by Julie Pauletig, Daily OT
- DId you know that the first day we work in 2026, we are working for the Ontario College of Teachers.
Your whole net pay for that day goes to the bureaucrats of OCT for unnecessary yearly dues.
- Trying to sign on to a chromebook/computer in an elementary classroom … expect the experience to be about a 15 minute process with likely some troubleshooting required.
As the students in one primary class said, “Madame, that computer is older than my grandmother.” You will find that a lot of the technology in schools is outdated.
- When systems are down or you are an itinerant teacher that moves from class to class, and the computers take 10-15 minutes of the 40 minute class time to log on and get the slide presentation, it is good to have an activity on hand to keep students occupied until the lesson comes up on the interactive board. Also, do not attempt to write with white board markers on these white boards – they are not your standard dry erase board!!!
- Check the red emergency folders (in the classroom) for a class list, but be aware that these lists are not always up to date. Use whatever is available. Make a copy of it and edit or update student names as needed. Hopefully, students know the names of their peers. Don’t worry about spelling; just do your best!
If you are not provided with a class list and/or a seating arrangement, create your own. This is especially helpful when covering for an itinerant teacher. Have you ever tried teaching a gym class and needed to figure out who is absent, missing, or in core resource? Imagine how helpful this would be during a fire drill or lockdown, you wouldn’t need to rely on students to determine if someone is missing.
- If you ever pick up a job as an itinerant teacher (ie FSL, Music or Phys. Ed) you may discover that you are travelling between three schools and you started at the wrong school. It would be nice if only the jobs that consist of travelling have the designation of Itinerant, then you would know in advance that you will be travelling between schools. If there is no itinerant identification by the job posting, I would know that I am at one school all day. It is difficult when you pick up a job and you do not realize you have to travel between schools until you finally arrive at the school and see the lesson plans.
- If you pick up a job after three days of a teacher’s absence, there will likely be no lesson plans for the fourth day. Surprise! The principal can plan for the fourth day but good luck receiving those plans. My back up plan….bring something that you can work with for at least the first 40 minutes.
- You may pick up a job at a school that offers the Heritage Language program. Yes, we do have schools in the west that have heritage language built into the work day. Yes, this is a 20-minute extension to your workday. Should the teacher you are covering have a heritage language period scheduled that day, you are entitled to this time and are NOT required to stay at school during this time. Heritage time cannot be removed from the timetable, if scheduled on the day you are there. This type of information is one Anna Polisco would be pleased to hear about, so be sure to let her know
- If you are covering and there is no allocated preparation time during the day you are entitled to question this and be concerned. Take a snapshot of the schedule. Contact Anna Polisco.
- If you are covering for itinerant teachers (FSL, Music, Phys. Ed.) their lunch block should be designated, as well as their lunch duty, to ensure a 40 Minute uninterrupted lunch. Should the itinerant teacher have a middle lunch duty, on the day you are working, you are still entitled to a 40 min, uninterrupted lunch. Travel time is not during the school lunch hour. Often when travelling between schools with different lunch hours, it is difficult to determine whether the 40 minute lunch is interrupted and if we are using our lunch to travel, if it is not clearly designated on the teacher’s schedule. Travel time is during the instructional day. Take a picture of the schedule when in doubt and email Anna Polisco, annapolisco@ycot.ca
- When travelling between two or more schools, mileage is paid. It took me longer than my lunch to fill out the form for reimbursement from the board to get $2.76 back… but certainly daily occasional teachers are entitled to travel/mileage reimbursement so get your money for gas.
BONUS TIPS:
- If you are prebooked for a specific teacher/assignment and administration tries to allocate you to another nearby school during inclement weather, you can respond that perhaps there is some confusion as this is your job assignment you picked up days ago and are prepared to teach that specific class. Call/email the Unit Office specifically Anna Polisco, she will have any confusion straightened out.
- Finally, I always check the supervision schedule posted in the staffroom to verify if I have supervision duties and location for that day. We know that before school duty is changed to allow daily occasional teachers to prepare for the day and get organized.
Disclosure: These are the comments, experiences and opinions of the author and do not reflect the YCT guide.
Hope you enjoyed the read!