OSSTF/FEESO

Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation

Pauline Feng (TDSB)
https://tinyurl.com/ycd37k6a
 September 2016: Started my final year in the Concurrent Teacher Education
Program here at OISE: I/S in Music (Vocal) and French as a Second Language
 January 2017: Submitted (and revised many times) my application as Occasional
Teacher with the TDSB
 March 8th: Had my interview
 June-July: Was hired as an occasional teacher and signed the contract
 August 21st: Was texted by the principal at Harbord Collegiate Institute to interview
for a 0.5 contract (vocal and French)
 August 22nd: Interviewed with 3 administrators for the position
 August 31st: Contract was offered to me
 September 5th: Signed the contract on the first day of school
 Now a Half-Time permanent teacher (every other day) and Occasional Teacher
(OT)
 December 2017: Start the application process online for occasional teaching.
Gather your teaching experiences, reports, and references.
 January 1st 2018: Application submissions start
 February-March: First round of interviews
- Individual
- Approx. 20-30 minutes
- Will ask you multi-part questions relating to equity, inclusion, lesson/unit
planning, problem-solving, etc.
More rounds of interviews will happen
 June-July: TDSB starts contacting successful candidates
 July: Occasional Teacher documentation session
- Group session, casual
- Bring all documentation (IDs, OCT certificate/number, Vulnerable Sector Check)
 OCT has no timeline, but you can get started any time!
 $290 in fees ($140 application + $150 yearly fee)
 Complete everything except submitting your transcripts:
Do so as soon as you graduate!
 Links to check out
TDSB application:
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/About-Us/Employment/Teaching/Secondary
OCT application: https://apps.oct.ca/OLR/Template.aspx?action=rege
OCT registration guide, including documents:
https://www.oct.ca/-/media/708144310B6C45E7AA7A1CF502BFE138.ashx
 Practice Teaching Assignments
- Placements from all previous practica and placements where you taught in a
classroom setting
 Other Relevant Work Experience
- Tutoring, coaching
- Private teaching
- Experience with children
- Experiences with schools (heading workshops, volunteering)
 Professional References (no personal)
- Huge advantage (for OT and contract) if you have an administrator (VP, P,
superintendent, etc)
- Have references who have seen you teach so that they can speak about it
- No limit to number of references
 Resume/CV and cover letter (opt)
 One year of short-term occasional (supply teaching)
Min. 10 months on the OT list
Min. 20 equivalent days of teaching
 Apply for the LTO (Long-Term Occasional) list in the summer
 Interview
 If successful, you’ll be put on the LTO list and given a seniority number
 You are now a short-term and long-term occasional teacher!
 LTO positions must be individually applied for
 Interview process
 Given based on seniority
 After being in an LTO positon of min. four consecutive months = Ready-to-hire for contracts
 You can now eligible to interview for a contract position
Given based on seniority.
 Hiring practices for TDSB OTLTOContract:
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/ward8/docs/seniority%20O%20Reg%20274%2012%20(e).pdf
 As an occasional teacher, you may roll into an LTO
 “Rolling LTO”: short-term occasional teaching for two consecutive weeks

 You may also be requested for an LTO interview, if the school could not find anyone
on the LTO list

 Finally, you may be contacted for a permanent/contract position (0.5 or 1.0) by the
school’s principal if they could not find anyone on the Ready-to-hire or LTO lists.
 LTO or permanent teachers will book a day or half-day off using the online system,
SmartFindExpress (E-school solutions).
 When creating the job, they can request or book in a specific OT using their name or
employee number.
 Connections!
 Each job has a job number – this provides proof of work used for payroll.
 If no specific OT is requested, the job will be put into the system for anyone to take.
 Other than viewing and booking online, SmartFindExpress also uses your phone
number to offer you jobs
You have complete control over the area of schools that you wish to get calls about
and your dates of availability
 In order to stay on the OT list the following year, you must work the equivalent of 100 full
days.
 In order to receive benefits, you must work for a certain number of days the previous
year.
Taken from http://www.otbud12.com/media/othandbook.pdf
OSSTF, OCT, TDSB
What are these acronyms and why are there so many?
 OSSTF is your union
 Protects your rights as an Ontario secondary school teacher (occasional and
permanent/contract)

“Through a union, workers have a right to impact wages, work hours, benefits,
workplace health and safety, job training and other work-related issues.”
 Consists of 35 districts and over 140 bargaining units:
TDSB is part of District 12 (Toronto) (Hunger Games!)
 OTBU + TTBU
 Determines part of your pay (Groups 1-4 on the pay grid, based on education)
 Manages your benefits plan
 Each school has a union representative who can help answer your questions
 The right to be informed – to have access to agreements, policies, and procedures
that affect you and your workplace
 For LTOs and permanent/contract teachers: Having days off for medical reasons,
professional development (attending workshops), and emergencies.
 For 0.5 contract teachers: Only coming to school on your “on” days or times,
including PA days
 Collective Agreement for permanent teachers: https://osstftoronto.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/2014-2019-OSSTF-Collective-Agreement-Final-1.pdf
 Collective Agreement for OT/LTO: http://otbud12.com/media/OTBU-TDSB-2014-
2019-Collective-Agreement---Final.pdf
 TC information: http://www.osstf.on.ca/membership/information-for-ontario-
teacher-candidates.aspx
 Ontario College of Teachers has a registry of certified teachers that is accessible to
the public
 Shows your education, qualifications (basic + additional), and standing with the
college (good/bad)
 Your OCT Certificate is mandatory for most job applications
 Yearly fee to remain an OCT member ($150) – sorry!
 Fee is deducted directly from a permanent teacher’s pay.
 Fee must be resubmitted manually for short- and long-term OTs.
 Can’t be an OCT member until you graduate, but you CAN be hired before your
membership is official.
 https://www.oct.ca/
 Requires a lot of documents
 Issues payroll deposits (bi-weekly, retroactive for OT)
 Payroll dates can be accessed online but may not appear for the 2018-19 year
until later.
 For OT pay dates, check www.otbud12.com (otbud12 = occasional teachers
bargaining unit district 12)
 Contract with them as an occasional, LTO, and contract teacher separately
 Determines your pay (Steps 0-10 according to # of years taught) on the pay grid as
shown in your Collective Agreement
Taken from OSSTF/TDSB Collective Agreement for permanent teachers, Part B14-15
Also found as “supplemental information” on CA for occasional teachers
 ___________________________________________________________

Taken from the OSSTF/TDSB Collective Agreement for occasional teachers, pg 31

 Grade 9 French Applied, 20 students
 Grade 9 French Academic, 30 students
 Grades 9-12 Vocal, 28 students
 Non-semestered school: I teach on Days 2 & 4
 Have gone through first term report cards and parent-teacher interviews
 Have only taken days off for professional development (workshops on FSL
teaching, mandatory New Teacher day) and to help out at the Grade 9 Overnight
Camp
 Monday: Drive to school early (lesson plan, photocopy, long commutes), teach my
three classes at Harbord CI, tutor a student as a Home Instruction Teacher
 Tuesday: Get a call in the morning to supply teach, OT job from 8:30-3:30pm, go to
UTSC to conduct a community choir
 Wednesday: Harbord CI
 Thursday: Mental Health Day. Book the day off from SmartFindExpress (OTing)
and sleep in, watch Netflix while knitting, hang out with my sister, lesson plan for
the next day, have a social life.
 Friday: Harbord CI, then Home Instruction Teaching
 Saturday: Teach private piano lessons, have a social life.
 Sunday: Teach private piano lessons and Home Instruction Teaching
 Transitioning from student to teacher
 Being the youngest staff member
 Adjusting to a school’s climate/environment
 Time management
 Resources
 Classroom management strategies and philosophy
 Catching up with workplace knowledge (How do attendance folders work? Where
do I get parents’ information if I want to call home? What do I say when I call home?
Is it okay that my students are not paying attention right now? What am I going to
do next class?)
 Imposter syndrome
 Getting to know my students
 Being the teacher who knows about Yeezys and does a flash mob in the cafeteria
 Being able to help other teachers with my limited skills – technology.
 Hearing that students actually enjoy my classes
 Learning to accept failures
 Trying to learn from the failures
 Having successes
 Growing confidence
 Slowly building new relationships
 Payroll (accessed online)
1) Download the Google Doc version that you are viewing on your device;
2) Copy down this link to access the Google Doc later:
https://tinyurl.com/ycd37k6a ; OR
3) Write down your e-mail address on the sheet to receive a copy by e-mail
E-mail me any time at: pauline.feng@tdsb.on.ca