"Today was a terrible day because..."

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

@Altia Woah! That sounds so terrible! It's amazing that businesses can get away with that kind of thing! Glad you got out of there and it's great your friend became the manager. Glad you got out of there! o_o How dodgy!

@Desolate Divine Yikes, glad nothing bad ended up happening. I've accidentally gone through a red light before. it was for a pedestrian crossing and there were no lights over the road, just on the side of the road. I was coming back from a friend's place, my frist time in the area, and trying to find the street I had to turn down and I just did not notice the light at all until I had gone through it and noticed the person next to me stopped! I was really lucky there were no cameras/police. That was in the middle of the day! Luckily the pedestrian also hadn't started walking yet, but I like to think I would have noticed and stopped if they were actually on the road. o_o

[Rival Max]

So this is how my day started...
This year I was moved into the special ed department which in some ways has helped me grow as a person. In other ways its like bashing your head over and over again into a wall. My students are sweet for the most point. This job has forced me to be more patient and understanding. The student that gives me the most trouble slapped me in the face in the beginning of the year was given no punishment and now i have to see him first hour everyday. Today my students told me that they were pissed because he reported them to the deans becauase they beat him in a game online last night.. Yeah you heard that right. The goof went to the deans office and made up stories about them ditching because one of them blew him up in a video game. So then they told me they were going to get back at him by reporting him for sexual harassment because he sent them all pictures of his johnson......( Headache magically is coming back.)

[[Desolate Divine]]

So this is how my day started...
This year I was moved into the special ed department which in some ways has helped me grow as a person. In other ways its like bashing your head over and over again into a wall. My students are sweet for the most point. This job has forced me to be more patient and understanding. The student that gives me the most trouble slapped me in the face in the beginning of the year was given no punishment and now i have to see him first hour everyday. Today my students told me that they were pissed because he reported them to the deans becauase they beat him in a game online last night.. Yeah you heard that right. The goof went to the deans office and made up stories about them ditching because one of them blew him up in a video game. So then they told me they were going to get back at him by reporting him for sexual harassment because he sent them all pictures of his johnson......( Headache magically is coming back.)

I'm studying to become a high school teacher. I get the feeling, you and myself will have s few stories to exchange...

[Rival Max]

I'm studying to become a high school teacher. I get the feeling, you and myself will have s few stories to exchange...

Ive been doing the job for 10 years now. I remember the good much more than the bad. Thats the best I can say for it. Some days like today can be frustrating or ridiculous.

[Wookie Mistake]

@Altia, that is some roof stoof, I don't know if I would've been able to keep myself in check if I were in your position. I hope you've found a better situation, or at the very least a better work environment

@Pokemon Trainer Sarah, so you're the culprit! can I rant about how I couldn't rant for a few hours XD

@Desolate Divine, Is it a major violation to run a red light over there? I think over here it's a fine and maybe some points. I've accidentally turned right, on a no turn on red sign, (It's legal here in the states to turn right on a red light except if it's specifically stated not to) I started stressing out and checking my rear view for cops for the next few miles.

@Rival Max, I have to give you props, my friend's wife tells me some stories about when she teaches (she teaches special ed. science) you guys must have the patience of saints. I get frustrated when I'm doing help desk stuff and when I tell them that they should save all their work and close all the windows before a restart and they ask "Even the one in the bathroom?"

[Rival Max]

@Altia, that is some roof stoof, I don't know if I would've been able to keep myself in check if I were in your position. I hope you've found a better situation, or at the very least a better work environment

@Pokemon Trainer Sarah, so you're the culprit! can I rant about how I couldn't rant for a few hours XD

@Desolate Divine, Is it a major violation to run a red light over there? I think over here it's a fine and maybe some points. I've accidentally turned right, on a no turn on red sign, (It's legal here in the states to turn right on a red light except if it's specifically stated not to) I started stressing out and checking my rear view for cops for the next few miles.

@Rival Max, I have to give you props, my friend's wife tells me some stories about when she teaches (she teaches special ed. science) you guys must have the patience of saints. I get frustrated when I'm doing help desk stuff and when I tell them that they should save all their work and close all the windows before a restart and they ask "Even the one in the bathroom?"

Thanks, most days are fine. Special Ed students feel a different pressure than other students I work with. Its important to understand that. As someone with a couple of disorders myeslf I can tell you its best to try see it through their eyes or you will not succeed. At my part time job in retail thats another story. Those are adults acting like animals and they have no excuse to mistreat people.

[[Desolate Divine]]

@Altia, that is some roof stoof, I don't know if I would've been able to keep myself in check if I were in your position. I hope you've found a better situation, or at the very least a better work environment

@Pokemon Trainer Sarah, so you're the culprit! can I rant about how I couldn't rant for a few hours XD

@Desolate Divine, Is it a major violation to run a red light over there? I think over here it's a fine and maybe some points. I've accidentally turned right, on a no turn on red sign, (It's legal here in the states to turn right on a red light except if it's specifically stated not to) I started stressing out and checking my rear view for cops for the next few miles.

@Rival Max, I have to give you props, my friend's wife tells me some stories about when she teaches (she teaches special ed. science) you guys must have the patience of saints. I get frustrated when I'm doing help desk stuff and when I tell them that they should save all their work and close all the windows before a restart and they ask "Even the one in the bathroom?"

It's a three point offence. On your first four years of driving here if you get five in the space of a year, you lose your license. In roughly the last twelve months I have already had 2 1 point offences.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Okay double post because I have had a crappy day.

Uni is a massive source of stress for me. To the point of causing panic attacks. I am doing it part time (6 units a year instead of 8) because full time means I won't have as much time to work so I will get stressed about money. It isn't the coursework or the assessments that stress me out. No. It is the general dealing with them. Because I know that it will be difficult. Let me explain.

I am doing a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary)/Bachelor of Arts at Deakin University. A double degree. To graduate this double degree, I need 32 credit points. 18 in education subjects, 8 in my major (Media) and 6 in my minor (Music). Education, easy. I just gotta do the units and juggle placement. Media, even easier. I just gotta do the subject. Music however, with Deakin is a pain in the a**e. See, Deakin don't have any music units.

"But Jacob, how are you supposed to have that as your minor?"

Three words that have been a pain in the a**e the last year. Cross Institutional Study. What that means is I do the units Deakin don't offer at another institution. In this case, Box Hill Institute of TAFE. More specifically, the theory units from their Bachelor of Applied Music (Performance).

Box Hill are good. I did my Diploma of Sound Production there for a year. Even if they were a little disorganized, they were pleasant. Deakin on the other hand aren't.

This whole mess started about this time last year when I started Deakin. I had enrolled in four units. Two teaching, one media and one music. The music unit I enrolled in was what they had listed on the pathway for music teaching. Turns out, nobody had told me about the Box Hill thing, and what I had enrolled in was the only music units Deakin offered. 3rd year music. I ended up dropping that (as I couldn't do it without the first two years), and sticking with three units a trimester, deciding to take up music next year. It is next year, and for months I have been trying to get this sorted.

Firstly, I went to Deakin. They gave me a form to fill out with the details of Box Hill, and told me I needed to get the Box Hill equivalent of the form. So I went to Box Hill. They told me they needed a letter from Deakin, and gave me a few papers with information about the units I wanted to do. This was during November last year, when I finished for the year.

The next chance I got to go to Deakin was Mid December (as the house where I live most of the time is an hour or so away from Deakin, and I am working more during holidays), and I told them that Box Hill needed a letter. Here is the process according to Deakin.

Using the information sheets given by Box Hill, fill in the Deakin sheet I was given, and take it to Box Hill and show them. They will then give you their version of it. Once that is filled in and stamped, take both forms back to Deakin, and Deakin will stamp the Deakin form, and it will be sorted.

I went to Box Hill Mid January, as Christmas and New Year had them closed until then. I took the filled in Deakin sheet to Ross (I have been there that many times that I am now on a first name basis with the people involved), who told me that isn't what they need. What they need is a letter from Deakin stating I am a student of theirs. Ross ended up doing two things, both of which made this process easier. First thing was printing me a copy of a letter another student had used, so I could take it to Deakin and get them to write up my own. The second thing was offered me a place in the units I need to do. Basically, I met all the entrance criteria. There was a music theory test which I had taken (and absolutely smashed), and for those units, I needed nothing else. So he printed me an official letter saying I had been accepted into those units.

Jump to today. It was the first chance I had to go to Deakin and try and get the letter. And it was potentially the last. I go there and tell them what I needed. That's when I found this out, and this pissed me off. You know the sheet they first gave me? The one I had to fill out, show Box Hill, get their version of it, fill that out, get it stamped by Box Hill and take it to Deakin to get Deakin to stamp this form? That one? The person who told me that process told me wrong. Completely wrong. Turns out I had to fill it in and take it to Deakin, for them to write the letter I needed to give to Box Hill. And the enrollment session for Box Hill is tomorrow. It was going to take at least a week to get approved. Basically, Deakin gave me the wrong information which sent me on a wild goosechase and wasted my time to the point where I wouldn't have what I needed in time.

I went to Box Hill, to the same office I had visited numerous times before to get this sorted. Ross wasn't in however there was another bloke who I spoke to called Simon. I explained the situation with Deakin and showed him the documents Ross had printed me including the offer. Turns out Simon is the head of the course at Box Hill that I am doing units from. And he is actually a legend. He basically said "Even though rules are rules, and you don't have that letter, we'll trust you are who you say you are (A Deakin Student) and let you enroll. Just bring the letter in as soon as you can". He even nearly let me enrol then, to save me coming in the next day. Only reason I didn't was because to get the government funding for the course, you need proof of your citizenship. I'd bring my passport, but didn't have it with me, as I didn't think I'd need it until the next day. So I am going in tomorrow to enroll at Box Hill.

I officially hate Deakin after this. They are so impersonal and really, just don't seem to give a s**t about their students. I went to Box Hill, and could actually tell the people there wanted to help me, and they did. They went above and beyond to help me, as opposed to (figuratively) giving me a form and some bad advice and telling me to f**k off.

When I was on placement last year, I spoke with the music teacher there about Deakin. This teacher did a Bachelor of Applied Music at Box Hill, then a Masters of Teaching at Deakin, and said the same thing. Deakin just didn't care about their students.

Honestly, I have been wondering how I am going to finish uni. When I panic, it takes over. Basically, there have been times when I have wondered whether it is worth all of the stress. There have been nights where I lay awake, worrying over whether I will get this sorted in time. The amount of stress it gives me, you'd think it is all of uni. Nope, just this. Getting stuff sorted with an institution that doesn't give a s**t. If somewhere else offered this course, I'd go there, and happily watch Deakin burn to the ground...

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

@Desolate Divine Omg that sounds so frustrating! Admin stuff is the worst, seriously. My uni is just as bad, especially since they got rid of all the help staff from each department and made a central hub where you have to go for everything. So no one is an expert in anything there and you always get the wrong info. It's just so dumb.

On a related note I'll tell you guys about the dumb thing that happened at uni recently. They decided to replace all the printers with new ones run by a different company, took all the old ones away... And after that no students could print (postgrad students make up 80% of the department...) because the office hasn't organised any print credit for students. So for two weeks we couldn't print anything and then Monday I get an email from the department office asking for my student number so they can add me to the "allowed to print" list... This is the bloody admin office for my department and they can't access everyone's student numbers?!?! So dumb. I forgot to reply to out until today and then I got an email back saying they had managed to find my student number (as if that was so difficult when you have access to the student database) so it was all sorted...

Bureaucracy is the enemy of common sense, I swear xD

[[Desolate Divine]]

@Desolate Divine Omg that sounds so frustrating! Admin stuff is the worst, seriously. My uni is just as bad, especially since they got rid of all the help staff from each department and made a central hub where you have to go for everything. So no one is an expert in anything there and you always get the wrong info. It's just so dumb.

On a related note I'll tell you guys about the dumb thing that happened at uni recently. They decided to replace all the printers with new ones run by a different company, took all the old ones away... And after that no students could print (postgrad students make up 80% of the department...) because the office hasn't organised any print credit for students. So for two weeks we couldn't print anything and then Monday I get an email from the department office asking for my student number so they can add me to the "allowed to print" list... This is the bloody admin office for my department and they can't access everyone's student numbers?!?! So dumb. I forgot to reply to out until today and then I got an email back saying they had managed to find my student number (as if that was so difficult when you have access to the student database) so it was all sorted...

Bureaucracy is the enemy of common sense, I swear xD

Bureaucracy is what I have been using to describe it, but nobody I whinge to knows what it means! Thank you Sarah!