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why do you need all the complicated leaves, instead of just quitting? Is it just so you can return more easily if you ever do want / need to?

The answer is a bit complicated so please bear with me.
In NSW all public school teachers are appointed through a central body: The NSW Department of Education and Training (DET).  When a person finishes university with a teaching degree they have an interview with persons from the Department.  The Department usually employs somewhere around 15 graduates from each University**.  These 15 or so targeted teachers get a placement straight out of Uni, usually at very difficult schools in impoverished areas or way out in the country.  If you don't get targeted then you are added to the ever increasing number of teachers waiitng for full time employment and placed on "the list".  You are given a priority date and in theory, the further away your priority date is the sooner you get a job.  While waiting for a permanent job you can teach as a casual (substitute) teacher.

Mr Bear finished uni at the end of 1991, went to his interview and was not targetted.  He began teaching as a casual in 1992 and remained a casual until the end of 1998.  By that time we'd been married for two years, but I was the ony one of us who had a full time permanent job.  We needed for him to get a permanent job before we could even think about children etc.  Mr Bear retrained over 8 months while I was the sole bread winner and got a permanent job 5 weeks after completing his retraining course.  We left his name on "the list" to see how long it would take for him to be offered permanent employment with the DET.  The call came on Mothers' Day 2001, 91/2 years after he graduated!  At this time, had he accepted the job, he would have been placed on a beginning teacher's salary (27K less than what he was getting in 2001) and it would have taken him 8 years and another 2 years of university to be earning enough to support a family.  We turned the DET job down.  I might add that as a male primary school teacher he had priority of employment over females, but still had to wait nearly 10 years.

If I resigned, I would have to fill in an employment application almost straight away and submit it.  I'd be interviewed (again) and my name would be placed on the list with a priority date of around April 2007.  I could reasonably expect to receive my call for a permanent job somewhere around 2015 or thereabouts.  If I keep my permanent position I have priority of reemployment so the DET have to find me a job.  Permanent part-time positions are really, really difficult to get and I could be waiting a long time, but I'd maintain permanency with the DET and that's the crucial thing.  In addition to this, they have implemented a new system of teacher registration in NSW.  If I resign and am re-employed, the Insitute of Teachers (the registration body) will not recognise my previous service as a teacher if more than 5 years have elapsed since being a permanent teacher in a school.  I would be treated as a brand new graduate and have to jump through hoops to pass registration despite holding a Teacher's Certificate and having 15 years teaching experience.  I don't really want to do that.

It is really hard to get a job with the DET off the list because so many other people have priority before you.  For example teachers who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, teachers with a scholarship, teachers resuming full time positions after leave, targeted graduates, teachers seeking compassionate transfer and teachers eligible for service transfer all have priority over teachers on the list.  It is only if there's something left over that a List teacher gets a job.

##  There are at least 6 universities in NSW offering teaching degrees, probably more.  Each year there would be in the vicinity of 2000+ graduates spread right through NSW.  90 or so could expect to get a job right from Uni, the other 1910+ would become casual teachers.  

I got a job straight out of Uni as I was a scholarship holder.  At the beginning of my teacher training I applied for and was granted a scholarship.  The DET paid me (a little bit) to study on condition that I worked for them for 3 years afterwards wherever they sent me.  In a manner of speaking I've been employed by the DET since Feb. 1989 a total of 18 years!!  No wonder I am finidng it difficult to just resign lol.

Two phonecalls will I make today.  The first will be to the NSW Teachers' Federation.  The second is to the NSW Department of Education and Training.  By the end of the phonecalls I am hoping to have a plan for leaving my job.  I talked to the boss on Monday and she has verbally okayed leave for the remainder of the year.  All that remains is nutting out the details as to exactly when and where and how.  If all goes well I should have 7 more weeks to teach (two days a week) and then I will be on leave.  LSL from the 24th April until about the 25th June or therabouts, followed by leave without pay.  I have another year of leave without pay left, but I have a nasty feeling that this is calculated on calendar years rather than actual months, i.e. the last two terms of 2007 will count as my full year, even though it will be 6 months, rather than two terms of 2007 and two terms of 2008.  Hope that hasn't confused you too much.
However it pans out, I am hoping to be on leave for the rest of 2007 and then we will think again.

Found this on a message board at bibleprobe.com and I thought that it was great.

I asked God to take away my habit.-

God said, No.-

It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.-



I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.-

God said, No.-

His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary-



I asked God to grant me patience.-

God said, No.-

Patience is a byproduct of tribulations;

it isn't granted, it is learned.-



I asked God to give me happiness.-

God said, No.-

I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you.-



I asked God to spare me pain.-

God said, No.-

Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares

and brings you closer to me.-



I asked God to make my spirit grow.-

God said, No.-

You must grow on your own! ,

but I will prune you to make you fruitful.-



I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.-

God said, No..-

I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.-


I asked God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.-

God said..-.Ahhhh, - finally you have the idea

The ironing baskets are empty.

I only have two rooms left in the house to sort out, tidy and clean.  Everything else is done.  It's taken a while and it takes committment to upkeep, but it is done.
The craft room is on hold until I have finished with the ironing.  I am averaging 30 garments a day and up until yesterday afternoon could actually see the bottom of one of the baskets - that was until the clothes came in off the line and now the pile is as high as ever.
The toy room is just on hold for the moment.
The laundry was just about caught up on but it's now pouring with rain so that counts out completing the washing. 
Today, it would seem, apart from running errands this morning and having Lamb and the girls over for lunch, the day is pretty much going to be devoted to the ironing pile.
What fun.

I asked them what they wanted for breakfast.  They said toast.  I told them to sit at the table and popped the bread in the toaster.  I went to the bedroom to make our bed (gotta love multi-tasking) and they gravitated from the table to the lounge room to watch tv.
Their toast cooked.
I called out "Both children to the table!"
Nothing happened.
I called out "No table, no breakfast!!"
No response.
OK. Suits me.
I ate my toast.
They've just reappeared seeking food.
Not a chance.  I am not a 24 hour food source.  Ignore me at your peril.
Meanest Mummy on the planet.


** I should point out that they have both had banana/yogurt/muesli bars or any combination of the aforesaid, so they aren't going to starve.

Harry Potter - book 7
1. Are you going to look at every possible spoiler you can before the book comes out? Did you with HBP and how accurate were the ones you saw?
Nope.  I have my own carefully constructed theory and I am not going to look at anyone else's (yeah, right)

2. What will you do if Amazon (or whoever;) don't deliver your copy on time, and everyone is reading it except you?
I will order it from our local bookstore and will buy it on the day it is released.

3. Will you read the last chapter before anything else? Are you planning to read the book all in one go or are you a slow reader?
No, not a chance.  As for how I will read it?  The day it is released we'll buy it and I will begin it before we've left the car park even though I get extremely carsick reading.  I will be on hiatus for the rest of the day until it is read.  My family have had fair warning.

4. What's your theory on the meaning of "Deathly Hallows?"
Not the foggiest.

5. What's the craziest Harry Potter theory you've got, which you could only share with your trusted f-list?
Kreacher will provide the key to the whole plot; Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville are a mirror to James, Lily, Remus and Padfoot.  Peter has no match-up; he doesn't deserve it.

6. If you could write in a sub-plot of your own choosing to the main Harry one, what would it be?
Not telling - yet,

7. Who do you think will die in the book, and who would you be most upset to see die, even if you don't think it's likely?
Voldemort and Snape for certain.  I think that Snape will kill Voldemort, but someone else will kill Snape.  I think Percy is for the chop too.  He's thrown his hat in with the wrong crowd and like Regulus Black will learn too late that he backed the wrong side.

8. Name three main (ish) characters who you think will definitely live and why. Is there a very minor character(s) you really want to have a happy ending? Harry, Hermione and Ron.  I want Neville to be recognised for the champion he is.

9. If you don't like the book, or are bitterly disappointed by it, do you think you'll still stay in the fandom?
No.

10. One word (or concise) answers only!
- Snape: good, evil, own agenda? Better than good.
- Bill: will he help Remus or just be on permanent honeymoon? No question, he'll be in the thick of it.
- Peter: a Gryffindor moment or not? Wormtail you mean? Takw those words back.
- Harry: is he a Horcrux? Definitely not
- The Weasleys: will they all survive? I hope so.
- If no to the above: who won't? Don't want to even think about it
- Did Snape love Lily: Deeply, passionately, totally and fatally
- Hogwarts: will they go back to school or not? No
- Remus and Tonks: will they get married in the book? It would be nice to see a happy moment in what will be a very dark and sad book
- Bellatrix: who will be her nemesis? I think Narcissa.  There is more to her than meets the eye.
- The new leader of the OotP is ...? Harry
- Percy: will he see the error of his ways or not? No.  See question 7.

11. If Harry could take just one adult Order of the Phoenix member with him on the search for Horcruxes, who should it be?
Mad Eye

12. Will Remus and Greyback have a confrontation in human or werewolf form? Will Tonks be involved? Who will the other werewolves support?
DK DC (don't know, don't care)

13. Who is the person from Harry's class (and it isn't him, Ron or Hermione), who will become a Hogwart's teacher? What subject will they teach?
Neville, Herbology without question

14. Do you think Harry will observe Remus looking less lined and walking with a little more of a spring in his step? If so, do you think he'll attribute it to Tonks, and if he does, will he blush?
DK DC

15. Will Ginny use, "But Professor Lupin saw the futility of being a noble prat!" for one of her million arguments with Harry about why they should be together? Do you think they'll get back together at all?
Harry and Ginny will either end up together or Ginny will be one of the *unlucky* ones, but I don't want to think about that.

16. Which house do you think Tonks is in, and why? Is she going to morph into someone important and who will it be?
DK DC

17. Who will be revealed to be the heir of Gryffindor?
Harry.  But just the vaguest possibility that it could be Neville

18. As JKR has promised the final chapter will be like an epilogue; how do you think the final paragraph (hopefully) donated to Remus' future, and/or Tonk', and/or anyone else you want to write a paragraph on, will read?
I am prepared to just wait and see on this one.

19. Which question from the books would it annoy you most not to have answered?
What's the deal with socks??

20. What do you think the last line of the book is?
"And they all lived happily after"  no, seriously don't know what the last line will read except for the end of the sentence:
...of the boy who lived".

Can you believe this?  It's unbeliveable that an organisation would even countenance people not bringing the flag to an event.  It would appear, incidentally, that it is only the Australian flag which has been banned.  Apparently it is the only flag which incites violence.
It is multiculturalism gone completely mad.
Wish Al Grassby was still alive so he could reap what he sowed rather than leaving us to deal with it.

This entry is over at Chickafinty as it contains sensitive information.  If I know you, but you don't have the password for the site email me at mizbear@gmail.com and I'll happily pass it along :)

Happy Anniversary, Mister Bear and thank you for ten beautiful, happy, loving years.

Two photos to share with you:

Firstly, Chickabid's lost tooth and secondly, why little boys should never attempt to play golf using Daddy's hockey stick.   They were playing out in the backyard when we heard this lamighty scream from Georgiana.  Mr Bear bolted outside to find her with a massive swelling bruise on her cheek and Chickabid absolutely devastated at what happened.  It was a genuine accident, but the poor little precious has such a nasty bruise.  The photo was taken on the fourth day after the event so you can imagine what it looked like before.

Am I an Arminian or a Calvinist?  Or just somewhere in between?
I am of the Reformed persuasion for certain, but beyond that it gets a little foggy.

edited:  Just talked to Dad on the phone and the answer is Calvinist.
Consider it solved.