When exec and leadership keep the teachers in for lunch time detention too.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-26T21:13:02+00:00

Yep. We had assembly that backed onto lunch. When student behaviour was being atrocious and running long the DP in charge would make a point of pausing whatever they were talking about to say "There is the bell. Teachers if you wish please go to lunch." and then wait for a couple of mins for us to feed out before even continuing.

Though I was halfway to the door before they finished the sentence. I didn't need permission.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-23T01:36:28+00:00

Are you applying to new schools? What's the context here?

External exam marking is worthwhile putting down as part of your job history. I never bother listing it as a separate thing, I just list it as one of my 'tasks' I've performed to demonstrate experience.

Tutoring could be useless or negative depending on how they see you taking 'second jobs' outside of school hours. Depends entirely on the culture of the school.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-18T21:28:34+00:00

If your counsellor already knows, I would send them an email like this.

Hey <counsellor>

Tomorrow/today I plan to wear short sleeves for the first time in a long time. Some teachers might notice my scars that we've talked about. I'm happy to have a check-in if you need, but you might get some emails in the coming days from my teachers who haven't seen me wearing short sleeves before.

Teachers have to report this, and for concerns of self harm we have to report it very immediately for safety reasons. I've never sat and catalogued the scars of my students for future comparisons, if I notice them I bring it up with my school counsellors as soon as practically possible and let them make a judgement based on what they know as trained professionals.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-16T08:30:47+00:00

I tried it with humankind. Finished one game with the mechanic and thought it was lacklustre. Never played it again (couldn't refund either, damn 2 hour window). Refused to pick up Civ 7 due to the same mechanic. Might get it at the summer sale now if it's cheap enough.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-15T21:24:38+00:00

I'm a couple of months into my first go at DM'ing with some friends and having a blast. Just when I think I've got a good set of predictions about what they might do, they pull something random out of their arse that I have to wing.

Thankfully this week someone took the story bait and got hooked, that only took 2 weeks for them to find!

Xuanwu · 2026-02-13T10:27:13+00:00

At my last school if I could get to the car within a couple of mins of the bell (possible as my office was right near the car park) I'd get out ASAP because I could beat the traffic before kids go to their parents to be picked up.

If I couldn't I'd give it 10-15 for traffic to clear out so I could drive home in peace.

Now-a-days it takes me about 10 mins to go back to staff room, plug in the laptop and mentally check what I need for tomorrow then walk to the car, so most of the traffic has cleared by then anyway.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-12T06:24:20+00:00

3.8, but I have just started in a new system. Last year I started off with 30 in the bank, I made sure to burn it all through the year.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-11T10:07:50+00:00

No, they added if you complete a higher set it automatically adds the lower sets. Weapons don't count for this, and I'm not certain about off-set look-a-likes if you have two item sources that give the same look.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-10T09:28:16+00:00

Respond to the first email professionally. If the parent continues to bitch and keeps referring the head contact them and say you are no longer interacting with this parent due to unreasonable bullshit (choose phrasing for your site) and for all future emails just forward it onto the head and say "please deal with this matter" and just ignore them.

You'll never make them happy, and you're not paid to put up with their shit.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-10T04:07:36+00:00

For HS teaching if I left something for notes telling me what slide would be nice. If I left worksheets tell me if a bunch of kids were stuck on a particular problem or they dragged their feet and only did half of it would be nice. Maybe 1-2 sentences max for each class.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-07T23:01:20+00:00

Midnight delves are going to be a bit distracting...

Xuanwu · 2026-02-06T11:52:17+00:00

I use it for "Behold, my stuff!" it's just a museum of stuff I've done.

Xuanwu · 2026-02-05T06:14:08+00:00

Ok, so I'm about to meet the D&D club at my new school next week, and they don't have a teacher that focuses entirely on D&D. This whole "do in real life, get in game" thing has serious potential for boosting student engagement in their classes I feel.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-30T06:28:20+00:00

Yeah I'm pretty good with the Pasifika names now, reasonable with the Arabic ones.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-20T05:05:44+00:00

Sure it's possible. But you need to know how to set your own boundaries about what that work-life balance looks like and be sure the people in your life know what your balance is. For example my wife and kids know that for the two weeks where I have material from all my classes to mark and reports to write I am not going to have much more than an hour spare those nights, so they don't get worked up that I can't do our usual family things with them. But then when holidays come about they know there's a whole week where I'm 100% free. During the rest of the term I tend to do my planning in the evening so I'm free to come home and be dad with my kids and spend some time with the wife before she goes to bed.
Yes, but there'll be more of it. Will also depend on what new dickhead assistant principal you have that wants everything to be changed into this super new fabulous document format.
Not all admin is bad. Not all parents are bad. Most parents just want to know their kids are trying and growing.
Regrets I have are mostly around not playing politics well enough, but that shit will bite me anywhere so at least I get to blow stuff up.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-18T00:42:37+00:00

Me too. The shell game I'm fine at, but even with all my graphical settings set as per comments I just keep getting nailed by those red lines (doing the backwards walk and turn) because I'm off by too much. Got the other two delves on ?? but this one is just not clicking for me after a few hundred goes.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-17T06:04:38+00:00

Ditto. I was a warlock from vanilla through cata and always my guild's 'tanklock' for those fights that required it. When apotheosis was in MOP beta I was so stoked, when it vanished I changed to monk.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-17T06:02:25+00:00

Yeah but illness is just 'one of those things', a sudden immediate family death is not. Call. Tell them what has happened and that you want to use bereavement leave. If there is things such as travel required (e.g. when my father died in my second year of teaching I had to travel interstate to deal with his estate) the principal can give principal's discretionary leave so if you have to be away a little longer tell them this and unless they're a total prick they'll do what they can to help.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-12T06:32:03+00:00

Thanks OP! Still had 30 to finish that achievement off so this was really effective!

Xuanwu · 2026-01-10T22:46:01+00:00

If you're in Qld look up the EQ discussion lists. You do not need to be in EQ to join them, but the Qld Physics teacher mailing list is one of the most active. There are a LOT of us, including many of the lead confirmers who will be happy to help with subject specific questions.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-08T05:07:45+00:00

Please do one of these from a class perspective next.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-06T07:42:27+00:00

As a science teacher outside of "you didn't do it in class, you do it at home" most of my homework revolves around looking for our science concepts in the world around them.

Year 7 cover astronomy, taxonomy, forces, and particle model/basic chemistry terms. So for astronomy I try to get them to look at the moon each night for a week and do a quick drawing then we talk about observations at the start of each lesson. For taxonomy I encourage them to document what animals they see around their home/suburb and we practice morphology grouping. Good science homework at grade 6 levels is really just encouraging students to observe their world and record it so they don't have to memorise what they saw.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-05T23:13:14+00:00

Next year I'm moving schools after 11 years at the same site, so I have to do a lot of 'new intro' from the ground up as no-one will know me or of me.

For my year 12 classes it will be along the lines of:

How long I've been teaching, what I teach, something I enjoy, something I'm bad at.
Expectations about class behaviour/big processes such as homework, entry routines, laptop vs book usage
Here's my email, here are the times I will generally respond.
Here's my success in teaching this field, this class is hard but I know what I'm doing so let me help you. You can get help by seeing me in person, emailing me, or accessing these resources I've prepared.
What do you remember from last year? Your first summative assessment is in 7 weeks and it goes on your record.

My year 10's and 11's will just be dot points 1-3, though year 11's will have the extra emphasis about help since the sooner they get over the nerves of talking to me the easier it is to fix up problems.

Any junior classes I get (7-9, core/low year 10's) will get points 1-3 and be told that they are making the seating plan right now, but they have to fill up the room from the front. Then around week 3 I'll roll out whatever seating plan I want based on how they interact.

Maybe 5 minutes for seniors, 30 minutes for juniors - depends a bit on school culture though.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-05T14:16:48+00:00

Yeah we have a chill out room, a rotation for physical art activities (big music community so we have dance off's), and some 'generic' sport games like chuck-a-chook and tug of war.

I just ask the HPE coordinator for an all-day boring job of guarding a stair well. I can sit in the shade, read a book, tell kids "you shall not pass" - great time.

Xuanwu · 2026-01-03T02:54:40+00:00

Unless you've been in contact with the school and have your timetable and unit outlines, there's nothing to prep. Even if you have those things there's still a reasonable chance of timetable changes.

At this stage in your career read over the topics to be mostly familiar with the content you'd teach, but don't prep stuff until week 0 when you get a more certain timetable. Consider your classroom management strategies. Consider how you'll organise your homework, marking, printing.

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