As I said before tomorrow I am working half a day with year four, I think (hope I’m wrong though!) they will be chatty like the other primary classes I had last week (how can they be so lovely in prep and then change once they move up!?) This is also the last week of term one (I have had a very slow start to the year!) and hen we have a week of holidays for Easter. Looking forward to the holidays! Am going on another mini-roadtrip!
Take care all,
Miss Snix!
