Hey, Teacher: What are you Doing with your Life?

Are you tired and overworked? Do you feel drained in January? Do you look forward one week off in March to return in March and feel exhausted? Has a 20-week term got you down? Here’s the answer: MOVE TO AUSTRALIA!

WARNING: this is not a sales pitch, this is pure enthusiasm. I used to teach in Ontario, and then I got out of there! No jobs? There’s lots of teaching jobs in Australia. Insufficient recovery time? It’s sufficient in Australia.

What’s ‘the Catch’?

The first thing on your mind is salary: yes! It’s the same (pretty much)! And, it’s not so different with the exchange rate that you will feel hard-done-by. So now that we’ve got that settled, I would
MOVE TO AUSTRALIA!

The School year starts in January—no more of that “2005-2006” split school year crap. The year starts in the same calendar year as it finishes – this makes perfect sense. And even better, the school year starts at the end of January! This means that since you finished before Christmas (and usually in the first couple of weeks of December!) that you have had at least a 6-week break over summer. (Remember the seasons are opposite to North America!)

Are you worried a 6-week break is not long enough?

I used to believe that six weeks paled in comparison to the treat of two months off from school.

Let’s be frank: we are talking about a two-week difference. Furthermore, if you still aren’t feeling rested enough—and this is not the experience of any of my colleagues—never-the-less, if you feel it is not enough: let me point out that in Victoria, you receive the students on February 1st and wave goodbye at the end of Term 1 eight weeks later.

“Terms” are far more intelligent than semesters.

Let’s face it, teaching is freaking exhausting. I worked three jobs in university, going to school full-time and that was so easy and fun in comparison to the absolute exhaustion I feel in teaching. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done!

Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching, but after leaking knowledge all day, you need time to recover so that you don’t turn into that screaming ‘educator’ who hates the world and blackens the hearts of innocent young children just from their sheer exhaustion.

School Holiday Schedule:

April holidays last two weeks, and then you will have a longer term of just twelve weeks until June. Mind you, it is a term filled with many phone calls to home as the honeymoon is over; all of our work habits are

starting to exude their areas of improvement! However, July’s two week holiday can see you up in Noosa relaxing on the beach or skiing up in ‘the snow’ in north-west Victoria.

The nine weeks that last until the end of term can be a challenge for sure, but you will still have a two-week break in September to recuperate once again, ensuring that you return to school with a genuine smile on your face, ready to face the year ahead.

The official school year usually winds down in November too, allowing December a time for transition and excitement for the year ahead. You have a few weeks to do some pre-planning for the new year. It all just–works.

So, seriously, MOVE TO AUSTRALIA.

Post-Script:

A final note, education research is always comparing Victorian education with Ontario curriculum like some sibling rivalry—but on this one note I happen to concur that the Aussies do it better.

The post Thinking of Moving to Australia? RE: Teaching Holidays appeared first on Leading Out.

The market keeps fluctuating with the Australian dollar recently decreasing significantly below the Canadian dollar. Previously the two were quite even. Canada has always had a bit of an upper edge on the Australian dollar, but for 2006-2008, this has been less than a 10 cent difference on average.

If you are money conscious, you are going to to be constantly doing conversions when you move overseas. You’ll find that typically the Canadian dollar does just a bit better than the Australian dollar. But with the global economic crisis, you’ll know all economic theory is useless.

Doing Constant Conversions:

The point is (for the purpose of being a teacher and moving overseas) you need to not do conversions all the time. If you don’t have a job yet, the tempation may be there to ignore this little tip. But if you are making money, you will drive yourself–and more importantly everyone else around you–insane if you keep converting. Just accept that your Australian money is different to your Canadian money, try not to have to move too much of it between the two countries too often (they will charge for this), and just spend your money as if you are Australian.

The post Australian vs. Canadian Dollar (Part 8: “10 Things You Need to Know Before Moving to Melbourne”) appeared first on Leading Out.

We have long been regarded as stingy. And most sales people that we have to deal with dislike our supposed thriftiness. So what I’m wondering is–where does it come from? Is it just a stereotype of a poor few or is there a reason behind this (over?) statement?

And while we’re attempting to mythbust, is it also true that teachers only ever talk about teaching?

I think all of these issues are related and I think there is only really one solution.

Teachers are in the service profession. We are not a business. But we don’t get tips, don’t get to charge per hour and largely feel underpaid (and undervalued) in our work.

Schools are a microcosm of young (often immature, or at least inexperienced in the ways of the business world) minds, administrators (former teachers on a stringent budget) and other teachers.

How is the value of teaching recognised?

Teachers know that we are valued by our parents, colleagues and our students through our emotional connections with each that are priceless. Most teachers lead a very enriched life by committing themselves to celebrating this; still, in a capitalistic driven economy there is no price alottment for the value of our service and as we work away on weekends, after business hours during the week, and on our holidays, we all realise a large portion of our job is voluntary.

Non-teaching people have long criticised “how many holidays you get” as a teacher. They scoff at our pay-check whimpering and thriftiness (and most of these people probably hated school and never had a teacher they loved–a very different reality to most teachers).  When we put our families on strict budgets in the community purchasing something, it is easy to get a little jaded.

Teachers often talk about how busy they are, and what they are doing because they are people, and people like to feel like they are celebrated. We expect to make money for work we do because we are a rewards-driven society. Where is this forum for teachers? Outside of our social life, it doesn’t exist for most teachers. Thus you get the self-promoter person who speaks out of pride to anyone who will listen and and out of defence to those who may be quick to criticise.

At some point, the we realise that we can’t sustain our current full-time volunteer, part-time paid positions and want to move forward in our career. How does a teacher do that? A select few go on to be administration–thereby giving up the very aspect of the job they love: working with students.

When it comes to asking for more money: teachers fall down in a heap of exhaustion (like most people) as soon as they get a holiday. Where is the energy or time to “fight the good fight” against the rest of the people who plan educational budgets. Eventually, you learn to either put up or shut up. Some of us leave the profession.

My ‘Food for Thought’ on the Value of Service:

I think the people who are the most thrifty as the most skeptical, and some might argue become unappreciative of the services provided by other communities becuase maybe because our own service is undervalued, we do not know how to value and appreciate the services of others? After all, the only way you learn something is to be taught it (from some source).

But, I’m not saying it’s right. The bottom line is teacher pay and value is a societal problem because schools and teachers exist because of a societal value.  That means that service value is also a societal problem.  In the business world, people are taught to justify their services. As critiquers of human work, teachers learn to be sceptical of all things.

Of course, appreciation is something we can all never show enough of and learning to show gratitude is also a really important lesson.

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