Can it be?

It's the end of the second week of school and I felt stressed at the beginning of the week.

True story.

So what has been happening.

School started two weeks ago. The first week was sort of a joke. I am just frustrated at the structure of lectures here at USC - they are very unorganized and change things at the very last minute.
ANYWAY.
Second week in and I have already started to look for a job; have two assignments approaching and need to find 45 hours of Wider Field Experience - basically Australia's way of say, Volunteer Hours.
In order to graduate from the Graduate Diploma in Education program, one must complete 65 hours of teacher-related, volunteer hours. I did some seminars, teaching assignments, and study groups last semester but now we're faced with 8 weeks to complete the rest.

On Thursday I had a meeting with a school. They were looking for 'Support-A-Reader' volunteers. Basically, (and typically) it's a program held in schools that require volunteers to come in, grab kids and help/assist them to read. Pretty basic.  I go into this one meeting, and the lady asks if I've ever test kids for reading and writing. I answer yes, once. BOOM! I am now testing 4 children on Monday. This 'test' is pretty extreme. It results in the child's 'reading age' (meaning where they're ranked according to their age group). So it's a big deal. It also isn't just one test, it's about 7. And I have 20 minutes for each child. NOT that easy to get through. I think the first test I conducted, last semester, took about 45 minutes.
Oh and the teacher isn't there on Monday. Fabulous!  This will happen every Monday for 2 hours.

Later that day, I had another meeting, with another school about their Support a Reader program.
Hired.
This school operates the same way I described earlier - you are in a classroom, you take upon a group of children (usually low-readers), and conduct a literacy circle group. This will happen twice a week, for 2 hours per session.
While I was there, a Year 3 teacher also asked if I could help out her class on Wednesdays, so I might be doing that...that still has to be confirmed.

Today (Friday), I also went to my old prac school to help out for the day.  I woke up at 6:45, arrived at 8AM and left at 4:30 PM. I didn't get home until closer to 6 and arrived home exhausted!! My mentor teacher now teachers Year 2 (she taught Year 5 with me last year). BIG difference.
Anyway, after I get home, I find out that I can only claim 5 hours of my work day. Apparently anything more, you are just being a super volunteer. BLAH!
We worked it out that I will probably be volunteering with her class every Friday - as long as I can work out a ride there, and or back (it's 1.5 hours on the bus).

I also had to apply to the Queensland College of Teachers. This application was a nightmare. I think it took over a week to complete - and really, it isn't completed yet because documents still need to be submitted via snail-mail. BUT I was finally able to complete the online process (it wasn't MAC compatible and I wasn't smart enough to figure this out until I e-mailed two coordinators (they didn't know either), and spoke to 10 people on campus. 5 days later, I figured it out and was able to successfully complete the application, pay ($121) and submit it!
Becoming a teacher is looking more and more real.

So - all in all, a very productive week but a stressful one.

Hours need to be met. A job needs to be found. University needs to be attended. And three different schools need my volunteering.

Lets see what next week brings.