Principal training in Canada?

[PsyGuy]

@momentofclarity

None of that is helpful, it just says that to get into leadership you have to get into leadership. Leadership means experience, which means there is nothing that an IT looking at BC can do to enter leadership except relocate and become appointed.

BC does offer an internal institute and documentation of completing it once your appointed in leadership.

[TeacherGal]

I would be very interested in investigating teaching, principal and vice-principal contracts in BC.

1. Are they available in more populated areas such as Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna?
2. Does anyone have any links to check for vacancies or for applying?

Cheers!

[Helen Back]

We also have had a conversation about returning to BC this year. But, in the end, we enjoy our lives overseas too much to go back. Vancouver island might be a place to retire for half the year, but it's not a place I want to work.

[shadowjack]

Hear hear, HelenBack!

TeacherGal - are you BC Certified? If not, know there will be some hoops to jump through (just as a BC teacher going to Ontario would have to jump through hoops).

Basically, each district puts out a call for admin - or doesn't. Bigger districts do for sure. Helps to know people. You go in a pool and then hiring decisions are made. Not sure of too many other details.

[momentofclarity]

Thanks for the feedback. Can you please share a link to the organization and/or process as it is documented? Any support to be "helpful" would be greatly appreciated.

This is the closest I can find, and it is more focused on advocacy and development than certification.

http://bcpvpa.bc.ca/

This is a course to support new leaders, but does not mention "certificate" or ""certification". http://bcpvpa.bc.ca/short-course/

Thanks again for all your "helpful" insights into a province you have clearly never worked or lived, but clearly have a depth and wealth of knowledge that far surpasses those of us trained and experienced in BC.

Cheers,
MoC

[TeacherGal]

I'm certified by the province of Ontario. I think that if there are desperate times BC and other provinces will relax their regulations to get teachers in.
Actually in Ontario there is a shortage of supply teacher and they are hiring lots of unqualified people to supply right now. I bet it's at the same rate as qualified. Unfortunately there are no permanent contracts to be had without supplying for years and years and years.
Thanks for posting the BC links, can't see your handle right now.

[shadowjack]

LOL MoC

I am BC certified and worked there - many of my teacher friends still work there, some as administrators of small and large schools, coastal and inland.

FYI, those links are to the principals and vice principals association (BTW, they usually meet at Whistler every August :-)

TeacherGal, employment is not through that association and has nothing to do with that association - it is by district. Districts vary. Districts can hire who they want as admin.

However, you would have more luck applying to a place like Vancouver or Surrey, or in the lower mainland, than in Fort St. John or Dawson Creek, simply because the lower mainland districts have more schools, hence more opportunities. Smaller districts tend to promote from within as it is likely by that time the admin will have put down roots, have local family, etc, and likely to stay around awhile, rather than principal it for two years and head south.

The alternate is to apply to First Nations schools, but they want you to have some first nations training - and not just the 'ways of knowing' that is currently being integrated across all curricula in BC. You can google https://educationcanada.com/ , set up an account, and then look by job category to get a better look at them.

Your best bet is to directly contact the HR person in districts you are interested in and ask them.

Also, as MoC said, you can look on http://www.makeafuture.ca/ but understand you will have to create an account for EACH school district. It has teacher and principal positions. But as I said, districts create a pool of admin applicants - so it wouldn't hurt to apply now if interested.

[TeacherGal]

I've read that teacher pay in BC is not that great. I'm assuming the person who told me was comparing it to salaries in Ontario. But who knows if it is right. I also wonder about teaching in the other provinces.
Whey do teachers have to jump through so many hoops to teach, especially in their home country? Do lawyers, police, doctors, engineers, architects have to do go through similar processes? I bet not as much!

[PsyGuy]

@TeacherGal

Teaching isnt that difficult an occupation to enter. You can get a credential in the US in a week. A number of fundamental reasons:

1) Attributes of Scale: Doctors see one patient at a time, lawyers mostly work for one client at a time (even in class action suites theres a named plaintiff). Usually ITs/DTs dont they have anywhere from a small group to dozens of students in a class. It takes fewer DTs/ITs when you serve larger groups at a time.

2) Risk Assessment: You can be a pretty bad DT and not really hurt anyone. Further the process of education is spread over many years. That doesnt really happen in medicine or law where events are typically much shorter and the effects change is MUCH shorter. If a patient suffers X its Y practitioner. Architects typically work on very large high value projects.

3) Length of Training: It takes much greater resources in time and coin to be a doctor or a lawyer, and theres a certain amount of work and experience in being a successful architect. Further engineers have a stronger requirement for high end maths.

4) Cost of Entry: Its difficult to teach outside of teaching. DTs/ITs cant just hang a shingle and open a DS/IS. Lawyers can rent an office get a computer and a fax machine copier and they are good to go. It can be expensive to set up a doctors office (depending on the profession, psychiatry is pretty inexpensive) but many doctors are investing in less and less equipment and resources and outsourcing a lot of it to external providers. The same is true with an architect and engineer work space and a computer is it.

5) Population Restrictions: People tend to be very protective of children, and that practice carries over to regulation. It simply costs more to work with children because the environment requires more oversight, regulation and control.

[shadowjack]

TeacherGal - responses in amongst...

I've read that teacher pay in BC is not that great. I'm assuming the person who told me was comparing it to salaries in Ontario. But who knows if it is right.

Teacher pay ranges from 60's to 80's. Depends on degrees and districts. Taxes may be higher or lower than ON - haven't been in Canada for awhile...

I also wonder about teaching in the other provinces.
Whey do teachers have to jump through so many hoops to teach, especially in their home country?

Answer: they don't. For any Western trained teacher from BC to Manitoba, reciprocity is pretty easy to get and you can get it pretty easily. I am/was certified in three Western Canadians jurisdictions including BC (in fact, my permanent BC certificate would still work, but my permanent AB certificate is easier/better since the LIberals took the wrenches to BC education...). My other one was a 5 year - although if I moved back I could easily renew. But that jurisdiction only gives 5 year certifications.... But...Ontario...ahhhh Ontario. The USA education system of Canada. They want you to specialise in this or that and heaven forbid you try to teach outside of that (from my understanding). It isn't anything that makes better teachers IMHO - but it does make for busier teachers who funnel money to things like OISE and other PD cert stuff. This is all my opinion, BTW, but I would never teach in Ontario. I know nothing about back east, but I like the Western Canadian systems. More wide open and responsive to the needs of both districts and students. Again, my opinion. But here's a hint - Ontario makes it harder for Western teachers to teach there too - but I have 7 out of 13 jurisdictions I can easily transfer to, so I am down with that.

Do lawyers, police, doctors, engineers, architects have to do go through similar processes?

no, because the province doesn't get involved half as much. But once the province gets involved, and vested interests, things change...

I bet not as much!

[Sharen]

This is definitely a very useful topic!

[shadowjack]

Why thank you Sharen!

[Sharen]

To thank you, I want to share some links, I think you guys can find more here on this site for yourself https://paperleaf.ca/assignment/, here you can find answers to many questions. There is even an assignment, dissertations and research papers, such a variety!

[PsyGuy]

@SJ

Good job @SJ, you let a scammer with a brand new account, and exactly these two posts, one of which could be a thank you for anything, use the forum to advertise a paper mill.

[shadowjack]

And how did I do that? ISR did that. I did nothing except say thank you. Don't read too much into it.