Extra Income

Hehe. Must try this.

I put an ad on kijiji and different ads around on mailboxes in my area for tutoring and someone contacted me :) So I am now tutoring a 6 year old boy on Wednesday nights.

The problem is that he lives 35 minutes away. We agreed on $20 an hour. So really it works out to be less than $10 an hour if I count travel time. That does NOT include planning time. Ah well, I think it will still be good experience and the kid and mom are both really nice.

Hopefully more people contact me. The ad has already had over 40 hits, which I see as a good thing being from a small community.

I also supplied as a designated ECE person today in one of the full-day kindergarten classes. It was busy with 25 kids (2 away)! I also earned less than half of what I would as a teacher, but work is work. Better than no work!

Although I always wonder if I should accept these ECE jobs or hold out and hope that a teaching call will come in. I accepted it, and ignorance is bliss. I'll just assume I would not have received a teaching call to make myself feel better.

Didn't Get It.

I didn't get the job. I wasn't expecting to really but it was nice that I even got offered an interview. I've been supplying for 2 years now and it was my first interview for an LTO. The principal let me down really nicely. He said it wasn't something I said or I didn't say but they went with someone with more experience. Apparently a person who has worked at this school before and has had 3 LTOs in this grade level. So that's to be expected and he gave me some pointers for my next interview.

He said I interviewed well and was articulate and that he will put my name out there for other jobs. He also said that I could see him to practice for my next interview if I ever wanted to. He was really nice.

I thanked him for the consideration.

On the bright side, I did get a teaching call today and worked a full day teaching grade 6. The kids were pretty good as well. I also put $500 in a TFSA and $500 into an RSP (I need to update me RSP bar). So getting closer to those financial goals. I don't think I will complete a lot of my non-financial goals this year! Less than three months until 2011!!!

Last night we celebrated my brother's birthday who turns 24 today. We went out for supper which was nice. D came over and we chatted and played with that Tipp-Ex youtube video for a while haha. My mom asked what all the laughter was about and so I showed it to her after. She wasn't as interested lol. D and I are going to go for a walk tonight with the dog, will be nice to see the fall colours on a warm fall evening.

I applied for another half-time teaching position last night but I was at the school the position is for today and a teacher kind of mentioned to me that she pretty much has that job. I didn't even mention the job or the fact that I applied for it at all, so that kind of sucks. I'm hoping more positions will become available soon. This teacher glut is quite depressing!

Funny Things Kids Say

I have been teaching kindergarten for the past few days. They are just so cute! They have said many funny things but I thought I would share a couple of things with you that I actually remember:

I read the book "Put Me In A Book" by Robert Munsch. It's about this little girl who gets stuck in a book and her classmates try different things to get her out. While reading the book, this one SK says "I was once trapped in a book.....for two days."

While on the playground a little girl was digging a hole. I told her that she should dig to Hawaii. Another SK was listening to me say this to her and tells me that he once dug to Florida and it was fun being there. He was totally serious when telling me this.
While in the classroom this SK tells me that she once went to Florida. I asked her when she went and she says "Oh, about 10 years ago." This little girl is 5.

Yesterday there was a JK who had an accident in the bathroom. I got her a change of clothes and she washed up. Then I called the principal and asked for a mop to the kindergarten bathroom. He asks "code yellow?" Yep! They also have code brown which I'm sure you can guess what that means, and code green for vomit :S Lovely.

Today I was teaching about community helpers (police officers, firefighters, teachers, doctors, etc). At the end I asked each kid what they wanted to be when they grew up. A lot of dance teachers and police officers, and one FIRE HYDRANT! I think he meant firefighter :)

They are so cute, glad I'm there for 5 more days!

Working The Rest Of The School Year!

I am going to be teaching Kindergarten until the end of the school year yay! I have already taught in that class the past 3 days. Now I will be teaching in that class for the rest of the year...only 7 more days left but I'll take it! Kindergarten is one of my favourite grades to teach as well.

The teacher is SUPER nice. An ideal kindergarten teacher. She fell in the classroom and while trying to avoid landing on a student she broke her arm. It's pretty hard to teach kindergarten without the use of an arm (can you do up my shoes, can you open my pudding, etc). Her doctor recommended that she take 6 weeks off from work. Poor girl! She called me today at home telling me this and asked if I would be interested in taking her position for the rest of the year.

No report cards and I get to teach kindergarten daily for the rest of the year? YAY!

A Little This, A Little That

I went on my volunteer trip this weekend. It was freezing cold! But the girls had a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of sleep because another leader was snoring!! Ahhh, I really hope my future husband does not snore!! My favourite part was getting to pet a lemur and a baby tiger! SO CUTE! I now want a lemur, Kirstie Alley has a few!

I am working at LEAST 4 days this week (woohoo). As of right now I do not have anything booked for tomorrow, hopefully something comes up though!! So I am going to get another big chunk of my family loan paid off at the end of this month when the next paycheque comes in. Can't wait!!! Do you also get super excited knowing you are going to pay off debt?

I am also reading this new book I received. It's called Money $mart Mom. I'm on chapter 4 and it's really interesting, and I'm not even a mom! The author (Sara Deveau) is Canadian and she is a Gail Vaz-Oxlade fan too. I love her writing, she is very practical and down-to-earth. I plan on doing a book review sometime later this month.

I was sent an e-mail yesterday regarding retired teachers supplying. They changed the rule and now instead of retired teachers being limited to work 95 days a school year for the first three years and then 20 days every year after that, they are now being limited to 50 days a school year for as long as they would like to supply. I'm not sure if I like this better or not. Hopefully it will create more jobs for supply teachers (at least later in the school year). Time will tell.

My shows The Biggest Loser and Parenthood are on tonight. Anyone else watch those shows? I want Sunshine to win TBL, she is just very sweet, we are the same age, and she deserves it. Parenthood I have watched from the beginning, it's a very cool show! I like how it focuses on the different families and incorporates special needs (autism and giftedness), financial issues (dad made poor decisions on some property), life issues, relationship issues, and of course parenting issues, etc.

Hockey is also on. Common Vancouver!! Any hockey fans, who are you cheering for? I'm cheering for one of the Canadian teams (Vancouver or Montreal), or Pittsburgh (Sid the Kid) to win.

*While writing this post I received another call to work tomorrow, yayyyyyy! A full week of work.

Let's Get Physical

I've been singing that song tonight. Why? Because I am dressed in 80s gear. Yep tomorrow is 80s day at the school I'm working at so I've gotta have some school spirit!

I am wearing my hair curly in a side ponytail, side bangs with a neon pink hair band. Big hoop earrings, blue eyeshadow and lots of it. A couple of my moms necklaces and a bunch of her bangles. Then I'm wearing this normal neon pink v-neck t-shirt, and my neighbour let me borrow her black spandex pants (I should mention my neighbour is in her late 60s lol). I am wearing flats because I have no 80s shoes (where are my high tops or my jelly shoes when I need them??), and my mom let me have a new pair of pink fuzzy home-socks. I cut the toes off of them and they are now leg warmers! They are a bit short but they will do.

I hope most of the students and teachers ALSO dress up!!

I sent a pic to BF and he thinks I look 80s yay! I love playing dress up. Enjoy your Friday and weekend!

This and That

I worked today so I had to have my brother take in my car to get the new tires. It ended up costing $247, blah! I'm glad it is done though. The tires were only $69 each, and the rest was labour etc. It costs so much to have THEM change my tires. I really need to learn. Hopefully the equipment necessary isn't too expensive. But if I learn that will save me $140 per year!!! Just changing tires (once a year to change from winter tires and once a year to change back to winter tires)!!

I taught Grade 5 today and this kid who needs a computer to do his work printed 100 copies of another boys speech while I wasn't looking. Sneaky little devil!!

BF came this weekend which was nice. He is moving to a new apartment in Toronto for his placement (he will be there for 6 weeks) this weekend so I will be travelling there on Saturday once he is moved in. We're looking for some inexpensive ideas of things to do around Toronto. I'm thinking we might go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Science Centre and Reptilia (just because I get in free as a teacher and can take a friend to Reptilia for free). He also wants to possibly go to Casa Loma. He's not very into art and I've been to ROM at least 6 times. Any suggestions?

I bought some books using gift cards I received for Christmas last week and spent about $25 extra. My roommate is getting married this summer and her birthday is in May, I got her this cute book called "How To Get Married, By Me The Bride." It's written from the perspective of a 6 year old, it's cute! I think she will like it. She is a supply teacher too so she can use it in the future.

I'm volunteering for a couple of hours tonight and need to get ready. I hope you have a great week and are able to enjoy some of the sunshine!!

Last Weekend and Looking Ahead

I didn't spend a cent! Woohoo!!! It was a bit of a boring weekend, I watched about 4 hours of Gene Simmons Family Jewels yesterday. But no spending too which makes me happy :)

BF is coming up this weekend and I want to take him out somewhere. I was thinking maybe a maple syrup farm if they are still in season, or go out to a movie. We'll decide later, but neither will be too expensive. He is going to come up Thursday and stay until Sunday.

I worked today. I was expecting no work at all this week since it's the week after March Break. The principal also asked me if I would work for one of his teachers on Thursday. Then another teacher came up and asked me if I was interested in covered him for 6 days in May. He wants to recommend me to his principals (he works at 2 different schools) because I work well and have been in for him a few times. That would be great if the principals are able to set that up, he said no guarantees that they will allow it though. It is very nice of them to even think of me for a job though!

April is a 3 paycheque month and a GST cheque month so I hope to put around $800 toward debt! Hope the work keeps coming in!!

Another Day, Another Dollar

I went in for a half day today teaching Spec-Ed at my old elementary school. I was preparing my day, and I get a call to come down to see the principal in the grade 7/8 classroom. I go and he is there with the kids and asks me to forget what I was supposed to be doing and that he needs to change my schedule to cover the 7/8 class, they weren't able to get a supply for her. Then he asks what I'm doing for the afternoon. Nothing. He asks me to stay for the afternoon too. Woohoo. I've been getting a lot of work lately which has been really nice. The payday in 2 weeks will be pretty good compared to lately.

I didn't have a lunch though, and I was supposed to meet my mom and grandpa for his birthday lunch at Swiss Chalet. Lucky for me it was only about 5 minutes from the school. So I still got to go out for lunch with my grandpa and back with lots of time before the bell rang. Practiced some sign language with him too. Unfortunately my weekend ASL class was cancelled so it was nice to be able to practice with someone fluent.

Tomorrow is payday, yay! Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday and weekend.

Oops!!

I drove 40 minutes to my HALF-DAY job today and they told me I was early....a day early. Oops!! Darn, that was a waste of time. I ended up dropping some things off at the Salvation Army and storage so it did end up being a productive afternoon afterall, minus the 80 minutes of useless driving!

Teaching Frustration

Gail's post today hit home for me and as it turns out a lot of other people. Especially teachers. Gail talked about how working after retirement can help the person end up with fewer diseases and function better on a day-to-day basis.

How does this relate to teachers? Well, these days it seems that a lot of teachers are retiring and then coming back to supply. If I was a retired teacher this seems like a pretty good deal. Retire, collect pension, get extra income, teach without having to plan or mark, see your old colleagues and students. Why would you not continue working after retiring?!

However, for us new teachers it sucks. REALLY  SUCKS. It means less jobs for us new teachers. Less jobs = less incomme.I have applied to about 8 school boards and followed up on my applications. I was told repeatedly that unless I have done a placement within their board that they are not looking to hire. Why aren't they looking to hire for the supply list? Well there are several reasons, major ones being declining enrollment and too many people already on the supply list. Many people on those supply lists are retired teachers.

I have gone into schools and have seen the timesheets of retired supply teachers who have full weeks on theirs, where I have a sad one of two days. There is a lot of internal workings to have the retired teacher in that already knows the students, or have a teacher call their retired friends to come in for them. In a lot of ways THAT sort of thing does not seem fair.

Almost no other company offers this return to employment part-time once you retire deal. Teaching is an exception. I have taken many courses, volunteered for months in schools, many optional PD opportunities, paid for expensive AQ courses, volunteered and worked in other programs relating to children and still am having no luck. I'm not sure what else I could be doing, other than going back and learning French, or applying outside of Ontario. I am very thankful that I have a supply position where I am. There are many in my teacher's college year that still do not have that.

I am thankful that I have supportive friends and family and a job even if I would not be able to survive on the income living alone. It's a tough situation for new teachers. I can continue to supply for a few more years though. I LOVE my job and will be persistent...and try to be patient.

Applying For Jobs

I get all excited when I apply for a new job. The opportunity to be working full-time (at least for a little while), to work with new people, to gail more experience, and of course more money.

However I also get terribly nervous as well. What if I don't get it, what if I hate it, what if the people don't like me, or worst of all - what if I get an interview?

Interviews scare me. It's not a fun situation for me. A bunch of people staring at you, asking you questions that you should and do know the answers to (in most cases) but feel extremely self-conscious in answering them. I also have a big problem in talking about how great I am (taught to be modest growing up).

Currently I get sent an e-mail when a new job opportunity comes up within my board. I ALMOST always apply to it (unless it's French or more than an hour away from me). They are usually LTO (long-term-occasional) positions for teachers on sick-leave or maternity-leave. So far, I have never heard back from any of these jobs I have applied for :( Last night I was telling my boyfriend about this one school that I liked, small school, nice kids and teachers. Then at midnight a job came up for it! In the class I had supplied for twice in! It was like fate.

I got out the cover letter and resume, tweaking them a bit to fit the description of the job. It would basically be an ideal job. Working every other day in a grade 3/4 class (12 students, but very challenging ones), and working every other day as a Prep teacher (I think teaching science and gym). The entire K-8 school only has 60 kids, they have 5 classrooms so it's a very close school. I get so nervous once I click the submit button (it's an online application system). Hoping for an interview but so scared to get one at the same time!

Time will tell I guess whether I am even looked at for this job. Wish me luck!

Do you ever get this way applying for a job? Are any of you comfortable in an interview setting? Do you have trouble saying great things about yourself?

Is The Swine Flu Over??

I hate to say it, but I kind of enjoyed it when the cold season was in full swing earlier this month. It had it's advantages for some. I was getting work regularly. 8.5/10 days the past two weeks. This week so far I have only worked ONE full day. How am I going to reach my goals with only working one day a week??
 Hope things pick up soon!

Working working working!

I love it lately! I worked a full day today, working a full day tomorrow and a full day Friday! Cannot wait for that paycheque. A principal actually called me personally from his house tonight to ask if I would work at his school tomorrow. That's a good sign right?? Hope next week is just as good!

Full-Time Work....this week...

I wish I had PERMANENT full-time work. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to get that in this board. However this week I am booked full days every day this week! This swine flu has an advantage for some people. The principal at the school I was at today asked me if I would work tomorrow for the same class, of course I said yes! It's an awesome class, I love when teachers are organized! We have a PA day on Friday about an hour away. So I will be going to that, I'm somewhat excited actually, it's a PA day JUST for supply teachers. Hopefully next week brings just as many calls!!

Life Goals....

Do you have them? Things you want to learn or accomplish at some point in your life.

I started one of mine last night. I asked my mom to teach me how to machine-sew. Yes learning how to sew was a life-goal of mine. I have always wanted to learn but just never did. Now that I have the basics (was literally a 15 minute lesson, it's much easier than i thought) I think my first project I want to make is a quilt. Either a baby quilt or a quilt for a pet bed. Any tips??

I think that sewing is a great way to actually save costs on some things as well. Hemming your own pants, making your own bedding, fixing up a ripped seam, etc. So really, I am saving money??

I hope to start making something this weekend or Friday if I do not end up working. Lately I haven't been feeling well but was slightly better today and I received a call to work a half-day. I got another call tonight to work a full-day tomorrow. Hopefully things are picking up!

One of those days...

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to be going right? Today was one of those days for me. I went to work - I work part-time two mornings a week at a rec centre looking after kids. Well today I went into work there and there were no kids. My boss comes in and says that I am no longer needed there because I am a teacher and might not be able to work there everyday. They wanted someone to be consistent, I expected this, but was still disappointed. that job provided about $60 a week. Not a ton, but still every bit helps! I will still be working there full-time over holidays and on PA days.

I was feeling bummed about this when I got home, and decided to re-vamp my resume and cover letter and re-apply to the other school board in my area. After I had it all sorted out and posted to applytoeducation online I called HR who proceeded to tell me that they were not hiring any supply teachers. They have no need for any additional teachers. Darn! She told me that volunteering in one of the schools will help me if the principal gets to know me, so I think that is what I will be doing tomorrow, getting a new police check and asking the schools if I can volunteer a few days each week. Hopefully something comes of it!

Maybe I'll start advertising tutoring services to make up for that lost income. I have seen some other people talk about paper routes, surveys, babysitting, as a means of receiving that extra income. What do you do for extra income?

First Day Teaching!

Last night I received my first call of the year to supply teach! I was literally jumping with joy. I do love my job. I however do not like the fact that it is so hard to get a permanent position as a teacher. Declining enrollments, surplus and redundant teachers are everywhere within my board. Well, not just my board - almost everywhere in Ontario is experiencing these difficulties. What I cannot understand though is why the universities in Ontario continue to pump out 7500 new teachers every year knowing that there are not jobs available for them. This is 7500 in Ontario alone, there are at LEAST that amount of new teachers also coming from Buffalo schools, New Zealand, and Australia. I wish they would make the teacher's program two years to weed out some of those who are only taking it as a back-up option. Sorry for the vent! I'm sure many can relate with other careers and this "recession" we are in. Let's stay optimistic, our dream job WILL come, be persistent!