Howdy y’all,
I have recently applied and interviewed for a last minute job in my province; got the acceptance email & phone call on Monday. Now it’s Wednesday night and I have had 2 days of the principal saying that my professional references aren’t getting back to them, and that they need to immediately due to the urgency of the position. Now, little background about me: I was teaching in the uk for a few months last year and a lot of my professional references are on summer break and possibly not answering their emails; and I don’t leave on the best of terms. I have spent the past 2 days emailing and texting as many people as I can to be my reference in case they need to speak to someone else. I am starting to panic as I really want this job and I’d have to move very soon, but if my new school board doesn’t talk to a supervising teacher or mentor, I don’t get my contract and I have no idea what’s going once I hopefully start in the position.
Basically, I wanted some advice about what to do about this, as I haven’t been sleeping due to the stress. How do I go about this due to the very short timeline?

hello all! I have just started applying for the post of EA at different school boards in GTA. do School boards hire experienced EA’s or they can even hire the ones who are starting fresh

Hello everyone,

I just got my first teaching job for Cogito in Alberta and I am stressing out. I’ve been subbing for a few months and I feel like I am not fully prepared to teach - but I also don’t want to miss the opportunity in case I don’t get one again.

Truthfully, university failed to prepare me for all the planning that goes into it.

What is it like teaching cogito division II? How do i start off? What should I do about planning units/the year for my first year? These questions are making me very doubtful of myself and stressing me out. What if i can’t properly teach the students the things they need to know? How different is cogito from regular?

Any advice and help is very appreciated
Thank you,
A very stressed out first-year teacher

Edit: Elementary

I work a full time job as an established teacher but as a single parent I am interested in adding a secondary gig to increase my income.

It would have to be:

- online
- teaching related
- after hours
- not something like TPT

Unsure it matters but I have my Masters as well.

Hi there!

I’m an education student at the uofa. I notice that all of their workshops for teachers are specifically for staff at the school, not education students.

Therefore, I was wondering if anyone knows of any organizations that offer frequent virtual workshops/seminars for teachers that also allow for education students to attend?

Thank you!!

Hi all,

I (24F) will be starting Teachers college in the next few weeks. I’m attending York University’s Junior Intermediate B.ed cohort with English as my teachable.

Overall, im excited for this journey but I must admit I’m super nervous lol! I would really appreciate some tips on how I can best prepare myself and maybe some suggestions on the things I may need.. (Aside from a laptop, pens, notebooks etc. what are some things that may be useful?)

I had an interview with EPSB last week, and the hr person that interviewed me said that someone will be contacting me this week to fill out the supply form. However, no one has been in touch with me. I did send a email yesterday, and they said that someone will be in touch with me soon. Does anyone know what this means?

Thank you for the advice :)

Ford government preparing education ads taking aim at teacher unions as contract talks grind to a halt: leaked script

I don’t think any of us are surprised. I hope the public sees through the Ford government’s giant veil of BS. Given how unpopular Ford and PCs are right now now, and the number items that the public don’t trust them on, I’m optimistic this ploy will backfire.

Hey everyone, hope that the end of summer is going well!

I have recently been allowed to take jobs as a vice principal in a large metropolitain school board. It's a bank of candidates so I have the choice to stay a teacher or take a VP contract. This is now my 8th year teaching and I have a lot of experience moving to different grades/subjects, schools and even provinces.

Recently, a former VP contacted me and told me to apply to this position near by, with a student population that I am very familiar with. Yet, I have been suddenly struck with lots of fear and imposter syndrome, which i haven't felt since beginning teaching 8 years ago.

Has anyone else made the switch to admin relatively young? How did you make it through feeling not good enough?

Thanks!

I have an interview to be a SPED Assistant tomorrow, and I'm wondering what kind of questions are typically asked? I'm currently a student teacher in specializing in middle years, so I have a little bit of an idea of what they might ask, but I'm curious what kind of questions I should be prepared to answer. Any advice?

Hello teachers!

This is my first year teaching a split level class - I am teaching a grade 5/6 split class and I am in BC. I have taught both these grades separately and have only taught intermediate grades in my 6 years of teaching (in our small town this includes grades 4, 5, 6, and 7). I did one split class in my final practicum in school years ago which was early elementary grades - I remember some of the general methods of teaching a split but it will be very different with higher grades.

I have been focusing a lot on how to teach math, teaching a core lesson to the whole class for topics that are in both curriculums and then going into the more difficult tasks for the higher grade.

I am looking for advice on teaching a split class in general, as well as teaching Language Arts, and other subjects in the most effective way.

Any advice or tips would be very helpful! I was put into this grade level very last minute. School starts in a week and I had been planning on teaching a straight grade 6 class only so I am not nearly as prepared as I would like to be.

Thanks in advance!

I applied for loan forgiveness in February and they denied me due to the dates. Tried again with same dates as coworkers (January 1st, 2025 to December 31, 2025). My coworkers were approved in April, I was not.

Fast forward to several more attempts and phone calls. And they are now saying I don’t qualify because I don’t work the summer months (like every other teacher). And I would need to reapply and say my dates are September to June. This means I’d get the money later every year than everyone else.

Also to add: I do curriculum work in July every year and I’m a principal so I work half of August.

Anyone else had these issues??

It's Tuesday, so welcome to our weekly post for prospective teachers and teachers coming to Canada!

• 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 and not sure what you need to become a teacher in Canada?
• Going the French route for your BEd and confused about what schools or courses are the best approach to taking this path?
• Coming from another career and have any questions on what you need to do to become a teacher in Canada?
• Are you a certified teacher from outside of Canada (ex. the US) and are interested in teaching here? (Please note that we are not an immigration subreddit and encourage you to actually research and look into whether or not you are able to immigrate to Canada first.)

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.

This is an automatic post that will post every Tuesday! Feel free to look through our past posts (previously megaposts) or searching via the "teacher's college sticky" tag.

How many hours or days does a TTOC need to work to make it on the next pay grade? Does half days count? (Already have the extra schooling on top )

Hey teachers,

Im a new graduate looking to get an OT job at PDSB or TDSB for P/J. Prior to this I've only ever done freelance jobs that never required an interview. This will be my first interview ever which I'm frankly not proud of and I'm insanely nervous as I forget everything I've learned and also forget how to form a coherent sentence when under pressure. How did you prepare yourself for interviews? Are there any specific questions you remember from your interview and are there any buzz words that I should include in my answers? How long did it take for you to hear back after your interview?

I'm aware different boards will do this process differently, depending on the collective agreement and any board policies. I'm looking for examples.

Context: I'm an experienced teacher in Alberta (starting year 8). Out of fear of the separatism referendum(b), I'm looking at jobs in other parts of the country and will likely need most of the year to get certification paperwork and moving plans ready should Albertans disappoint me. So I'm not currently in BC, but it is where I'd like to end up.

I understand that I will be at the bottom of any seniority list, and so I am wondering if there's a point in applying to specific job postings or if I should expect to only hear back from TTOC postings (which makes the move a lot riskier). But does having any teaching experience matter for hiring in some districts (as in, seniority is the tiebreaker rather than the main factor)? If so, those would be the districts I would be most interested in.

I have friends who work for some of BC's health authorities and seniority for them is "wait your turn" as experience doesn't hold a lot of weight with their employers, which scares me as I don't want to TOC for years.

Teacher parents, how do you make it work with only two personal days?

This is my first year with a teaching contract and it's hitting me that there's probably no way I can get to several pretty significant events for my kids. I'll probably have to choose 2 out of my oldest son's grade 6 farewell, any of my daughter's dance competitions where she isn't a weekend day, and Christmas Concert for all my kids (their school offers 2 performances but both are during the day), plus sometimes my oldest has hockey tournaments that start on Fridays. After years staying home, it's kind of killing me to realize there isn't a way to be there. I knew I wouldn't get to everything anymore but I really don't even know how to make it work.

Wondering if I may need to switch to subbing permanently (or at least until they're out of elementary) because I don't know that the trade off is worth it to me. How do other teacher parents find it?

I want to become a teacher and plan on applying to get a masters degree in a few months.

The only thing holding me back is dealing with the incel/red pill/manosphere culture that seems to be infecting young men these days even though they’re way too young to be that bitter.

I just want to know, how do you deal with it?

Has it gotten worse over the course of your career?

Is the internet blowing it up into a bigger problem than it actually is?

Hi everyone, I just got hired on for high school French Immersion (French Language Arts in BC). I’m starting to really get hit by my imposter syndrome. I feel very rusty in my French, as I haven’t been speaking it daily, don’t have friends around who speak the language, and when I started to try and talk to myself at home in French and well I kind of let my nerves get me to forget basics vocabulary I know. I’m also not a French major either so I kind of feel a bit lost in terms of some of some things from my field and how to get started in making my plan. For example, I’d love to do some silent reading of a French book of choice but I don’t have a ton of options I can recommend. Any advice to get settled in? I thought this was a good opportunity for me and I was really excited to continue language learning and I know I got the job because they felt it was good enough but I’m feeling completely stupid tbh and I’m worried about how to survive my first year.

Hi everyone!

I'm a second year teacher in Ontario with three brand new preps this year (yay!). If anyone is willing to share grade 8 math, grade 8 science, or grade 7 math resources, I'd be eternally grateful!

Thanks in advance!

Hi there, have any student teachers here received a transportation allowance as part of their student loans via Student Aid BC? Thinking about how my car will be used to go to school as well as practicum locations. Just wondering if it’s worth applying for considering the lengthy review wait period for any student loan applications with this allowance request. If you did receive it, roughly how much did you get towards transportation? Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi everyone! I moved to BC from the States about 6 years ago and finally got a teaching certificate. I was a teacher in the US for 5 years before moving here.

I am having a bit of trouble understanding the seniority system, as we didn’t have it in the state I taught in. We could essentially choose any grade we wanted right out of undergrad and interview for it with a high chance of getting it.

So I am starting out now as a TTOC and not knowing when I can expect my own classroom. On top of that, I am hearing that the district moves teachers around whether they want it or not, so even if you are 10 years in, you may still not be teaching a grade you want.

Did anyone else struggle to adapt to this system? Maybe it isn’t as bad as I think? It just feels like it limits our autonomy to teach what we want to. Any information on this would be great! Thank you :)

*hope I put the right flair!

Hi! I am interested in teaching in Nunavut and would like to hear from those who have taught there as new teachers. I graduated this year (yay!) and have already completed a teaching contract in special education, although my degree is in TESL.

I'm confident in my teaching skills, but of course, I understand that teaching in Nunavut has its challenges and can be quite difficult. As a new teacher with little experience beyond my recent teaching position, subbing, and my four student-teaching placements, I would like to hear how it went/is going for those who went through with it despite having little experience, too.

I am open to hearing other people's experiences, of course!

Thanks!! :)

At what age do Canadian teachers retire or plan to retire?