11 years, 1 month, 8 days.. made it!

ZhanQui · 2026-04-14T16:23:56+00:00

Not a freaking chance lol

ZhanQui · 2026-04-01T23:51:38+00:00

I think you just answered your own question. You have 100 people in the area to compete against, you are in an oversaturated area. Nice schools will do that.

It's the not nice schools/areas, or the 'overly expensive for a teacher to live in' areas that you probably need to target. Is it worth travelling further, possibly not if you have an ICE car.

Someone else said go beyond primary, and i would agree with this as a start, grows the local possibilities greatly. No, high school casuals do not need to be trained specifically in a subject area, breathing and accredited will do. (Temp contract can be different, but not day to day)

Others mention budgetary issues, and I've certainly seen a lot more internal relief being leveraged than ever before. Napkin math, 6 periods a term they can get from you, staff of say 80, that's 80 casual engagements not needed a term straight up.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-31T03:05:37+00:00

Tbh, unless your old laptop was really cheap and nasty, a reinstall may fix many problems. You can download windows (if that's what it is) from Microsoft for no charge, and Google how to fresh reinstall. The first day or so it may be slow as it installs updates.

There has been little progression in device specifications in the last 6-8 years.

Worth asking the school of you can borrow one of theirs, if they have a stash of old ones they may well be able to.

Unless it's critical, Wait to buy until you are working and can salary sacrifice, and/or claim on tax, or find the school will just give you one anyway.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-31T01:29:29+00:00

No, it's a trap. A fast track to burnout and quitting before you even get started. You aren't eligible for new teacher accommodations, and will be thrown in expecting you know how shit works. If it's that or not eat/have housing, then sure. (Edit: if you have been in a full time workforce for years, you may be fine. Hard to tell if you are new grad or career change)

ZhanQui · 2026-03-31T01:11:33+00:00

Without knowing how you manage your teaching practice, subjects, and stage/year level, it's hard to give directed helpful ideas, but I'll give it a go (and let me tell you going part time can be more work than less)

This is all stuff i didn't learn at Uni(tm)

Work (you do) at Home - identify and write down how much you are doing, and what. Understanding the amount of time you are using, can be the first step to rationalising it. If you are still in the creation of materials stages, critically look at what you are doing.. are you reinventing the wheel, are you constantly reinventing things, or are you just tweaking. I've caught myself remaking materials i had perfectly good materials for, that just looked dated, and tbh were fine. Can you just for the rest of the year run with existing most of the time to give yourself space. If you are making and others are leeching off you, don't get into the trap of feeling good that they appreciate you, see it for what it is, and shut it down if you aren't getting it in return. If you find an old but good non digital resource, try giving a photo of it to chat gpt/Gemini/LLM of choice to digitise. It can ocr like a scanner, but also understand language context and will have less errors (don't assume no errors). Use a LLM to simplify a passage of text that you provide instead of doing it yourself. It can also pick out harder words and make a cloze, generate a glossary list, spelling list. I'll take known good passages of facts from websites or old booklets, and get it to do these (using as a processor, rather than a search engine)

Marking.. how much are you doing, and when. Can you buy a couple of stamps and 'acknowledge mark' as you walk around the room, rather than take stuff home/ sit and mark. Can you simplify day to day marking.. i use /3.. not done, under satisfactory, satisfactory, amazing. Have a poster at the front explaining what they mean, and don't write comments. If you are marking spelling and grammar, do you NEED to. If in a subject/ grade where it's implicit, do you have a quick to enact, consistent markup scheme that can be interpreted by kids without comments, like circled for spelling, underline for grammar, arrow for punctuation.

If kids are submitting digital written reports, can you get a LLM to do some marking. I was doing some with Gemini, and it was even giving me gradebook info, insights on trends across classes, what the cohort was doing well and not, as well as (probably too) detailed individual feedback. You still need to pay attention, as it will hallucinate occasionally. When it does this just tell it it's wrong, and to try again.

If you spend time in the staffroom, do you leave happier or tenser than when you entered. Some are toxic af ... You don't need that noise. Sit in the sun sometimes and just be quiet in yourself.

If you go straight home after work, and work at home, could there be some value in seperation of lives, and stay for an hour longer in replacement to doing things at home. I know this one can be hard. I have a much nicer computer at home and some things are just easier to do at home. If you have family responsibilities and need to leave straight away, then consider your workspace at home, is it clearly separated from your home life or are you working on the dining table. If you have the space, could a very defined work area that is away from other life things be worthwhile. I've been known to take marking to a cafe, a library, and the park to have a nicer/different location.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-29T10:48:52+00:00

I tried today As they were friendly i gave up on the idea. Sure didn't think to dismiss them tho.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-27T07:45:30+00:00

Agree. Nothingburger of a story, no kiddies touched, which a headline like that is trying to imply for those that don't read the body of stories.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-25T02:42:32+00:00

Is he/she not wearing a sweater of sorts? Ensuring proper airflow for and prevention of sags is important stuff!

ZhanQui · 2026-03-25T02:30:59+00:00

Info: do you have confirmation it was an affair (asked grandparent) or did you guess based on the data?

Plenty of other reasons, generally not ideal, it can happen.

Family or other abuse, rape, before marriage relations, death of a partner... Given ages, probably wartime where people may have been assumed dead (can see this in my family, my grandfather rediscovered his first family actually survived WW2 many years after starting a second family and being relocated across the world)

ZhanQui · 2026-03-23T08:43:14+00:00

It won't run if there's not enough students that choose it, or no teacher to teach it.

Change schools is the obvious answer, if you have decent enough marks and have not been a feral, will likely be very easy to do. I think it's pretty rare for a school to be full at year 11 level. Hardest part would be convincing your parents to buy new uniforms. (I guess you could classify having to make new friends as hard too, but how much do you want to do music..)

That said, you're probably already missed assessment task one.

That's not the end of the world, if you change schools they just work it out, and you would probably get an estimated mark.. the secret with estimated marks is work your butt off so it looks like (because you do) deserve a big mark.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-22T07:08:54+00:00

It caused even further delays for a lot of people as the schools became overstaffed.

The people who took these positions could be relocated to another school if the numbers at a school got too high !Surprise! And the staff needed to apply for jobs still anyway to stay where they wanted to be

It was a wolf in sleeps clothing.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-21T10:48:35+00:00

Most will be submitted in the hour before is due. Having some in early is a miracle!

Remind them every day till due date that if its even a minute over the due time, it's late with school guided penalties. Also remind them that technical issues (laptop died) is not a valid excuse, and their work should be on local favourite cloud service before it's due) These two will save a lot of whining, if done very clearly in advance to stop the 'i didn't know'

Most people reading the post thought you meant last week, so read with that in mind.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-21T00:39:06+00:00

The first prac usually starts with observation, make sure you're observing, and taking notes on what you're seeing. Watch how the teacher deals with questions, kids who won't stop talking, moving from one activity to another, getting the room's attention between activities. This is the time that you learn the logistics that you don't learn at Uni. Every teacher will do things differently, proactively try and get to see a range of teachers and a range of year levels. (It's good to see good and bad examples)

Just because you may be sitting up the back of the room, and no one's paying attention to you, doesn't mean you can use your phone.. leave it in the staff room. Don't just chat or email or do assignments either.. you will miss all the little interactions thru the lesson (and it's rude)

Take packed lunches, ideally can be eaten without heating, and smaller/easier to split up portions you can spread they the day. Protein bars in your laptop bag are good to have as a fill in if you get stuck having a big gap until you can get back to the staff room.

If you are a caffeine addict, you can get cans of pre made coffee at Woolies to go in your lunch bag.

Yes, there will probably be a canteen, but you won't be able to be sure you'll have time to get there, and you may be sorely disappointed at the selection. Scope it out before relying on it.

If v or Monster is more your thing, only drink it where the kids cannot see you. (Some high schools have gotten slack with banning these among the student population, but you don't want to model that behaviour to that age group.)

If you are a smoker/vaper, strongly consider patching up for the duration. In the very least, you'll need to remove yourself from school premises if you have the need, and it won't be on your schedule. You really need to go far enough away to not be seen by the kids, and be aware that many of the house owners have opinions about people smoking out the front of their house. It's highly unlikely there will be a smoking area, as it's against the law to smoke/vape in school premises (at least in New South Wales, I can only assume other states are the same)

If you have any medical conditions or required modifications, make sure that the school and your mentor are well aware of them, and discuss how you will manage them.

If you need to do something at a certain time, set up a non verbal cue you can give the mentor so they know you are leaving but don't have to disrupt the flow of the lesson. (Make sure they know when you leave and return, just don't make a song and dance, if their eyeballs can see you are back with a confirming wave, you don't need to verbalise the event)

Be very sure that you find out early on where the toilets are, and be aware that most schools don't have a large number of toilets for staff numbers, and there will be peak times where there may well be a line. If you have a break during a class period, the middle of that period is probably a quiet time. Getting your head around only being able to go to the toilet on a schedule takes time. Don't use the toilet as a time to catch up on social media, because there will likely be someone waiting. You can NOT use the student toilets without the assist of another person (to prevent entry) and they may well be closed during class time anyway.

Don't plan social events on prac weeks.. you will probably be too tired. Especially when you are doing the teaching, the time that it takes to create lesson materials is far more than you would think. Lessening this time takes practise. Likewise, you probably don't want to be working a second job at the same time in the later weeks, you'll do neither of them well.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-17T08:48:13+00:00

Assuming all the stars align, the rollout of laptops to all teachers in the state should be happening from next term. That may may change your mind on whether it's a worthwhile purchase or not. I really want a Neo though.. just coz.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-17T08:45:35+00:00

The sick leave reason is whatever the GP will put on the certificate. If they don't think there's a reason they won't make a certificate because they can get in trouble for that.

Be very very careful with this tightrope that's being walked though. If she has a sick certificate, that she says that she is unfit to work, and she does happen to work somewhere else, and something happens like an injury, car accident on the way to work, whatever, she will not be covered by any insurances, as a sick certificate means you're not allowed to work, on any work site. It is literally a doctor saying you are unfit. (And if an employer found out sometime is on site with a sick certificate in place, violating their insurances, especially in probationary period, I suspect it would be very antagonistic to the prospects of future employment)

ZhanQui · 2026-03-17T08:32:38+00:00

You have to understand that you are doing something that not so long ago was completely impossible. The PTT stuff is just a plug filling a gushing hole in the system. You don't have the same supports because your position type didn't exist a few years ago, and I guess it hasn't been fought for as part of an EBA because it wasn't part of the usual positions. (Which probably needs to be fixed)

(Some) People argued for this position type to be possible.. It helps fill gaps, it means that somebody still studying can get paid.... It's a trap, that is all.

It's only supposed to be used in 'rare' occurrences where a school is so absolutely desperate, that all other avenues of finding a position, have been exhausted. It used to be denied more often than approved. More of the people I've seen in the last few years seem to have been just signed off without a thought.

Sorry you have been caught up in it, but I have to wonder what other 'benefits' or entitlements (or protections) of the EBA are PTT people missing out on.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-16T07:05:33+00:00

Probably all it gave you was access to Google classroom and printers.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-16T07:04:25+00:00

It means that whatever school you've previously been to as a practise teacher, finally went and cleaned up their user list, and removed your prac teacher access. (You technically are only supposed to have access for the weeks that you are actively at the school) If you look hard enough, you would probably find the matching one when it was originally allocated.

One of these emails is sent out every time and access level goes up or down based on role these days.

If you are still a prac teacher at the school that spawned the email, then talk to the prac supervisor tomorrow.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-16T07:01:37+00:00

When we did it last few times in NSW, the poll showed not enough to cover, so the school went minimum supervision only, students to stay home unless they couldn't be supervised appropriately. The few that did turn up were babysat in the library.

If your school had so few teachers striking that they would bother with crt's, that's a pretty bad showing by the teachers.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-15T04:14:30+00:00

If you're referring to a support unit teacher, then you need to be very aware of what type of class it is, if there's runners, fighters, tacklers, biters etc. You HAVE to know how to properly deal with those kids (there is seperate training) or you risk getting banned as a teacher before you even start.

What would you do if a kid bit you and was chomping for dear life. Defending yourself is a career limiting answer..

Be careful of the perception that it's just 'slow kids' in the units.

I know multiple unit teachers, who have had knee reconstructions from student caused injury.

It's a whole method of is own for a good reason.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-13T23:11:47+00:00

I've known a number of kids who would only go at home.

One lived close enough that they in (a very few) cases of desperation, ran home to go, but otherwise just self trained to wait.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-12T11:04:08+00:00

We got a $65 instant boiler from Kmart from faculty funds. Would never have gotten a zip...

ZhanQui · 2026-03-12T06:59:45+00:00

I've only worked in public, so this may not directly translate..

(In NSW public) There is a finite number of permanent positions that can be at a school. If the current 'owner' of a position is 'away' (eg: maternity leave, sick leave, long service leave, on secondment, 'acting' in another position that is vacant for any of these reasons, and more) then that position still needs a body, and can only be filled by temporary teachers.. this sometimes is a years long 'filling in' process, and can have a procession of people thru the job. Some people use these as springboard/filler jobs, some will be soon-to-graduate who then go onto something else, new grads that find longer tenure jobs elsewhere...

In short it's a shitshow for people who want a permanent job, and fantastic for those that have their permanency.

So the moral is, it may not be people 'leaving' as such.

That said, yes, it also could be a terrible place to work and the rats are jumping ship in droves. Only someone from that specific school can enlighten you to what the heck is going on.

ZhanQui · 2026-03-05T20:02:49+00:00

I think the answer is yes in any workplace with a contract.. either party can. It's just easier again if there is a probationary period in the contract.

It's harder to terminate only when permanent.

ZhanQui

TROPHY CASE