Compostable Kate

I'm pretty sure that I learned far more on my prac than the students I was teaching. Some of it will stand me in good stead for my next prac, and for when I am a fully-qualified teacher. Some of it was very disappointing and disallusioning. One of the first things I learned was that my supervising teacher no longer wanted to be a teacher, but was sticking with it for a few more years, while her youngest child finishes high school. Another teacher in our staff room was only staying with teaching to boost his superannuation before he retired. Yet another teacher didn't speak to me during my four weeks sitting at the desk next to him, and seemed to dislike all students and the teaching of them. There were frequent discussions in there about students being "not very bright" and "unteachable", including one entire year. No effort was put in to teaching these students, as it was deemed to be a waste of effort. However, imaginative teaching was hampered ...

Today was Day One proper of my Graduate Diploma in Education, which will qualify me to become a high school teacher, specialising in senior English (supposedly; more of that later). Today, was EXHAUSTING! I have a 3-hour workshop from 8am , two hours off, then another 2 hours of lecture/tutorial. From next week, one of those 2 hours off will be taken up with another lecture, and I think I may even gain another tutorial from 5 - 7pm. So, although I am totally stuffed after today's effort, I got off lightly. There was a timetabling mix-up, which meant that 2 of our tutorials (or "tutes", to use the vernacular) were scheduled at the same time. I thought I had stuffed up my enrolment, so un-enrolled from one of the modules, but then found out this afternoon that I can re-enrol, because they are rescheduling the 2nd tute (thankfully, not to Mondays). However, if that does leave me with an 11-hour day, I might have to stay un-enrolled, and hope I can catch this other modu...