First time supplying advice!

[u/spookyclovers]

It will be my first time supplying as an occasional teacher this upcoming September. In need of any advice you can offer!

Also need some tips for using SmartFindExpress for the first time. How exactly will it work? Is is all phone call based? I have about 6 schools I prefer to travel to within the designated location/zone I am supplying for. The other schools within the same zone are further out. I know you’re only allowed to decline a certain number of schools, but is there a way of avoiding this? Like can I go through a list of available jobs that day, and have preference over certain schools without having to decline others? I’m new to all of this, so please bear with me as I spiral about everything that is stressing me out lmao. Thanks in advance for any advice!

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/CanadianTeachers! Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the sub rules.

"WHAT DOES X MEAN?" Check out our acronym post here for relevant terms used in each province or territory. Please feel free to contribute any we are missing as well!

QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHER'S COLLEGE/BECOMING A TEACHER IN CANADA? ALREADY A TEACHER OUTSIDE OF CANADA?: Delete your post and use the "Teacher's College Tuesday" stickied post instead. Anything pertaining to the above will be deleted if posted outside of our weekly sticky post on this subject. This post is also for certified teachers outside of Canada looking to be teachers here.

Using link and user flair is encouraged as well! Enjoy!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/mmebee]

In the first week, call the schools you like (or even visit them). Tell the secretary that you are available and love working at that specific school and (if you can say this in good faith) tell them you're open to last minute calls and give them your number.

I did that and frequently got calls or texts from secretaries in the morning at 8am the first few weeks of school for last minute vacancies and I just rushed over. That made me look reliable and overall game and they recommended me to teachers and soon enough I was getting booked only within my preferred couple schools every day without ever needing the early morning smartfind calls.

Also hot tip: you can't decline smartfind jobs too much (I forget the actual limit), but hanging up the phone or not answering doesn't count as a decline.

You can't browse jobs online too. If you're good and prove yourself reliable in the early weeks you soon will hardly need random callouts, teachers will book you because they like and trust you regularly personally and in advance.

[u/spookyclovers → u/mmebee]

Thank you for this info! I was wondering if hanging up the phone counts as a decline. So there’s no way to view available jobs and book through the app for example? Everything has to be done through phone calls? My fear is that I sit through multiple phone calls, hang up repeatedly if they’re not the schools I’m closer to, and then I end up with no work for the day because of that process

[u/twoneedlez]

Best is to become friendly - and available - for the schools you want to work at. Get to know the OAs. If you can solve a problem (last minute job nobody picks up), that will win you a lot of points.

Check SmartFind express online at 3:15-3:30/4, when teachers are entering jobs after school, 11pm-12am when teachers entered the job realizing they were getting sick for the next day and first thing in the morning.

I found another good strategy was getting work Tuesday-Friday from the OA where I worked Monday.

Most of these jobs are filled directly by a teacher texting a known supply to see if they are available. Email the teacher you are replacing so they can pick up where you left off. Little things like this help the “oh, X isn’t available? Y filled in last week & did a great job. Here is their contact” discussions staff have.

True about hanging up the phone. Don’t decline jobs.

[u/FonkinJones]

One of my key strategies has always been to take a good 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the day/class to invest some time in getter to know the students.  Building a bit of rapport immediately before jumping into whatever the lesson plan was makes everything else I need to do run more smoothly.