An Ontario School Board Will Hire You To Be A Teacher Even If You're Not A Teacher
One school district in Ontario is taking an unconventional approach to fill its supply teacher shortage. The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) in Sault St. Marie has put up a job posting that invites "unqualified" adults to apply, even without education certificates.
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“Applications are invited from interested community members for unqualified Emergency Occasional Teachers for both the Secondary and Elementary Panels of the Algoma District School Board," the posting says.
"Successful applicants will be called out for daily occasional teaching positions should contract teachers be unavailable to fill daily absences."
"An unqualified teacher is basically someone who has not gone to teacher's college and wouldn’t have an Ontario College of Teachers certificate," said Frank Palumbo, superintendent of education for ADSB, to CTV News.
The only listed qualifications are that you undergo a background and criminal record check and that you are an existing member of the community.
Along with those, you'll need to submit a letter of application outlining your reasons for applying, a recent resume, and two references.
According to CTV News, ADSB needs a new list of on-call teachers because most of the existing ones have been assigned to teach the 1,200 online students.
Narcity has reached out to ADSB for additional details on the posting, including how many positions they are looking to fill.
ADSB isn't the only district searching high and low for teachers.
This week, the Toronto District School Board was meant to launch virtual elementary schooling, but when many children logged on for their first day, they found they had no teacher.
The children were instructed to teach themselves through independent learning.
Ontario has seen a surge of students switching from in-person classes to online ones due to fears surrounding COVID-19 transmission.
If you're a community member in the Algoma region and think you'd make a good substitute teacher, now's your chance.