Cookies and Cream Cheesecake, Teaching hopes and Salt dough ornaments

My friend Jennifer and I decided to make Cookies and Cream Cheesecake over the summer. It’s summer in Australia and school vacation! I’ve recently finished university so it’s my last summer vacation before I need to get a job. I previously had not made cheesecake before so I was looking forward to it. It was my idea to make it too so I had hoped that it turned out well.

Ta Da! It was easy to make as it was a no bake cheesecake. We used Oreo cookies in our cheesecake, being that we thought it was the most delicious cookie for the recipe. The only thing we forgot was to decorate the cake with chocolate but that wasn't really important.

Photos courtesy of Jennifer

Jennifer was also graduating from university to be a teacher as well. We talked about our hopes for our future career. We hope that we get jobs this year! There are too many graduates and not enough positions so we may have to do substitute teaching for a while. We both don’t like the idea of that! I’m sure everyone is experienced on how students treat substitute teachers. I think subbing is daunting when you don’t have the experience. Imagine going to the class that you have no knowledge of and working out what to do with them.

Sometimes the original teacher will leave behind work and other times they don’t so you have to quickly source through the resource cupboard to think of what to do for the day. You also have to work out the class routines such as when the students go to music or P.E whether those teachers pick them up or whether you have to take them and where is the gym?!  Meanwhile, the kids are going crazy because their normal teacher is not there.

 As always there will be good days and bad days. It gets better when you have subbed for a school on many occasions as you get to know the kids, staff and the routines. The best thing to do as a sub is to be prepared, have generic lessons on hand so you can teach anything. Actually, subbing is a way to get a full-time job. If the school knows you are looking for full time work, they will consider you when there’s an opening. Most teaching positions are filled in house which means they select people they already know and the last resort is advertising it on job site.

That’s enough about teaching. While waiting for our cheesecake to set, we decided to make salt dough ornaments for our Christmas trees. All you need is a cup of salt, water and flour. You kneed it altogether until you make a dough, cut the dough into shapes and bake in the oven until firm. We also decided to paint the ornaments. Jennifer had to go home before we could finish, so I finished them by myself. I also added glitter and I glossed them by painting them with PVA glue.

Is there anything you like to bake? Or what are your career hopes?