Just breathe and....

Fourth year of uni is scary man! Last week we had a ‘transitions to teaching’ session with a regional representative from the Department of Education and Training – telling us all about the processes we have to go through to become employed by Education Queensland.

I don’t think there was a one of us who wasn’t feeling a slight element of panic by the time the session finished.

It’s scary stuff! In the next few months we have to start applying for teacher registrations, and looking at submitting our portfolios to Ed Qld. Already!! We’ll have interviews with EQ in September/October, and be given a suitability rating, and then in the next month or so after that we’ll be getting job offers. Well, hopefully anyway! At the transitions session they made it sound like no one is getting jobs. I think the statistics they showed us were a bit skewed though because they were only referring to people who were offered permanent positions, and most graduates seem to get contracts - so a lot more people are actually teaching now than what their charts let on.

I’m really ticked off because my hubby asked the representative what would be the processes considering we’re a married couple both looking for teaching positions. She basically told him that whichever of us gets offered a job first, to take that one and both move ‘out there’ and the other can do supply work. Um. Okay. So only one of us is allowed to actually teach??? What if we get placed in a town which has a one-teacher school? One of us has to take a day off so the other can do supply work? Stupid system.

Speaking of which, it doesn’t sit right with me at all that you can’t choose where you want to work. They can just pick you up and plonk you wherever they see fit, and then you’re stuck there for at least two years! Sucks to be us, born on the coast, all our families are there and we have buckleys chance of getting a job there unless we commit to a few years in the middle of whoop whoop first.

Of course, this is all assuming we’ll work for EQ. Which I don’t want to, and have never wanted to. Independent schools all the way baby. Heck, I’d even be happy to do a few units of theology at the Australian Catholic University and teach for CathEd.

I’m holding onto my dream of getting a job at the school I did highschool at. That’s the goal.. the ideal. We’ll see I suppose.

I’m still not 100% sold on even going through the EQ interview process. You can do supply work in state schools without having done an EQ interview, and if you work somewhere other than for EQ, your interview only lasts for two years… so if for example I managed to pick up some contracts at a private school, and then wanted to look at working in a state school, I’d have to do another interview anyway!!!

At this point we’re thinking that if I don’t manage to land a job in a private school (and Pete does get a job) then I’ll look at having another baby sooner rather than later, and do supply work or short-term contracts in the meantime. And if I do get a job in a private school, I’ll teach for a couple of years (or whatever it takes to get maternity leave) first. *sigh*. Who knows!?

I have a friend who graduated last year, and she hasn’t been able to get anything and has gone back to teacher-aiding part time. The thought of going through four years of university with nothing at the end of it makes me feel a bit ill.

I’m also not coping well with the fact that we have NO IDEA what we’ll be doing next year. We can’t plan anything beyond our final prac, and that big question mark that’s left hanging scares the bejeezes out of me.

I’m trying my very hardest to hand it all over to God and remember that he has ALWAYS pulled through for us, time and time again. But I’m having trouble letting go, and my brain doesn’t stop nagging me, and at times I feel like I’m sitting on the edge of an anxiety attack all day.

Gah. Must stop thinking.

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