October 13 (the day after Spring in the Valley - EEK!) marked the first day of my final teaching practicum. I was posted at Mercy College, a Coed Catholic school (not a state school, but not exactly private) in Mirrabooka. I'm sure I wasn't alone going into the final prac feeling pretty nervous; I thought about others in the dip ed program and wondered how they were doing on their first day. I had already met my mentor teacher, Rebecca, who is around my age and really great, so at least I knew that part was good.
But what about the other teachers? What about the students? I only have my own short pracs at Greenwood Sr. High and my experiences as a high school student at BHS and FACE to draw on. My nervousness faded quickly with every teacher I met, and every class I went to. The English department is full of great people, and three female English teachers about my age, Rebecca, Natalie and Ashton. The other prac student, Nicola, is really sweet (she offers to drive me to the bus stop almost every day!)
I have two year 10 classes and one year 11 class. It's been really great and Rebecca always gives me thoughtful, concise and useful feedback. Every day I feel more confident as an English teacher (and with cracking down on those misbehaving students!), and the time is absolutely FLYING. A I write this, I have less than three weeks to go. I think I'm really going to miss the girls in the English room, and the kids (I would start writing about them, but there are just so many I could talk about!)
I have been pretty exhausted a lot of the time, especially since I was also working part time at Caffissimo on top of teaching full time. It was fine, I was working Friday and Saturday nights. Those shifts helped me save money too, since I couldn't have a proper life, haha. But then Barry, my boss changed my hours to 6:30 AM on Sundays without notice. I found it very difficult, and since I was waking up quite early every Monday-Friday plus doing lesson plans and marking, I was burning out. The second week I did it I felt like I was going to vomit I was so tired. So I quit the cafe job.
Life hasn't been all business, there has been lots of fun to be had. Pat was in town for a little while, and we had a great time going for drinks, dinner, going for walks and celebrating Halloween. We went to the opening of the upstairs of the Flying Scotsman, and Dave had a deejay shift there. It was awesome, there's a great terrace overlooking Mount Lawley, our wonderful neighborhood. There were free drinks for people at Dave's work, RTR, and their significant others. Which is great, because "free" is pretty much the price I can afford right now!!! Pat and I went out for a couple of drinks at the Brisbane on a hot Saturday, and we all went to the Sparrow for dinner. The Pangbourne crew hosted the Halloween party, and that was a blast, as always - Dave went as Dexter and won best male
costume! I was....a bunny! (surprise!). As always, there were some great costumes. November - another month has started to fly by, and I'm still kind of in
a state of bewilderment that I only have a few weeks of prac left and then I'm an English teacher! I'm going to sign off now - play a bit of piano and resist the temptation of watching a "Desperate Housewives" episode.
Kerry - a very cute police officer. And me - a bunny!
Dexter claims another victim!
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