Social chat tonight here 7pm

@ale_inmelb sometimes things get too much but as long as you try again eventually that's all that matters 😊

@Till23 thank you for saying so, but I am not doing so well. I just..keep at it though. I'm stubborn.

I have taught Kindergarten up to Grade 11 English. At the moment, I teach Grade 5/6's. They're a challenging bunch.

Hi @MissGremlin you may have noticed I haven't been on the forums as much lately.

I have been busy doing a bit of short term casual work. Also I've been a little bit more ill MH wise, not bad, but not as good as a couple of months ago. I'm still going ahead with things though trying to stay as well as possible. Hopefully I can turn it around.

I've been reading that you've been going through a bit of a rough patch as well. Hope you are able to move through it ok.

@Till23 did notice that you haven't been around much lately.

Busy can be good, just make sure you take enough time for yourself aswell. Sorry to hear it's a bit tough at the moment, mental health can go up and down like a yo-yo, just know that we are always here for you ❤️.

How's the sports going?

Thanks. Things have been really rough lately for me, it's come down to taking things minute by minute just trying to get through.

@ale_inmelb hmm...

Work on building relationships with the kidlets. Get to know them and what their interests are and use that to make conversation and to relate to them. Teenagers have a voice and a sense of justice and they love to use both - make them feel heard, seen and respected. Be consistent and authentic - they know pretty quickly, if you're not being yourself. There's a certain element of vulnerability in teaching, but it's worth it.

When working with your colleague teacher, ask questions. If you're not sure of something ask. Show initiative and just build relationships.

Yep @NightFury I kept going at pretty high level jobs for decades. I just retired at very end of 2024. Went down to part-time at the end starting with my first cancer diagnosis. At that time I did say if I got cancer again I'd retire but a year later when I got cancer I didn't! Or even when I got diagnosed with a chronic immune type disease, but when my father was dying I decided I'd retire, but he passed away before I actually retired.

I think carrying on did help me, even though on the inside I wasn't good.

You have a very wide range of teaching skills. I imagine the Year 5-6's would be fairly tough, testing boundaries etc

Sport is going well @MissGremlin I was a bit sore after National competition last weekend but recovered ok. Worked this week so more distractions

I have been at the minute-to minute stage fortunately not too often.

You're a fighter though, you've got through some tough times before that I know about, so I trust you can pull through this bad patch

Have a great trip @tyme