Letter # 2 The trouble with life is...

Alyse writes to Lilly, her best friend who hasn't spoken to her for two months. In this chapter Alyse writes about work experience and the stresses she is facing.

Dear Lilly,

 

            Last week I was told that the university still hadn’t placed me for my work experience. They also said that we should attempt to organise it for ourselves, if we can, as they cannot guarantee that they’ll be able to do it themselves. I don’t know what to do now. If I can’t be placed in a decent location to work I’ll have to give up working for several weeks. And we both know I can’t afford that. Mum and dad have said they’ll support me if I need it. But I’m not worried about the money- it’s my students I’m worried about. They had a hard time adjusting to me when I took over their previous teacher’s classes. I don’t want to add instability to their lives. I still have several assignments to complete before I’m done with uni for the semester. It’s truly intense at the moment. Everyone keeps telling me that holidays are around the corner. But they’re failing to see that I still have four weeks of work experience before I’m really on holidays. I have a few options of where to go for the experience, but it’s now a matter of if they will take me on. Teachers do not want another ‘student’ to worry about while teaching their own. That being said I’m not just a student but a teacher in training so I suppose that’s not as bad. I don’t feel confident about this whole thing yet. 

I wonder how everyone else is doing on the work experience hunt. Some of us from the grade have spoken about it, but most of us are in the same boat. We're waiting in the hopes of being placed. I wonder just how hard it really is to organise a placement. Someone mentioned that there's new regulation about the whole initiative- schools now have to take groups instead of individual students. If this is true then I can understand why schools are so hesitant to take on student-teachers. Can you imagine a small staff room (cramped as is) filled with at least four extra people? And what would they do all day? 

What will I do all day on placement? I suppose there's the obvious lesson planning, maybe some marking. Playground duty sounds exhilarating - Not! But really I can't worry too much about what I'll do until I have somewhere to go to do. I'll write to you as soon as I've heard that I have a placement of course.

What are you up to now? Did you hear the saying 'when the Jacaranda blooms its time to start studying'? Are you studying already for exams? Finishing final assessments? Either way I wish you every happiness and all the luck you'd like for your finals. 

Author's Note

It's just a tiny chapter. Nothing too eventful can possibly happen in the beginning... not in this story anyway...