1. How many hours do you spend teaching each day and how many hours prepping?

I was a classroom teacher for a couple of years and then I was a behaviour management specialist.

When I was a classroom teacher, I taught most of the school day - 9am to 3pm roughly depending on the school. There were lunch breaks but sometimes I had duty, sometimes I didn't. I usually only took one break a day. If I didn't have duty I stayed in the classroom to get stuff ready for the next session. I arrived at school by 7.45 each morning to get stuff set up for the day and often didn't leave until 4pm. I did most of my planning at home in the evenings (usually a couple of hours each night depending). My second year out was no where near as bad as far as planning time and unless it was report card time, I could do most of it while I was at school. There were non contact hours but these were in half an hour blocks a couple of times a week - usually enough time to check my email and do some photocopying, but not much time for anything else.

Usually there was one staff meeting a week after school unless we had extra meetings (like in first year because I was still on probation). Also sometimes I had meetings with specialist teachers/admin staff if students in my class needed extra help or resources.

I stopped teaching and went to teacher aiding at a special school for students with behaivoural difficulties because I didn't enjoy it very much. I was only a teacher aid for a couple of weeks before I got casual work there as a teacher and that turned into a contract lasting 2 years. I moved after two years and got a job as an SEU teacher part time as I couldn't get work as a full time behaviour management specialist. I didn't like SEU teaching - not because I didn't like the kids or the work but because SEUs aren't very well run or integrated into the rest of the school and I felt like I was battling everyday against classroom teachers who didn't want kids with special needs in their classrooms.

2. At what point in your course did you start in the classroom and were you thrown in at the deep end or was it a gradual immersion?

I was undergraduate so my first prac was in first year and it was very supported. It eased into more teaching slowly over four years. Post grad is different. They do a 12 month course here to for a Grad BEd and from what I understand, they are in the classroom from day dot.

Going from being a student to a classroom teacher was a huge adjustment. I found it really overwhelming because being on prac with someone else who is responsible is so different to being in the classroom on your own.

3. How easy was it to find a job as a newly-qualified teacher?

If you are male, very easy. I had to do contract work and never got a permanant position.

4. What's good/bad about it?

I loved behaviour management. I enjoyed the case work I did and getting to know the kids and their families so well. I found a lot of success in that job.
I like classroom teaching but found it hard to balance everything because I think teachers are stretched in a million different directions. I found it lonely in the classroom all day with very little adult interaction. I didn't realise how hard it would be to be with only kids all day.
I never got a job teaching the older grades (5, 6, 7) but they were my preferred ages. I taught grade 3 and grade 4 which I didn't really like. I taught older grades on prac and found them much easier because I understood that age group better and planned much more stimulating activies. I never really understood the grade 3/4 age group and I struggled to plan stimulating and age appropriate activities. My class was also well below other kids their age nationally and it was a constant struggle to try and catch them up. My class was oversized and the kids needed a lot more attention individually than I was able to give them on my own. I found it frustrating.


I have left teaching as a profession and I doubt that I will go back. I thought I enjoyed working with kids but now I have my own, I don't think I would be terribly patient with them if I was with other people's kids all day long. My hat goes off to teachers who teach all day and go home to families at night. I have never had to balance the two and I don't know that I could.