Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Oh, I have the most amazing news! I got a job - full-time - well, for the rest of the school year, anyway. J I am so excited! I got a call yesterday from Torquay State School - it was one of their administrative assistants, Kim - asking me to call her about a contract position at Torquay. I was thrilled when I heard the phone message. I asked Dad to drive me over to Torquay so that I could speak with Kim in person.  We had to wait for her to get out of a meeting - when I did get  in to talk with her she said that they are in need  of someone to take on a contract from June 14th until the end of the school year (December 9th) in a Prep class.  The biggest smile came over my face as I said 'YES!' :-)  And there is an even better part of this deal - Chantelle, the prac student who was with me in Bronwyn's class last year, will be my team partner!  Could it get better than this!  I am over the moon about this and can't wait to start.  Chantelle and I get along so well - and there is a teacher's aide, Samantha (Sam) who will be working in the class and she is fabulous, and I have taught Yvonne's class before and they are lovely!  It's the most amazing thing.  I was just lamenting a couple of weeks ago about how I wasn't getting as much work as I wanted.  I was praying about it and one thought that came to my mind was 'after all you can do' - it reminded me that I need to work hard for something I want and then the blessings will come.  That's when I decided to apply to the Catholic school board and the private school to supply teach.  I also spoke with a friend who works at another school about her introducing me to the Deputy Principal at her school.  Even though I didn't get a job at any of those places, I feel so blessed to have been offered more work at different schools and also to be offered this contract position.  I am so grateful!

I worked at Pialba State School yesterday - I did 1 1/2 hours in each of three grades: Prep, grade two, and grade five.  The Prep class went fine as did the grade two class (I had supply taught for this class before and they are  pretty good) and then had a disastrous time in grade five (which is why I don't like teaching above year three).  The teacher told me that I had to sit on them and that they were a tough group (which another supply teacher confirmed later when I talked with her about this class).  Anyway, there are a number of rude boys in there and sure enough, as soon as their teacher left the room, they started acting up.  Now, I don't care if they don't want to do the work, but they better be quiet cuz I don't handle rudeness or ignorance well at all.  Anyway, two of these boys decided to to act up royally and be ignorant, disrespectful and rude.  After giving them a number of chances to smarten up, I got the Deputy Principal to take them out of the class.  It still wasn't great, but I was able to get through the rest of the time okay.  As soon as I got to the car after school, I told Dad I needed chocolate. :-)  I got a call from Karen from Kawungan and she asked me to teach on Wednesday and Thursday this week - I was so happy to get a call from her - teaching at Kawungan is so much better. :-)

Dad had his first interview of the people wishing to work as census collectors yesterday.  Dad spent about 25 minutes talking with the person and then took five minutes to write up some notes about the interview.  He was a little nervous about how the  interview was going to go, but he thought it went very well once it was over.  Dad spent the rest of the day trying to figure out which private health care company we were going to go with.  It works a little differently over here in Australia compared to what it is like in Canada.  Let me start out by staying Canadians are very blessed for the health care system there.  We received our Medicare card last year about this time and didn't realize at the time that we only had a year to decide on whether we wanted to get extra health coverage.  Well, a  couple of weeks ago, we got a letter telling us that we had until Tuesday (today) to make our decision.  If we didn't make a choice by today and we decide we want it later, it will cost us a lot more (2% per year over age 30).  We had talked with some friends about what to do and they all basically said to get it for now and then decide later on if we want to keep it or not.  Basically, in Australia, Medicare covers basic emergency and general medical needs in the public medical system.  You have to pay to see the doctor (about $65 per visit, of which Medicare reimburses you about $40.).  You can get extra coverage which covers dental, optical, chiropractic, massage therapy and physiotherapy up to a certain amount per year.  It also covers semi private rooms when you go into a hospital (after you pay the first $250. of the bill).  It also allows you to get on a private coverage list if you need an operation which means you don't have to wait for ages (if you are only on Medicare, you go on a different waiting list which takes a lot longer to get treatment - unless it's a medical emergency when everyone is at the same level).  I don't like the fact that it's a two-tier system over here, but I am grateful that we can afford to get it.  We don't need it now, but who knows what the future will bring.

Today I was at Pialba teaching the same kindergarten class as yesterday, but for the whole morning and the same grade two class as yesterday, but for the whole afternoon.  The kindergarten class was great first thing in the morning as they had computer lab and all kids love going on the computers.  I had one issue with a little boy who punched a little girl in the stomach because she wouldn't hold his hand to walk to the lab.  He had already kicked a young boy in the cheek (which left a red mark) in the morning, so I asked the teacher's aide to take him to the office as I felt it was important for them to be aware of what was happening.  Mark Brose, who is the Deputy Principal, takes this kind of physical abuse very seriously and took care of the situation - I really appreciate admin who back you up.  The children in the grade two class are quite nice and I do like going into their class.  One girl caused an issue by wrecking another student's work.  I asked her to sit out and told her we would talk about it later.  When I told the teacher about the incident, she said that this girl and her mother (and maybe siblings) had moved in with the grandmother until the mother could find a caravan to rent.  I really feel for the things so many of these kids have to go through at such a young age.  There are many children in Hervey Bay (at least at the schools I have supply taught at) who are living with one parent or with stepparents and they have issues with the other non-custodial parent.  The children should not have to deal with these things - no wonder they struggle with school and that there are so many behaviour issues in HB.  The deputy principal also asked me today if I would like to come in and teach the grade two class I had today in October when the teacher goes on leave for a short time.  I would have enjoyed doing that, except that now I have been offered that wonderful job at Torquay, so I had to tell Mark, (the DP), that I couldn't do it.  I did thank him for asking me, though.

Dad spent most of today doing more interviews with hopeful census collectors.  He needs to get seven collectors and one reserve collector and he is very confident after doing the interviews today that he will have no difficulty getting his people.  He still has six more people to interview tomorrow and he also just got a new batch of resumes today so he will have to go through them and interview some of those people as well.  Dad said he felt much more comfortable doing the interviews today.