ON March 25 every year, the Greek community celebrates their national Independence Day. This year, due to my employment at a Greek school, I had to join in the festivities! While it did mean an extra day work (and let me tell you, it is quite depressing having to get up on a Sunday morning for work, particularly when you know that the beginning of it involves attending a church service that you have no chance of understanding), I actually had a wonderful day! It really gave me the opportunity to experience the Greek community in a very different way, and i felt like i was a part of something very special.
The day began with a church service, where some of my students had to give speeches in Greek in front of the entire congregation (no small feat when you are only 12 years old, having to speak in another language, in front of a group of at least 600 people!). I am very proud to say that they did beautifully, i was a very proud teacher! Then we left the church to later congregate at Martin Place for the official Sydney Greek Independence Day Celebrations! They began with a memorial service at the Cenotaph, where wreaths were laid. Then we began marching in a parade that led to the Opera House, for an official ceremony with speeches and dancing.

AMONG Elands residents we have two very dear friends, and we have mistaken one for the other at night and only recently found out.
Our first non-human friend in Elands was Christmas the bush turkey, (no disrespect meant and no evil intent for the Yuletide either) who learned very quickly that people are a soft touch, so much so that for quite a time (until she found Mr Turkey) she followed Ian around the house (outside) and visited him while he was out in the little office studying.
Her deep cluck-clucking noises are a friendly sound during the day. She loves to sit on the roof outside our bedroom/my office and look in the window… she appears to have a great interest in things electronic.
This year she produced from her mound in the yard one small grey chick and bush turkeys being how they are had no mothering instinct. (Baby bush turkeys are independent from birth). So we have baby turkey who hasn’t a name and is far shyer, feeding on the veggie scraps from the compost bin.
It was with the clucking, grunting noises that we became confused…for a year in the middle of the night the noises coming into our bedroom from the balcony outside were perceived to be  turkey sitting nestled in the tree finding Ian’s snoring to be a comfort.
The other night, however, I had cause to walk out onto the balcony early a.m.; to watch a storm and there, clucking/grunting  at me was “possum” (pictured) as he now shall be named; tame and bold as brass stealing a few dry dog biscuits left up there for when one or the other of our dogs comes visiting,  and scolding me for catching him thieving. We have decided that he is a he because the end of his tail is fairly naked, one would assume from arguing with another fellow over a lady friend.

I BEGAN my term at a greek orthodox school not really knowing what to expect. I was only hired for 4th term of 2004, i had no idea if this would be a permanent thing, what type of school it would be (because, to be honest, with bad experiences prior to this position, i was very wary about the situation i would be walking in to!) or whether i would be able to keep the job. I was only teaching years 7,8,9 English, which i figured was a nice start. One thing i will say about private schools... discipline is a top priority with them! So different to the public system! Another difference...
lots of religion.

Part of my duties include leading students in morning and afternoon prayers, and attending church services (but more about that later).
This college differs from others, in that most of the kids attend there from kindergarten to year 12. As such, it is a really different environment for the kids, they just don't really meet other people. They have the same friends the entire way through school. So that was weird for me, being the new person, i was simply the centre of attention, and was regularly questioned at the beginning of each class about my history (are you Greek?
Do you wish you were Greek? What are you then if you're not Greek? Is that your XR6 in the parking lot, to which my answer was yes, so then i would be questioned for the next half hour, is it turbo? What kind of car does your husband drive? Will you do a burnout when you leave this afternoon, if we stay to watch?!)

I LEFT behind my students from the country, (with some of them even buying me gifts and bringing me cake! I felt so loved). I then made the trek back to the Big Smoke otherwise known as Sydney, to re-join my husband, who had been alone and neglected until this point (I made the trek back to Sydney most weekends though, so he can't complain too much!) Now began the really fun time known as trying to find a Term Four job in Sydney, which includes attending interviews all over, mostly for temporary jobs, which was mighty depressing when you are rejected from them.
Then I received word I had received a position for Term 4 in a Greek Orthodox school. The first day had me feeling slightly nervous, to say the least, I hadn't worked in the private system before, let alone in a school where religion was involved. But after a few days, I found I was settling in okay. In fact, surprisingly well!
Big differences: Prayer before and at the end of school. For a non-religious person, that's a lot of praying! Big on discipline! Therefore the kids are fairly well behaved. As a school, it was pretty small when compared to Sydney standards (about 300 pupils), most of whom had been at the school from kindergarten to Year 12. This means the kids know each other really well, and don't really socialise away from their school groups. The language differences (I had to learn a few Greek curse words to make sure the kids weren't mucking up without me realising).
Things that stayed the same: Kids are still kids. Despite the Greek culture (and the fact that they think Greece is the economic and political powerhouse of the world!) they are still naughty at times, they do still need to learn, and they do still see teachers as the big baddies at times.
The good thing though, these are nice kids! They were willing to say hello in the playground, question me about my history in class (favourite
questions: are you Greek? Do you wish you were Greek? What are you if you're not Greek? Is that your XR6 in the parking lot? [yes, it is mine] Then a million car questions, usually followed with ‘If we stay around after school will you do a burn-out in the parking lot?’ [No! Even if I did know how to, do you know how expensive tyres can be?!] and so on...)
Surprising thing: I really enjoyed it. The kids aside, I was working with a really great group of people, under a great head teacher. So when a permanent position was advertised, I applied, and received the job! Now permanently employed in the English/History team! So begins my first permanent year!
More Soon!

AFTER graduating from UNE, I immediately began the fruitless search that is finding permanent teaching work in Sydney! I tried a school in the west of Sydney, but only lasted two weeks, due to the fact that the students seemed to think that anarchy ruled! Baptism of fire does sometime exist, new teachers be careful of your choices! Then, with a simple lack of options left, I ended up moving to a country school in the Southern Highlands (abandoning my poor husband in the process, and moving back in with my parents, and the good old age of 25!). I worked there for three terms, meeting a lot of lovely people, including a fabulous head teacher, who liked to give me pep talks before i would go into teach a class, just like the football team he coached in his spare times.
Southern HIghlands"/>Some insights included "teaching a class is like trying to win a scrum in the middle of a rugby game. Sometimes you win straight away, but sometimes you just have to keep pushing and pushing until you get your way!"
The great thing about a country school, is that the kids are all pretty well behaved. I also got to teach them about a lot of issues they would not ordinarily hear about, as they are pretty isolated. So they learnt about Farenheit 9/11, gun control, and The Simpsons, amongst the usual poetry and novels i was trying to get them to analyse!
The bad side... extreme weather, as the pictures show! I had to drive my car to school in the snow twice! I think, though, i was more excited than the kids!
But eventually my time there had to end, and i had abandoned my husband for long enough! I came back, went for many interesting interviews, and the job i received? Teacher in the English/History Department of a Greek Orthodox school! Talk about culture shock!
More about that soon!

FIFTY per cent of Alaskan high school graduates in Alaska study at one of the UA campuses; the remainder study at some of the small private universities in Alaska, or, more commonly, study in a ‘school’ in the Lower 48. Students pay fees to attend university. A typical undergraduate load is 12 credits per semester at a per-credit cost of US$99-112 ($330-343 per credit for out-of-state students).

For graduate classes, 9 credits is a typical full-time load and the cost per credit is $222 ($453 for non-resident). This is fairly low in terms of fees in the US, Harvard undergraduate tuition fees being $28,000 (or $40,000 for tuition, room, board, health and student service fees).
It is easy to see why parents start a college fund for their kids not long after they are born. It helps in Alaska that we have the Permanent Dividend Fund. Some 15 years ago, the State Legislature set up a fund into which oil subsidies were channeled. At present the Fund has some 30 billion dollars (I’m not sure of the exact amount) and a large proportion of the income from this fund is given to every man, woman, and child who lives in Alaska. Last year each person got $1000 from the $550million disbursement.

The campus has its own campus police, certified by the Alaska Police Standards Council, who have the same powers as off-campus police. A major emphasis for undergraduate students is college sport. The mascots, the Seawolf at UAA (and at UAF, the Nanook, or polar bear) heralds in the ice hockey and basketball teams. The student gymnasium has an ice hockey rink in a town that has a professional ice hockey team. Cross country skiing, volleyball, and swimming are also favored sports. The legal drinking age is 21 years so there are some major differences between this part of university students’ social life and that in Armidale!

Some issues in education in Alaska are as follows: no significant doctoral program; a reasonable research record at UAF; an effort to develop a research culture at UAA; very small class sizes (in Engineering they boast one professor to 6 students); drift of the top students to the lower 48 (the President initiated a UA Scholars’ Program to entice the brightest to stay in Alaska); difficulty attracting and retaining top faculty; shrinking budgets due to reduced state funding; and high costs of managing the environment in winter (snow clearing; etc).

On a personal note, the teaching loads are extremely light but the bureaucratic and compliance requirements are extremely taxing. Students are the usual mix though our graduate students (with whom I have the most contact) are generally very committed and industrious. From a research and program development point of view, the major difference is the ease with which one can win substantial funding, usually Federal funding. In general, I would have to say that life in a North American university is much less pressured than in the Australian university sector.

THE first interesting feature of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is that UAA is part of a federated state system, the University of Alaska (at Fairbanks, as UAF, and in south-east Alaska at Juneau as UAS). The headquarters are at Fairbanks where the President (Vice-Chancellor), a retired Major General in the US Army, holds a BS from West Point and a Master’s Degree in English literature. He does not have an academic background. Each of the three “members” has a Chancellor who is the senior administrator on that campus.
While UAF has a very small doctoral enrollment, essentially, UA is a five-year college, that is, has undergraduate and master’s degrees. Undergrads are classified according to the level of their four-year degree: freshman; sophomore; junior or senior. All faculty hold the title Professor, at either Assistant, Associate, or full Professor levels. Faculty are appointed in one of two positions: bipartite or tripartite. Bipartite faculty typically teach four courses for each of the two semesters (Autumn and Spring). They also have community and university service as part of their load. Tripartite faculty have teaching (three courses per semester), service and research as their load.
Class sizes are small. For graduate classes, 15-20 is the typical load. If there are more than 20 students, two sections are formed. In the College of Education, you could have three sections of 15-20 students constituting all of your teaching load for a semester.

MY FAMILY and I migrated to Australia in November 1985 and chose Brisbane as our home. After completing my matriculation in Brisbane, I went to UNE. I graduated from UNE in 1992 with a Bachelor of Economics and a Graduate Diploma in Financial Management. Upon graduation, I decided to return to my home country, Malaysia, leaving my family back in Brisbane.
I found a job as an Accountant in Kuala Lumpur with ExxonMobil but after three years, decided to do something different. I was lucky to be given an opportunity with an executive search and selection firm as a Consultant, specialising in recruiting for the financial industry.
I was later promoted to head the Executive Search and Selection department. After two years, I was sought after by Arthur Andersen Business Consulting to start up their Executive Search and Selection division.
Currently, I head my own outsourcing consulting practice, where we specialise in payroll administration, accounting services, administration services and human resource administration and consulting, which includes executive search & selection.
In 1999, I was awarded the Young Distinguished Alumni Award by UNE, where I was given the rare opportunity to address the graduates at the convocation in October.
I have been with my own practice for the past six and a half years and have sailed through the storm of the Asian economic crisis, and survived. I have learnt that perseverance, patience and determination have been the key to my success but most of all, my faith to the One Above.

THE population of Elands certainly has its characters, one only has to visit the local shop to get the flavour of the town.
There is a wonderful old fellow who, every day at 10.30am, walks past our house on his way to buy his daily Mars bar and cup of coffee at the shop.
He would probably be in his late 60s but can speak six different languages; Tamil, Urdu, Hindi, Burmese, French and German.
We live across the road from a wonderful sculptor, his yard is alive with statues and constructions of all sorts. Nearly everyone here has a degree of sorts, and perhaps on consideration, it is a haven for those who find mainstream society a little wrong. But no matter how you think of it, it works, especially for the children (pictured).
With all the local intellectual talent, the small, one-teacher school of 24 students from Kindergarten to Year 6 has a wonderful wealth and variety of experience available to them.
Their sports consist of belly-dancing (boys and girls), Rock and Water (a kind of Tae Kwando) yoga and tennis for the more conservative kids! With such a variety in age groupings the traditional Aussie team sports are a non-event.
The principal encourages compassion towards those less fortunate than ourselves, and last year I was invited to speak on refugees and the realities and myths surrounding their plight. (I forgot to mention that we are also members of Rural Australians for Refugees).
The children have adopted a school in East Timor, where one of our locals goes a number of times a year to help out with the humanitarian effort. Last year the children all purchased books and pencils for the kids there. They are also writing to refugee children in detention. (Not bad for a state school!) The community last year traveled down to Taree to protest against the local council removing the Aboriginal flag from the Council Chambers’ flag pole, an continuing protest that involved most of the people of the Manning area and eventually it forced the council to concede to public opinion.
One of the ex students of the school (Pete Mattheson) is taking part in the construction of the BLUEsat (a student project to launch a micro-satellite telescope)  (Incidentally, the same Pete runs a website for our community where everyone has their own/business website if they wish to promote Elands and is opening a coffee shop/gallery and internet café for community use in the next two weeks), The primary school honoured him with a play about the same…mind you it was about a mouse on the moon eating it bit by bit.

I LIVE and work from home in Elands, NSW which loosely boasts having the longest single drop waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere.
I am the National Coordinator (and Mid-North coast NSW Coordinator) for campDARE.(www.campdare.com.au ).
Some of my roles include fundraising, organising camps, liaising with various organisations and government bodies and so it goes.
I would have to say that the advantages working for this organisation have been amazing. I don’t know of many employers that put family first, but campDARE does. That doesn’t mean to say that it is particularly easy work, and disciplining the self is a lot more challenging than having the traditional 9-5 job, where the boss walks in to see what you are up to. I think that one of the greatest advantages of having studied by distance education is that it is mandatory to be a disciplined worker.