Apparently it took me a whole challenge to try again at this blog (why, posting in my challenge thread works just fine ;)... But I would like a better organised place to look back on my posts later on!)
So, I survived the first week of actually teaching classes. I didn't have a full workload yet (but will do over the next few weeks) so I could get started at a rather leisurely pace. I taught 7 different groups (90 minutes each) and had several meetings. I had to phone the helpdesk 4 times to get some student accounts sorted out and I had to drag a whole group of students with me to another classroom halfway through our lesson because we couldn't get the same classroom for both 45-minute periods.
I got a headache 2 out of 4 days, which turned into a cold by Thursday (my day off) only to get worse on Friday... And slowly improved during the weekend. I met a lot of new colleagues and students and have started to study group lists and pictures in order to attempt to at least remember some of the names.
I didn't break down even once during my first week, which I'm proud of :) I've also heard I'll definitely have four rather full days for the entire schoolyear! (Which means I'll be busy... but at least we know how much income we'll have which in turn allows us to hopefully get our own place soon). This past week was busy, exciting, tiring, inspiring, disappointing at times, hope-giving at other times. It was simply life, in a good way. I refuse to give an actual judgement on whether I like this job for a long-term thing or not until I've worked there for a few months. So far I think I'll be able to manage, though!
Sunday 8 September 2013
Introduction and first thoughts
Couldn't figure out blogger before now... so a summary of my 'posts' so far (as on the Nerd Fitness forums)
Blog entry #1:
2 more weeks (3 weekends) until I start my new job? Am I slightly nervous? Yes! Mostly because I'm wondering whether I chose the right school/type of school. A bit of a luxury problem, but there are so many jobs available for English teachers at the moment (and only a few students actually graduating) that it is 'a problem'
.
I'm telling myself and others that I'll stay there for 3 years (because
that's how long everyone says it takes to get used to a new school and
teaching) but we'll see about that. If I really dislike it there (can't
imagine that, as I really enjoyed my teacher training there last year) I
could move on after a year. Who knows.
I'm also enjoying my summer quite a lot, so a bit of the 'ehhh, new job? ...
?'
is just the normal 'holidays are awesome and I don't want them to be
over!' thing. The first week of work is actually getting organised and
getting to know my colleagues before classes really start. That's good.
Can't wait for my first paycheck. What's a bit annoying is that because
it's a huge school everything takes ages. Including my contract. I hope
I'll be able to get that done during my first week there, too. I still
haven't heard back about my e-mail account. But yes, two more weeks
off... That's a whole Christmas holiday, so let's not look too far ahead
and enjoy my time off while it lasts. Next week off is in October, I'll
manage that, surely?
Blog week 2
So my old e-mail account is up and running again... But I got an e-mail saying that because I'll now officially work for the school (as opposed to working for them through another company) I'll get a completely new account... Which means my old e-mail will soon be gone. This is exactly what I dislike about huge schools, but at the moment I think the pros are more important. Oh well.
I added some stuff to my resources folder (see lifequest). I found some materials I can't remember ever creating or using, but I know they're mine so I must have made them at some point. They'll definitely be used this year, so that's good! I just need to print a few more assignments and the basic version of my folder will be done (ready for the start of the school year). Which is what I intended to do for my lifequest, so this one is going really well!
Other than that I'm trying to view my last few days of the summer break as a short break (which always feels long in the middle of the school year). I made a list (well, I still have 3 goals to fill up) of 12 goals I want to accomplish during the last 14 days of this summer holiday (my list started on Monday of this week) to make sure I get some stuff done. So far it's been working out great. The list:
1. Sort wardrobe (done)
2. Finalise teacher resources folder (in progress)
3. Go to a museum
4. Deep clean room (go through drawers etc.)
5. Get 2 paleo books, start reading (Done! 'The Paleo Solution' + 'The primal blueprint')
6. Finish Ni no Kuni (in progress)
7. Get fancy dark jeans
8. Read The Traitor Queen (in progress)
9. Create turtle pendant (this one http://www.free-macr...le-pendant.html ... but I think I need to practice some easier things first...)
10...
11...
12...
I'm not really looking forward to starting work just yet... Hope that'll happen, but I'll try my very best anyway.
Journal for week 3:
I've been e-mailing my workplace a lot, but it seems that everyone who actually knows something will only be back next week... Which is when I'll start - but I don't even know which days I'll be working. This bums me out a bit, to be honest. I'm sure it'll be okay, but it's inconvenient and does nothing to easy my stress levels.
Other than that I've been trying to find 'proper dark jeans' (as in... professional, nice looking, 1 colour-dark-blue jeans). Which seems impossible. Or if I find anything remotely acceptable to my wishes, it doesn't fit properly. Boo. I'm actually considering forgetting about the jeans completely and focussing on skirts and dresses instead (of which I have quite a few, but I do still find them difficult to combine at times... but that might be more of a problem with the tops I have than with the skirts). Other than this there isn't much to say I'm afraid. Work hasn't started yet, I finished my resources folder and organised my other material (binders etc.) so... we'll see what happens next week. Luckily classes only start the week after.
Week 4
The schoolyear will officially commence at 8.00 tomorrow... Yes, the minister of education will actually visit to start the schoolyear. But why at 8.00? Ah well, first day of getting up ridiculously early tomorrow... I hope it'll be interesting
Other than that I got my first paycheck already (that's education for you - get paid for the whole month even the schoolyear starts now
).
Unfortunately I didn't get as many hours/day as I would have liked/was
promised during my earlier meetings with the school. I hope things will
improve, but we'll see about that. There was some confusion as to who
would work which/how many days, so maybe they messed that up and my
schedule will change a lot over the next few days. At the moment I'm
looking at 1 1/2 full days of work... spread out over 4(!!!) days. Which
is just silly, especially when I take travelling costs into account.
But I'm not panicking - I'm hoping most of it is miscommunication and it
will be fixed soon. If not... then maybe next term (which is in 7-9
weeks) I might get more hours. I'll be earning more than I got during my
studies, for sure, so we'll manage regardless.
I went to the forest with my mother-in-law for a nice walk (we walked for about an hour) so I definitely got my exercise in. I expect tonight to be a 'father-in-law is cooking so I won't have much choice' for dinner (yes, it's a choice - I choose not to complain, enjoy my food and not go 100 % primal (or 90%) just yet.) Which is why I had a lovely breakfast of full fat yoghurt with nuts and dried fruit and a grand lunch of cabbage (with lemon cream, yumyum), with 3 slices of bacon and stir fried mushrooms, onion and tomato
Week 5
Blog-sorta-thing
So, I had three 'work days' so far, but all of them were preparation, meetings etc. On Monday I start teaching (it looks like one class, 2 hours). My schedule is still not complete and I'm disappointed in how chaotic the start of a new school year is. I'm sure in a few weeks' time things will be much better, though.
What's also disappointing is the travelling expenses. I've been spoiled so far: student travel card and even before that free travel (because my father works for the railway company). But not anymore - now I actually have to pay normal fares. Ouch. I'll probably spend around 120-150 a month just for travelling to and from work (including visiting my parents on the weekends). In reality it's 30 minutes to one hour of work on workdays I have to 'waste' on travelling... And I'm sure that's actually fairly normal, I'm just not used to it. I really hope we'll be able to get a place of our own near to my workplace soon.
I'm a bit nervous for Monday... or not exactly nervous, I'm just still not sure on how I'll do the introduction etc. I might end up deciding on the spot what to say to introduce myself... Might even work best (spontaneity and all) but it does make me feel a bit off-centre right now. Starting new things is not my forte (than again, whose forte would that be?!). I'll just make it up as I go and hopefully enjoy the process and not be too upset with myself when things don't go perfectly. Life is like that, right?
Blog entry #1:
2 more weeks (3 weekends) until I start my new job? Am I slightly nervous? Yes! Mostly because I'm wondering whether I chose the right school/type of school. A bit of a luxury problem, but there are so many jobs available for English teachers at the moment (and only a few students actually graduating) that it is 'a problem'
.
I'm telling myself and others that I'll stay there for 3 years (because
that's how long everyone says it takes to get used to a new school and
teaching) but we'll see about that. If I really dislike it there (can't
imagine that, as I really enjoyed my teacher training there last year) I
could move on after a year. Who knows.I'm also enjoying my summer quite a lot, so a bit of the 'ehhh, new job? ...
?'
is just the normal 'holidays are awesome and I don't want them to be
over!' thing. The first week of work is actually getting organised and
getting to know my colleagues before classes really start. That's good.
Can't wait for my first paycheck. What's a bit annoying is that because
it's a huge school everything takes ages. Including my contract. I hope
I'll be able to get that done during my first week there, too. I still
haven't heard back about my e-mail account. But yes, two more weeks
off... That's a whole Christmas holiday, so let's not look too far ahead
and enjoy my time off while it lasts. Next week off is in October, I'll
manage that, surely?Blog week 2
So my old e-mail account is up and running again... But I got an e-mail saying that because I'll now officially work for the school (as opposed to working for them through another company) I'll get a completely new account... Which means my old e-mail will soon be gone. This is exactly what I dislike about huge schools, but at the moment I think the pros are more important. Oh well.
I added some stuff to my resources folder (see lifequest). I found some materials I can't remember ever creating or using, but I know they're mine so I must have made them at some point. They'll definitely be used this year, so that's good! I just need to print a few more assignments and the basic version of my folder will be done (ready for the start of the school year). Which is what I intended to do for my lifequest, so this one is going really well!
Other than that I'm trying to view my last few days of the summer break as a short break (which always feels long in the middle of the school year). I made a list (well, I still have 3 goals to fill up) of 12 goals I want to accomplish during the last 14 days of this summer holiday (my list started on Monday of this week) to make sure I get some stuff done. So far it's been working out great. The list:
1. Sort wardrobe (done)
2. Finalise teacher resources folder (in progress)
3. Go to a museum
4. Deep clean room (go through drawers etc.)
5. Get 2 paleo books, start reading (Done! 'The Paleo Solution' + 'The primal blueprint')
6. Finish Ni no Kuni (in progress)
7. Get fancy dark jeans
8. Read The Traitor Queen (in progress)
9. Create turtle pendant (this one http://www.free-macr...le-pendant.html ... but I think I need to practice some easier things first...)
10...
11...
12...
I'm not really looking forward to starting work just yet... Hope that'll happen, but I'll try my very best anyway.
Journal for week 3:
I've been e-mailing my workplace a lot, but it seems that everyone who actually knows something will only be back next week... Which is when I'll start - but I don't even know which days I'll be working. This bums me out a bit, to be honest. I'm sure it'll be okay, but it's inconvenient and does nothing to easy my stress levels.
Other than that I've been trying to find 'proper dark jeans' (as in... professional, nice looking, 1 colour-dark-blue jeans). Which seems impossible. Or if I find anything remotely acceptable to my wishes, it doesn't fit properly. Boo. I'm actually considering forgetting about the jeans completely and focussing on skirts and dresses instead (of which I have quite a few, but I do still find them difficult to combine at times... but that might be more of a problem with the tops I have than with the skirts). Other than this there isn't much to say I'm afraid. Work hasn't started yet, I finished my resources folder and organised my other material (binders etc.) so... we'll see what happens next week. Luckily classes only start the week after.
Week 4
The schoolyear will officially commence at 8.00 tomorrow... Yes, the minister of education will actually visit to start the schoolyear. But why at 8.00? Ah well, first day of getting up ridiculously early tomorrow... I hope it'll be interesting
Other than that I got my first paycheck already (that's education for you - get paid for the whole month even the schoolyear starts now
).
Unfortunately I didn't get as many hours/day as I would have liked/was
promised during my earlier meetings with the school. I hope things will
improve, but we'll see about that. There was some confusion as to who
would work which/how many days, so maybe they messed that up and my
schedule will change a lot over the next few days. At the moment I'm
looking at 1 1/2 full days of work... spread out over 4(!!!) days. Which
is just silly, especially when I take travelling costs into account.
But I'm not panicking - I'm hoping most of it is miscommunication and it
will be fixed soon. If not... then maybe next term (which is in 7-9
weeks) I might get more hours. I'll be earning more than I got during my
studies, for sure, so we'll manage regardless.I went to the forest with my mother-in-law for a nice walk (we walked for about an hour) so I definitely got my exercise in. I expect tonight to be a 'father-in-law is cooking so I won't have much choice' for dinner (yes, it's a choice - I choose not to complain, enjoy my food and not go 100 % primal (or 90%) just yet.) Which is why I had a lovely breakfast of full fat yoghurt with nuts and dried fruit and a grand lunch of cabbage (with lemon cream, yumyum), with 3 slices of bacon and stir fried mushrooms, onion and tomato
Week 5
Blog-sorta-thing
So, I had three 'work days' so far, but all of them were preparation, meetings etc. On Monday I start teaching (it looks like one class, 2 hours). My schedule is still not complete and I'm disappointed in how chaotic the start of a new school year is. I'm sure in a few weeks' time things will be much better, though.
What's also disappointing is the travelling expenses. I've been spoiled so far: student travel card and even before that free travel (because my father works for the railway company). But not anymore - now I actually have to pay normal fares. Ouch. I'll probably spend around 120-150 a month just for travelling to and from work (including visiting my parents on the weekends). In reality it's 30 minutes to one hour of work on workdays I have to 'waste' on travelling... And I'm sure that's actually fairly normal, I'm just not used to it. I really hope we'll be able to get a place of our own near to my workplace soon.
I'm a bit nervous for Monday... or not exactly nervous, I'm just still not sure on how I'll do the introduction etc. I might end up deciding on the spot what to say to introduce myself... Might even work best (spontaneity and all) but it does make me feel a bit off-centre right now. Starting new things is not my forte (than again, whose forte would that be?!). I'll just make it up as I go and hopefully enjoy the process and not be too upset with myself when things don't go perfectly. Life is like that, right?
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