This post is long...
The subject line kind of sums it up. If you're inclined to read, grab some snacks and a drink. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The Life and Love of Loz...
And by 'love', I of course mean work, because, no, I haven't miraculously met someone within a month. A shame, I say.
Okay, so I moved here over a month ago now - to this cute little 3 bedroom house in a town that's 4 hours from Adelaide. I am now living by myself and I have a job. I'm responsible for 11 little souls (soon to be 15.) To say that things in my life have changed since late June is an understatement of gigantic proportions.
And, most of the time, I feel great. It is so challenging and it takes up most of my time, but I needed that, I really did. I finally feel like I make a difference, like I'm worth something. This is life. Okay, so it's work, and currently not much more than work, but I'll build up to the social aspect once I'm more settled. Weekends so far have consisted of planning, housework and rewatching Futurama and Whose Line (too braindead for anything else, seriously.)
I love my little house. It has a convenient layout and the kitchen is awesome - tonnes of cupboard and surface space. The worst thing about the place is that it's steel-framed and makes banging noises during the night, due to expanding and contracting metal. Actually, no, the worst thing is that it's on the other side of the town from the school and main shops. That is very annoying. A few of the staff members at my school sort of act as my personal chauffeurs in the morning and afternoon and I feel terrible (they tell me they're perfectly happy doing it, but, yeah, you know me.)
My students are lovely. Not always, of course. But on the whole, they are. They can be so adorable and I like spending time with them. Not so fun is when I wake up in the middle of the night and hear them calling my name, but I'm sure that will pass with time. It used to happen when I was on prac too. You never realise how much you dislike your last name, until it's said 500 times a day. Actually, on that front, my students call me by my proper name! I am shocked and delighted.
The most difficult aspect of teaching has been planning. I'm fairly confident this is true of teaching across the board. I've spent hours upon hours looking through resources and trying to figure out what to incorporate in my day. I've written out a term overview, but I don't always know the exact activities that each day is going to involve, so I plan on the run as well. There have been a few times where I've planned much, much more than could be achieved in the time allowed, and other times where a task that I thought would take half an hour took ten minutes.
I'm sure that when I have more experience in this kind of thing, I'll have more of an idea and a collection I can refer to, but at the moment, it's starting from scratch. You also never really fully appreciate what that phrase means until you do it. Ye gads. Now that we've been there four weeks, our room is looking pretty colourful, with work and days of the week and shapes and numbers, but those first few days, it was the blankest schoolroom I have ever seen.
My parents and brothers have been unbelievably supportive and helpful in all of this, you have no idea. I owe them a lot. If I hadn't had Mum on the other end of the phone line some nights, I may have gone potty. And they've come up since I moved in - all four of them - and it was WONDERFUL. I really do love my family. I fully realised this when I was finally without them 24/7. Although I love living by myself, I truly do. No one to tell me to turn the music down, no one to want to change the tv channel. I can eat what I want for dinner every night. YAY!
So, um, that's me - pretty happy and very busy. I have a garage sale at the school that I'm working at tomorrow (Saturday), and then all kinds of things during the week. But I am fully expecting to be pestering you with constant updates once more.
The Life and Love of Loz...
And by 'love', I of course mean work, because, no, I haven't miraculously met someone within a month. A shame, I say.
Okay, so I moved here over a month ago now - to this cute little 3 bedroom house in a town that's 4 hours from Adelaide. I am now living by myself and I have a job. I'm responsible for 11 little souls (soon to be 15.) To say that things in my life have changed since late June is an understatement of gigantic proportions.
And, most of the time, I feel great. It is so challenging and it takes up most of my time, but I needed that, I really did. I finally feel like I make a difference, like I'm worth something. This is life. Okay, so it's work, and currently not much more than work, but I'll build up to the social aspect once I'm more settled. Weekends so far have consisted of planning, housework and rewatching Futurama and Whose Line (too braindead for anything else, seriously.)
I love my little house. It has a convenient layout and the kitchen is awesome - tonnes of cupboard and surface space. The worst thing about the place is that it's steel-framed and makes banging noises during the night, due to expanding and contracting metal. Actually, no, the worst thing is that it's on the other side of the town from the school and main shops. That is very annoying. A few of the staff members at my school sort of act as my personal chauffeurs in the morning and afternoon and I feel terrible (they tell me they're perfectly happy doing it, but, yeah, you know me.)
My students are lovely. Not always, of course. But on the whole, they are. They can be so adorable and I like spending time with them. Not so fun is when I wake up in the middle of the night and hear them calling my name, but I'm sure that will pass with time. It used to happen when I was on prac too. You never realise how much you dislike your last name, until it's said 500 times a day. Actually, on that front, my students call me by my proper name! I am shocked and delighted.
The most difficult aspect of teaching has been planning. I'm fairly confident this is true of teaching across the board. I've spent hours upon hours looking through resources and trying to figure out what to incorporate in my day. I've written out a term overview, but I don't always know the exact activities that each day is going to involve, so I plan on the run as well. There have been a few times where I've planned much, much more than could be achieved in the time allowed, and other times where a task that I thought would take half an hour took ten minutes.
I'm sure that when I have more experience in this kind of thing, I'll have more of an idea and a collection I can refer to, but at the moment, it's starting from scratch. You also never really fully appreciate what that phrase means until you do it. Ye gads. Now that we've been there four weeks, our room is looking pretty colourful, with work and days of the week and shapes and numbers, but those first few days, it was the blankest schoolroom I have ever seen.
My parents and brothers have been unbelievably supportive and helpful in all of this, you have no idea. I owe them a lot. If I hadn't had Mum on the other end of the phone line some nights, I may have gone potty. And they've come up since I moved in - all four of them - and it was WONDERFUL. I really do love my family. I fully realised this when I was finally without them 24/7. Although I love living by myself, I truly do. No one to tell me to turn the music down, no one to want to change the tv channel. I can eat what I want for dinner every night. YAY!
So, um, that's me - pretty happy and very busy. I have a garage sale at the school that I'm working at tomorrow (Saturday), and then all kinds of things during the week. But I am fully expecting to be pestering you with constant updates once more.