Year 9 Exams

My Year 9s are currently writing practice exams. I've spent most of the last two days rewriting the exam that had been prepared for them, mainly because it scared me. It seemed to be aimed at University Students and I knew it would have had my year 9s in tears. The Head of English got me to go and speak to the teacher responsible and gently persuade them to allow me to make a few changes. Which I did. She told me it was my first duty as Head of English for next year (a position I'm yet to be officially given).

Anyway, it's been all rush and panic - which involved me pulling a large section out to use as a practice exam at the last minute - but it's done. Any my rowdy year 9s are currently practising soundlessly. (Well, mostly.) Except for T, who is sat on my desk asking irritating questions and more or less getting me to write his exam for him.

(The following takes place in hushed whispers)
T: What does it mean "Write a letter from Hunter to his dad"?
M: It means you pretend you're Hunter and write the letter that way.
T: I'm Hunter.
M: That's right.
T: And I'm writing a letter to my dad?
M: Yep.
T: Why's Hunter writing a letter to my dad?
M: No, you're Hunter, so you're writing a letter to his dad.
T: Who's Hunter's dad?
M: Er, he's his dad.
T: Oh, okay. So where does he live?
M: We don't know. He's gone missing.
T: Then how do I know where to send it.
M: You don't need to send it. Just write it, okay?
T: Is this from that book "Jetty Rats"?

Mr B bangs head on desk.

It's an interesting time of year. We're all on tenterhooks waiting to see which classes and subjects we'll be given. We've all been unofficially arranging which classes we want with the heads of various departments but the boss, being the sort of boss he is, has been secretly assigning people without consultation. So we're all in the dark until we're suddenly given a transitional class (say for year 10s going on to year 11) in Year 11 History.

At the moment, I have my fingers crossed for Head of English (A joint position with a more experienced teacher) and Year 12 International Politics among other things. The latter was offered to me by the Head of SOSE but secretly offered by the boss to his wunderkind (sneaky uberprofessional untrustworthy young[ish] teacher).

The good news is that my job interview last week went very well and I'm finally ongoing. I've also passed my VIT malarkey so I'm, like, a real teacher and stuff. It's only now that I realise how much this has all weighed on my mind this year. I haven't slept as soundly as I have these last couple of days since I first decided to become a teacher.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the anti-IR Law strike tomorrow. I'm planning on going but feel that it's largely a bad idea. The timing makes little sense and I suspect that dwindling numbers at successive protests will be used by Howard as an excuse for pushing his laws through. I feel it would be more useful to wait until the federal election is approaching. But what would I know?