It's been a good week for me, but not so good for Dad. Let's start out with Dad - he went for his interview on Thursday and was sad not to 'go on' to the next stage to get a formal interview. When he got there, he found out that he was one of ten people selected for interviews that day. He was told that 300 people had applied for the two positions and that 20 had been selected for the interview process. He said that of the ten in his group, there were only a couple of 'older' people - those were dressed well like Dad (who was dressed in nice pants, a short sleeved shirt and tie) and the young ones were dressed in jeans with either a golf shirt or t-shirt. They asked each of the ten to take three minutes and talk about themselves and then they divided them into small groups and asked them to work as a team to come up with ten things they would take with them if they were on a deserted island. Dad's group came up with very serious things on their list (like food and water), but some groups came up with less serious things, like their favourite football team or their dog. After their lists were presented, they chose five of the group to move on to formal interviews, but Dad was not one of them. All of the five people chosen to go on were young (three males and two females) and either were not working or had had many jobs. This job was only three hours per day, so Dad was surprised that these young people wanted to work at a job with limited hours. Anyway, he was quite disappointed that he didn't get the job - he's never not gotten a job he applied for before - but, like he said afterwards, there is another job out there which he is supposed to get. It's just hard (and somewhat frustrating) not knowing where it is or when he will get it. We are going to do some searching this week including going to a 'headhunter' company for professionals to get their thoughts on where to look for a job in HB.
Now, for some good news - I was offered a one day a week contract at Torquay State School for this term (ten weeks). I was actually offered the position for all year, but I told them that I was going back to Canada in June and so wouldn't be available to do it after this term. I also told them that I had been offered a four week full-time contract in September/October at Kawungan. For the one day a week contract at Torquay, I will be working on Mondays with Pam who is a Prep teacher. I met with her this past week and she wants me to work with her bright children to help them to go beyond the kindergarten curriculum since most of them have come to school with a lot of what they need to know or can show me with little help what they know. She gave me an outline of what they are going to be teaching their classes this coming term and I will be looking over that in the next two weeks (we are on holidays right now) and doing some planning on how I am going to 'stretch' these children.
I was also offered a ten week position in grade two for next year. I think that I mentioned in my last blog that I had run into a teacher called Mel Cooper last Saturday on my way to vote and she asked me if I would take on her class next year for the first term (she just needs some time off, she said). She works three days one week and two days the next. This past week, when I was in at Kawungan, Karen (the person who does the hiring for contracts) officially asked me to cover for Bronwyn later this year. I was expecting her to ask about me about taking Mel's class, too, but she didn't. When I came out of Karen's office, Barb, one of the vice principals, told me that I needed to get an interview so that I could take Mel's contract. I couldn't understand that as I had taught for 22 weeks at Torquay without needing an interview. Barb told me to call this woman at HR which I did. She told me that I could actually teach for 1 semester (half a year) without getting an interview so I could take Mel's contract, no problem. So, that was good news. Then, the woman told me that it would be a good idea to get the interview, though, as if the contract was extended, I wouldn't be able to take it unless I had the interview. So, after the holidays, I will be talking with Neil, vice principal at Torquay, about what questions might be asked during interviews - he actually interviewed Chantelle when she graduated from university.
I also worked three days this week - one day at Kawungan in grade one which was a really nice day; and two days at Torquay - Thursday I was covering for teachers for planning time: kindergarten, grade 4/5 (didn't like that one much) and grade one; on Friday, I was covering for teachers who were in a meeting - grade one (a lovely class) and grade two (a challenging class). It's been great getting so many days' work right after getting back from Canada - let's hope it keeps up - I would love to get three days a week work - the other two days I would be volunteering as I told both Bronwyn and Chantelle that I would come in to their classrooms once a week.
We were busy socially this past week as well. On Wednesday night, I went out for dinner with the grade one teachers from Kawungan - just a sort of end-of-the-term dinner - it was nice to hang out with the teachers (Dad called it 'networking' :-) On Friday night, we had some friends from church over: Robyn and Geoff and Allison and Graham. We started off our evening drinking juice in our 'wine glasses' on the patio - it was such a lovely day and it was nice sitting out there on our comfy patio set and just chatting with our friends. On Saturday night, we went over to Robyn and Geoff's for dinner with a new couple who came from Darwin to HB - Jan and Gil. While we were chatting, we found out that Gil and Geoff knew a number of the same people from when they lived up north in Queensland - such a small world, it is. I am looking forward to having more dinners with more people in the next two months.
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