Because Australia is generous with leaves from work, they often hire temporary replacements to fill the gap. Parental leaves (and yes, both men and women can take them) can last anywhere from a school term to two years (up to seven years in the government schools). These are all considered "short term contracts." Employees everywhere earn long-service leave. You start accruing LSL from the day you are put on an "ongoing" contract (not short term). Usually you earn about one week per year. You may cash in your LSL in the form of paid leave or just cash out the time after whatever period of time your employer says. Joel's work is 10 years. Schools are typically seven years. You don't need to take your LSL at that time, you can just keep accruing it. Some teachers save it all their careers, then take paid leave for a year just before retiring. A colleague of mine took his leave in cash instead and had a down-payment for his house. Kind of awesome. There's also a "carer's leave" where you take extended time off to care for a loved one.
The spaces left during the parental leaves, carer's leaves and long-service leaves are filled with short-term employees like me. The good thing about short-term contracts is that I get to see lots of different schools and learn about the school system in Melbourne. I get a lot of experience with different textbook lines, even with different calculators. I get paid like a regular teacher - no sub pay - and my contract is guaranteed for the time it is written. I earn an additional 9.5% of my pay deposited in my government retirement account. The bad side is that I do have to keep looking for jobs every term/semester/year. There's always a steep, fast learning curve to figure out tech, expectations, etc, especially if I start mid-year. And I do not accrue LSL.
My first job in Australia was one term, that was extended to two terms after they decided they liked me. I was replacing a teacher who had shoulder surgery, then they just found extra work for me. It was at a Jesuit boys' high school. My second job was for a semester, covering an LSL at a secondary coed Uniting Church school. They would have been interested in offering me an ongoing position, but the teacher I was replacing came back. This third school started one month into the new school year as a maternity leave replacement, but is for the rest of the year. It's at a girls' Anglican school. So I'm definitely seeing a broad range of schools in the Melbourne area.
I meant to write the blog post after my first week on the new job, but it's really been a full-on busy experience. I am not sure why I'm busier this year - I'm only 0.8 FTE but there was a huge steep learning curve as far as mastering their technology, their typical practices for advisory groups . . . I've been swamped and have already put in multiple early, early mornings just to get ready for classes that day.
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Front entrance of the school. |
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A reconciliation garden in the back of the school. |
First of all - girls-only education: After only working there three weeks I can really see the benefit. The girls are smart, articulate, able to state clearly what they need from the teacher and the class. They tell me what works for them and what they still need. They are very serious about their work - everyone does their homework, and if for some reason the work is delayed they email me ahead of time to let me know the problem and when I can expect it from them. And then I get the make-up work. This is exactly what I want, for both my kids, but in coed situations sometimes girls are drowned out by the boys. That doesn't happen here. I'm totally happy with my kids' current school at the moment, and don't believe Isaac would thrive in a boys-only environment, but I'm definitely keeping my eye on Ruth. Not like Jewish schools don't raise assertive girls, but it's nice to know there's an option that I don't hate.
Next - my colleagues: Completely welcoming, so helpful to a person, overwhelmingly female. I don't think they discriminate in hiring, there are two male maths teachers and a smattering of others in Chinese, business, PE and geography that I've noticed, but I'm guessing the hiring pool is self-selecting. They are fun - they play games on Fridays at lunch. They sponsor happy hours at restaurants at the end of term.
Most important - my students: I love them. They talk too much, but they're girls so that's sort of expected. They settle down right away when I ask, they don't waste time in class, they work together cooperatively very effectively and ask for help clearly. As mentioned above, they let me know what they need when they need it, and are genuinely appreciative of the activities I plan and the resources I provide for them. A few started asking for extension work my second day on the job, and they actually do the extension work and email it to me. So cool. I can't wait for the rest of the school year with them.
Finally, the work environment: At this school, the student do not carry paper notebooks. I do not make copies. Everyone has a laptop and I post digital note sheets or worksheets for the girls on our class page. The girls pull up the sheets from our class page, save them in OneNote and take notes on their computers with a stylus. They have digital copies of the book, and for their homework they snip the problems I assign, paste them into OneNote and do their homework on their computers. When I check homework at the end of a unit, I just tap through their saved OneNote pages. It's so easy and obviously there's less paper waste. But it did force me to learn their class page system very rapidly. I wish every student could have access to a system like this - it teaches such good tech skills and promotes great organization, but of course this is an expensive proposition. The environment could be set up with a platform like Google, probably, but every student would still need a working laptop they could take home. Very doubtful if this is possible in every school.
Test marks are posted on the same system, and are visible to students that way, but unfortunately the system doesn't average the marks and insert them into report cards, so report cards and interims are still tedious.
The school itself is a nine minute drive from my kids' school in morning traffic. The school has been around for 125 years, but a lot of the facility has been refurbished. It's in a pretty built-up suburb, so the campus is small, and the buildings are tall. The middle school building is three stories, the attached high school is four stories. Teachers' work area (we are all officed together) is on the ground floor. I get a lot of exercise walking to my classes. There is no air conditioning, which is really bad when it's super hot, but the rooms are shaded by big trees and there are fans which helps a little.
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That window second from the top - that's my room! |
The dress code for teachers is professional. No denim allowed ever. No capri pants ever. But women wear flats and stockings don't seem to be compulsory. Professional pants are fine. Men must wear ties but no jackets.
My first day on the job was the school's athletics carnival (like track and field day). The houses competed against each other, made banners and cheers, and we were bussed to a fancy track close to the city. Below are some photos of the banners from Wilkinson House and Akehurst House.
Our staff room is gorgeous, as is the bathroom. These are two areas that were recently renovated. The staff room has two women who organise our coffee break, making real coffee in a percolator and
setting out crackers and biscuits. They also wash all the dishes we use and set out real metal cutlery for us to use at lunch time. On Wednesdays during recess everyone meets in the staff room for staff meetings, which are time limited to 15 minutes, since that's how long recess is. They set out fancier snacks on Wednesdays - little pies, fancy cakes, meatballs, sausage roles, quiches. The food in the tuck shop is yummy (but also expensive, so I stick with leftovers from home).
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The staff lounge. People actually hang out here! One of the only air-conditioned spaces. |
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Just your average school lunch, right? |
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Filtered water in a pitcher with cordial to add if you wish. The coffee, tea and drinking chocolate are by the microwaves. I am always well-caffeinated at this school. |
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Office area. Due to be renovated this year. No students allowed. |
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I know it's weird to include a photo of the bathroom, but this place is nicer than mine at home. I may just make a little bed under my desk and move in. There's even a shower. |
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