My New Card

After 94 days I have finally recieved my permanent residency card. The card itself held no real importance in getting a job, although it is necessary in order for  me to get my Alberta Teaching Certificate. All I need to do is send in a certified copy of the card and they should be able to process my license. Hooray! Almost there.

Easter in Canada

Of course it's snowing here before Easter weekend. I wouldn't have it any other way. We found these lovelies while perusing the Easter candy section at Wal-Mart, both of which are incredibly fitting, seeing that the Stanley Cup playoffs just started last night. 

Personally, I'd take the large Reese Egg below over a chocolate Stanley Cup.The only Stanley Cup I want to see is the real Lord Stanley's Cup raised over Joe Thornton's head in a month.

CBE -- that escalated quickly

In my first week I had three interviews for three very different jobs. The first was as a tutor with Sylvan Learning Center. They hired me and I've been working there a few nights a week. Next was an ESL teaching position, but I never got a call back. The third was for an aide at a special education preschool (Renfrew Educational Services), which I was offered, but turned down because I was hoping for something bigger. Something with the Calgary Board of Education.

The CBE is a monster. They are the only school district in Calgary, so they are huge. They actually do a good job at educating kids, but they have quite the bureaucracy, which always gives people something to complain about. Most teachers I have talked to say that it's not the best place to work for, but their compensation and benefits are incomparable. Apart from teaching at a special education school, this was my only ticket to teach in Calgary. It is very competitive to get on board with CBE. Here is the process:

1.     Apply online for a job as 'Teacher'.

2.     Get a screening interview. Your responses are typed out by the interviewer into a system that runs on a number of hoity-toity algorithms that will determine whether or not you are qualified to teach for the great and powerful CBE.

3.     You are sent a letter. If you pass the screening, you are added to their sub list. If not, you are not allowed to reapply for two years.

4.     Try to sell yourself to every school you sub at so they will hire you if they have an opening. If you do not sub, you are not known.

5.     Schools will choose candidates to interview from the pool of subs/applicants, favoring those they already are familiar with, obviously.

6.     Boom, you're in.

Creepy alien statues that make up the CBE logo

It's not exactly 'Boom, you're in', though, is it? I was lucky enough to know someone with a contact in recruiting and scored a screening interview. I went into a room where a man asked me questions and typed my repsonses. Hopefully the computers will deem me a worthy candidate, but I won't get my letter for two weeks. I feel like my interview went really well, but more importantly, apparently, is the fact that I am a man and can teach elementary (my masters degree qualified me for K-12. Ka-ching!). I've spoken with several teachers and administrators who all have said that any man in special education at the elementary level will be a shoe-in to find a job in the district. 

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I had seriously just written that when I received a phone call from my contact in recruiting who told me that they are officially hiring me. Apparently my offering was acceptable to their hiring gods (which are depicted in the statues in the logo), and the recruiter pulled some strings to make it happen for me now. I heard later from a friend that at her school a teacher couldn't get a sub and Lori had to call someone and tell them they could work even though their paperwork hadn't been fully processed. I really just feel blessed for what happened. Some people apply and reapply for years without ever even getting an interview, so this is exciting for me. I just have a lot less to write about getting a job in Canada.

Becoming a Teacher in Canada

It all started last year around this time. I started looking and applying for jobs in Calgary and the surrounding area. I applied for an Alberta teaching license online in May and hoped for the best. In June when we visited Calgary I spoke with people in HR for the four districts in the region and found out that they won't apply for work permits for foreign teachers, and that I'd have to wait until I had permanent residency. And the time ticked by...

In the fall, after we had moved to Canada, I called Alberta Education to check on the status of my application. I gave him the reference number and he told me that he didn’t have any of the required documents, nor the $200 application fee. And he told me all of this in a snotty French accent, which really made my blood curdle (but it’s something that you deal with in the bureaucracy because they need bilingual workers to handle the idiots from/in Quebec who won’t speak a word of English to save their life). I mean, I already did all of this, what’s the problem?

So I did what everyone does in this situation, you go to the supervisor. As it turns out, the reference number they emailed me was different than the one under which they had filed all of my application, and the money, which they had to have their boys in accounting track down. In November I was notified by Alberta Education that my profile was complete and that I just needed proof of permanent residency to get my license.

The Monday after I landed as a permanent resident I called AE to verify the document they wanted. Unfortunately, AE only accepts the actual permanent residency card as proof of residency, and I still have four to six weeks until that shows up in the mail. This was discouraging, but they do have a system in place for people like me to get a 'Temporary Letter of Authority', which would allow me to teach if a district wanted to hire me. So once I someone wants me, I can go ahead and work. Let the applications begin!

I've Landed!

I did not succeed in finding employment under a Labour Market Opinion. I interviewed for one last week, but I wouldn't commit to the length of the contract (two years) because let's face it, I wasn't going to work in the kitchen at Julio's when I could be making some real money elsewhere. It was then that I knew I wouldn't be getting an LMO, so we made one more effort--entrepreneurship. I am by no means a business-minded individual, but I do have some great ideas for education, so we picked my best idea (a series of learning game apps that provide special education students remediation of prerequisite materials before learning new concepts, connected to a web-based database so teachers can monitor progress and easily tie it in to IEP goals) and I started writing a grant proposal complete with business plan.

Space Cats GCF game
(Yes, I was going to hire an animator)

The whole thing was actually kind of exciting, but at the same time I had a tough time writing it up because starting a business like this is so risky, and risk-taking like that is not my nature at all. Well I was writing up proposals for game apps and modules on Friday when I got the call from my father in law that the letter came from Immigration Canada. The letter specifically has written that applicants living in Canada are to either go to a border or the airport in order to officially land as a permanent resident. So Saturday we dropped the kids off at Courtney's parents and went to the airport. Upon finding the border services office, we were told that they couldn't do the job unless I landed on a plane, which isn't what the paper work said, but they wouldn't help us, so we drove to the border. 

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoy driving down to the border, so we didn't mind so much. I dropped Courtney off at the Canadian border office because leaving the country for her means she'll have to surrender her permanent residency card, which we didn't want to do on the same day for time reasons. I went through to American soil and turned around to land in Canada. I was expecting a drawn out interview, but the guard asked me two questions, "Have you been convicted of any crimes since filing?" and "Have you ever been fingerprinted?" (Which I have, for my teaching background check - they still let me in). We waited while he did some paperwork and then he called me out and declared me a permanent resident of Canada, with all the rights and privileges of a Canadian citizen, sans voting. That's right, I can now be as apologetic and hockey-crazed as an ordinary Canadian citizen. But more importantly, I can work. I can't teach right away--my application for an Alberta teacher's license is still in evaluation and I'll write more on that process later--but I can do just about anything else. We drove home with a sigh of relief, but also with anxiety to start looking for work.

Canadian Citizenship Ceremony

Source: McGill University

I had the privilege of attending a Canadian Citizenship Ceremony today. No, not my own (I'm not even approved as a permanent resident yet), but my brother-in-law's wife, who is from Jamaica. The ceremony room was filled with friends and family of the new Canadians. A judge gave a speech before the 81 applicants took the oath of Canadian citizenship. It was an excellent speech; a few things stuck out to me

• Canada is the "Great Experiment": Every American has been told that the United States is the Great Experiment--in democracy. Canada is apparently the Great Experiment in multiculturalism. Long ago the United States was a "melting pot" of ethnicity, but after over 200 years of immigration, people in the US predominantly see themselves as American because they are so far removed from their family's immigration to the States. While the race statistics are even more predominantly white in Canada, and the ancestral breakdown is not as diverse, it seems like a more diverse place. One thing I've noticed here is how many people identify with their ethnicity more than in the states. I feel like people retain their English accents for a while here (I hear them a lot) and it's okay to speak speak your native language (especially if it's French, which is the co-national language). The most common theme I've noticed is a general acceptance of all cultures and a lack of racism. I think that is what is meant by the Great Experiment. They don't just want to have many cultures living together, but they want to do so in an inviting way that promotes the spirit of community, and I think they do that very well.
• 'Many of you have come seeking refuge from oppressive governments, war-torn countries of fallen economies': That we be us. The third one, yeah, that's what we did.
• 'The country is made great through volunteerism': The judge advised the new citizens to volunteer, to become part of the community and help others, and also take advantage of the many programs offered by individuals volunteering to teach youth. I thought this was very wise of him to suggest. 
• 'Canada is the greatest country in the world. Not the most famous. Not the richest. But it is the greatest because it is the best place in the world to raise a family': Whether or not this is true, I cannot say with a great deal of certainty. What I can say is that Calgary is a very family-friendly city, and I am happy to start raising my family here now. 

When he finished, the immigrants stood and took the oath, then each was called to the podium to receive their certificate of citizenship and shook hands with the judge and an RCMP officer, better known by Americans as a Mountie (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). I thought this was fitting because you'll be hard pressed to find anything more Canadian than a Mountie in full dress uniform.

The question obviously was asked if I would get Canadian citizenship when I'd become eligible. I could think of three possible advantages of becoming Canadian:

1. I could vote. But seeing that our current riding has given 70% of the vote for the last six elections to an MP who is likely the next Prime Minister of Canada, I'm not sure if that matters much (it would be more important for city elections, though).
2. I could run for office, like City Councilor or the School Board. But hmpf. 
3. I wouldn't have to deal with the US government for a passport, about taxes, about, well, anything. That alone actually might make it worth it.
4. I could be disappointed when my Olympic hockey team doesn't win gold instead of pleasantly surprised when they do well or satisfied as long as they don't trash the Olympic Village housing like they're the Rolling Stones--oops, I don't think that was one of the reasons. But the Olympics are coming! If Ryan Miller or Jonathan Quick get hot, this could be the year (hahaha).

I finally got a job...sort of

I suppose I should mention that I finally found a way to work. I applied for many online tutoring jobs based in the US last month, but none of them got back to me. I did, however, get a response from an English tutoring business based in Taiwan. The entails me sitting at the computer with a webcam, leading groups of 1-6 clients from Taiwan and China in discussions provided by my employer, TutorABC. I'm able to do this job because the company functions out of Taiwan, so I pay Tawianese taxes and the whatnot and they deposit my check into my paypal account. It sounds pretty sketchy, but I figure if they were actually a shady business they'd promise to pay me more than $8.50 a session + performance bonus.
So for this menial salary (which, on average ends up being $10/hr) I get up at 4:30 AM to tutor people across the Pacific Ocean before they go to bed, and sometimes get a session in the afternoon, when they wake up. I don't get great hours, and I don't get many hours, but it's better than nothing. And I don't have to wear pants to work, which is cool.
This is where I am now, but better things are on the horizon, I think. More on that, later.