today I have...
(re)written four whole year course outlines and assessments: 3A/B English (TEE), 3A/B English as an Additional Language or Dialect (also TEE, for those who are smart but cannot express this fully in English as it is not their home language), 1A/B (sorta Senior English/Vocational English combination), and Year 8 English.
I imagine it will be much easier teaching two courses in the same class when the content can be so easily matched (the 3A/B courses). I have on student that needs to do the EALD course so she's going in with the rest of the TEEers and having slightly altered assessments. I was very pleased with myself for making the different themes/contexts of the four units work properly (out of 8 assignments, only 3 had to be changed, other than exams).
This will be the first time I'm teaching Year 8s, so I sewed together the best parts of the last three years outlines, which have all the same topics/text types, but different assessments to correspond to those topics/text types.
Priorities for me now are to get the 3A/B blog sorted, get the information(permission?) letter for the blog sorted, information letters to parents about my expectations and homework classes etc, and then to look at Year 9 and 10 - both of which I don't see until Tuesday, have taught many times before, and need to gauge the class dynamic before really being able to decide on a concrete outline.
I am very pleased to be only teaching in my trained subject area this year (first time!), although that presumes that EALD is my trained subject area - perhaps not university, but definitely through the past two years teaching it.
I am unsure whether to enquire as to what happens with my extra DOTT (duties other than teaching) period, as I only have 23 teaching periods and am supposed to have 24 (out of 30). I'm hoping that it's made up from the fact that two of my DOTTs are in short periods, so the actual time I have teaching/DOTT is correct, even if the number of periods are not. In the past the school has purposefully underloaded staff so as to have people available for internal relief, but they aren't allowed to do that now (Classroom First policy, plus lack of teachers - of course what happens when teachers are sick/training when we have no relief staff I have no idea [other than pay us for the relief and us lose our DOTT and get stressed and sick and have more time off due to lack of DOTT])
Really loving new deputy (acting position of a staff member I like and respect), hating new principal (acting position of a staff member everyone else hates), wish old principal would come back from being acting district director/acting principal consultant at district office.
Ski trip stuff is going well, currently have 26 students, sending out a letter next week to inform the other 30 or so students who are interested that there are 14 places left and it's first paid first served. Which is another to do list. Must also see if we still need approval from them up above (district/central office), rather then them in charge at school, given it's during the holidays and therefore it needs no educational value (though god knows why traveling interstate and learning how to ski is not classified educational enough!)
Can you tell I like documenting stuff? Procrastination and proof that I have actually done something all in one!
Off to BK tomorrow for an engagement party, so not looking forward to the 6hr round trip, especially when I have other stuff I should be doing.
I imagine it will be much easier teaching two courses in the same class when the content can be so easily matched (the 3A/B courses). I have on student that needs to do the EALD course so she's going in with the rest of the TEEers and having slightly altered assessments. I was very pleased with myself for making the different themes/contexts of the four units work properly (out of 8 assignments, only 3 had to be changed, other than exams).
This will be the first time I'm teaching Year 8s, so I sewed together the best parts of the last three years outlines, which have all the same topics/text types, but different assessments to correspond to those topics/text types.
Priorities for me now are to get the 3A/B blog sorted, get the information(permission?) letter for the blog sorted, information letters to parents about my expectations and homework classes etc, and then to look at Year 9 and 10 - both of which I don't see until Tuesday, have taught many times before, and need to gauge the class dynamic before really being able to decide on a concrete outline.
I am very pleased to be only teaching in my trained subject area this year (first time!), although that presumes that EALD is my trained subject area - perhaps not university, but definitely through the past two years teaching it.
I am unsure whether to enquire as to what happens with my extra DOTT (duties other than teaching) period, as I only have 23 teaching periods and am supposed to have 24 (out of 30). I'm hoping that it's made up from the fact that two of my DOTTs are in short periods, so the actual time I have teaching/DOTT is correct, even if the number of periods are not. In the past the school has purposefully underloaded staff so as to have people available for internal relief, but they aren't allowed to do that now (Classroom First policy, plus lack of teachers - of course what happens when teachers are sick/training when we have no relief staff I have no idea [other than pay us for the relief and us lose our DOTT and get stressed and sick and have more time off due to lack of DOTT])
Really loving new deputy (acting position of a staff member I like and respect), hating new principal (acting position of a staff member everyone else hates), wish old principal would come back from being acting district director/acting principal consultant at district office.
Ski trip stuff is going well, currently have 26 students, sending out a letter next week to inform the other 30 or so students who are interested that there are 14 places left and it's first paid first served. Which is another to do list. Must also see if we still need approval from them up above (district/central office), rather then them in charge at school, given it's during the holidays and therefore it needs no educational value (though god knows why traveling interstate and learning how to ski is not classified educational enough!)
Can you tell I like documenting stuff? Procrastination and proof that I have actually done something all in one!
Off to BK tomorrow for an engagement party, so not looking forward to the 6hr round trip, especially when I have other stuff I should be doing.