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i have made a lot of plans lately
It occurs to me that none of this information has actually all been written down anywhere, and has only passingly been referenced on twitter, so noone does actually know everything that's going on with me lately! i keep telling one person at a time and then being surprised that everyone doesn't know. oops.
first, then: at the end of this year, assuming the minister for education signs off on it (and there isn't anything else he can do), Parkwood Secondary will close down, and its students and (ongoing) staff and resources will be dispersed to various other schools in the area (the contract staff will all lose their jobs. essentially that's the integration and the it department (non-teaching staff) and also two teachers).
related: the various employment agreements by which education staff - both teaching and non-teaching staff - are employed by the government have expired, and new ones are being negotiated. apart from an offer to increase our pay by less than the rate of inflation, the government would also like to remove the right of ongoing non-teaching staff to be moved to new schools, if they are no longer considered necessary staff in the school that first hired them. it seems unlikely that the union will actually let that pass - in fact we are currently participating in industrial action - but it's still unpleasantly timed.
so next year i'm going to uni to study teaching. i have mentioned this to disaffected teachers (two of my favourite people at work are only teaching cause it's what they've got qual's in and they need money) and they laugh, and tell me it's a funny joke, and what am i actually going to do next year? and i guess after the paragraph above - teaching does not have the best employment conditions, i know.
and yet: i like my job. i particularly like the bits of my job that involve helping teenagers. me and some of the junior english faculty run a comprehension program and it's both satisfying and really interesting, and what else do you want out of work? i have also talked it over with teachers who like teaching, and various other friends and relatives, and i'm pretty sure that this is, actually, a good life choice. i have promises of sessional jobs (if the people in question are in a position to give them to me, at their new schools) and references, and although this is SO MUCH not something i could have done even as recently as three years ago, i am looking forward to it now.
i've got the prior qualifications to let me train as an english, history, or society & environment teacher, and i'm hoping to wangle my way into IT teacher training (i have just enough technology subjects but i got them as part of a "business information technology" course, which is to say the librarianship course at rmit). because one applies for victorian graduate entry teaching courses through vtac, i won't find out where i got in until november or december, but i've applied to the two universities that actually offer IT teaching methods as an option: melbourne and monash.
and i'm moving back to the parents house. again. i was in the middle of looking for somewhere to live when this all started - the penguin house as a whole is dispersing - but if i'm not going to be employed next year then i'm also not going to be able to pay rent. so the penguin house is full of boxes, empty and full and part way in between, and the movers are booked for saturday week. luckily my parents already have the internet, and all my devices are familar to their network, and i shall not be parted from twitter at all.
so now you know.
first, then: at the end of this year, assuming the minister for education signs off on it (and there isn't anything else he can do), Parkwood Secondary will close down, and its students and (ongoing) staff and resources will be dispersed to various other schools in the area (the contract staff will all lose their jobs. essentially that's the integration and the it department (non-teaching staff) and also two teachers).
related: the various employment agreements by which education staff - both teaching and non-teaching staff - are employed by the government have expired, and new ones are being negotiated. apart from an offer to increase our pay by less than the rate of inflation, the government would also like to remove the right of ongoing non-teaching staff to be moved to new schools, if they are no longer considered necessary staff in the school that first hired them. it seems unlikely that the union will actually let that pass - in fact we are currently participating in industrial action - but it's still unpleasantly timed.
so next year i'm going to uni to study teaching. i have mentioned this to disaffected teachers (two of my favourite people at work are only teaching cause it's what they've got qual's in and they need money) and they laugh, and tell me it's a funny joke, and what am i actually going to do next year? and i guess after the paragraph above - teaching does not have the best employment conditions, i know.
and yet: i like my job. i particularly like the bits of my job that involve helping teenagers. me and some of the junior english faculty run a comprehension program and it's both satisfying and really interesting, and what else do you want out of work? i have also talked it over with teachers who like teaching, and various other friends and relatives, and i'm pretty sure that this is, actually, a good life choice. i have promises of sessional jobs (if the people in question are in a position to give them to me, at their new schools) and references, and although this is SO MUCH not something i could have done even as recently as three years ago, i am looking forward to it now.
i've got the prior qualifications to let me train as an english, history, or society & environment teacher, and i'm hoping to wangle my way into IT teacher training (i have just enough technology subjects but i got them as part of a "business information technology" course, which is to say the librarianship course at rmit). because one applies for victorian graduate entry teaching courses through vtac, i won't find out where i got in until november or december, but i've applied to the two universities that actually offer IT teaching methods as an option: melbourne and monash.
and i'm moving back to the parents house. again. i was in the middle of looking for somewhere to live when this all started - the penguin house as a whole is dispersing - but if i'm not going to be employed next year then i'm also not going to be able to pay rent. so the penguin house is full of boxes, empty and full and part way in between, and the movers are booked for saturday week. luckily my parents already have the internet, and all my devices are familar to their network, and i shall not be parted from twitter at all.
so now you know.