Loooooong day
Feb. 14th, 2008 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lishesquexOMG. SO EXHAUSTED.
Today was Orientation for the accelerated Master of Teaching course that I'm doing this year. I got up bright and early at 7am for the first time in 3 months after getting about four hours sleep. I was woken up by the radio alarm and the radio presenter was talking about her years as a teacher because today happened to be a strike day for teachers, who've been wanting a pay rise for ages. So, on the first day of my new life as a 'Teaching Candidate' (that's what they call student teachers now, apparently), the first things I hear upon waking up are:
"Let me tell you now, I've never worked harder in my life than the years when I was a teacher. Teachers work damn hard. And it's a thankless job... nine-to-three job? More like eight-to-five! And Victorian teachers are the lowest paid in the entire country... " etc.
So I was off to a good start.
All negativity aside, though, I'm really excited about the Master of Teaching. All the coordinators/professors/teaching fellows/clinical specialists/people who spoke to us today were really enthusiastic and passionate and professional. And really quite funny, too. The guy who will be taking me for my History Learning Area quoted Cicero and Star Wars in almost the same breath. I like him already. :) This is the first year of the new course under the Melbourne Model, and so they seem to be treating us with kid gloves... probably afraid we'll all drop out if everything is too scary, heh. But yeah... they were all really friendly and helpful and nice, and there were about ten billion free pizzas at lunch. I could have eaten a whole pizza by myself, if I wanted to. But I didn't. I was also really impressed by how everything was so organised. It was obvious that they'd put a lot of planning and effort into this course, which makes me glad to be doing it.
That said... I already have homework and it's not even the first day of uni. /cry
Last night I found out my school placement for this semester. It's going to be at Melbourne Girls' College in Richmond... do any of the Melburnians on my flist know anything about it? Their website didn't seem to have much information. Anyway. The professional practice placements begin in the very first week, so come Wednesday morning at 8:15 am, I will be at Melbourne Girls' College going O.O and probably shaking with nervousness.
Well, it seems like it's going to be very intense year, which I'm actually more excited than scared about right now. I'm such a nerd. :D
Oh, and I actually made 2 new friends today. And I actually remember their names! Matthew and Chelsea. Two very random people from Tasmania who came to Melbourne to do this course. It's good to have people to follow around to in classes. *nods* The sad thing is that I should know the way around the university better than they, since I did my undergraduate degree here lolz.
Once home, life got a tad more stressful because Telstra had called today to tell us that ADSL 2+ was going to be activated at our local exchange (yay!), and someone had somehow convinced mum to switch our phone line rental to Telstra in the process for no apparent reason (wtf?). This was bad, because all the good broadband deals are only good if you're not an existing customer, and if our phone line is already with Telstra then we can't get the half price broadband deal etc. And then I spent about 30 minutes arguing with dad trying to tell him why TPG was a better ISP than Bigpond. And then after 3 more calls to Telstra fleshing out the details of their broadband plans, we... urgh, it's too tiring to explain. Basically, I reminded mum for the fifty six millionth time why she should never EVER sign up for anything with any telemarketer until she either gets me to talk to the sales rep or shows me the fine print. It's like the time dad almost sold all our souls (and phone plans/contracts) to some stupid mobile phone company because a wily salesman took advantage of his non-existent English and inflated ego. I had to call up the stupid little company and scream at the guy for like 20 minutes and threaten all sorts of things before he'd back down. Stressful as fuck... my voice was shaking all over the place afterwards. Grrr. Today wasn't quite as stressful, but I still hate it when my parents do stupid things/make mistakes and I have to bail them out because I'm the only adult in this house who can speak competent English.
And my slow crappy internet with like 0.034 GB of downloads hasn't changed and won't be changing for another month, probably. *sigh*
Anyway. I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna go.
Today was Orientation for the accelerated Master of Teaching course that I'm doing this year. I got up bright and early at 7am for the first time in 3 months after getting about four hours sleep. I was woken up by the radio alarm and the radio presenter was talking about her years as a teacher because today happened to be a strike day for teachers, who've been wanting a pay rise for ages. So, on the first day of my new life as a 'Teaching Candidate' (that's what they call student teachers now, apparently), the first things I hear upon waking up are:
"Let me tell you now, I've never worked harder in my life than the years when I was a teacher. Teachers work damn hard. And it's a thankless job... nine-to-three job? More like eight-to-five! And Victorian teachers are the lowest paid in the entire country... " etc.
So I was off to a good start.
All negativity aside, though, I'm really excited about the Master of Teaching. All the coordinators/professors/teaching fellows/clinical specialists/people who spoke to us today were really enthusiastic and passionate and professional. And really quite funny, too. The guy who will be taking me for my History Learning Area quoted Cicero and Star Wars in almost the same breath. I like him already. :) This is the first year of the new course under the Melbourne Model, and so they seem to be treating us with kid gloves... probably afraid we'll all drop out if everything is too scary, heh. But yeah... they were all really friendly and helpful and nice, and there were about ten billion free pizzas at lunch. I could have eaten a whole pizza by myself, if I wanted to. But I didn't. I was also really impressed by how everything was so organised. It was obvious that they'd put a lot of planning and effort into this course, which makes me glad to be doing it.
That said... I already have homework and it's not even the first day of uni. /cry
Last night I found out my school placement for this semester. It's going to be at Melbourne Girls' College in Richmond... do any of the Melburnians on my flist know anything about it? Their website didn't seem to have much information. Anyway. The professional practice placements begin in the very first week, so come Wednesday morning at 8:15 am, I will be at Melbourne Girls' College going O.O and probably shaking with nervousness.
Well, it seems like it's going to be very intense year, which I'm actually more excited than scared about right now. I'm such a nerd. :D
Oh, and I actually made 2 new friends today. And I actually remember their names! Matthew and Chelsea. Two very random people from Tasmania who came to Melbourne to do this course. It's good to have people to follow around to in classes. *nods* The sad thing is that I should know the way around the university better than they, since I did my undergraduate degree here lolz.
Once home, life got a tad more stressful because Telstra had called today to tell us that ADSL 2+ was going to be activated at our local exchange (yay!), and someone had somehow convinced mum to switch our phone line rental to Telstra in the process for no apparent reason (wtf?). This was bad, because all the good broadband deals are only good if you're not an existing customer, and if our phone line is already with Telstra then we can't get the half price broadband deal etc. And then I spent about 30 minutes arguing with dad trying to tell him why TPG was a better ISP than Bigpond. And then after 3 more calls to Telstra fleshing out the details of their broadband plans, we... urgh, it's too tiring to explain. Basically, I reminded mum for the fifty six millionth time why she should never EVER sign up for anything with any telemarketer until she either gets me to talk to the sales rep or shows me the fine print. It's like the time dad almost sold all our souls (and phone plans/contracts) to some stupid mobile phone company because a wily salesman took advantage of his non-existent English and inflated ego. I had to call up the stupid little company and scream at the guy for like 20 minutes and threaten all sorts of things before he'd back down. Stressful as fuck... my voice was shaking all over the place afterwards. Grrr. Today wasn't quite as stressful, but I still hate it when my parents do stupid things/make mistakes and I have to bail them out because I'm the only adult in this house who can speak competent English.
And my slow crappy internet with like 0.034 GB of downloads hasn't changed and won't be changing for another month, probably. *sigh*
Anyway. I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna go.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-14 09:18 pm (UTC)I got punched in the head last night at TKD. I am off work today, which should be a good thing, but I would rather be at work without this damn headache then at home with nothing but pain :( *moan*
YAY for homework :p
no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 11:46 am (UTC)Ouchies... I hope your head is okay. :( And how is Natalie doing? Is she out of hospital yet?
Hope all's well with you. Where's my email?? :P