Well! I am writing this at the eve of a new era…tomorrow I will be teaching my first class at Pymble Ladies College; my first time as a fully fledged graduate teacher. By then I will have had a week of internal workshops and getting to know the school, and I am impressed to say the least. The school is run like a small corporation, complete with resources and helplines, who, so far so good, have been excatly what the name indicates: Helpful! My line manager is taking a lot of time to ensure I am settling in ok, which is reassuring. No question is too much, and every request /comment is acted upon (and in most instances resolved) almost immediately.  We will have monthly meetings to discuss my progress (she will be sitting in a class every fortnight) and discuss professional development opportunities. So far, we have agreed that for 2009 my main goal is to achieve accreditation with the Institute of Teachers. The school will pay for PD if it falls in line with this goal. We have identified a course by the AIS on how to accumulate the accreditation materials as a first priority.  I will also attend the NAFT conference at the end of the year and possibly attend the Goethe conference in March (at least for 1 day). Once I have gotten the hang of life here at Pymble and gotten on with the accreditation, I may look into undertaking web-inars with Goethe to improve on using IT in the classroom.  I also volunteered to be the Moodle point of contact for Modern Languages, so any training that is coming in that respect will be on my plate as well!  I can’t wait to get going.