For all of those inspired souls out there who dream of inspiring young minds in the classroom… there is no place for you in this community. There is a surplus of hundreds of teachers who can’t even find jobs as substitute teachers. And this is why:
Uni’s are pumping out more and more grads as the number of jobs for teachers plummets due to cuts and declining student enrollment. Teachers are retiring later and even retired teachers are being hired over new subs (at a higher pay rate).
The Result: This problem extends way beyond the numbers and into the emotions of teachers thereby affecting our students. Subs have to compete on an automated system where they sit in front of a computer as often as they can and click a refresh button (more than once a minute, for hours) in hopes of getting a job for the DAY that only a small percentage of these clicking subs will get. Frustrations arise. Many of the motivated teachers leave the province or country. Old methods are used to teach our children. What kind of mentality does that leave in our classrooms and what does that say for the future? —Substitute Bitch
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2012.
But op…. this has been the case for years. And the trend is clearly going down as people are having fewer kids and simultaneously classrooms are becoming more and more overcrowded to save money.
When you chose your major, did you do your research? It’s why i’m not a teacher right now! That was my first choice but you only need to hear one or two horror stories to know it’s not the industry to get into right now. At least in this province.
Could you go to another province?
How many of these teachers went to university for an Arts degree they wanted to use to get into the Education program? The way I hear it from the few teachers I’ve spoken with is that there is a surplus of English teachers in NS. There’s apparently still breathing room for Math and Science teachers, especially for the more advanced High School subjects.
Moral of the story? Don’t expect to get a job as a sub if your resume looks like the 1000 teachers who are also applying. Get some extra courses under your belt, advance your degree, that might help you get a job.
you’re not much of a teacher if you didn’t even bother to look up how to get those clicks-for-a-job in an automated fashion….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_WinRunner
let it at least do the clicking for you and worry about something else in the mean time.
You show me a teacher who is good at their job, and I’ll show you a teacher who isn’t teaching anything useful.
you show me a monkey sniffing his fecal-laden finger and I’ll show you a monkey with a keyboard….
^^^
I don’t need a fan club zombie boy, plz make your own posts
Thank you for this, I hope a lot of teacher hopefuls see this and plan another career path.
Jim there are lots of great teachers out there. Don’t blame the educators because you had shit for an attitude in school. It’s so typical of your ilk.. you spend your high school years ignoring the warnings of a shitty future if you don’t smarten the fuck up and then blame society because you didn’t listen. “Why the fuck do some people have it so easy??” because they WORKED FUCKING HARD for 8+ years AFTER high school to EARN the money they earn. You don’t get to have a shitty attitude, do fuck all and then assume you can just sail through life. It will never work that way, nor should it.
Why don’t you take some responsibility for your own bad choices? And don’t fuck with me. If you have this bad an attitude as an adult (which you clearly do) i can only imagine the attitude you had growing up.
I don’t give a shit how sorry you want people to feel for you. Your own sad state of affairs is at least in part your own doing.
I’m sorry Jim. I’m doubly sorry because all you’ll see when you read this is another person being a shithead instead of seeing it for what it really is. You getting a goddamned reality check about your piss-poor attitude and nonexistent coping skills.
I agree with TheCaptain. Elementary school teachers and arts teachers are a dime a dozen because, quite frankly OP, the degree is easier to get. Why not go back and specialize in a science? I think TheCaptain is right.. you’ll do better.
Oh, jesus h christ on a raft, don’t get him started!
And people can get pissed off but having BOTH an arts degree and science degree under my belt, one is definitely more of a challenge than the other. Sciences are a precise art. Art is an interpretive science.
Xenophilia i know.. i thought of that while i was bitching him out but i’m so tired of that goddamned attitude. His life will NEVER get better as long as he has this attitude. Never. And he’ll never get it. Just keep blaming everyone else and wondering why that doesn’t work.
**And he’ll never get it.**
Nailed it.
teaching today o.p., you got a death wish or something.
1. ‘precise art’ and ‘interpretive science’ are both oxymoronic expressions.
2. I thought that the teacher glut was due to the elimination of grade 13?
3. I am surprised that you can get certified with an education major in Canada. Here, you’ve needed to major in an academic subject since 1993. When I was in the classroom, I used many Canadian sites and I thought the learning standards thorough and rigorous— I thought the certification process was as well…
BAHAHA I have a family member doing education right now and I really don’t think they looked into job prospects. But it’s ok, this family member’s more of a “I have to be related to this person? ugh FINE” relative than a “I love my family member!” relative.
And, when they can’t find a job for, like, EVER, my year of job hunting and working shitty jobs won’t seem so loser-ish to the rest of the family, after all.
Not that I give a shit about what they think in the grand scheme of things, but I figure this SHOULD provide some excellent entertainment at family gatherings. For me, anyway.
I have family & friends teaching in several different Asian Countries.
All of them have the same complaint.
They want to move back, but will never get the sweet deal here,they are getting by teaching there. One of them quit a full time high school teaching job here & was blown away by how respectfully he was treated when he started his new job.
Teachers are valued over there & they pay well, don’t tax you ! ! ! !
Where do I sign up ?
Right, More, and they have 50 kids per class…
I feel your pain, 8 years ago when I started all this it was supposed to be the most promising market. Now Im facing a world where when I finally get my degree and license this May, I still wont be allowed to sub til I take another course that will take the remaining school days and most of the summer to ‘process’. Plus, they sure as heck dont tell you how much red tape there is when it comes to getting a perm position. The sad truth is, so many of us are AMAZING teachers. They’ve made it incredibly hard to get into the programs, people have to be super qualified, the programs throw you through the ringer and produce teachers who are far more equipped to deal with the differentiated learning styles, needs, and ever changing systems than ever before. I would be so proud to have any of my peers teach my future kids. But there’s no place for any of us here, so we all leave for greener pastures and the province misses out on people who I believe will be game changers.
Simple case of supply and demand. Although if you’re non-white, you’re at the top of the list. At least that’s what Mr. Mohammed Ahe Mahal Seeki says.
Xeno…I know for a fact in my immediate family 12 is the MAX in the evening courses for the elementary children, & 8 is the perfered class for more one on one.
The University classes are not 50 per class either. Where did you get the over 50 number from ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tJ4-J9cgkE
I have worked with teachers who have taught in Japan.
this is a simple solution if you want to teach go north or go to korea there desperate for teachers and its a lot better pay
RSVPs
“Old methods are used to teach our chidren. What kind of mentality does that leave in our classrooms and what does that say about the future?”
Both good questions, Substitute, but their coherence depends on those “new methods” of teaching which you imply but nowhere specify. What are they, Substitute? Just how do they differ from the “old methods.” You do understand, don’t you Substitute, that your credibility depends on a coherent answer to that question? Go away and think about it now.
: Isosceles_kramer (Jan. 9, 4:00PM)
” “Science is precise art. Art is interpretive science.”
I nearly fell off my chair when I read that Isosceles, but my worry was whether you could support your claim. I was particularly interested in the first – science being a precise art – but no so much in the second as I could not understand it. You must not walk away from this Isosceles. Your credibility depends on it.
: Xenophilia (5:13PM)
“‘precise art’ and ‘interpretive science’ are both oxymorons.”
As with Isosceles, Xeno, I nearly fell off my chair when I read this. But, also as with Isosceles, could you support your claim? Just how are the the two sentences self-contradictory or counter-intuitive? You must not walk away from this, Xeno. Your credibility depends on it.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Try reading it very slowly. Perhaps you could enlarge the font and print it out.
‘precise art’ is an oxymoron (precise and art are mutually exclusive)
“interpretive science” is an oxymoron (interpretive and science are mutually exclusive.)
Therefore, ‘precise art’ and ‘interpretive science’ are both oxymoronic expressions.
RSVPs
: Xenophilia (Jan 10, 8:36PM)
Hi Xeno! Nothing yet from The Substitute or Isosceles_kramer so we’ll have a look at your claim first. As you recall the original assertion from Isosceles (Jan. 9, 4:00PM) was, “Science is precise art. Art is interpretive science.” I replied that while I understood the first claim, I did not understand the second and asked for clarification for which I am still awaiting.
You claimed (Jan. 9, 5:31PM) that both involve oxymorons, to wit, “precise art and interpretive science are both oxymorons,” that is, both are “mutually exclusive.” You then advised me (Jan. 10, 8:36PM) to read your claim again, which I did. My objection still stands. I maintain that while your second claim is false, the first is unsupported. Let me explain.
At the discovery level, science is totally interpretive. The discovery-level scientist “intuits” the presence of a hidden reality for which he has, at the moment, no conclusive empirical evidence. ALL discovery-level science is of this sort. For a handy reference, consult Thomas Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (1973) where he points out that discovery-level science (i.e. that leading to those scientific revolutions”) transcends what he calls “normal science,” science based upon an established “paradigm.” (For example, the old Copernican astronomical paradigm was not just a correctable mistake as far as the new Newtonian paradigm which superceded it was concerned. Copernicus was WRONG!)For further reading you might want to consult the renowned scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi’s “Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy,” in which he points to a tacit (unspecifiable) foundation for ALL groundbreaking scientific discovery. So, Xeno, your claim that “interpretive science” is an oxymoron is, like Copernicus’ astronomical paradigm, simply false. But what about “precise art?”
It seems to me that the question turns on what is to be understood by “precise.” If “precise” is intended in a strictly empirical sense, i.e., conforming to the requirements of strict meaurement, then of course, it is not precise. But for art such strict measurement is meaningless. After all, art is a product of the creative imagination, not of yardstick measurement. The question then becomes, can artistic imagination be “precise” in depicting its imaginary target? Can it accurately portray, for example, suffering or joy? I say, why not? So, Xeno, while your first claim was patently false, your second seems similarly destined for the scrapheap, unless, of course, you can defend your concept of “precision” in the context of art.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
RSVPs?
I’m feeling like a philosophical orphan. Everyone ignores my requests.
Most recently, Xenophilia (Jan. 10, 8:36PM) failed to respond to my reply to her claim regarding her “oxymorons” which exposed her failure to grasp the real meaning of science and art. Could it be that Xeno has realized that she is out of her philosophical depth? Has she realized that she is in the ring with a superior mind?
Isosceles_kramer (Ja. 9, 4:00PM) similarly failed to respond to my previous request for clarification about her claim that, while “science is a precise art, art is an interpretive science.” Do you think she simply lifted it from some text without acknowledgement? Do you think she’s in hiding?
Finally, there was never even a peep from “The Substitute” in respect to my request for those “new methods” which s/he claimed distinguished the new generation of teachers from the old. In my view, such failure should condemn her/him to the permanent status of “Sunstitute.” Am I being too harsh?
Will my condition of philosophical orphan persist? Stay tuned.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!