IT'S HERE!

After the long, long wait, I finally got my contract and letter from the Education Department today. WHEEE!

I'm going to be teaching in the Midlands region of Western Australia. I won't find out which school I'm going to be teaching at until October-ish, but for the time being it’s plenty enough to know that the school will be in Midlands.

Here’s a map: I currently live near the yellow star in the bright blue section, and the driving distance between Perth and Southern Cross is about 372 kilometres.



I’m so delighted that I’ve finally found out – I was running around screaming earlier! And today was the first day when I actually forgot to wonder whether the letter would be here when I got home lol.

Aww, I love my sister . . .

Sis (11.5 years old) has recently started reading all of the adult-level fantasy I was reading at her age - Raymond E. Feist, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey etc. She’s currently reading Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series – and coincidentally so am I, since old favourites are just about the only think my overworked brain can take at the moment. I was getting the next book out for her this evening, and we were talking about the books, when she said, laughing: “I wish fire lizards were real. It’s not fair!” I couldn’t help laughing with her, and we both got the giggles. I felt exactly the same way about fire lizards when I was her age – I used to pretend that our cat was a fire lizard when she curled up next to me while I was reading those books. Sis is growing into such a fascinating and delightful young lady, and so, so fast. It’s wonderful that she’s getting to the age where we can share things like that. I’m going to miss being around her all the time, when I go to the country next year. Mum doesn’t realise it yet but I’m going to steal Sis on school holidays rather a lot! 

Interesting analogy

This is a paraphrased version of an analogy we were presented with in our Special Needs lecture today.

Think of your class as a bag of mixed lollies. Most of them are lollies you'll like, some are lollies you'll really love. But some will be a bit hard to chew, perhaps, or they'll be a flavour you don't like. Does that mean you're going to chuck them in the bin? They didn't choose to be that tooth-cracking caramel or the black jellybean you can't stand to taste.  And they didn't choose to be in your bag of lollies, but it's the only bag available. Whether you like them or not, you have to eat them up. And you may be surprised . . . you may just find that you like liquorice jelly beans after all.

I can't decide whether that's a stroke of inspired genius, or a bit creepy and weird, or both. But the message behind it is very important. Special Needs kids (whether their need is physical, developmental or emotional) didn't choose to be that way, and you're the only teacher they've got, so no matter how difficult it is, you have to make the best of it.

Apologies . . .

. . . for the severe lack of bloggage lately.

I'm only updating quickly as I want to go to bed, but I promise a full thingy will be forthcoming, eventually.

- I survived, and passed, the two-week prac - my voice came back and I managed alright from then on despite a heavy cold.

- I'm still sick with the latest progression of the virus, which paranoia would suggest is looking more and more like whooping cough. It can't be, I don't have time. But the fact that I'm having long spasms of uncontrollable coughing is undeniable, so whether it's WC or not is largely academic.

- I went for another walk last week and took more nice nature photos. The creek is much higher, I've got some cool before-and-after shots from the two walks.

- Jemima is fine and I can't quite believe how big she is these days, I need to take more pictures of her.

That's all for now, I need to take cough medicine and go to bed. I hope Sunday will be update day!