I Shall Return!

I havent been able to post for reasons I wont go into … but I should be better in January! I am so looking forward to writing again. It has been really frustrating! VERY much so …

I havent abandoned ship … I just have to deal with a few issues!

XoXoXoXo

Just Random …

I went to bed at 2:30am because I could not sleep … at all … didn’t help that I’d had a coffee before dinner, but by that time, I was ready to sleep! I’d just finished an afternoon job and all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep!

Aaaanyway … I bought a new camera yesterday and I’m very excited … and there doesnt seem to be a great deal for me to photograph at this particular moment! The house is filthy and cluttered (I’d decided that I would put all of my CDs onto my computer and this is going to take ages because there are hundreds of them! Plus I have to go online to do it which means I’m killing time off and on the net which is NOT what I want to be doing!

Anyway having said that I should log off and go and be productive for once this morning!

“Same Old, Same Old” … So The Government Has Re-Invented The ECE Wheel

So I’ve been looking at the new curriculum framework that is out there on the market … they are asking for feedback … and what I’ve seen is that those who can be bothered responding merely say that it’s the “same old, same old” … if you’re a teacher, it’s nothing new … if you’re a diploma trained or certificate trained  or untrained  it will seem new to you … and it might even seem difficult to understand, but to us ECTs its nothing new.

So, they want us (university trained teachers) to train up “the others” (the certificate and diploma trained individuals) … those who work in the majority of small private services … they want us to take on the role of mentors and further educators … do we get paid for this? Where are we going to find the time within the constraints of what we already do …  if “the others” wanted to learn, and wanted to progress professionally, they would be studying or they would be actively engaged in reading and learning anyway.

It’s nothing new … you “build” the curriculum (translated: the government has paid the professionals in large organizations within management positions, the academics at universities, i.e. the holders of the power) and then you distribute it … you ask for our opinions, but I wonder if you will even listen to them  …

I am glad that there will be more ECTs placed in early childhood services ~ especially the small private centres that were small purely to avoid employing an ECT. I hope that this changes the face of early education and that it leads to the respect that we seriously deserve.

But I’m sorry, I don’t have much more to give … I’m a four year trained ECT with 50 children in my group a week, and two assistants who are fabulous and hard working and supportive. BUT they are NOT diploma trained educators, they do not understand what is really important for a preschooler, they are not from English speaking backgrounds and they do NOT feel comfortable with writing in English on a regular basis. So … you want me to spend MY time training them (because I guarantee you my employer will not give me extra physical support to be able to train them off the floor in early childhood education) … what about their time? They don’t have alot of time to spare and they have families … so when are we to do this? That’s even assuming they even want to!

Do you think they want to? I haven’t honestly asked them. I figure they are on an assistant’s salary. If I were on an assistant’s salary I would not want to be doing “teacher” work without some sort of financial incentive … People who do their diplomas and their bachelors of teaching do it because they want a career, because they enjoy it, because they are compelled to do it … SO … can you tell me why an assistant would want to do “my” work without any financial incentive?

I’d also like to make the comment that a friend of mine who works in a large service ~ said the teachers she works with don’t understand the new framework ~ that it looks like the same old stuff and yet they have no idea how to implement it.

Pffft

So, my cat is crying … she wants dinner … not impressed that I was watching Fast & Furious loudly … so I suppose I should go and feed the princess.

Popping In & Popping Out Again

I’ve killed enough time tonight on the net in totally unconstructive ways …

I shall write later

 

Wednesday Musings About Nothing Much …

I have eaten so much salad tonight and I’m feeling pretty fabulous. I love salads, beautiful, yummy salads. I made the best ever tabouli and I even forgot the tomato, but you know, it was still super YUMMY. I love topping my tabouli with hummus … oh so yummy. So that is my lunch taken care of and dinner tomorrow night should my friend come over!

I just saw an advert for a new tv show called “Electric Dreams” … man, it looks awesome! I can’t wait! I know what I’ll be doing at 6:30pm on Sunday! Then I have to watch “Who Do You Think You Are” cause I absolutely love that show!

Work … My classroom is a total MESS and it’s embarrassing. I need to attack it tomorrow and get it sorted out big time. I just have so much stuff to do and definitely not enough time and I have no idea how this has happened?!? I have boxes in my office that I have to sort through and file or trash … I really do want a whole day or two just working through it …

I got the books under control though … I still have a stack of books that I have to label and mark, and I’ve got to put up a sign telling the staff that I will sacrifice them if they continue to take books from the shelves and not return them to their coloured area … and that if they leave books lying around I will have to kill them slowly! Show some damn respect people … respect the fact that it has taken me a freakin year to get that freakin store room and the thousand freakin books under control. Rah!

Anyway, I can’t feel my bottom … it’s numb and it’s not a good thing … So I’m going to go and do the dishes, then have a cup of tea and a cupcake.

I’m not sure I’ve said anything of importance tonight … but at least I’ve said something!

So, I Was Thinking About Interviews …

It’s a bit late in the evening … well more precisely its night time seeing as how it is 10:20pm. I’m avoiding dishes and a few other small chores about the place (like the giant pile of laundry I’ve been ignoring for weeks!).

I’m thinking about interviews …

I know that they are nerve-wracking and difficult and that it’s part of everyone’s professional development … but honestly some people honestly don’t have any idea. I’ve interviewed people who supposedly have Diplomas in early education, and are studying at university, and they have no idea what the state regulations are, much less what they are for. This is where I roll my eyes … they’re rolling.

So firstly, what the hell are these colleges teaching these people about early education? Seriously … if someone doesn’t even know what the regulations are and how they relate to licensing and the minimal standards of performance … what are they doing? Or rather not doing. I feel the need to roll my eyes again … there, I’ve done it.

So … this got me to thinking … where do people go to learn about being interviewed? I don’t remember because it’s been so long since I started out … I remember being scared silly and I remember not know what to say at some interviews … but it really was so long ago … years and years and years.

I don’t think that the questions asked at my place of employment are particularly special or intelligent … and I can’t post them here for obvious reasons … but you can do a search online “early childhood education interview questions” or something similar and some pop up.

I should write some samples questions and answers for “fun” … I don’t have time to do this now because I need to deal with the dishes, the pets, and of course that mammoth pile of LAUNDRY which simply will NOT fold itself which I think is thoroughly despicable.  

But seriously … practice makes perfect … you have to practice these skills, just like everything else in life … you can’t just rock up and hope that it will turn out ok … because it won’t. You need to prepare and make an effort.

Ok … stepping down off my soap box … going to go and wrangle laundry.

Peace Out

Dear Diary 18/10/09

Where to begin? I had a fabulous weekend catching up with an old grade school friend. I had a wonderful time going into the city and looking at things through new eyes. I loved going to the markets and I bought the hottest ring that is so uber tribal and I’m so in love with it. I’m kinda going through this strange change … I don’t know what else to call it.

I heard that the definition of madness is doing the same thing you always do, and expecting a different result. I’m tired of this same result. I want something different. I need something different. I long for it. I’m desperate almost for it.

I’m not myself … I’m not sure who I am mind you, but I’m definitely not myself, or at least the version of myself I’d like to be: the best version of me. Perhaps it’s all the family history that we have happening in our family at the moment … I’m looking at who we are and where we’ve come from which of course makes you question, where you are going. Why you are doing what you are doing … why you bother with some things and not others. All that jazz.

So … I have a wonderful new ring which is carved and tribal and really beautiful and it looks like it has been made of bone. I’m sure it’s made out of resin … but I love it. I have even taken all my other rings off. I love my jewellery and am a bit religious/superstitious about wearing it. Today, I decided that I would take my rings off and have my fingers as they were meant to be. I will wear a new ring. I am doing something new, something I’ve never done before. I’m fighting madness.

So I have this amazingly wonderfully organised living space that I am quite proud of … I’ll work on my bedroom today when I’m finished with my movie. I’ll have to go and buy some cat food because I’m a bad mother and keep on forgetting and she really doesn’t like the stuff I’ve left for her!

I Know I Suck …

I actually wrote a bit last weekend, but I didnt get around to posting it … you know … work and all taking the energy outa me. BUT I will post it at some point this weekend.

I have a friend coming to stay … someone I haven’t seen in 20 years who lives far far away so this is super wonderfully special and fun.

So I am taking advantage of this and cleaning and tidying and cleaning and tidying and moving things around that I should have moved AGES ago. Nothing like external pressures to get your bum in gear hey.

The past two days, I filed a box of papers … a stack to take to work for the kids to attack with pencils and scissors. I’ve got a stack that I filed into my hanging file boxes, and a whole box to get shredded for a rabbit to wee on! I feel so proud of myself! I also moved lots of shit around so it just looks tidier and more managable.

I think I was overwhelmed with the size of it all … I figure if I get the living room looking totally gorgeous and wonderful and perfect, and put everything I need to deal with in the one spot i.e. the spare bedroom/office/study then I can deal with it bit by bit. I mean I have done a fair bit, but you have to realise that I have 14 or even 15 years worth of teaching resources collected … books and photocopies and articles and resources and things I might use or need someday … I figure I should just set it all free … I have beautifully organised folders in developmental areas but I never use them … EVER. I should take a look at them again because its probably all out of date and my mother can shred it and little furry people can wee on it!

But yeah … I’m dusting and its coming together … I’m watching ER and I just watched The Secret Millionaire …

Actually Peter Bond in The Secret Millionaire said something really inspiring and logical and achievable … it was something along the lines of if you take one step everyday towards your goal, that’s all you need … well, its all I need at the moment.

One step each day …

I don’t have the energy to do more than that during the week, and I cant cram everything into the weekend … Even though I wrote four pages of BIG IDEAS last weekend.

One

Step

Each

Day

Time for me to go and finish dusting, drink my tea, and then go and deal with laundry and stuff. Oh and catch a rabbit … I have to do that too … she’s having entirely too much fun.

Perspective … No Complaints

I was just watching a segment on a current affairs program which was addressing the issue of refugees from Africa into Europe. I live in a country that is often the destination of refugees both legal and illegal. In fact, I have friends who came to this country as refugees.

I was sitting on my lounge room floor waiting for my Tom Yum soup to cool taking a sip of my 5Seeds cider. I was thinking about what I was going to write on my beloved blog  … and I looked up and saw the Libyan desert with human bones protruding from the sands. There are people, who flee their known world, across great dangerous ever changing unknown deserts to make a future for themselves.

 I wake up in the morning and tend to my furry companions and get ready for work. I then head to work and if I’m organised enough, I’ll go and get a coffee at the coffee shop. Often times, I’m not that organised, so I just head to work. Then I work and do a thousand different things in a day. I get frustrated on a daily basis by unprofessional behaviours of some certain staff.  But it is their choice to act that way, not mine.  I then leave my job, and head home where I am greeted with love by my companion animals. I then potter around or collapse and at some point make dinner and then watch tv or do something else … So what do I have to complain about? Nothing. I’m not in a desert struggling. I’m not homeless. I’m not sick or unwell. I’m good. It’s all good.

Tuesday’s Musings … About Exhaustion

Tuesday night and I’m watching Packed to the Rafters. The evil rabbit is doing something dreadfully noisy and I should probably yell at her but I can’t be bothered.

Time off from the net has helped actually … I haven’t done nearly as much as I would have liked, but I have done a fair bit. I am really loving my clear hallway and am contemplating my wall … it’s boring and bare and I have a possible artwork in mind … I used to have three panels of paint sample chips in a random patch work … it looked gorgeous. I was thinking of putting it back up, but it’s a bitch doing it one piece at a time and then taking it down again. I just need to think, do I want to do it on a canvas or a board … I’m thinking a board is better because I can really glue them down with something substantial and then lacquer it. Maybe.

Work really wears me out … If I didn’t have to watch what everyone else is doing, then I’d get so much more done … I feel like the Gestapo … I could do so much if everyone pulled their full weight. I love the kids and I love my room, I just wish it was easier to do my job … not even my job, everything else that surrounds my job.

What else? I have been doing alot of writing … ALOT of writing … and who knows one day, I might have something to show for it! It’s quite funny … I have been panicking like there is a deadline, but there isn’t  … it’s all been in my head. My dear friend put it into perspective for me … and a whole bunch of other things too in perspective. Very grateful.  Someone else told me a while ago to just relax and let things happen … and she was right … she knows things too so I should listen.

So I shall continue on with doing what I’m doing and focusing on clearing my space from clutter and crap and its all good.

I keep on thinking I want more storage but I really don’t need it … technically. I have plenty of storage space, I just have to use it more intelligently!

Oh my there is an advert for a kettle, and you know what? I boiled my kettle an hour ago and forgot to make my tea! Silly me … but I’m not going to bother now … if I do, I’ll just spend the night wee-ing and I do enough of that at it is!

I bought a new pot plant ~ a Black Bean Tree ~ a Native Australian rainforest beauty! They are really gorgeous plants. Totally toxic ~ for pets, so I have/ to make sure I keep the bunny and cat away from it.  I should be watching the little bitch anyway so … oh like that’s successful ~ she just jumped straight onto the laptop keyboard and created the “/” and also alot of beeps. Brat.

Well … its 9:36 and I should get “ready” for bed which means I have the dishes to do …

I should get my act together and post some clever ideas … this weekend perhaps ~ I don’t have much on so I can do some stuff and post some photos!

Battery’s out time to go!