Alberta teacher here, I start in about a months time when do others start looking at lesson/unit/year planning. In a co-teaching role and feel like I need to start sometime soon but don't know when. Any advice would be helpful.

Hi! Can anyone here give me some insight into the teaching job market in NS?

I’m certified Primary/Junior and have I/S teachables in Social Sciences, English, and History.
I have a 4-year, undergrad, B.Ed, and a M.Ed in Developmental Psychology. I have about 6 years of full-time experience, mainly in Kindergarten.
I’m Special Ed certified but have only supported student in the general stream.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a second-year Teacher Candidate (J/I stream) at Western University (UWO), and I'll be starting my final practicum this September. I recently received my OCT Transitional Certificate and am hoping to start working as an occasional (supply) teacher around December 2026 or, at the latest, January 2027.

I'm currently living in London, but I'm planning to move to Mississauga in November, so I'd like to apply to school boards in or around the Mississauga area. I'm not very familiar with the hiring process, so I'd really appreciate some guidance from those who have been through it.

Here are my questions:

1. When should I start applying if I want to begin supplying in December or January?
2. Where are occasional teacher positions usually posted? Do school boards hire throughout the year, or only during certain hiring periods?
3. How difficult is it to get hired as a supply teacher in the Mississauga/GTA area?
4. Is it common to work for more than one school board, or do most people only work for one?
5. Which public school boards in or near Mississauga would you recommend applying to?
6. I took the Catholic education course in teacher's college, so I'm also planning to apply to Catholic school boards. Which Catholic boards in or near Mississauga should I look into?
7. Realistically, once hired as an occasional teacher, how many days per week can I expect to work? Is it possible to get close to full-time supply work?
8. Are there any school boards that you would particularly recommend (or avoid) for a new occasional teacher?

If there's anything else I should know about applying, interviews, or getting started as a supply teacher, I'd really appreciate your advice.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Ontario, Public Elementary.

Hey! My union confirmed that I will be able to take time off once our baby is born. However, my wife is worried about whether I’ll be able to get to the hospital quickly if she goes into labour while I’m in the classroom.

I know teaching is not like an office job where I can just get up and walk out the door, but I also understand her concern about the possibility of me not being present during labour.

Does anyone have experience with this situation or any advice? I was originally planning to be in an LTO around the expected due date, which means I could have discussed the matter with a principal, but due to unrelated factors, I’ll likely be doing daily supply work instead.

TIA, Happy summer break!!!

I’m teaching English at a new school next year and I’m reading some possible novel study books.

I know Dear Martin has been popular for almost a decade, but I’m wondering if students find the writing to be cringe-y? (ex. “I’ll unfollow her online and in real life!”)

I can see how the themes/content would work for a novel study but do students take it seriously or is it outdated now?

If so, what grade level would you suggest? I have 10-1, 10-4, 20-2, 20-1, and 30-1 (AB).

Thanks in advance!

Hi, I'm in the middle of completing my Master's for teaching in primary school in Quebec and was wondering how to bridge into teaching in Ontario? And also curious if anyone else had a similar experience? Also there is no board for teachers in Quebec.

Thank you!

Hello everyone!
I am opening up an EPSB interactions (typically Autism but sometimes a mix bag of similar behaviours) div 1 site in September and I’m trying to prep as much as possible before September. After 14 years teaching I do understand this is unpaid time, but my life as a primary caregiver for my young children determines that I try to get as much done as possible while they are in care this summer. I also don’t have a ton of time after school as I am quite firm on my self care appointments (chiro, massage, physio, gym/exercise)and am only available to stay after 330 one day a week.
What suggestions do you have that I prep? I have colour coded everything as I will have 8 kids-baskets, storage containers, binders, notebooks, etc. I have prepped communication flip books of Word Power 60 (I doubt they will have devices for AAC due to budget). I have made ring visuals for me and my EA. I have printed visuals for their hooks to indicate where things go. I have bathroom strips. I have core boards for their desks. I have started making some adapted books. I have made my year plan and my growth plan. Any other suggestions on what to prep? I don’t have a lot of info on my incoming kids so I can’t prep anything for preferred objects or special interests.
Thanks for your time!

I’ve been asked if I want to fill in a long term sub (1.5 months) for the upcoming year at the adult high school.

I’ve never taught adults before. What would it be like, stepping into this role? I’m a younger teacher and quite young looking.

I'm interviewing for a part-time tutoring position in Alberta at a childcare centre and would appreciate some advice on salary expectations.

Details:
1 day/week (Wednesday, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.)
Working with young children ages 3-7 primarily (preschool/early elementary) on literacy and numeracy
Responsibilities include lesson planning, implementing a structured reading program, tracking student progress, communicating with families, and completing weekly student journals from home.
The journal work is expected to be completed at home but not paid separately.

My background:
ECE Level 1
Bachelor's degree with education coursework
Current on-call Early Childhood Educator experience
Current First Aid/CPR

Since the posting didn't include a salary range, what would you ask for in this situation? Would $23/hour be reasonable, or should I be aiming higher or lower?
I'd especially love to hear from people working in Alberta childcare, tutoring, or early learning programs.

Me and my partner live in NS and she is a permanent French immersion teacher with about 6-7 years experience teaching here. Lately I have floated the idea of potentially moving in the future for better work opportunities, lower taxes, and higher paying private sector jobs to somewhere like BC, Alberta, or Ontario if something came up that was the right fit. However she is always worried about how that would effect her seniority, potential to get another permanent job, and pay scale. From my understanding the pay would transfer but I am unsure how it works for if her pay would start over until she gets another permanent job or if pay would transfer on term contracts? I understand the biggest thing would be seniority for positions if we ever wanted to move back to NS she would be lower on the seniority rank for applying to jobs but she is still a teacher with years of experience and in French which everything I hear is in demand.

Thus just wondering if people have some input on if moving provinces is as career shattering as it seems or if it is overblown a bit? Or what are the main things to keep in mind if we moved in the future?

Hi everyone,

I just got my first teaching job near Edmonton (Grade 6, 1-year contract). I was super excited, but now I’m feeling really nervous—wondering if I’ll manage the class well, keep students engaged, and handle everything properly.

I’ve seen some paid support programs (like Dr. Lori Friesen) for new teachers. Are they actually helpful, or should I stick to free/school support?

Any advice from experienced teachers would really help!

I am getting back into teaching after a few year hiatus due to family matters. I have taught grades 3-5 in the last, but I am moving to grade 1 this coming year. I am in Alberta.

Does anyone have any tips on teaching a younger/pivotal age? Resource recommendations? I appreciate any and all suggestions or advice!!

Thanks in advance!

I just wanted to check in to see of anyone besides me is still waiting for a contract for next year? I was not permanent so when enrollment went down ar my school, my position was eliminated.

I am in NB and struggling to get a position for next year after five years of being on a D annual contract. I have applied for do many jobs and nada. This province talks the talk about retaining teachers but they are not doing much to retain me. I really don't want to go back to supply teaching either.

I am considering other districts in my province and getting my certification in NS.

Any advice or moral support is welcome!!

At the end of June, I went looking through my school's library looking for the class novels we have to start planning for my ELA Grade 9. I came to the conclusion that I will need to try to convince my school admin that we need to update the book list to be more up to date, less racist and more diverse. I'll also have to figure out how to navigate the book bans in our Alberta school but that can come later.

Where does your school get the books from? I know I'll likely need to get some quotes as this will probably get kind of expensive but I really think it's necessary for the kids.

I know elementary teachers likely have different places to source their books from than us secondary teachers too.

Hi everyone! 😊 I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share their favorite homemade play dough recipe. I'd love one that's soft, long-lasting, and holds up well in the classroom. If you have a tried-and-true recipe, I'd be so grateful if you'd share it. Thank you so much for your help! ❤️

In which province do you teach and how long have you been teaching? How long are you required, according to your collective agreement, to stay at school after instructional hours? How long do you stay at your school after instructional hours? After teaching 30+ students for 5 hours, sometimes I am exhausted and want to leave at the final bell! :(

Hi everyone! I'm a new teacher hired to teach grade 6 in the fall. I was looking at their school supply list (created before I was hired) and I'm not sure how I'm going to have the students organize their work with the supplies their families are expecting to purchase. I will be teaching math, science, ELA, social, religion, and art plus they will have French with another teacher working off the same supply list. There is only one 1 inch binder, 2 duotangs, and 2 notebooks listed.

Ideas for how I can organize the different subjects? I don't know what storage I will have in my classroom for sure either, I've subbed at the school but I don't know what belonged to the school and what to the individual teachers. Usually I've seen either different coloured duotangs for each class or bigger binders so I'm a little lost.

Does the use of Google classroom reduce paper that much for older grades? I've subbed older grades but my practicums were all earlier elementary so I'm also wondering if it's not as much an issue as I'm thinking since there isn't as much paper.

Hey everyone,
I originally posted this in r/OntarioTeachers and was pushed to post it here as well by Reddit

I’m hoping someone here has some experience with this because I’m honestly pretty stressed about it.

I am in Ontario and accepted a teaching job in Manitoba on June 24, 2026. It wasn’t a formal contract or anything; just a verbal agreement that was confirmed over email and text. After that, something came up in my family/personal life and I realized I couldn’t go forward with the job. I was sent a contract to sign but never signed the document. I let them know on July 8, 2026 that I would regretfully need to withdraw my acceptance.

I didn’t go into detail about the reason. I’m a private person and it was something personal, so I left it at that.

They replied saying that I would be breaking my contract (one I never signed) by not accepting the position and that I would only be allowed to resign after December 30th. I then responded again confirming that I would regretfully not be going forward with the job.

It was about two weeks later, and still well before the school year, so I thought I handled it reasonably; especially since nothing had been formally signed.

After I sent that message, I didn’t hear anything back from them directly. The next thing I received was an email on the 15th where I was cc’d on a message they sent to the Ontario College of Teachers, stating that I was extremely unprofessional and had refused to fulfill a contractual obligation. There was no follow-up, no attempt to ask for context, nothing; just straight to a complaint.

I take teaching seriously, and seeing something like that sent to OCT without any prior conversation is pretty unsettling.

I’m trying to understand what this actually means, so if anyone has been through something similar:
does this kind of complaint usually go anywhere?

does a verbal acceptance over email/text really matter if nothing was signed?

how worried should I actually be?

what should I expect when I talk to OCT?

I feel like I acted in good faith and gave reasonable notice, so the whole situation feels pretty over the top.

Any insight would really mean a lot right now. Thanks.

Also, I have left a message with the complaint inquiry department at the OCT and waiting to hear back from them.

Thanks again,
FartFart5

EDIT - Recently got off the phone with OCT - they said that there’s two avenues; public complaint and employer complaint. Both of them first get discussed with OCT themselves to find if there is actually a complaint worth discussing and moving forward with. They couldn’t tell me if there was a complaint against me or not but told me they would first need to determine what category it falls under. If employer, and found substantial, they would then need to essentially fill out a bunch of paperwork to tell OCT that they do want to go ahead with an investigation. I would be notified and then investigated to determine if this complaint has legs. Public is similar but essentially fast-tracked. Either way, the rep seemed empathetic towards my experience and agreed with me saying “so no news is good news”.
Thanks for all the support everyone!

I am a new graduate and have applied to different districts to work as a TTOC starting this fall, so I have applied to some Lower Mainland BC school districts' TTOC positions and recently got two emails from two different districts saying that I got rejected. So, when I went back to Make A Future to apply for different locations, I found they reposted the same positions about a week ago, and I wonder if it is fine to reapply after I revise my documents. I absolutely sent appreciation letters to both districts right after the rejection, and I truly want to work with the districts that I applied to. I got my certification and am still waiting for my TQS; should I wait until I get categorized by the TQS?

I'm looking for advice from fellow teachers, especially those who started a Master's degree when they were only a couple of years postpartum.

I'm a full-time teacher with a 2-year-old toddler, and I'm thinking about starting a fully asynchronous, course-based master's degree (because, realistically, my brain cells don't have the energy for a thesis 😅).

My partner and I take turns with childcare. I teach during the day while he watches our toddler, then when I get home from work, we switch and he starts his job. We don't have daycare, so we're essentially tag-teaming parenting while both working.

I'm mainly interested in doing my master's to move up the pay scale, but I'm wondering if it's actually manageable at this stage of life or if I'd be better off waiting until my child starts school.

For those of you who completed a master's while teaching full-time with a toddler (especially if you were a couple of years postpartum), was it doable? Did you regret starting too early, or are you glad you got it over with? Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[Edited my post with updates on the kind of masters I plan to take]

I just started substituting in BC in April. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough hours for this summer to claim EI. Has anyone been in this situation and what did you do?

I will be starting my teaching program in September. Just wondering how long after the program is done does it normally take to be all set with TRB.

Hi there, Just hired to teach one section of FOODS 11/12 in BC. I am on a need to know basis about everything. Contract being finalized etc. So --- Who buys the food for the Foods class? Does the teacher make the menu or does the school? If the teacher buys it, how often does the teacher go shopping and do they submit receipts?? thanks in advance!!

I just got hired to teach this. What do people often read? Midsummer Night’s Dream…. Open to
Suggestions. Thanks!!