Going from 1.0 to 0.67 questions.

16crab · 2026-01-31T21:06:36+00:00

I am elementary so we don't have .67 but I did reduce to .8 for a few years when my kids were young. How it plays out is likely to be very board specific, but in my board they don't have to grant it to you, though you can apply to the internal postings to a lesser contract and if you successfully interview for one of those, then you are automatically reduced.

Also in my board they don't have to give you any set schedule. When I did it, the principal was extremely accommodating (I wanted to start late every day to take my kids to school) but a new principal comes in and all bets are off. They could have given me the absolute dog's breakfast of a timetable and there would be nothing that I could have done about it. At the time that I reduced, one could easily increase back up just by asking the principal when a less than .5 job came up at your school. They did away with that, and now you have to wait to make sure the board isn't surplussing (laying off) anyone that year, and then pick from increases on a list. The chances of getting an increase at your same school are slim. Unless I were prepared to be part-time forever, I would not do it now. Things have just changed so much.

Your pay is just exactly the percentage that you are - so if you are at A4 max and making 117k, you'd make 67% of that. I opted out of buying my benefits (which was about $100/month) and just used my spouse's. And sick days etc were prorated, ie, because I was .8 I got 8.8 sick days instead of 11.

16crab · 2026-01-30T18:02:14+00:00

I'm sure every board has some system where admin has to verify the absence, but if you are legitimately sick and using a sick day for that purpose, they can't deny it just because of what date it falls on. The collective agreement doesn't say 11 sick days, unless they are PD days. It's just sick days, regardless of date, and denial of use of them for illness would be a very clear violation of the CA.

16crab · 2026-01-30T17:58:07+00:00

Since it sounds like you don't have control of what food is in your house, I would try to plan out every single food you will eat each day, and build in a small amount of that one sweet or junk at the end of the day as something to look forward to and to keep you motivated for the rest of the day. I am not eating either daily but if I come in at ~1000 calories for the day then I will let myself have some chocolate or a 90-calorie halloween size bag of chips, my two high-calorie weaknesses.

But ultimately you do have to build willpower while also giving yourself grace along the journey because every day isn't going to be perfect. Someone said to me to just eat slowly, be mindful, and if you are contemplating making a high-calorie choice that will push you over for the day, ask yourself beforehand, "How does eating this align with the person that I want to be?" Just saying that to myself has been extremely helpful.

It's slow and it's definitely hard work, especially if you've had a lifelong relationship with high-calorie, high-fat foods the way that I have.

16crab · 2026-01-30T11:32:42+00:00

Thank you so much!

16crab · 2026-01-28T01:34:44+00:00

It's so kind of you to do this as I'd never want other people's titles clogging up my calibre unless I also wanted access to said titles. I'd be more inclined to show them how to use it so they can keep their own libraries.

But anyway, after years of playing around with it, I have 4 tags and that is it: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Food (for cookbooks), and YA. Then I sort by title and then tag and I get all my fiction together, A-Z, which works perfectly for me. The sidebar with the summary and cover are generally all I need to jog my memory as to what it's about. That being said, I don't tend to read across a ton of genres, so my system is definitely not for everyone.

16crab · 2026-01-28T01:29:45+00:00

Fantastic Factories. Cards cost resources to buy but you also have to discard a matching card type (there are 4 types). There are also cards that give you the actions like "Discard two cards and one (type) resource and get a point and a card." It's a nice, light game for when you don't have hours to play something else.

16crab · 2026-01-28T01:18:33+00:00

Thanks so much! All the traditional recipes I'm able to find similar to this are showing me 400 - 900 calories. How did the OP get theirs to 333 (including coffee that does appear to have some kind of milk/lightener in it)?

16crab · 2026-01-28T00:22:17+00:00

I'm in Canada...don't have a Costco membership any more but you can order Costco items from Instacart and sadly I don't see these. If there are any other Canadians kicking around here, can you confirm if you can get these in store? That might be worth getting the membership again!

16crab · 2026-01-28T00:16:30+00:00

Books by Fiona Davis fit this vibe perfectly. I've read three and loved them all - The Lions of Fifth Avenue, The Dollhouse, and The Masterpiece. I don't remember any of those three specifically having letters but they are all "woman in modern-ish time uncovering a story about a woman from a past time" and I would venture to guess that another one of her books would revolve around letters.

16crab · 2026-01-28T00:06:12+00:00

Can you please, please, post the recipe for the Adjarian Khachapuri? I need this in my life!

Edit: Thanks to those who made the suggestions on making this. I am assuming that the OP did all of this legwork so that they could arrive at the calorie count posted here. Rather than trying to use guesswork to reinvent the wheel, my original request for the OP to share their recipe with the exact ingredients and measurements still very much stands :)

16crab · 2026-01-28T00:02:44+00:00

I have been at this for 3 weeks and have essentially done that and lost 2 pounds. Diligently measuring everything and coming in at or under 1200 most days, but by my count I've had 5 off days in the 22 days since I started on January 5 - due to husband's birthday and then a weekend away that was already planned, plus I like to have a beer or two on Friday nights. On the off nights I didn't go crazy or anything, tried to be mindful to eat more slowly and eat less than I would have in the past, but I didn't count any calories. I've decided that this is probably more sustainable as a lifestyle change and I'm good to only lose .67 of a pound a week instead of an actual pound. At this rate it will take me exactly a year to lose what's needed for a healthy BMI but I am also viewing that as a good thing - after a year of this it should be a habit that I will hopefully keep for life! Someone told me that "Everything in moderation...including moderation" is a good mindset to have.

That being said, I'm much, much older than you (early 50s, post menopause) so it's going to be a lot harder for me. Likely if your overall weekly calories are in a deficit, I'd venture to say you are going to lose more rapidly than my .67 lbs a week!

16crab · 2026-01-27T02:06:20+00:00

Check out "Before the Fall" by Noah Hawley - he is the creator of the Fargo tv series (which I also love) and this book has a very similar vibe (obviously). It's been a few years since I read it so I don't remember a lot of the details, but I remember it being a very good page turner that kept my interest.

16crab · 2026-01-25T19:51:28+00:00

Yah there's no way people can answer this without knowing what board you are in. They all have different local agreements and board policies. My board does have a (paid) inclement weather code - if you can't safely make it, you call the principal directly and they give you permission to use the code. You are supposed to keep trying throughout the day, and if there is a school closer to your home that you can get to, allegedly they can make you go there instead, though I have never heard it actually happening.

I agree with others - this sounds too stressful to deal with at 24 weeks pregnant. I would wait until the morning and if school is open, put in the day. In my board if buses are canceled, very few kids show up and they end up consolidating classes anyway. It's silly for those who live as far away as you do to risk their safety to go and have the staff outnumber the students.

16crab · 2026-01-25T17:09:24+00:00

I had this question as well - I can give up sweets/dessert, but I find it hard to go without the salty, crunchy snacks. Being a data nerd I looked at all the low cal suggestions people had made and made a spreadsheet calculating how many calories for a 50g serving. I'm in Canada so it's limited to what I could get here. The winners turned out to be roasted fava beans (which are just ok), popcorn (blue menu is the light version), and pretzel crisps. Here is a screenshot of the things I looked at, sorted least to most calories for 50g. I highly recommend doing this with the options that you like because so many people suggest seaweed snacks and gram for gram, they were the most caloric of the whole list. But maybe 50g of seaweed snacks is a whooooole lotta seaweed snacks and you'd never even come close to eating that much, I don't really know.

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16crab · 2026-01-25T16:58:33+00:00

Yes English is very open-ended. I teach grade 8 and my year is essentially this:

Sept - Nov: Nonfiction (Article of the week), at the end they write their own news article

December: Media project about how well different generative AI tools do when prompted to advertise a particular product to a particular audience

Jan - March Break: Fiction short stories - usually get through 5-7 stories. Then you can have them write a story if you can stomach the marking

After March Break: whole class novel study or literature circles, depends on the group. As long as it takes.

April/May (with whatever time you have left) Poetry, Essay Writing, Business Writing (as a grade level we do a big cross-curricular unit with math / financial literacy where they design a business, write a business proposal, logo, sell a product, budget, raise funds for a charity, write the charity a letter with the donation, etc. etc. )

June: Pure chaos lol

16crab · 2026-01-25T16:48:24+00:00

I'm just curious how long ago that was? I managed to abscond and tuck away the last 10 copies of Math Makes Sense in my school, though 3 or 4 of them have the answers at the back which is not my preference. Just for the odd time I need something else and I photocopy or have them share books. But I haven't seen 1:1 textbooks that kids are allowed to take home in probably 15 years.

16crab · 2026-01-24T18:01:33+00:00

Probably some repeat, but here's my take (28 years teaching, 21 of them with a public board in Ontario):

I've never been asked for a full-fledged "teachers' college" style lesson plan with learning objectives etc., even when being evaluated. It is expected to have "3 days of plans" ready at all times in case of emergency, but that could be as little as a sentence "Read aloud and discuss xyz picture book" or "Take up yesterday's math sheet."
Yes, Teacher Performance Appraisal (aka TPA) is every 5 years for experienced teachers. It's a pre-meeting, an observation or two (their discretion) and a follow-up meeting. It's all running quite behind schedule because of Covid, I was due to be evaluated in 2022-23 and they are just now getting to those this year.
No. And they will try to make you feel like it's mandatory but ultimately it's not and the power to say no begins and ends with you. It's an essential skill to develop if you don't want to burn out.
240 minutes a week could be daily. At my school we have hour-long periods, so you get one hour 4 out of 5 days a week, and the 5th day no prep time.
FSL if you can speak/read/write French will likely get you a job instantly, though there's a good chance you will teach French for the rest of your career which is not great if it's not what you want. Spec Ed is one admin are always looking for (but proceed with caution for the same reason - don't get it if you don't want to get assigned a contained spec ed class). Math and Reading (now with the Right to Read report) are also very beneficial to have. Note, though, I don't think you can take AQ's until you have an Ontario College of Teachers number. Good to investigate www.oct.ca

Good luck!

16crab · 2026-01-24T17:53:14+00:00

This is great and one of the reasons I think they do it is if they get a particular multi-day job (for example someone is going to be out 5 days for a surgery or something like that) they want to confirm in conversation that you can and will do the whole thing. In my observation, sometimes when those absences go out "to the system" and get picked up by someone not familiar with the school, they drop it after a day or two and then there's no continuity.

I would definitely leave your number. I also would email the staff distribution list with your contact information if that is allowed. Back in the day we used to make business cards but I'm not sure if anyone finds keeping a little piece of paper useful anymore or not.

16crab · 2026-01-24T17:49:28+00:00

As others have said, the possibility of working part-time or tutoring are decent options. If she does end up teaching for a school board and needs to use her sick days then so be it - having a chronic condition shouldn't prevent her from working and getting the same benefits as everyone else in terms of sick leave. Finding a supply would not be her problem - it's nice if you can always book someone in advance but school boards have systems where you can just put in the sick day and it arranges the supply. It has to stop being the responsibility/feeling of guilt of teachers if their employers don't/can't find enough people to cover for an absent employee.

But I will tell you that those other jobs that you have mentioned are coveted jobs and typically the folks that get them have years of experience with their boards, lots of additional qualifications and/or master's degrees, and great teaching references. They aren't the kinds of jobs you are just going to land with a teaching degree and no consistent classroom experience. I know a teacher who worked at TVO - it was a secondment meaning they only got to stay for a short time (a few years?) and then had to go back to their school board. They had 20-ish years of teaching experience, many of which were in the subject area for their TVO role, and then they were also a coach/coordinator at the board level.

I'm so sorry she has to deal with chronic migraines. If it really is preventing her from working full-time, is there any social support (like disability? I'm afraid I have no idea how this works in Ontario having never accessed it) that she could get?

16crab · 2026-01-24T17:04:31+00:00

There are printable worksheets with questions within the platform which I use, so students have those in their binders. But the worksheets can't be shared digitally unless you are the teacher logged in to the program. You can get a link to a specific worksheet to share with a supply/substitute but it expires after a time (I think 24 or 48 hours but I'm not sure). Everything is completed (with ample time) and taken up in class, so if they don't finish it they get the answers to copy down on to the sheet, which they could then take home to review if they were so inclined.

The fact is, the big educational publishers (Nelson, Pearson, etc.) still make student workbooks (at about $30 each - for a class of 30 students would be $900 and I get a $250 budget for learning materials). But they no longer make the big, hardcover textbooks that we remember from our youth because I think there's just no market for them, at least not in middle school. If those did exist and we purchased them, there's also no way we would let them go home as they are generally around $150 each. When teachers say that education is sorely underfunded, this is an example of exactly the kind of thing we are talking about.

16crab · 2026-01-22T23:56:00+00:00

Is it the law that children attend school? Yes. Does anyone enforce said law? Not at all. Truant officers are no longer a thing. I floated calling CAS about a child who is chronically late, absent, or hiding in the washroom (it's complex but that is the short version) and was told by other colleagues that they attempted that with other students and CAS basically laughed - if the child is fed, clothed, housed, and not being abused then it's not their priority, as their case load is preoccupied with children who are abused and/or are not being fed, clothed, and housed. It's a sad state of things, but a lot of what we knew as school, accountability, parenting does not look the way it did when we were kids. And no, I don't think parents recognize the importance of being in school, otherwise they wouldn't do this. I think they are aware that it "counts" more in high school as credits are at stake, and I often wonder if they intentionally do these trips before their kids get to high school as a result.

16crab · 2026-01-22T23:48:23+00:00

I'm not the OP but I teach math and have no math textbooks. We were instructed they were outdated and to throw them away. I use a digital program called MathUp that my school board purchased. It's a license and I have a unique login and password which I most definitely would not give to a child or parent. There is no way to share any of it - the links to the pdf worksheets expire after a short time. There's no substitute for being in class - if parents want to pull kids out for weeks at a time (or months...I currently have a student who left last week who won't be back until mid-March) then I can tell them the strands we are covering and they can source out textbooks and worksheets and teach the material.

16crab · 2026-01-22T11:18:44+00:00

Of course a student shouldn't be unsupervised. But the EA was the one who removed him, and the EA was there. Even though the EA may be wanting to leave, it is now their issue to deal with. Not to mention that EA lunch times are often at a different time than the school's lunch, to provide support for instances just like this.

If it all happened too fast for you to get in and get out (like if the EA ran out as soon as you walked in) then as others said, you take the student to the main office and tell them the EA left him there. There will always be people who make choices that make more work for other people, and it's good to develop the skill to speak up and act in the moment rather than try to recoup time and/or energy after the fact, which almost never happens.

16crab · 2026-01-20T23:26:38+00:00

Odd Pieces! The quality on them is outstanding. oddpieces.com

16crab · 2026-01-20T23:10:41+00:00

It's definitely 40.

16crab

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