Wow!! At the end of day, trying to encourage someone a bit and people get a you for not proofreading. This is a forum and I don't have time to proofread. Please do not read my posts in the future if you are going to be so picky.

Hi there,
I did hear that the school boards are not hiring as much this year due to the deficit problems. I also heard that Surrey under hired this year. If it makes you feel any better, I applied to Surrey in late October and didn't get an interview until January. I think that once November hits and the sickness rates rise you may get lucky. You could also call the various boards and get you name out there.

With regards to the Sikh schools, I couldn't imagine that they would hire anyone that wasn't Sikh. As mentioned previously you may want to do one or two courses in special ed. You should have no problem getting a job then. I believe that the University of Sask. has a distance education program. I know it sucks that you will be studying again, but it will allow you to move to the next pay scale if you don't already have a masters degree.

Good luck
Cheers

Obviously you missed the smilies.

Try to lighten up a little.

I think you are probably right. I think it'll come good in the next couple of months. Only time will tell.

No I didn't see the smiles!
Cheers!!!

No, neither did I

It was a joke, no discourtesy was intended. Had it been, I would have made sure my spelling/grammar was purfect

Hi there,

I just remembered that Surrey School District typically sends out a rejection letter to those applicants that it wishes not to hire. If you haven't heard anything from them it is most likely that they are holding you on a list. Donna Strafford is the name of the woman that hires TOC's. I called her when my application was taking a long time and she reassured me that they would call in January.

I wish you all the best

One of my friends, who graduated from UBC in the spring, finally went to Edmonton and got on the TOC list. However, she wasn't as flexible as you are about school districts in Vancouver, so here's hoping you get something soon I know none of her friends from UBC have got jobs yet...at least you know it's not personal, right?

Yes, I know it's not personal. I have a very strong resume. I have previously been an aircraft techanician, ESL teacher and business owner, I've lived in five countries and speak passable Chinese for an English bloke. I know my resume at least gets me interviews. Some of my cohort don't even get interviews and it's not because they are in anyway bad.

I'm not too concerned about this year, although it would be nice to get on a TOC list if only to justify why I did my B.Ed. in Vancouver. But really the bigger focus is next year. As well as Calgary I have a list of 70 quality international schools that my wife and I will also apply to. I have no allegiance to Canada. If it can't provide us with decent living salaries I have no qualms about leaving.

holmes5688 - I know we've talked before and I wish I could help. I'm teaching in a small city in the Interior and it's a good place to live if you like the lifestyle. Things were relatively good for teachers until recently here. Up until about 2 years ago, a teacher would only end up doing a month or two of TOCing until they were offered a temporary contract and then it would most likely be a continuing contract the following year.

Now, things have completely turned around. The latest rounds of education cuts hit our district really hard. We were using our savings to pay off our yearly deficits, but our Board had a great 3 year plan to turn our finances around without jeopardizing schools, jobs and academic programming. However, the unanticipated cut to funding has suddenly tripled that deficit. We're now looking at school closures and lay offs. I know lay offs are common in a lot of districts, but they haven't really been done around here.

I have a friend who recently moved to Calgary from Edmonton. He's a teacher and I'll see if I can contact him for you.

Thanks Chan, that would be very useful. First hand accounts seem to be the most useful, so any news from the frontline is welcome.

And thanks everyone else for the tips. I'll let you know what turns up/pans out. Anymore advice would be more than welcome though. I'd like to keep the thread going as long as possible.

I dunno - I kinda lost interest after you said you had no allegiance to Canada.

It's not that I'm so gungho on being a Canada partisan, but you know exactly what you want, and if you want it here in the system I know you are going to have to commit up front.

There's lots of ways of making a good salary - and teaching isn't one of them!

It is, however, a great career.

Good luck

Perhaps I should rephrase that. My commitiment is to my family. If I can make a decent leaving here, then fine, if not, then we need to move on. Yes, that may have sounded a bit harsh, but times are hard and emotion sometimes runs high. I would like to point out that I am the only British passport holder in my family, everybody else is Canadian born and bread. Clearly, I owe something to this country.

I think a lot of teachers here in Vancouver were hanging on to the hope that all day kindergarten might be a break through in the teacher labour market. It was announced that 50% of schools would go to full day in Sept 2010. I kind of thought the time line was pretty short and the timing in general, what with all the cuts in funding, was badly thought through. It seems the rumbles are starting;
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/sch...131/story.html