Department of Education and Communities

I have many roles as an administrative assistant for the Department of Education. A typical day for me could be working in the front office, or in the Library, as a Teacher's Aide or in the Home Economics Department preparing food, cleaning etc.

I particularly love working in the front office due to the wide variety of duties involved and because its such a wide learning curve for me. There are computer programmes such as Oasis and ERN that I have learnt and mastered, which I enjoy. There are many aspects of finance I have learnt, such as payments, orders, banking, bank reconciliation, BAS statements.

Management varies widely because I sometimes work in a very small school or a large High School. So sometimes I am the Office Manager and other times I have a longer chain of command to answer to, such as a more experienced administrative assistant, an office manager, the principal, a teacher, etc.

Most people I work with are willing to teach me, are supportive, and generally very nice people. We are all there to support the children, who are our future.

There hardest part of the job is remembering what I have been taught. This is because as a casual employee, some tasks I've been taught, I cannot perform regularly. This makes it difficult to remember. However, I keep extensive notes and I find this is particularly helpful.

The most enjoyable part of my work is to learn new skills. I am also building my skills as a leader and this is very satisfying.

The day started with challenges, new school, getting to know and remember names of colleages. There was a lot to learn. Students came from challenging backgrounds. All the students were fromt he Middle East and were either refugees or children of refugees makng their way into Australia from either Lebanon or Turkey. Many had never been into a formal school and some had no literacy or numeracy skills in their first language. Teaching these students as such becomes a challenge as one must make the effort to learn about their back grounds. This was very rewarding, I was able to gain some trust of he students and soon we got along well. My co-workers were very helpful and gave me all the necessary materials I needed. The hardest part of the day was that a fight broke out between two girls. I handled it well and as such got a lot of compliments from the Head Teacher and other teachers. The best part of the day was when after a class a student walked up to me and gave me a handshake. He spoke very little English but I could tell that he enjoyed the class.

Working in the public education system in NSW created a lot of rewards personally and allowed myself to find the inner me. It gave me many great opportunities to grow in the education field, especially in Regional NSW. The hardest part of teaching would have to be the marking, such a slow and tedious process. Creating relationships and building trust with youth would have to be the most rewarding part of the job. Also when you know that the student has learnt from what you have taught them, it makes you feel great on the inside. Or when they love coming to school because you've made a difference to their world, and they love your subject. Knowing that you have other teachers on board who are all doing the same thing as you, trying to teach kids to value their education because it is the key to success, makes work not just a job, but a career that is worth sticking out all of the hard times. Until one day, you no longer count down the days to the end of the week, or even the term, and just look forward to planning the next weeks work.

Teacher Librarian

A typical day at work begins with turning on office and libarary computers and usually playground or library duty before school begins. During the day time is spent delivering library RFF or cooperatively planned lessons.

What I learned is that lots of time and effort can be put into planning and delivering lessons often to students who have difficulty listening and following instructions. Good lessons can be ruined by one or two children.

Management could be improved by reducing curriculum content and putting the emphasis on English and Maths with less time on subjects which need to be considered elective such as Sport, Music and PE.
This would improve attention of students and learning outcomes.

The hardest part of the job is the enormous amount of overtime hours given for nothing. Teachers are not people pleasers but educators.

The most enjoyable part of the job is building a love of learning and reading with students.

Thoroughly enjoyable work places
Staff and supportive of me as an early career teacher
Management is fair and equitable
The hardest part of the job is the unpredictability of casual work. Being on call is a challenge in itself!
Having said this, the challenge is half the fun and enhances my skills and experience. It has put me in a position where I can incorporate integrative activities which are cross-curricular and are based on one topic/theme/book.

The days are very busy but I have learnt to cope with the bustling corridors.  Management are approachable and co-workers are friendly and polite.  The hardest part about this position is having enough hours in the day to be prepared as much as I would like to be.  The most enjoyable and rewarding part about this job is the students and the success they achieve both during their school years and after they graduation.

Assist job seekers to find sustainable jobs.
A comprehensive data base from DEEWR about Employment Support Services.
Very proactive management style.
Very supportive of the team.
Deal with un-motivated job seekers.
Learn something new and overcome challenges

It's quite a large organization with a multi vendor environments. Through working over here experienced on various technologies and vendor product's. In a day to day work involved in both BAU and Project related work. Good team environment.

A very professional and outcomes driven focus in the North Coast team

Worked in low socioeconomic areas.   Some children and adults were difficult to deal with, some students swore at teachers some were violent.  On many days the negative classroom atmosphere prevented teaching and learning.

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