At this stage, I am a casual relief teacher/substitute teacher/emergency teacher/whatever you want to call someone who fills in for your regular teacher but doesn't usual teach at your school.

I'm registered with THREE agencies, yet all of them seem so poorly organised and over-filled with contract teachers that I'm rarely offered work from them. Fortunately, I established a healthy relationship with St Michael's Grammar School in St Kilda in Term 1, working as an out-of-school-hours assistant, and also as a superviser of a dangerous walkway.

At the end of Term 1, the Daily Planner of the Senior School came up to me while I was manning my post and asked me to come chat with him when I had a moment. So I went to his office, and we had a chat about the possibility of me doing casual relief teaching (hereon known as CRT) for the Senior School in Term 2, as the supervision position was no longer necessary.

It all went well, and I was actually offered a few teaching days in Term 1, but they unfortunately clashed with the supervision job. At the start of Term 2, however, I was free as a bird and was quickly signed up to do a couple of days teaching.

CRT is a fine job, you get paid well for essentially babysitting students while they study. Sometimes, on really good days, you actually get to use your brain and deliver a lesson, sometimes leading activities you have created on the fly (my favourite way to teach). Other days it's truly snoozeville, waking up to let a student go to the toilet occasionally.

CRT is also a painful job, when you are placed at a rough school where the students know the CRT workers are often ignorant of most school rules and procedures, and will test your knowledge and your patience whenever they can. Personally I respond well to this, being only a couple of years out of school myself, and recognise what the aim of the taunt/test is, and whip it back or shrug it off. I've only worked at one such school thus far, and I was more horrified by the attitude of the staff rather than the behaviour of the students. Poin in fact - my bike lights were stolen after I left it locked up on school property. Sure, it was sad that some students would be so opportunistic as to steal from someone (they also tried to steal my mudguard...). But sadder still, the response from the staff was, "Oh, you should have told me you rode to school, we could have put your bike in a safe place, we've had bikes stolen/damaged before, maybe this is a good lesson for you." WTF?!?! So not only do they make no effort to compensate me for my loss, but they blame ME and not the students, and also prove that rather than be proactive and build a lockable bike cage, they would rather just discourage students and staff from riding to school!

Anyway, back to this morning. I had been really depressed this week, since I had worked at St Michael's on Monday, and then heard nothing Tuesday or Wednesday. On Thursday I received a call from St M's, but I was indisposed, and when I returned the call less than a minute later, the Daily Planner had already found another CRT to take the day's work. So when I received another call from him that evening offering me work for today, I felt tremendously relieved - if I work less than two days a week I worry I won't be able to make rent.

On Monday I had trouble with the tram system, causing me to be later than my requested arrival time. I was still ni time to take my first class, so it wasn't a disaster, but it shook me up enough to ensure I made an extra-early start this morning, to try and get to the school a good 5 or 10 minutes earlier than I was needed. So by 7:30am I was up, dressed, packed and out the door.

I was about 10 metres from my tram stop, with the tram itself only about 100m away from me, when my mobile phone started ringing. It was the Daily Planner, so my first thought was that he'd forgotten I was already working today and was calling to see if I was available. As you already know, I was very wrong. Three steps from hopping on my tram, he tells me that the school's need for my services today has unfortunately evaporated, he's sorry and he hates to do this... and the rest of his apologies are drowned out by the tram's arrival. My lip goes into tremble mode, but I keep my voice chipper and say that it's fine, it's ok, have a good weekend Rod. And then I turn on my heel and slump my way back to my apartment.

Seriously, what other job robs you of a day's pay at the last minute like that? If he'd called any later, I would have been on the tram, would have validated and therefore paid for my ticket, and if he'd called much later I would have been at the school! What would happen then - I'd get to his office and be told I wasn't needed?

Obviously this rant was more for my mental health than for the enjoyment of the reader, but if you did read it, maybe it's an interesting insight into the precariously unstable financial situation of the average CRT. My God, I became a Drama teacher so I wuold be able to avoid the actor's lifestyle of waiting by the phone... Irony is a bitch.