The Perks

Some of you may ask why I chose somewhere so far away to begin my teaching career.  Well, any of you who are recent Faculty of Education graduates can answer that pretty quickly.  Basically there are very few to no full time teaching contracts in Southern Ontario. 

Of course there is the off-chance of landing a LTO (long term occasional position) or a spot on a supply list, both of which are coveted and sought after like gold in the Yukon.  Sadly for me, I incurred quite a lot of student debt over my 6 years in post-secondary education and while I would have loved to stay in my hometown and work my way up a supply list, I simply can't afford to do it.  So, I decided to do the next best thing and take a job in a place that desperately needed good (qualified) teachers, and that place happened to be very far away by most standards. 

Leaving friends, family and my boyfriend is not easy by any means.  It means uprooting my entire life, quitting my job, packing, shopping, planning and diving into my career headfirst with little preparation.  I am excited and motivated of course but scared too! Up until now I have been incredibly lucky to have 8 long-term teaching placements, but they were just practice and this is the REAL DEAL.  I can't mess up here and fall back on being a student and "learning", so there is that pressure too.  Another disadvantage is that while I plan on keeping in touch with my connections, I can't maintain a presence in schools in areas I'd eventually like to work in, so when I return I will have to start from scratch.  But at least I'll have a few AQs under my belt and some full-time teaching experience!

Overall though, I am excited.  I have my own classroom of a manageable size in a beautiful province with a great deal of incentives. 

Incentives is the next focus of this post.  A lot of people have been asking me what makes moving to Northern Quebec so attractive besides full-time teaching? Well here are some things that the Cree School Board generously provides for teachers moving up.

1. An individual 2 or 3 bedroom furnished rental HOME starting at $160 per month, all inclusive (not including internet, phone or satellite tv, I plan on keeping my Bell cell plan and just paying for internet which is apparently the same cost as down here.)
2. Storage for my things in Ontario paid for.
3. 3 round trip flights back to Ontario for holidays etc. (2 weeks off at Christmas, 2 weeks off in May for the annual Goose Hunt and another to use either for flying up/down at the beginning/end of the school year or sometime in between).
4. Moving and travel expenses paid for
5. Northern Living Allowance
6. Retention pay
7. Small class sizes
8. Great access to resources
9. AQs paid for by the school board
10. A chance to pay off a major chunk of my student debt which is really amazing
11. There are probably a million other things that I will encounter along the way that make this job great, but overall I am just happy to be starting my career on my own terms and gaining valuable experience.

I strongly urge those of you in similar situations to try something like this, it could open doors and provide you with great experience that could possibly make coming back home and finding a job a little easier.