Teacher Rating…

= “Outstanding”

I rang district office this morning.  I’m a little miffed that they haven’t sent me any work nor given any feedback on my interview last year (graduates are interviewed and given a suitability rating for potential employability with government schools).

The first lady I spoke with was very negative about finding ANY work in this city.   She was the primary teacher coordinator and (very nicely) explained that work was very hard to come by unless you live in a rural area.

But…

Then she put me through to the lovely ‘Mia’  in the secondary section who not only revealed my ranking  (I’m sure you already know that you are outstanding – that’s higher than an S1 rating you know”  … umm … no I didn’t Mia, but thanks for telling me), but also started to actually *help* me better my prospects by changing a few details on my application and “adding me to her list to give district schools”.

I’m hoping something comes of this … fingers crossed!

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Either way,  really I’m happy about my rating 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Update: Just got a call back from “Mia” .  Contract at a nearly-local high school starting Monday!  Yay ….and eeep!

Early birthday present….

I am a lucky woman.

I have a Big Number birthday looming on the horizon and my gorgeous hubby asked me what I’d like.

I thought about it for a bit….

Jewelry? …nah – I don’t wear much and I make my own beaded necklaces and earings.

We need a new microwave …. but frankly that just won’t cut it in the birthday stakes.

Dare I ask for the digital SLR camera I have coveted for the past 5 years???  I decided that it was really what I wanted, but I knew we couldn’t afford one… but I told Mr Fixit anyway.

“Hmmm” he said, ” …. the sugly isters have almost bled us dry, but we are a thrifty* family.  I’ll see what I can do “.

To cut a long story short, after a month or two of research and watching prices on eBay he came up with a bargain (courtesy of  a friend): a Canon EOS 400d with *three* lenses (Zoom EF 75-300mm = !!! + Canon EFS 18-55mm = versatile + Canon EF 50mm=gorgeous), associated paraphernalia (including a new camera day-backpack AND hard carry case, filters, hoods, remotes, spare batteries and chargers etc)  for about a *quarter* of the retail price (YAY).

He was so happy with himself he couldn’t wait another month to show me, so during *his* birthday dinner on the weekend, he gave it to me 🙂

My Facebook friends have been inflicted delighted with my photos to date, and while its much harder to upload photos on my blog, here are a few:

(Crested pigeon wing detail)

(Our beautiful environmental weed)

(*My* anodised cups – guess which is my favourite colour:)

Of course I took heaps of my kids and hubby too – very happy with the results!  So much more “atmosphere” than the point and shoot camera we had.

So now I have some questions for the photographers out there:

How do you edit photos?  Photoshop?  Is it worth it?

How do you store your photos? Flickr? External Hard Drive? Other?

Where do you go for inspiration? Tips and tricks?

I’m learning as I go, so all decent tips, tricks, links etc appreciated 🙂

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*I should point out  that Mr Fixit seems to be able to make almost anything appear from thin air …. he salvages a lot of  “junk” and can build almost anything.  Much of our furniture is second-hand and our fridges and washing machine were salvaged and repaired from road-side clean-up (and he fixed both for under $40).  When our second child was born when our eldest was barely 2, he made a toddler seat to fit our existing pram.  He does all mechanical repairs on the cars.  He is a bit of an all-round wonder and I know I’m a very lucky girl in many ways 🙂 … and no, he doesn’t read my blog.

Sir Ken Robinson should be knighted … oh wait…

he already is.

This man is a legend in education. He believes in fostering creativity and natural talent in children over simply valuing academic skills such as language and maths … which is not to say he doesn’t value those things, rather that each person should be encouraged to explore their natural talent, be it art, music, or differential calculus.

I think his ideas are spot-on however, I hadn’t realised just what a born entertainer this man is.    Enjoy:

I know some of you will see the youtube link and the fact that its 20 minutes in length, but it’s so worth the time – not only does Sir Ken explore his ideas for a creativity revolution in education but he is a natural-born comedian.  Seriously, he could make money on the comedy circuit any day … perhaps his superb wit is really his natural talent.

Finally, the phone has started ringing…

I’ve had my shiny piece of paper and my official piece of paper (ie the ones  that say I can get paid to teach the young of Australia) for a few months now … not so useful over the six-week summer holiday, but I had them none-the-less.

I knew I was holding my options back a bit when I ticked that I would only work within easy distance of where I live on my teaching job application form (I’ve already done country service for the Qld government and it really doesn’t work out for us very well).  I also ticked the “part time” preference box as I thought I’d need to be “around” as my baby boy settled into school (I needn’t have worried – he all but shoved me out the door on his second day of school … after he built the prison that is).

So I didn’t get a job offer this year.  I’m OK with that.  Especially given that only 10% of education graduates got jobs this year (‘onya Qld government for again showing a complete lack of forward planning and organisation on that score).

But.

I’m OVER everybody asking if I’ve “got work yet” then smiling sympathetically when I say “no”.  I’ve even started adding that I not only graduated with distinction but I  topped my course and got an award and that not many graduates got jobs this year, in order to combat the unwanted sympathy.

I’ve had a week and a half of unwanted sympathy and I’m OVER it. *I* know why I *needed* to be around to settle my children into school and I’m happy with my decision.  *I* know why I decided to stop being a scientist (who used to get to do cool stuff in rainforests and on farms) and why I wanted to be a teacher (for a start, you get far more appreciation as a teacher).  But *they* project their own agendas onto me and don’t see that for me, My Kids Come First.  I will always put their needs on top of work.  Always.

But …. all the sympathetic smiles  started the little voice inside me that says “what if your career change isn’t going to work out?”.  I hate that voice.  That voice undermines my self-esteem and makes me feel like my IQ has plummeted.

So it was wonderful to get *three* phone calls today asking me to work at Swanky Girls School next week.  I feel like I’m off the starting blocks 🙂  I feel like my work on prac at Swanky Girls School was appreciated.

…and best of all, that stupid little voice has stopped.

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…..hmmm better start looking over some maths and science stuff before next week then……