Canadian Teachers

The old post was coming up on its expiration date again, so I've gone ahead and locked it. Here's a fresh new one to use. For browsing reference, here are the old posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/jqc791/prospective_student_teachers_teachers_collegebed/ - Part 1 https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/n75qlu/prospective_student_teachers_teachers_collegebed/ - Part 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/u4di1m/prospective_student_teachers_teachers_collegebed/ - Part 3 https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/11picnp/prospective_student_teachers_teachers_collegebed/ - Part 4

If you recently posted in Part 4 within the past 24 hours with no replies, I suggest you re-post it in this post so it can hopefully be answered.

This is a link about BEd programs across Canada, please note that a website date is not posted so the accuracy and current relevancy might be outdated. It's worth a look though, perhaps as an overview: https://stephaniecrouse.weebly.com/index.html

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• Are you a prospective student teacher interested in or currently applying to teacher's colleges across Canada and would like more information on their BEd admission requirements/GPA/personal experiences/etc?

• Have you already googled specific schools and looked through their requirements for GPA and courses needed and would like clarification or more personalized experiences about the overall application process or what the school itself was like?

• Need to ask some questions about teachables and what the best route would be to get a BEd in your undergrad program?

• Confused about the difference between a BEd and a MEd?

• Need information about the different grade divisions and how to move between them? (P/J to I/S and similar)

• Going the French route for your BEd and confused about what schools or courses are the best approach to taking this path?

• Have any questions on what you need to do to become a teacher in Canada?

This is your post!

Please use this post to ask questions about schools and teacher education programs, or to discuss/share any information pertaining to teacher's college/BEd/becoming a teacher. Make sure to include your location and what schools you're interested in if you have some in mind in your comment. Any posts made outside of this thread will be deleted with a reminder to use this one instead.

LOOKING FOR A SOCIAL MEDIA SITE FOR YOUR BEd SCHOOL? CHECK THIS POST OUT: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/t98r3o/all_social_media_pages_for_bed_programs_in/ (March 2022)

OT? AQ? TTOC? EPSB? Curious about what these terms mean? This megapost is designed to help us all navigate through commonly used acronyms throughout Canada.

Below you'll see comments with each province/territory in alphabetical order. The goal is to make this a "working document" and allow all members to share information to build something comprehensive. Please reply to the province/territory comment that applies to you with relevant acronyms and what they mean. Try not to repeat ones that are already defined in the province/territory thread, but please note that there will likely be some overlap with provinces/territories. Mods will go through this post and remove redundant comments, or comments that are not placed in the correct thread. Upvoting the most comprehensive, useful comments is also beneficial as they'll be at the top of each thread.

Please ONLY reply to the comment threads already on here. Do not start new threads - they will be deleted.

This post is stickied to the top of the sub and will remain there. It is also linked to automod as well.

Cheers!

He hates me and he lies constantly and he's trying to get me fired. I can't say exactly what happened here because I don't want anyone finding my account but let's just say this student twists my words and lies and tries to get me in trouble. I have a good relationship with my principal who trusts me but I had a student's parents threaten me that they would contact the board. I'm doing the best I can while holding misbehaving students accountable. Anyone ever had a student out to get you? I'm starting to lose sleep. I never know what's going to happen next or what they're going to say next.

Note: This student has a history of lying but I'm still getting anxiety going into work not knowing what else he's going to say about me to admin

I'm sure both of these boards can be a challenge but which would take longer to get full-time? When it comes to HDSB, is it less competitive if you're looking into the Burlington end of things?

Trying to figure out a move for our family between Peel region and Burlington so trying to factor in where it might make sense from a career perspective as well for a new teacher.

Hello fellow teachers. If any of you taught in Nunavut and decided to leave, either when the contract ended, or beforehand, I’m curious to know why? And what was the hardest thing about being there?

Hello, anyone have example interview questions or topics for SCDSB Occasional supply teaching (Elementary)?

I’m having some trouble with my current school (maritime province) with admin that are making a lot of changes without consulting any actual teachers and basically shut out anyone who disagrees with them or even asks any questions. I’m not sure if I should stick around or not. I’m still early in my career but have essentially been guaranteed a permanent job if I continue at the same school next year.

On one hand, it would be tough to give up the guaranteed job, but is it worth sticking around at a school I don’t trust? They seem to be following a “no student gets left behind” approach but it feels less and less like actual teaching and more like babysitting despite being in a high school.

If I leave, I’m not sure where to go but considering going out of province. I’d love to live in a bigger city. What provinces would be worth moving to where I wouldn’t have to wait a ridiculously long time before getting a long term job? I’m mainly certified in high school science/math.

I had a teacher in highschool who was doing her master's while teaching

How likely is it for people to complete their masters while teaching either elementary or post secondary?

If you're pursuing a master's right now, are you also teaching? And what are you studying and what did you study as your bachelor's? Just curious

I’ve been teaching for 20 years and have seen a shift in kid’s behaviour tremendously, but also in how the schools deal with those behaviours. Some things I’ve noticed: 1 - Usually the parents side with their kids and blame the teacher… they often have an excuse or see things not how they actually are (never their kid’s fault) 2 - The rights of the individual child have trumped the common good of the class (example: extreme bad behaviour of slamming doors and running up and down the halls and disrupting classes with violence goes unpunished because of equity and the rights of that child; yet, daily causing disruptions to the learning of the rest of the class isn’t considered) 3 - Kids’ behaviour is worse due to screens. They’ve been on screens since a young age affecting their brain development. Their parents are staring at screens all day affecting their ability to develop healthy relationships, learn how to interact with other people, etc.

Thoughts?

As the year winds down I am slowly looking ahead to planning and growth for next year.

What were your most impactful PD, initiatives, or PLCs this year? I’m interested in all answers, but specifically looking at assessment practices, Truth and Reconciliation or social-emotional learning.

Along with a heartfelt card, would teachers like and/or use homemade gifts? Both my kids teachers, resource teachers, principal and office staff are amazing and I want to show appreciation.

I was going to make lemon syrup and a lip/skin scrub. I’ve done home propagated plants before so I wanted to do something different for the teachers we’ve had for 2 years now.

Alternatively, I read a lot about teachers saving the thank you cards to look back at on hard days. Would something like a Smile File (heard the name from another teacher) be appreciated? It’s a file folder to store the cards and little gifts in. I’d decorate it in some way.

I can’t really do gift cards for everyone but I want to do something.

I am a grade 3 teacher and because I am good with difficult kids they love to give me almost unmanagable classrooms. I am in southern BC.

I am not sure how many of you familiar with "remedy" for classrooms not in composition, and if you ask I will explain what it is in more detail. In essence I am to be given about $10,000 this year in remedy because my classroom composition does not meet my contract requirements. I do not get this money added to my paycheck, instead I am able to use it to buy resources for my classroom or use it for training. The resoources have to be reasonably connected to improving my abilities as a teacher.

What would you buy? I curently have $6,600 that needs to be spent before June 13th in order to get reimbursed this year. I can spend it later, but reimbursement only happens in June and February.

I was thinking of a 3D printer, but at grade three there are few applications.

Think big!

As a new teacher, I decided to get ahead of the game and take 2 AQ courses (math primary/junior part 1 and special education part 1). Unfortunately, I think I put too much on my plate, given that I am working a lot more than I expected at my full-time job, and it’s starting to impact my learning abilities for my AQ courses. In specific, I’ve been struggling to stay afloat in my math primary/junior part 1 AQ course. Would anyone have any additional resources that could help me stay afloat or maybe give some insight to get me through these next few weeks? Thank you in advance.

Curious if anyone has had OTIP cover any personal training linked to managing peri-menopause? I don't believe anything like this is covered, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Thanks!

Here’s the run down:

I live in a resort town in BC, and have no interest working in my district due to some ‘icky’ admins and board leadership. All my friends are here, I’m very active in our community, but I didn’t get this teaching degree to not use it!

I’ve applied around and have 2 main offers:

Offer A :

Full time temp learning support teacher

1.5 hours away

I’ve been TTOCing in this district and currently on a .4 cover, I commute daily.

The .4 I’m on is for Kindergarten, and the main teacher is set to retire but hasn’t made a call on it just yet. When I started the board and principal expressed to me that they are expecting it to open up by the end of this school year for next year- but no posting have been made. I was encouraged to apply and offered the role as a hold over because they want me on staff.

I love the school. I love the kids. But this town has far less amenities than where I currently live and no major social connections.

Wage ~70k

Offer B:

Full time continuing Primary classroom teacher projected 1/2 split roughly 19 kids (independent school)

3 hours away in a larger town with far more amenities compared to where I currently live. My sister is established there and I have existing friends as well in that town.

Wage ~54k

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I know money isn’t everything but I have roughly 50k of debt from the years of studying (unpaid practicums should be illegal imo) and trying to keep my head a float with the high cost of living in my community and inflation.

My partner and I want to move in together and build a life but I’m worried they might not find fulfilling work in Town A. We’ve talk about doing medium distance where they stay in our current town and I come up Friday after school and drive back Monday morning but it won’t be very sustainable come winter.

I guess I need some impartial advice, and points to consider!

Hi everyone!

Just wondering if anyone could tell if pay increases with (Ontario) boards if you obtain a master’s degree and are already at A4 level? Thanks!

I am currently on maternity leave in Ontario. I am doing the 12 months maternity/parental leave. I got the 17 weeks top up from my board and now I’m getting my government E.I maternity leave only for the last couple months. My little one just turned 7 months and I still have a few more months before I go back to work. I am at the top of the pay scale and I am barely able to pay my bills with what is given. Am I missing something? Is mat leave for teachers this bad? I’m making significantly less than my regular pay. Wondering if I can get some clarification or confirmation about teacher mat leave pay.

I have had to take off after 5 weeks of an LTO Grade 1/2. I have a specific reading block where my ESL students were given books to read with partners. I had on chart paper sight words to get students to write sentences. We are heading into read assessment week and I want my class to catch up on certain areas. I was told this Teacher came in for me and was given math work from my neighbour teacher which was fine. Not only did she not follow the day plans again, she left some book from our library in the room, gave very easy work to the kids about building a tree fort...left no end of day note for me. She found some work not yet used I had set in a corner of the room and used them...it was not challenging materials also. I never saw a copy of my plans left anywhere. Maybe the OA did not print it for her? The students told me they did all their Math which was acceptable however she covered up all kinds of assessments I left there also. So I asked around who this Teacher was and they just said she was bounced around all week and part of the day she was helping out in other classes. I would understand if she is used to dealing with other classes but what stood out to me was once I told her before she covered for me there was no way kids would be using chromebooks after losing them for behaviours, I walked in later on and they were all on them! OA told me maybe she had a misunderstanding...

I understand some teachers are just trying to survive now but my detailed plans should have been recognized. This is part of our collective agreement no? I would never ask the Principal if it was the same person because I am not hiring them and I do think she has her qualifications but still, it sort of messed up a couple of things I needed to get done this week. If it were me, I would have at least taken out the book she brought in and checked off what got done. Was I expecting too much?

Hi folks, can anyone in the TDSB tell me how Occasional Teaching for summer school works? I’ve asked a few office staff and admin and can’t seem to get a straight answer. Are opportunities posted on Smartfind Express to everyone who’s on the regular list? Or is it something you need to apply for separately?

If anyone has done it before and could help explain it would be much appreciated!

How old or how mature are you when you first taught grade 12?

I'm currently in elementary and have been accepted into secondary.

I was wondering what happens to my pension? Does it transfer over?

Also, I know I lose all seniority, but does that include my over 100 days of supplying as well? (When you supply for more than 100 days the pay rate goes up which is why I'm asking)

Thanks!

I'm not sure if the fact that I'm in Ontario is relevant since I think EI is a federal program, but has anyone gotten EI through the summer with less than full-time work planned for September?

It my understanding that teachers might not be eligible for EI if they have secured work, but I am not sure if this applies for less than full-time work. I have two sections of secondary (0.33 FTE) likely in September, although it could also be in February since I haven't been given next year's assignment details.

Ultimately, I will contact EI to ask, but was wondering if anyone else had experience with this before.

I've been a sub in NS since 2016. Wasn't working for a couple years after having my kids, but now I'm back at it. For the longest time, I didn't know what kind of classroom I wanted. After subbing for a bit now (both before and after children) I would really like to be a kindergarten (aka "primary" out here in NS) teacher.

How long, after subbing and/or bouncing about in contracts, did it take for you to get your ideal classroom? NS, like lots of other provinces I'm sure, is going through permanent teacher placements right now and it's so disheartening not being able to apply to some of the posts that I'd really love to be in (even more so annoying is the fact that brand new grads are being offered permanent status but that's a different gripe for another day!)

I am what you would call a centrist in regsrds to many political issues, although depending on the issue my views can be centre-right or centre-left. I tend to reject views from the extreme of either end of the political spectrum.

I am increasingly finding though that teachers unions/associations are skewing to the left, somewhere between centre-left and extreme-left depending on the issue. Anyone else finding this?

Do you feel like your views aren't always represented by people who are "speaking" for the profession? Ever feel like you have to censor your views in professional environments (even when they're fairly mainstream)?

I’m teaching a primary class for the first time starting Monday! 3/4 but mainly grade threes.

Can anyone share any resources? Or websites? :)

Hi all

I got my employee number for TDSB mid-May. I have completed 8 days so far. (Secondary)

However, I also got a TCDSB employee number and accepted an LTO until the end of the school year.

Is it possible to stay on the TDSB list? I’ve emailed them to ask if the days are prorated, yet no response.

Any advice? I’d like to be on both boards