Crying

Cried at work today. Not a really big thing but I was so angry that I wasn't being listened to, that I had to let the emotion out. And I guess it's better your boss thinks you're a big girl than an angry bit.

I'm not the first one though. The new curriculum is killing joy.

Three day weekend.

I don't actually have a three day weekend; I did a 13 hour day yesterday and will be back on Monday.

But I took 5 students on an 8 hour round-trip to see a show. I loved it.

It did NOT feel like work. It was an outing with people I got to know much better and hopefully will have better relationships with.

All I can say is, having the chance to have that day is something I am honoured to have in my job.

And I realised that I am so proud to be called 'Miss'. I realised it yesterday. Like when women say their name is now Mum, my name is Miss. And I must say, I am honoured, and filled with love for the special people I allow to know me as such.

Multi-years in the Australian History Curriculum

It doesn't work! How in God's name can I get these topics to fit in with one another to make teaching multi-years easier? I am scared witless as the idea of having to teach two totally separate topics in the same room. Not only the extra planning, but getting the message through to the kids and doing the topics justice.

If we were given just a broad overview of 8 - the ancient and medieval word, 9 - The expanding world and 10 - the modern world, I could work with that!

Do thematic units - for example, PLAGUE! and teach the Black Death to year 8, The Spanish Flu to year 9 and SARS and Swineflu and the possibilities of another to year 10. That, I could do. The same kind of content, with slightly differing focusses for the research assessment.

But that's not how I interpret it.

The Curriculum outlines an overview curricula and then 'in depth' curricula. And dear God they don't match. Not at all. Not even the same themes!

Note to the writers - we don't all have perfect little classes of 30 students to whom we can write the program once and then not have to wholly re-write again each year. I don't know how may kids are going to be in my class or the year levels until the end of the year before, and I then have to re-write the program in totality! 

Make it easy for people please - I thought that was the whole friggin' point? To tell us the 'what' to teach, but not the 'how'? Yes, you've done that, but you haven't considered people like our tiny little school who need to run a year 8/9 combined SOSE and, maybe, include the year 10s in there.

Oh, and I've got to fill 90% of the year with in-depth studies? So how do I get Geography, Business and Civics into the SOSE curriculum. We don't all have the luxury of having separate teachers - we have four teachers. FOUR! We can't separate it out because we don't really have the staff to cover it all. Or the kids.

That's my rant about the History Curriculum. I will now put it to the back of my mind, because it doesn't go 'live' until 2013, while the English on goes live in 2012.

And I still haven't written my Term 4, 2011 units.

**DISCLAIMER - I think that the curriculum is well thought out and written. I am looking forward to teaching some of the topics and I believe the content that has been chosen is very engaging and relevant. I am talking about my ability to do the topics justice in a multi-years setting.***

6 months

I've survived six months at the same school! I am so happy. :)

I've got permanency and I know I'm going back there in July, but I tell you, after the last few years with the instability of contracts that end every six months, (even if they end up being renewed like in the UK) I actually started packing away and saying Goodbye to everything in my mind. Then I realised - you'll be back next term!!!

I am so grateful for the stability that I have now.

let's hope that gratefulness opens me up for friends and a partner