That's it. Email today. Offered replacement flights on Thurs or Fri but double or triple connection flights with overnight stays in Cairns in some. So arriving over 24 hours late.
Or you could cancel and get your money back in 15 working days.
At Coles, thought I'd pick up a newspaper and have a read at home. In Brisbane, so it was the courier mail. Picked it up, must have been between ten to fifteen pages folded over. Price, $3:50. Left it in the stand.
No wonder print media is dying.
Visiting Australia, and joined amazon au to order a couple of books. Both were left at the front door on different days, with photos of the orders at the front door emailed to me. Is there a reason they don't knock on the door?
So, do male Teachers find themselves being assigned to being grade 5 & 6 homeroom teachers more than the lower grades?
Hello, I hope this is ok. Just some quick facts for you to read and compare with your daily life as a teacher in Australia.
Junior High School. Teachers at school by 8am. Classes start at 8:45. Classes are 45 or 50 minutes, depending on the days schedule.
No morning tea or little lunch, so it's four classes in a row. Student have communal lunch in classroom, Home Room Teacher is present. Twenty minutes cleaning the school, teachers help and supervise, then twenty minutes free time. Next, two more classes before school clubs are held. The clubs last up to two hours. Teachers run these clubs, so they attend too. Students go home, now teachers can catch up on their work, planning and paperwork.
The 27 year old woman I get along with well once said that the night before she got home at 11. But today she was planning to be home by 10. The next day when I asked she said she made it home by 10:30.
No overtime pay.
And if so, what happened?
I mean have you had a fellow teacher, who say is employed full time on forty hours a week, and when that time comes after eight hours on the clock, just stands up, says 'See you tomorrow.' and leaves? Be it during lesson planning, homework marking or even a school meeting as the principal is talking.
For those that reply 'Well if you don't stay, you won't finish your assigned work.' I say, pay me if you want me to work.
Back before most of you were able to go out on the weekends to pubs and clubs, we could smoke in them. Walk past the open doors of a pub in the city on a Saturday around lunch time and the aircon would be pumping out the smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke from the carpets, furniture and sadly, people.
Why is that gone. Because of health concerns, government safety policies, fire restrictions...
Nope. Lawyers pointed out to the owner companies that in the future, people that they employed in these places now, would be able to sue them for any health complaints based on not being employed in a safe work place. You developed lung cancer. Retroactively sue your former employer for having you work around smokers for years. It wasn't health concerns that killed smoking in pubs, it was the fear of loss of capital.
Now, if teachers were to start suing the education department and the state government and even the school administration for placing them in workplaces with unsafe working conditions, places where they are at threat from violence and attacks both physical and mental. Well, even the politicians would recognize the amount of money that would be leaving their coffers in the future would hurt their careers ... and they might just do something to deal with this problem now.
Just a thought...
So, I can apply for a BA today that starts in T2 next July. That means handing over the nonrefundable application fees.
My problem is, I need to pass a Griffith bridging course for acceptance into the BA. I can't apply for the bridging course until it becomes available early next year.
I need to move to Brisbane, but I can only afford to live on campus. Outside accommodation is too expensive. I can't apply for campus accommodation until April of next year. And, I need to have been accepted as a student at the campus.
It's not depressing, just a little funny and frustrating. I've been in situations like this before where I needed to make a leap of faith in myself and always came out on top.
Just wanted to post this so that others who have similar situations can see that they are not alone.
Oh, and I have the added fun of applying for delay of the course fees once the BA is approved.
Busy, busy, busy.
If you leave Japan for some time, a few years, due to a family, work or medical condition. You can ask for exemptions from pension payments and medical insurance and maintain your PR because you're paying those in the other country. Then pick up when you come back.
Do you think this is a good time to do this? I'm serious.
As an Australian, I plan to retire in Japan. I have PR, and I have paid into the national pension, but I will never claim or use it. Why, because the Australian government has a reciprocal agreement with Japan. The amount paid out is approximately A$1,000.00 a fortnight. That's A$24,000.00 a year. Around ¥2,600,000 a year, or ¥200,000 a month. More than I'd ever get off the Japanese pension system.
Most tales here are about trouble people have had with visas. So here's a good story.
Years ago I went to immigration in Yokohama, the one in the industrial area out by by the bay. I had a teacher visa at the time, not the specialist in humanities one.
I was interested in finding out if I could do some part time work on the weekends. At markets and the like.
I asked for clarification on what I could do. The staff member listened, then went into the back of the office to check for me. He returned five to ten minutes later and politely explained that no, I couldn't do 'extra' work in a field outside teaching.
Then he paused looked at me and I kid you not said "The inspectors that check on people's visas only work Monday to Friday." The implication was, they won't be around to check on weekends. We looked at each other, we smiled, and I left.
Flying out of the Gold Coast, bags overweight by about 5 kg. Awaiting a fee. Let through no problem. Flight was half full. Always assumed that was the reason. They had lots of weight to spare.
So, a couple of years ago I'm flying back to Japan and I overheard this conversation as the crew were boarding passengers.
Young staff come up to the supervisor. I'm sitting in the front row for the extra legroom and can hear them perfectly. YS: How do you attach the baby bassinets? S: You don't know? YS: No, we only had one week training and we only went onto a plane once.
Yep, that's the high standard of workers you have on your flight.
Yep, flying is a wonderful thing, and I do appreciate it. But really, when I buy my ticket and choose to pay for the offered entertainment system, I don't expect to receive an email 24 hours before my flight informing me there are no screens in the back of the seats so I will not be able to use the entertainment system they sold me for a ten hour flight. Though they have said, I may be able to receive a refund in 15 days.
Sh@t service, sh@t company.
Just to reassure those close to the end of the validity of their PR card. (Yes, that's the term on the card for the required renewal date) Had it done this week. Took 20 minutes and was free. The ¥1,000 cost was the price of a recent photo from a photo booth.
First, I don't work for the airline or profit in anyway from any sales.
So why am I telling you? Because I do get pissed when my friends take short cheap holidays to far parts of Japan and when I ask, they say they bought the tickets during a sale a while ago.
I just visited Jetstar and their four day sale ends today. It avoids the summer break and the five day holiday in September, but it is worth looking at to see if you want to buy a one way trip to Okinawa for ¥5,790. Obviously you'll need to buy another flight at ¥5,790 to get back.
No, I'm not looking for the "Oh, but you need the time to mark tests / prep lessons / attend meetings" comments. I'm talking, "That's my eight hours, I've got things to do at home. Bye."
If I did a BA of Primary Education, and at the same time a Diploma in Languages, Japanese, and in my flex modules did the two Curriculum Courses to be a High school Japanese major, could I be a Primary teacher and a High school Japanese teacher?
The Dip of Lang covers the same language classes as the BA Ed Japanese.
Someone will probably drop in a give a culinary term for this action.
Ok, so I've got a tin of french onion soup and some 3 minute noodles. Do you think it would work?