I taught today and met with 2 new-to-me supply teachers in the staff room at lunch and during my prep period. One of them was a mom who has her BEd but is just supplying for a bit of money, which I didn't really know people did. The other one is like me, just in it to get a "real" job. He seems hopeful about this coming year, said that there are something like 80 retirements in Moncton this year, as well as a whack of admin positions that have to be filled by teachers. So that's pretty good, but not when you think of how many people there are waiting for those positoins. He raised the following stats, which may or may not have been made up, but made me feel better for the moment. Only about half of supply teachers here have their BEd, the rest are just local permits. So that's a large chunk not to have to compete with. Also, among the teacher chunk, are a good number of people who are either retired and doing it for lack of anything else to do, or who just don't really want to teach full time. So, there are still a lot of people, but not as many, which is nice. Of course, there are no jobs posted at all right now, so there's really no telling how things will be. I keep being told that I can go away, to Ontario or out west, and get a job there. This is true, but I don't want to go away. I like it here, it's where I'm from, it's the closest I can get to my family, such as it is, and when my parents to come back, this is the area they'll be in. I'm tired of people being like, you're young! Go while you can! As if I'm going to blow up in 5 years or something. Even when I was single I didn't want to go teach in Korea or anything. It's just not me. I want to work, but I don't want to have to give up everything I have here to move into some tiny apartment by myself in a strange place. So sue me. Because, generally, then these same people turn around if the topic comes to family, children etc, I say I want to get a job so I can save money, have a nice place to live, children etc...they say "well you can't wait for everything to be perfect to start your life, money isn't everything, blah blah blah". Make up your minds! Or, stop offering generic advice to random strangers. Either way. I'm not angry, just sort of irked. Still very frustrated, understandably I think, but hey.
On a possibly good note, the house that I work at for MCRI isn't closing, so we don't have to move and theoretically I'll have a job past the end of this month. That said, they will be redoing the schedule and cutting back some hours, so I may not have a job anyway. I'll keep you posted, as usual.