Career Profile

Job Title and NOC Code Number:

Elementary school teacher (41221)

Transferable skills

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Teachers need to think carefully and make good decisions when problems occur within the classroom. Helping students who are struggling, dealing with personal issues, or having disputes with other students will all be a part of my job. Critical thinking can help figure out the best ways to support those kids and keep lessons on track.

Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship: I would use creativity to make lessons interesting and fun for students. To keep learning exciting, I will think outside the box. By trying these new ideas or ways of teaching, I may help students maintain their excitement about learning and improving their view of school.

Self-Directed Learning: By constantly learning new things, I will always try to be better at my job. Whether it’s taking new courses, reading about new teaching methods, or trying out new technologies, self-directed learning will help me grow and adapt to what my students need.

Communication: For my job as a teacher, I must be able to explain ideas clearly to students in ways they understand and listen to their needs as well. I will also communicate with parents and my co-workers to make sure everyone is working together to help students succeed.

Collaboration: Teachers usually work together with other teachers, staff, and parents to create the best learning environment for students. By sharing ideas and supporting one another who will be in my school, I can help younger generations feel a sense of accomplishment and have a more positive attitude about school. 

Global Competence: I’ll help students understand different cultures and global issues, so they can become more open minded and aware of the world around them. This helps students think about how they fit into a diverse world.

Technological Fluency: In order for me to be a teacher, I must be comfortable using technology in the classroom, like computers, apps, and online tools. Technology helps make learning more interactive and fun, and it can help teachers reach students in different ways. Furthermore, as new technology is introduced, I should be able to quickly learn and understand how to use it. 

Tasks

Teachers play a tremendously large role in influencing and developing new generations’ abilities and behaviours. In a way, they program young minds to problem solve, express creativity, show respect, build resilience, improve communication, and so on. 

Teachers are certainly admirable, especially knowing how many different tasks they must perform daily. To list a few:

• Lesson Planning:
  Teachers are always designing new lessons that fit the different needs of their students. They choose topics, create activities, ways to display information, and set goals for what students should learn. This is done daily or weekly to make sure students stay engaged and challenged.

• Teaching and Delivering Lessons:
  Teachers’ jobs are to explain new concepts and skills to students. They present material in a clear and engaging way, typically they use different teaching methods like group work, discussions, and hands-on activities to help students understand. These different strategies help different kids learn in their own best ways (kinesthetic, visual, auditory learners). Teachers need to use each way since not every student is the same.

   

• Grading and Feedback:
  After assigning work for students to complete, teachers assess what they’ve done. This includes marking homework, tests, and projects. By grading assignments and giving constructive feedback to help students improve their work or boost their confidence academically. This is done regularly, typically on a weekly basis.

• Classroom Management:
  Every class that I’ve been enrolled in, the number one rule has always been to respect the classroom, educators, students, and guests. Like all of my teachers, I would follow their footsteps by ensuring that the classroom is a positive and respectful environment. Rules will be set in place, I will maintain discipline, and address any disruptive behaviour. Keeping the classroom organized and focused is a difficult but mandatory task.

• Meeting with Parents:
  Having contact with students’ guardians is crucial when it comes to teaching. Teachers meet with parents to update them on their child’s progress. These meetings help guarantee that both teachers and parents are working together to support students’ academic and personal growth.

• Attending Staff Meetings:
  Teachers attend regular staff meetings with other educators and school staff to discuss student progress, share ideas, and collaborate on teaching strategies. These meetings are important for staying aligned with school goals and supporting each other in the classroom. Meeting before or after school with other staff members demonstrates the importance of teamwork and commitment. 

• Supporting Extracurricular Activities:
  Teachers who show interest in the activities taking place around the school truly show their dedication and passion they have to their job. They may be involved in organizing or supervising extracurricular activities for example, clubs, sports, or school events. This helps students develop skills outside of academics and creates a sense of personal belonging in the school. Additionally, this may lead students to feel a connection to a teacher or help them make new friendships with peers. 

Working conditions

Teachers work indoors, minus the time they spend outdoors on recess duties, during gym activities, and on certain field trips. Depending on the subject they teach, they spend their workdays in a classroom, library, gym, office, or maybe even a portable. As for their work hours, they work as long a specific school’s day lasts plus extra time after or before school due to coaching a sport, running art rehearsals, tutoring or mentoring students, catching up on work, attending staff meetings, helping out co-workers, etc. They get 11 sick days in a school year along with winter break, prep periods, and summer break. However, on students’ P.D. days, teachers must still make their way to work to participate in professional activities or development. Also, much of their lesson planning and scheduling is done on their own time at home.

salary

 The starting salary of teachers in Toronto is $50,000-$60,000.

After 5 years as working as an elementary teacher, $65,000-$80,000 is how much money being made.

The highest salary in Toronto as a teacher is about $103,000 salary after 15+ years.

Job Market

The most important trends in modern education may be a topic of concern as technology development, climate change, and labour market changes. While technologies continue to control our lives, schools need to understand the skills of digital literacy and online behaviour. At the same time, with growing awareness of environmental sustainability, students are supposed to learn about problems (i.e. climate change) and be prepared for active action. With the beginning of gig jobs and flexible engagement, education, will have to prepare young students for a new job market to teach them survival skills. Education will have to catch up and move along by equipping students with the knowledge and skills necessary in such challenges that lie ahead and make themselves successful in life.

Two Institutions

York University

Describe the program: Consecutive Bachelor of Education

It is for students who are in their last year of their university degree and will have received their degree by the time they enter the Bachelor of Education program. It is a two year program. It is a teaching certification from JK to Grade 12. It is required to take 10 full academic courses including practicums. There is a completion of one-community based placement and 3 school based practicum placements under the supervision and guidance of an Ontario certified teacher. 

Prerequisites: 

• Minimum of a B (73%) average based on the last 10 full courses (the final 2 years) of study. 
• Supplementary Application 
• Two letters of reference

Length of the Program and Cost: 

Tuition: Year 1 – $7315.50

             Year 2 – $7315.50 

Total: $14 631.00 (This is after you have completed and paid for your undergraduate degree)

University of Toronto

Describe the program: Master of Teaching

This program takes two years of full-time study to earn a Master of Teaching degree. After completing it, students will be recommended for an Ontario Teachers’ Certificate, allowing them to teach in Primary and Junior in Ontario schools. It is a two year program. It is a teaching certification from JK to Grade 6. It is required to take 10 full academic courses including practicums. After finishing this program, students will be recommended to the Ontario College of Teachers for an Ontario Teachers’ Certificate of Qualification. This certificate allows them to teach in Ontario schools.

Prerequisites:  

• English Language Proficiency Test. 
• Supplementary Application 
• Resume
• Transcripts
• Two letters of recommendation

Length of the Program and Cost: Year 1 – $12211.5

Year 2 – $12211.53   total: $24 433.06 (This is after you have completed and paid for your undergraduate degree)

Mandatory Courses

Ontario Secondary School Diploma

Grade 12 English (ENG4U)

Five additional Grade 12 university-level or university/college-level courses

Minimum average: Low 70s-Low 80s

Traits of a Teacher

Qualities:

• Communication Skills
  They must communicate to other people on a daily basis. Fellow staff members and students must be spoken to and worked with every single day to ensure that they have a full understanding and are staying on task.
• Listening Skills
  Great communication doesn’t stop when the teacher is done talking. Listening well is one of the most important qualities needed to be a teacher. They must listen to students’ struggles and staff members’ ideas to see how they may help.
• Adaptability Skills
  Effective teachers need to be able to work in a constantly evolving environment and adjust their teaching methods based on the age of their students, the resources available and changing curriculum, practices and requirements.
• Patience
  Everyone knows that other people are tough to deal with at times- children especially. Teachers need to make sure to be understanding and may need to repeat themselves numerous times since young students tend to have a shorter attention span and are still developing their minds. Patience is also required when working with coworkers and talking to parents.

Aptitudes:

• Creativity – Teachers usually try their best to make learning fun. In order to do this, they need to think of new ways to teach the information that kids will enjoy.
• Empathy –  Investing the time into understanding each student and their strengths can make a big difference in their learning. As a teacher it’s important to be observant, attentive, empathetic and always have a positive attitude.
• Social Awareness – Social awareness will help the teachers understand and respond to the different needs, backgrounds, and challenges of the students. This helps in bringing about an inclusive and supportive learning environment wherein all the students feel respected and valued.
• Humour – A funny teacher helps students relax which creates good relationships among students and provides a more enjoyable learning environment. Furthermore, a sense of humour creates a lesson that is more captivating, minimizes stress, and allows kids to participate freely in the class. This allows the teacher to have more fun in the classroom by expressing themself while properly doing their job.

Interests:

• Helping People – Teaching is all about helping others. All day, teachers are dedicated to educating students who are willing to learn new things.
• Art – Teachers like work activities that deal with artistic forms, designs, and patterns. They prefer work which allows for self expression. This ties into teaching since they have to show students how to find and express themselves.
• Meeting New People – Every year teachers are going to have new and different students in their classes. This goes along with meeting new parents. Moreover, if a teacher changes schools, they have to get acquainted with the whole new staff and students; even if a teacher has been somewhere for a while and there is a new teacher at their school, they should make them feel welcome.

Values:

• Consider relationships important. They like to work in a friendly, non-competitive environment. They like to do things for other people. They prefer jobs where they are not pressured to do things that go against their sense of right and wrong.
• Consider achievement important. They like to see the results of their work and to use their strongest abilities. They like to get a feeling of accomplishment from their work.
• Consider independence important. They like to make decisions and try out ideas on their own. They prefer jobs where they can plan their work with little supervision.
• Consider good working conditions important. They like jobs offering steady employment and good pay. They want employment that fits their individual work style. They may prefer doing a variety of tasks, working alone, or being busy all the time.
• Consider support from their employer important. They like to be treated fairly and have supervisors who will back them up. They prefer jobs where they are trained well.
• Consider recognition important. They like to work in jobs which have opportunities for them to advance, be recognized for their work, and direct and instruct others. They usually prefer jobs in which they are looked up to by others.

Post-Secondary plan 

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

1. The bond you form with your students.

After spending roughly 180 days with them during the school year. If you really make an impact on their lives, they will never forget how important you were to them. By being their confidant, a kid will choose you as the one person they will open up to and let down their guard.

2. The friendships you make with other staff.

Many teachers I know have really close friends at their schools. They share ideas about not only work-related issues but also every other part of your lives, as well, just like my everyday friends now.

3. Summer vacations and days off.

Having two months in the summer is a well deserved break for teachers. Along with March, and P.A. days, Winter break, the days and weeks off throughout the school year are fantastic.

4. Share your passion.

Granted, this is an ideal, rather than a rule- we’ve all had teachers who weren’t particularly enthusiastic about entering the classrooms. The best teachers are the ones who cultivate their students’ curiosity and prepare them for a fulfilling life are almost always the ones who are passionate about their job. It could be that they love math, or feel strongly about the importance of early childhood education, or want to help teenagers get through high school. Whatever the case may be, if you’re passionate about education, the welfare of young people, or even a specific subject, then you’ll find teaching to be a very fulfilling career.

5. Being a part of a union.

Having strong union support in Canada, helps ensure that educators have fair working conditions, competitive salaries, and job security. Teacher unions also work toward improving resources and policies that benefit teachers and students. This improves the learning environment. In addition, unions provide opportunities for professional development, helping teachers grow and stay updated on best practices in education.

Disadvantages

1. Not always getting the support you need from your administration.

This will, without a doubt, happen to you on more than one occasion. Maybe you won’t get backed up in terms of discipline with a student; maybe your principal will side with a parent rather than with you; maybe you’ve got a really great idea for a class or project, but the administration shoots it down. At some point, you will become frustrated with the administration and wonder why they make significantly more than your salary.

2. Professional development training days.

These can be great if they are applicable to what you teach. On the other hand, they’re not always relevant. For example, I’ve sat through a training on foreign language in elementary school, and to this day, I can’t figure out anything I learned in that training that is useful for what I teach. Sometimes, the district will hire a speaker who tells you about why you’re not good at your job and how everything you’re doing is wrong. It’s always baffling how many of these speakers either have never taught in a classroom or have been out of the teaching field for decades. I’d rather teach my classes for the day than sit through seven hours of someone talking to me.

3. Students who won’t complete any assignments, no matter what you do.

Sometimes, you will pull out every trick that you know to get a student to complete their work. You’ll try to strike deals, be overly lenient, and practically spoon-feed the answers- all to no avail. You’ll spend nights wracking your brain, wondering what you could have done differently to get through to this kid. Sometimes, you just have to let it go. This can be one of the hardest parts about teaching- knowing that a kid with potential just won’t make it.

Reflection

Why did you initially select this occupation?

Lately, I have been under stress because I have felt like I cannot decide on what occupation I should commit to. What career path I should take has been a question that seems not to come out easily as I have begun to mature. As I have grown up, my “dream job” went from being a professional dummer, to being a professional athlete, to being a veterinarian, to being a lawyer, to being a cardiologist, I had always had one job specifically in the back of my mind- a teacher. My mother who teaches has always told me not to be a teacher because she has seen how children misbehave more and more each year. Now maybe I am just a daughter who does not want to follow my mom’s instructions or maybe I am someone who just wants easy answers- but I decided to research this job for neither of those reasons. I figured that this was the perfect time to see if the one career that has been stored at the back of my brain- like a mosquito bite- itching for attention. At first, I was contemplating researching occupations that I had a desire to fulfill from when I was younger. Then, I realized that those jobs seem highly exciting, however some of them are unrealistic and others simply are not careers I would prefer to dedicate much of my life to. 

What are some new things you learned about this occupation?

Considering I have built strong bonds with my past teachers and many of my family members are or have been teachers, going into this ISU I knew quite a large amount about teaching. One thing that has opened my eyes about the career is how globally competent good teachers are. They try their best to make everyone feel a sense of belonging by including different cultures into learning. I’ve gone to Catholic schools for my entire life which revolves around our religion so I have not been able to fully experience this. Nevertheless, when teachers ask what each student’s background is, many kids get excited when it is their turn to answer. I’ve had plenty of teachers who go around asking students and they find a way to relate the kid’s answer to knowledge they have already acquired- or even ask the student to share a detail about the place they had mentioned. I never had pieced together why they might do this. This has made me come to appreciate how much the best teachers care about their students. No wonder teacher-student bonds become so strong.  

Would you still consider teaching as your future occupation?

Now that I have done my research, I would most definitely still consider teaching as my future occupation. Not only have I acquired greater respect for teachers and the amount of work they put into it, but I also find this career fulfilling. It means a lot to me to have the opportunity to inspire and leave a long lasting impact on the students. With this in mind, I believe teaching is a pretty good fit with my interests and values. I especially love the creativity involved in lesson planning and finding new ways to help students learn, which makes this job very exciting and rewarding for me. Not to mention building a positive school culture and working with other staff members on new projects makes teaching an even more compelling profession for me to consider. After weighing the varieties of pros and cons, I feel that the personal satisfaction I would get from seeing students succeed and grow would be worth the effort. Finally, the opportunity to learn and grow continuously as a teacher, adapting to new methodologies and technologies, makes teaching an attractive and dynamic career path.

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