A busy mid-year break

Greetings, dear readers!

After handing in my final assignment for the semester on Monday, I have been able to relax and start planning my lessons for the first four weeks of next term as a replacement teacher at McKinnon Secondary College. As I mentioned in my previous post, I visited the school to meet the staff, observe a few classes, and fill in some paperwork. Everyone I met was nice and friendly, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that one of my old classmates from Donvale Christian College is a teacher at McKinnon!

Amazingly, the day after my visit, I received a phone call from another school, Brentwood Secondary College in Glen Waverley, asking if I could come in on the following Monday and Tuesday to replace a German teacher who was taking leave! I was, of course, quite surprised, but again I found out that my details had reached one of the teachers on the AGTV network, and so here's a lesson for teachers-to-be: Never underestimate the power of subject-specific professional teacher networks, especially when looking for teaching work!

But yes, I can hardly wait to start at McKinnon. I have been given a full-time load during the four weeks, and will be in charge of seven classes: two Grade 7, four Grade 8, and one Grade 9. After the four weeks are over, I will hopefully get ongoing work as a casual relief teacher at either McKinnon or Brentwood; it will depend on who calls me first!

Just before my teaching stint begins, I will be performing as a chorus member in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's (MSO) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers concerts at Hamer Hall. I was originally not singing in it, but the opportunity arose due to a series of circumstances. First, some tenors from the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic (RMP) Chorus pulled out. Second, our conductor was under contractual obligation to provide 100 singers, and so needed replacements. Third, the dates of the concert (especially the Sunday one being in the afternoon) meant that I was available to help out.

It's a very busy time of the year for sports followers. Wimbledon is approaching its conclusion, while the Tour de France is now well under way. Tomorrow evening is the third and final test match of the rugby series between Australia and the British and Irish Lions. The series has been a very memorable one so far; the Lions won the first test in Brisbane 23-21 before Australia responded in Melbourne last week with a 16-15 victory. In both games, the other team had an opportunity to win the match with a penalty goal at the very end of the game, but missed. The final game is in Sydney, and if the last two games are any indicator, the result will be very close.

Next Wednesday, the Ashes test cricket series between Australia and England starts in Nottingham. Up until last week, I was so pessimistic about Australia's chances that I would not have minded if we had lost, as long as we didn't go down 5-0. But Darren Lehmann's appointment as new head coach seems to have brought about a change in fortunes, especially in the batting department. The Aussies have performed well in their warm-up matches, and will hopefully bring that form into the first test. Now my expectations have raised slightly to the point where I will be disappointed if we don't come away with at least one win.

I was hoping to add a book review or two here, but as this post is getting quite long, I'll talk about those in another post.

Cheers and God bless!