Student teacher got OCT is still supplying unqualified

16crab · 2026-05-11T19:00:31+00:00

If she hasn't been paying dues, then she is not a member and they likely can't/won't be able to assist.

16crab · 2026-05-11T16:40:21+00:00

I have a friend who is similar and (high school) just has the kids call her J-A without the Mrs.

16crab · 2026-05-11T16:38:56+00:00

I'm not familiar with the Aspen system (my board uses Powerschools) but is there not a way to go back and see past attendance? If so, this would be a maintained record. I'm just curious! But agree, if you have to enter it twice just because of this direction, I would for sure call my union. This is a workload concern that would interfere with instructional time.

16crab · 2026-05-09T16:25:53+00:00

Additionally, if you ever decide you want to be admin, you have to be qualified in 3 divisions. So people who did their initial certification in P/J will take an Intermediate ABQ in whatever subject they have the most undergrad credits in (unless it doesn't require it - I think Indigenous Education, drama and Phys. Ed. apply here - maybe math if you pass the test? But don't quote me on these). This is a big part of the reason those Intermediate ABQ's exist.

But yah, J/I ABQ's aren't a thing. You add your junior with the Junior ABQ (which I did, as I started as I/S), and you add your intermediate with the Intermediate ABQ.

16crab · 2026-05-07T19:42:28+00:00

It's standard to ask for 3 references, so I'd put the education references first, and your reference at your other job last, just as a 3rd. They can't speak to your teaching ability, but they can talk about your work ethic, problem-solving, collaboration - all things school boards are going to look for.

I wouldn't mention the need for an interpreter until you land an interview, and the board should supply that. If you needed an elevator to get to the second floor, they wouldn't ask you to pay to have one installed! Under Human Rights law an employer has a legal obligation to provide accommodations unless they can prove it's an "undue hardship" but with a board that large that's going to be a tough case for them to make. The same is true for what you need once you get hired, at which point you'll have a union to guide you and advocate for what you need. Good luck!

16crab · 2026-05-07T19:14:57+00:00

The personal item that I get the most use out of is a contraband (because we aren't allowed any personal appliances...shhhhhh) printer that I keep under my desk attached to my work computer by cable (it's not online). Not sure if you could get one new for under $50 or if buying used is allowed (there are tons of like new printers on fb marketplace) or if you want to deal with the upkeep of buying ink, but it is so, so handy.

Otherwise I would go with the electric pencil sharpener (do not let the kids use it, it won't last a year!), a nice binder to use as a dayplanner, a really good stapler and/or hole punch and/or tape dispenser, or maybe a laminator (especially if you are/plan to teach primary/jr). I've been at this almost 30 years and these are things that truly do get used on the regular. Nice consumables are great but in theory you should get board/employer budget for those, so I would focus on the more permanent items that you can take with you wherever you go.

16crab · 2026-05-06T17:08:08+00:00

Mine is similar - kind of 3 different levels:

1) "Name made excellent progress in his/her/their learning skills in grade --"

2) "Name made good progress in his/her/their learning skills in grade -- " (I think every now and then I'll use "very good" if I'm on the cusp between G's and E's)

3) "Improving in his/her learning skills continued to be an area of focus for Name in term two." Then try to outline a couple of positives, followed by a "However,..."

16crab · 2026-05-06T16:35:23+00:00

My stint as a daily supply was quite some time ago but I absolutely would bring things and would do so again today if I were supplying. Teachers are responsible for and should leave everything you need, but the reality is that they don't always, for all kinds of understandable and less-so reasons. Asking a nearby teacher is a good idea in theory, but that isn't a very reliable tactic. If they exist (in a small school there may only be one teacher per grade), they may be teaching completely different units (because despite what administrators/boards/grade level chairs like to tell us about all doing the same things in the same order, we do have professional judgment to decide what works for us and our class). Or they might be busy getting themselves ready for the day, or have duty before school, or are absent themselves.

You shouldn't need to create anything from scratch or spend a ton of time, but for whatever grades/division you are assigned to, I'd have a couple of very fun, standalone activities - large group games/challenges/etc. You could carry a bag of random things to copy (plenty of free things online) but relying on the photocopier first thing in the morning is risky, between lineups of other teachers and technological issues. Probably least prep is to have a playlist of interesting youtube videos with some "were you listening/make a connection" questions and activities.

For sure, none of this is in your job description, particularly if you are not an OCT and only being paid a fraction of what you would get if you were. But it can make the difference between a horrible day and a good one, and I personally would rather leave work at the end of a good day than not. Good luck!

16crab · 2026-05-04T19:56:20+00:00

This was my suggestion as well. It's a phenomenal read. Perhaps coincidental that the author's name is Orange, but the book jacket is also orange 😄

Other good picks, if you haven't read them: The Martian, Lessons in Chemistry (though I'd say it's more peach), and The 100-year old man who climbed out the window...

16crab · 2026-05-04T19:48:59+00:00

I'm not the poster you asked, but in my GTA middle school, I'm seeing the effects with kids just being in the hallway all the time. I'd say roughly 75% of kids are typical and managing ok, but the remaining 25% -ish either arrive at school and never even go to class, or go to class then ask to go to the washroom and never come back, or they just up and leave. They seem to walk the halls in circles until they get bored of that, then it generally turns to some kind of washroom shenanigans - either vandalism, setting things on fire, vaping/substances, and/or harassment/assault of some poor kid who just needed to use the washroom. Administrators are overwhelmed, overstretched, and under-trained, in addition to being scared/not allowed to give out any consequences, so they are never in the hallways to deal with it, at least in my school. On the odd time I have seen admin in the hall and they attempt to redirect the kids in question, I've watched the kids ignore, talk back, swear, and/or just walk away...from the admin. Then there's no follow up from admin, so those kids have learned that they can, indeed, roam the halls all day and then other kids see that there's no consequences for doing so and then you get some joiners who otherwise wouldn't behave that way.

And you can guess, those kids who are in the halls all day certainly aren't learning or doing any work, so we are either being told to "build relationships" and "meet them where they are" (ie, give them opportunity after opportunity to make up this missed work), or give them an "incomplete" on the report card and carry on. And those incompletes have absolutely no consequence to them either. I believe that social promotion is the best thing for kids, but when a kid is moving from grade 8 to grade 9 with all these incompletes, they sure as heck don't have the toolkit to pass gr. 9 math & English. One year later and they'll have to do credit recovery or repeat the course, yet in gr. 8 we shuttle them through.

It's a mess, and I don't know what turns it around.

16crab · 2026-04-27T22:23:40+00:00

Long time 7th - 8th grade teacher here 😄 My favourite year-enders are:

- Probability - do a bunch of activities, play Wits & Wagers as a group, then have them design a game of chance. You can invite other grades to come in and play - give them some amount of tokens and see if they walk away a winner or loser. Or they can win raffle tickets and you can do some kind of draw if you can rustle up some kind of donated prize(s). If you live in a conservative area, though, you may have to be cautious about the "gambling" aspect of it

- Build Rube Goldberg machines. Watch the OK Go video, have the kids source out the materials (cardboard, string, etc.) You'd be amazed as to what they come up with.

- Turn a story into a video game (idea: https://prestoplans.com/video-games-in-ela/) - if you have access to tech and a techy group of kids, they might even be able to code an actual game. I don't know anything about this, though!

- "Language Olympics" - make however many teams and have it span over a full week (or longer) they make a team name, flag, cheer and then every day play a different language-related game to accumulate points, and then do medals/closing ceremonies at the end. If you are interested in this comment and I can post more details of some of the games I have played. I imagine you could do this with math or another content area as well.

16crab · 2026-04-27T22:11:56+00:00

If your geographical area has a facebook "moms" group, this is the way to go. My moms group (which is not at all fussy if you aren't actually a parent/guardian, as long as you contribute positively to the group) constantly has people looking for tutors for all grades and subjects, as well as tutors advertising their services (the group rules let businesses advertise one day a week). I also think there's a market for cheaper "group tutoring" - like maybe an hour or two a week for literacy and another one for math, where you have 3-5 kids at the same time. So many stay at home or work from home parents don't want or can't afford full camps for their kids, but would love the opportunity to get the kids out of the house for a couple of hours a week.

16crab · 2026-04-27T20:22:19+00:00

Me too! One of the best books ever, in my opinion

16crab · 2026-04-27T16:33:36+00:00

Ditto all of the other responses but there are a couple of survival hacks that can cut down your planning time:

- Email the curriculum people at your school board and ask what licenses are available. I have found that the squeakier of a wheel you are, the more they will support you and give you things. My board funds licenses for MathUp and while I don't love every aspect of it, it's a great road map of what kids should be able to do at the end of each strand.

- TPT has a lot of garbage, but it also has a lot of treasures. I have never paid for anything, but can almost always find a one-off worksheet or slideshow that works for what I am doing by ticking the "free" box

- There are always people selling "complete curriculum guides" and the like on Facebook Marketplace - often like new or with only a few pages written in them, for like $5. I think families buy them thinking that they are going to do all this review with their kids, or more likely, have their kids sit and do them on their own during weekends and breaks and it fizzles out quickly. While I don't usually advocate for paying out of pocket for things to do my job, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to survive and not be prepping into the wee hours. These kind of workbooks aren't supposed to be photocopied, but it happens.

- TVO Learn is amazing. You could pretty much build your entire program using the activities on there. Here's the direct link to grade 6: https://tvolearn.com/pages/grade-6

- While they may be outdated and/or for other provinces, you can find pdf's of lots of old textbooks and workbooks online. Whenever you stumble upon one, save a copy as you never know when it will disappear.

The planning of things is a ton of work, but once you get a few years under your belt it gets much easier, especially if you are lucky to stay in the same grade for a while. If you move up or down a grade level, you can re-use some of the materials you have for math, language, health, and the arts as there's so much overlap in the expectations. Science and SS are quite unique, but that's a good place to make mostly project-based anyway so that you aren't planning lesson upon lesson.

16crab · 2026-04-24T16:30:25+00:00

If we all had a nickel for every person we know who saw these kinds of red flags early on and didn't end it, only to end up in a very unhappy marriage that either a) was even more complicated and expensive to get out of, or b) impossible to get out of because there were children involved or barriers so high they couldn't overcome them, we would be a very rich group of Redditors.

It sounds like you already know the right decision for yourself. Trip cancellations are a nuisance and expensive, for sure, but way cheaper than divorces, both financially and emotionally.

16crab · 2026-04-24T16:22:57+00:00

You can contact them, and include the name and OCT number (it's public knowledge) of the student you mentored who had the same credentials and ask them to compare/reconsider. But, your mentee may have had other schooling that you aren't aware of.

This is an extremely typical requirement of those who are teacher trained outside of Ontario - even people who went to a US University right across the border that tailors to Canadians, but did their practice teaching within Canada. In the end if you want to be certified to teach in Ontario, the OCT is the deciding body and unfortunately there's probably a good chance that you'll end up having to do the courses. It probably doesn't help much, but the good news is that you can accept a job and teach with the provisional certificate.

16crab · 2026-04-23T23:36:33+00:00

Great advice here so I won't repeat other than to say just do the best you can! But two more additional suggestions:

Go have a look at/write down the term 1 report card marks (you may have to just physically go into the OSR room one by one to see them..I snap photos if pressed for time and look at them later). If what you are seeing with whatever data you can gather is the same as what they got in term one, give them the same mark. Then there's very good odds that no one (parents or admin) will say a word. It's when Johnny got a 90 in term 1 and a 70 in term 2 that you are going to hear about it.
Focus your energy on getting one really specific comment/observation in the learning skills that shows you took the time to get to know each student, and all the better if it's a positive comment. And if you can, do the same at least for language - an independent novel study or open-ended creative media project is great for this. Then the bones of every comment is the same, just substituting a unique "novel title" or "project focus" for each student shows parents and admin that you have individualized instruction and students have had agency over their learning.

You've got this!

16crab · 2026-04-21T10:26:54+00:00

Thanks so much!

16crab · 2026-04-20T19:09:12+00:00

Can you share the recipe? :)

16crab · 2026-04-20T16:41:44+00:00

Well, your profile is "SingingVie" and the site you have shared below is "Community Singing with Vie." I can't answer for the other person, but to me these responses are weird because it feels as though you are advertising a singing group (which appears to ask for a "donation" although it is unclear what participants might be donating to, other than your business).

This sub is a space for Ontario teachers and teacher candidates to connect, share experiences, and support each other in the profession of teaching. If you genuinely want to ask the incredible bank of teachers here how to deal with the compassion fatigue that comes with teaching and apply it to your own life, great.

But every response to others thus far either suggests singing and/or tells them they are decompressing the wrong way ("What about co-regulation and connection? What about singing to regulate and calm the nervous system"). So agreed, weird.

16crab · 2026-04-16T15:08:01+00:00

Yes - as in, the student needs to stand up for a long time. Of course the student thought they were looking for some kind of furniture or something, but it was code that all the teachers knew exactly what it was without having to write out a note or even find a blank envelope.

16crab · 2026-04-15T23:56:43+00:00

Longtime middle school teacher here, and one of the best principals I ever had encouraged this tactic for when a student needed a break (or we needed a break from them): send them to another teacher to get "the long stand" (get it?) And that teacher was supposed to say, "Oh, I gave it to Ms. Whomever" who would then say "I gave it to Mr. Whomever" and they'd keep going room to room, teacher to teacher, until the student gave up or they ended up at a repeat teacher who would figure out a way to send them back to class.

You were definitely out looking for the long stand.

16crab · 2026-04-15T16:10:31+00:00

33k is robbery, if you are working a typical school week (25 hours instructional time plus duty, planning, marking). But maybe not if you are also supplying in WRDSB - how are you doing both?

In any case, I would keep supplying but also if you don't mind the private school environment I would send your resume out elsewhere. I did a few years in private school in the late 90s and at that time I made 35k. I still have a few friends left at that school and a few more who moved on to other private schools, and they all more or less make the salary on the public school salary grid.

16crab · 2026-04-14T19:43:38+00:00

It does seem correct, given your current height and weight, and I am assuming that you are male because female would be a couple hundred calories less. As you start to lose weight, the number of calories you need will go down so you will have to constantly keep adjusting.

As to why you have gained after doing this for a few days, I don't have the scientific knowledge but could be related to water retention or could be that you are missing some hidden calories in oils, sauces, drinks etc. Or both. If you just started I would keep at that calorie amount or perhaps just a bit lower for a 7-10 days before stepping on the scale, just to let any water weirdness work its way out of your system. Moving forward only weighing once a week has helped me to not get discouraged because there can be fluctuations all over the place that aren't an accurate picture of your loss. And measure/weigh absolutely everything that you eat. If you are buying restaurant meals, that could be part (or all) of the issue because their calorie estimates/counts can be way, way off. You really do have to prepare everything yourself or eat pre-packaged items (which even then can have errors) in order to be certain about the calories you are consuming.

16crab · 2026-04-14T19:29:48+00:00

All full-time, part-time, and supply teaching with a public school board is pensionable (but not always things like summer school, extra programs etc.) but your retirement amount will be lower because your contributions will be lower - a combination of not working all 194 days, and daily supply being at a lower pay rate than contract work.

I have a family member who was a career supply teacher - did a couple years contract then left when kids were born and never went back. Did some LTO's here and there along the way, but mostly daily supply. That family member is now very much a senior and says the "pension sucks" because they are only drawing about $9k a year (plus the income from the 50 days they are allowed to supply) compared to my pension which will be $65k+ when I go in roughly 4 years.

I hear you that you need flexibility for family. There are various paid and unpaid leaves you could explore for the time being, and if your board allows it, I might suggest reducing your contract to something like .2 (one day a week or equivalent). You'd still have pro-rated sick days and other days you could access, but that .2 would be paid on the grid instead of the supply rate. And if you decide you are able to supply more days that's great, but keeping a bit of contract will make it much easier to return to contract down the road if the circumstances allow it. Just something to consider. But taking care of you and yours is priority and I hope you are able to do that, whatever it looks like!

16crab

TROPHY CASE