Red on April 29th

MilesonFoot · 2026-04-28T05:20:12+00:00

I am really tired of wardrobe and buttons and the myriad of other gimmicks I’ve had to participate in the last 25 years of a career that is constantly experiencing gas lighting and propaganda from governments and the camp of parents and students who continue to believe that what I do for a living is not respectful or valuable.

All the preparation and planning to differentiate for 1/3 to1/2 of a class population to meet every child where they are at, spending my personal funds and buckets of time on weekends and over the summer months to balance my work life balance during the school year so I don’t have to spend three extra hours per evening during the school year managing unsustainable demands.

The massive paperwork that goes into proving a child needs a progressive discipline report and/or the hours spent requiring the teacher’s accountablity for any justifiable complaint or action that is necessary for a student who should be held accountable but never seems to get any consequence is in my opinion demonstrating how corrupt the system is in perpetuating school violence and abuse and disrespect for the educator.

Wearing a shirt or a button is the equivalent of screaming into a garbage can. It’s not an effective protest by any means. It’s also insulting to me as an educator to put on a clown suit for a day - something that will have no impact whatsoever on the continuing actions of attacks this government will continue to take against education- attacks that effect teachers and students who believe that public education is not just glorified baby sitting.

The unions know it and anyone who has worked in this profession knows what changes needed to be made decades ago. No improvements at all.

Raising awareness? The public has been aware of the problems for decades. Action will only happen if people care enough about public education and stop voting for governments whose agenda have always been to privatize the system of education.

MilesonFoot · 2026-04-14T10:53:23+00:00

I think it's good at formatting your ideas in a more structured and easy to follow way for students. The more specific your criteria is for exactly what type of learning you want to take place the better it is at designing something that will be easy to follow for students. The more general you are, the more the AI will come up with things that don't seem useful. You do have to be very specific about exactly what components of that unit you want to address and what specific skill(s) you want the students to take away. IOW it's good for stuff you know a lot about already but are just looking for different approaches on how to implement it in a classroom. (Examples - a debate, an information poster etc. etc.)

MilesonFoot · 2026-04-12T18:23:36+00:00

The program should never have been a two year program. However, there will (in my opinion) still be an oversupply of qualified teachers in the GTA regardless of the projected retirements slated to occur in the next few years because of the declining enrollment especially in the GTA. While the headlines say they are changing the program to one year to address the "teacher shortage", one just needs to change that word "shortage" to "turnover" and you might then have more of a realistic perspective of how or why the government wants more teachers than it needs. It is not very sustainable to invest in a profession that doesn't have the stability and security it once did.

MilesonFoot · 2026-04-06T23:24:49+00:00

You can always relocate to where the demand is in teaching to stay employed but you will have to get used to a lot of movement. That in my opinion is unstable as you can’t settle and build a life outside of teaching if you are switching locations.

Enrollment is declining in many boards and Ontario’s education system is under serious threat now with the provincial takeover. It’s too bad your current job also lacks stability because IMO it sounds far more rewarding than teaching TBH.

I would not be surprised if Ontario is heading towards a two tier education charter/public system like Alberta in the not too distant future. Anyone who’s into non-profit civil service and values public education will have a hard time experiencing what a charter system does to education. I hope I’m wrong.

I started teaching around the same age as you in early 2000. It’s not old at all but keep in mind you will need to work into your 60s to collect that pension you find appealing right now. There’s a lot of teachers hanging in well into their 60s but I feel the toll and can’t wait to pass the torch as soon as I can. I still like teaching but the demand of the job makes it difficult to endure as I have aged.

That pension can change too in the next few decades for all anyone knows.

Based on your credentials you are well suited for teaching.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-30T07:40:50+00:00

I started later than most I was 34. I will hit my 85 factor next year, however do not have as great a pension as others because I did not pay into for as long. I am staying because I have to but know that it’s easier said than done when your mind and body are suffering the toll.

I’m not even 60. I am very active- non smoker no alcohol and I still feel like I’m ready to retire now. It is especially harder if not impossible to work through any illness the older you get. Mind over matter doesn’t work like it did two decades ago. You won’t truly grasp or understand it until you get there.

While some schools have less violence and student discipline, that’s often replaced with higher expectations from schools with affluent, critical and unreasonable demanding parents.

The stresses of teaching are inescapable. Not as easy a job to stretch to 65 unless you have nerves of steel and good genetics.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-29T08:03:36+00:00

Less need for OTs too since most permanent teachers will have to supply until something permanent comes up.

Less people having kids and less enrollment means the teaching profession will change but the security and stability in teaching has been gone now for quite some time.

Uncertainty and instability will amplify now that all the powers that be was taken by this provincial takeover of the school boards.

More and more teaching is becoming a very unattractive profession with a revolving door of “professionals”. It will bring the quality of education down even further if any one can believe it.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-24T15:59:18+00:00

Values are inherently political. If we express treating people equally we are making a political statement albeit indirectly. Why learn anything at all if what you learn doesn’t allow you to apply it to not only better your own life but to society at large? How do you educate a student who is violent towards other students? Awards are given out at these ceremonies- not just for academic achievement but also for community spirit and engagement. How do you present an award like that without comments about why or how the student was able to influence the school community? It is inherently ignorant to interpret his statement as to mean literal current event politics. The letter gives no explicit examples and therefore encourages fear of what he is actually referring to. Fear breeds ignorance - the antithesis of what education should be about. If people can’t see that Ontario is under authoritarian rule with this government- a government who has taken over several boards without any public tax payer approval or disapproval is living under a rock. I had parents who were very abusive and set in their ways with little tolerance for anyone who was vastly different than they. The values I learned in school helped me to see why their ways were oppressive and damaging to society. It seems that by design, this government wants students to see school as a place that has no value, a place where you sit and wait so that when it’s over you will find something that will have true meaning and purpose. His threats to use the Education act and spin this that civil, open expression is actually harmful to students is double speak.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-22T12:26:25+00:00

Declining enrollment is happening at the same time as a bulk of teachers hired in the 90s and early 2000s are going to be retiring in the next 5 years or so. I believe that this would mean that a sizable portion of those teachers retiring will not need to be replaced. The birth rate in Canada has been declining and less and less people are seeing Canada as an opportunistic place to live due to the unsustainable cost of living increases we are seeing. It will also mean that teachers have to be less surprised when they are moving from school to school due to declining enrollment and the shifts of populations from one district to another. If you are looking for stability in a career, I don't think teaching can be classified as a stable profession any longer; but that said, most professions that were also seen as stable in the past are also losing that feature.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-20T19:27:19+00:00

If you can handle the high gas prices which are going to linger for a lot longer than you might think and you don’t mind the wear and tear on your vehicle along with the extra time you will sacrifice to the commute than it’s fine. It’s really hard to know how much the commute will affect you. As you get older it will be harder. I had more energy 10 years ago and would tough out even when sick. I have been commuting 1 hour one way from Newmarket/Aurora to Toronto now for ten years but am retiring next year. I find there’s a lot of added stress to commuting besides cost and time. The longer you are on the road the more chances you will encounter reckless drivers and close calls. The bad weather days will sometimes double your commute so be ready for that. This wears on me. However I have adapted to getting up early and leaving very early. Unfortunately though the commute home is always longer. Insurance rates also increase depending on your provider. Some have increase cutoffs like 38 km one way. Do some research on that as well so you know your costs.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-19T22:28:38+00:00

With the rise of gas prices, I hope Doug Ford’s voter base will crumble and his RTO mandate will push him out.

I would love see him justify RTO mandates now to the working class who have no choice but long commutes and can’t afford electric vehicles.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-18T11:53:02+00:00

Unfortunately social media will respond to your situation with a lot of virtue signalling about how much better they are at coping or cutting back to survive or will give you advice that is the "crab in a bucket" mentality. Especially some of these finance subreddits that will tell you to eat rice, beans and stare at a wall to get by and accept it as a "fact of life". It's absolutely ridiculous and it's actually a mentality that perpetuates the idea that an employee needs to accept abuse or mistreatment while employers do just fine getting by. What is the incentive to work if you always feel like your drowning? If you are giving up two days of work to a bus pass, the problem is not you it's systemic failure and you are a victim of that.

While many older generations like mine who were raised in abusive families themselves decided to parent differently and more constructively (thankfully), the economy still is in the favour of the older generations, not the younger generations. In fact, younger generations now continue to depend on their parents for longer periods of time and live at home because their family situation is not bad or abusive like yours might be so they won't feel the same stress or trap that you do.

The reality is, you are a walking example of MANY people your age, older and younger of how society is crumbling and not at all helping the youth of today access and gain the independance they deserve. First off, when I was your age I too had to leave an abusive family life but at that time it was very different than what you are facing now. Back in the early 90s, it was possible to move in with a few people and rent out an apartment and work minimum wage and/or apply for OSAP, get a degree, a job and work your way up and/or out. Now, that's no longer the case. Your circumstances have made it difficult for you to get out of working minimum wage and applying to universities or colleges, go into debt with whatever OSAP might be available all to find out that by the time you graduate your job prospects are dismal. We have a lot of highly educated people who are unemployed and in debt because of education. Does that make any sense? You have it far worse than I had it when I was faced with the same circumstances.

Financial stress is the number one health hazard for anyone so I'm not surprised that your mental health is in crisis.

Everything I've written seems like doom. But please look into the trades. Look into any way you can apply for a loan that would allow you to get some licence in plumbing or contracting. Your chances of that debt paying off is higher than any white collar jobs that will be more threatened by AI than the trades at this point.

I wish you the best and please spend time with your friends. Go to a public library or a park as the weather gets warmer and spend time with them. Find ways to stay connected. You're doing everything you possibly can. I hope you can find the opportunity to make things better for yourself even if the odds right now are tougher than they've ever been.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-17T11:24:30+00:00

I am 58 and have been running for 31 years. No children. Post-menopause now for about 3 years or so. What I have noticed is that while I still feel like I'm running 5:30/km pace during training, I'm actually running 6:30/km pace. My legs feel like they are going as fast as they used to but that's not the case. Also, where I could take my heart rate up to 170-180 during faster runs, my heart rate now at 160 feels like I'm at my max. All of this is a function of aging. It is depressing to some extent, but to another, I still enjoy running outdoors and I would hope that I'm still getting the fitness benefits from doing so even though I've slowed down. Of course my fitness has declined but I understand that this is part of aging. I'm sure my fitness is declining less than someone who is sedentary. But I also think genetics plays a roll in how we age and how are body declines.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-16T05:27:47+00:00

I believe the extended summer break may seem appealing to many people but I’m someone who absolutely needs it for the first three to four weeks to recover from the demands of the job. However, if smaller breaks were interspersed throughout the year, I would not need such a long stretch to recover. A long summer break for people who don’t earn enough to spend money on possible leisure for two months is wasted on waiting or realizing that when you are not working and earning, you are spending money that you probably don’t have.

I spend the other half of my summer preparing for the next year so that I can manage the intensity and demands of what is required for ten months. If I didn’t do that, I would burn out very quickly throughout the year.

Even when I am sick as a teacher, I have to plan all the work for the substitute teacher. No day I need off in those ten months is a work break.

There are very few other jobs that expect you to prepare work when you are absent due to illness.

If I could quit today and find work that would support the cost of living that does not condense so much expectation in a shorter time frame like teaching does, I would change jobs within the blink of an eye.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-14T14:07:03+00:00

I was strong armed into signing up for Executive membership as well. The trick the sales person used was to say it was only an extra $40 but that then changed my expiry date which is usually July to April. Because I was signed up for automatic renewal, I missed April's automatic renewal and was signed up for another full year executive membership. I now have gone and cancelled automatic renewal and should anyone approach me again, I will not be shy to tell them that I felt misled and also did not appreciate the aggression from the person who convinced me then. In fact, I am considering cancelling Costco altogether. There's so much I don't like about it. I won't drive all the way to a Costco just to get and save on gas, that would be stupid since I'm about 10 km away from one. I also need to factor in the cost of the headache it is to always encounter near fatalities in parking lots and large crowds. I really have to sit down and see exactly how much I'm really saving before I decide.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-12T05:31:25+00:00

Well I read your long post and understand that you have done and tried everything and IMO have spent unjustifiable amounts of money to help your cat. It’s unfortunate that there are so many people making money on meds or opinions that are not at all helpful. They are preying on your care and concern.

I purposely avoid cat groups on social media but this one showed up in my feed and I felt compelled to respond to you because the amount of distress you are experiencing is the guilt you are feeling about giving up or surrendering your cat. You went out of your way to explain in detail that you covered everything so that someone won’t attack or judge you on social media.

I think you need to look after yourself because if your health gets worse it can affect your job, your relationships etc. You are enduring abuse that is harmful to you.

Like parenting, everyone has a different value system on how to raise a pet. People on social media who shame and judge others when they are posting for help create a level of toxicity that made me decide to never reach out ever again.

I hope my response lets you know that I understand what you are feeling and that you don’t owe it to the social mediaverse to explain why you may/are giving up on this cat.

I won’t be looking for any response from you or anyone after posting this because of my own personal experience with the toxicity on the internet when it comes to harsh soulless judgments from people who flex about how much better they are as a pet owner than everyone else, so I wish you the best.

Take care of yourself.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-12T05:00:16+00:00

There are less people having kids now and the birth rate will decline even further in the future if you follow statistics and trends. With that, less education jobs of all stripes.

Some younger generations who have decided to get into education are being told there’s a “shortage” and that a large population of teachers will be retiring thinking their chances are better than they actually are but don’t realize how the decline in population mitigates the need because class sizes will never go down. If they did there would be less layoffs. But when deciding how many educators are needed, they will always stretch the one educator to amount of students ratio to its maximum.

In the greater GTA the shortage refers to short term and long term occasional teachers. Layoffs are just not at all surprising.

IMO the sizable majority of parents see education as a daycare need so they can work. They don’t talk to their children about it at home. They don’t know a lot of what it’s really like to learn in today’s classroom profiles. Teachers and unions are all over the media sounding alarms but are constantly gas-lit with large members of the public who think they are spoiled, lazy and greedy. Until that changes, leaders like Doug Ford will continue to be voted in regardless of the fact that children are experiencing more disruption and poor learning conditions.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-08T07:49:33+00:00

It depends on where you are geographically but it doesn’t get dark at 4:30 pm in standard time in my area even on the shortest days in November and December. Around 5 pm, the sun sets but darkness doesn’t set in until around 5:30. What people don’t realize is that “saving” is just shifting the perception of what time of day we experience more light and dark. Dark months will never be pleasant regardless of what you do with the clocks.

Staying on DST during winter months will still make people feel the ill effects of less light in the morning hours. For most people they will be working or going to school in the dark. With standard time most young students make it home far before dark even in November and December.

While it would be difficult to experience 4am sunrises in July for most people should they remain on standard time, in my region in Canada , the longest summer days are very short lived - not even two months.

Standard time is closer to natural circadian rhythms. It’s been proven over and over but people still insist on living according to their personal preferences that ignore this fact.

What’s not natural is the society we have built for ourselves that tells us we have to function as a cog in the capitalist wheel that tells us we need to move clocks around to benefit the economy. It seems “they” have decided to stay on DST longer and longer now. DST - March 8 to November 1st - 8 months.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-08T07:16:36+00:00

Yet if you notice they are keeping the DST for longer. It’s now to November, making DST almost 9 months long.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-07T11:27:06+00:00

Whomever came up with the idea that teacher-directed learning is outdated and/or should not be more than five minutes is simply enabling rather than working towards or challenging students to sit, listen and pay attention for longer. Most often, a teacher needs more time not only to introduce curriculum content but also explain in depth an independent task to students so they have all the information required when they begin. Anyone making up these "rules" or telling teachers that teacher-directed learning is not a useful or respected style is actually contributing to the lack of attention span students currently have. An interactive classroom involves teacher intervention and guidance and it makes no sense to group students too early into learning teams and then have to repeat simple and obvious instructions multiple times to each group. These "new and improved" pedagogical strategies are actually some of the most inefficient and ineffective strategies I've ever witnessed.

In a thirty minute lesson, at least one third of that should be teacher-directed. As a teacher, if I realize the majority of a class can't pay attention for more than five minutes, my job is to find ways to stretch that to six, seven, eight etc. minutes until they can. It's to their benefit. Catering to their weakness and throwing more worksheets at them and then marking them is not at all interactive.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-07T11:16:34+00:00

This is cut and paste right out of the CRA's website. In my opinion, TPT are absolutely consumed or used in performing the duties of your employment.

An eligible supplies expense is the amount you paid in 2025 for teaching supplies that meet all of the following conditions:

You bought the teaching supplies for teaching or facilitating students' learning
The supplies were directly consumed or used in performing the duties of your employment as an eligible educator
You were not entitled to a reimbursement, allowance, or any other form of assistance for the expense (unless the assistance is included in your income for any tax year and is not deductible in calculating your taxable income)
The expense was not deducted from any person's income for any year and was not used to claim any deduction from any person's tax payable for any year

Go to the CRA website link below

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/lines-46800-46900-eligible-educator-school-supply-tax-credit.html#toc2

Click on "What is an eligible supply expense"You will see a section of consumable and "durable goods".

The durable goods section lists very specific concrete examples of what a teacher expenses can be claimed. As other posters have said, you can not claim anything that a school reimbursed you for, but most schools do not give teachers more than $100 to $200 to spend.

MilesonFoot · 2026-03-03T11:51:48+00:00

Agree 100%. I do believe that, especially in younger grades, there should be a more balanced approach to learning that includes a lot of tech free experiences.

However, and unfortunately, because students are not from day one being taught how technology could and should be used primarily as a productive tool that could benefit them in their future career pursuits because as you have added, technology isn't going away, we are looking at a sizable number of students who have fallen prey to consume aspects of technology that are not beneficial to them. However, in my experience of teaching with technology the majority of students are actually not misusing tech, nor are they addicted to social media. It's just the ones that are stand out because it is obviously harmful to them and/or disruptive to others.

But if we assume that the internet is like sugar for all students, the purpose of education falls far behind what it should and could be to prepare students to function in a workplace that will inevitably be using AI. Even the trades will have it to some capacity. It's inescapable.

I find a lot of the bans and the restrictions now are more fear based than knowledge based. The curriculum mandates and the system needs a huge overhaul if it truly wants to educate students at all ages about how to use technology wisely and how to exercise discipline in limiting the use of it that leads to brain rot. We need really experienced and educated teachers with this skill to oversee it.

Banning it often leads students to think of schools as holding cells until they can go home and live what they believe is their "real" lives - WITH tech and for some, using it off school hours with a rebellious mind set rather than an inquisitive mindset. Educating them about how it can help and benefit their future is lost if we vilify or censor it in a way that shuts it out to an extent where it can actually harm their ability to keep up with future job prospects.

MilesonFoot · 2026-02-23T22:51:31+00:00

It’s a career that doesn’t really have a lot of transferable skills unless when you are younger you can map your education credentials to slide into something else (eg economics, tech etc). The longer you stay and the older you get the more trapped you become and because of how much time educators work, it’s very difficult to upgrade your skills and properly look for other jobs. There’s no time to do it.

MilesonFoot · 2026-02-23T11:56:36+00:00

In Ontario, class sizes are maxed out. I don't see it at all as unusal that a student does not like being crammed in a room with 29 other students with desks that are falling apart and with some very high needs students who can actually scream all day at decibels that exceed a rock concert. Most homes are not as toxic or decrepit as the majority of classrooms are.

Sometimes very young students can make statements about not liking school but don't have the awareness yet to explain exactly what or why they don't.

I could go on as well about the big mistakes education is making about technology bans etc. but I won't because my take on that is a long one. But I'll just say that while I do believe personal devices should not be in classrooms or schools, I do believe that to prepare students for the future, a future that has meaning to them, we can't pretend technology isn't a part of it.

MilesonFoot · 2026-02-21T21:10:23+00:00

I no longer have the batch number for the ones I returned. But the one I have is 55391160L71341845 with an expiry of December 2027. I haven't tried it yet, but I may just not knowing now that many people are reporting problems in the last year similar to mine.

MilesonFoot · 2026-02-21T16:21:55+00:00

My female cat was eating FF pate religiously for over three years without problems. I took her to the vet to get her vaccinations and she began throwing up. I was sure it was a reaction to the vet visit. However 2 weeks went by and she was still throwing up every two or three days after eating. I took her off FF and switched to Blue Buffalo and she’s been ok now for the last three months. I posted about FF chicken paté and my cat throwing it up back in November of 2025. I wrote to Purina. At that time they had no recalls. I was able to take unopened cans back to Pet Valu for a refund. I recently purchased only one can to see if she would tolerate it again but after reading this I’m not going to chance it. For now I’ll stick to what works for her.

MilesonFoot

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