A half position

Giovanna Di Cesare, OCT

Giovanna Di Cesare, OCT, considers herself lucky to have a full year’s half-day position at Sts. Martha and Mary Catholic School in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic DSB. She graduated from Nipissing University’s Faculty of Education (now the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University) in 2006. Since then she has been working as an occasional teacher in the board she attended as a student.

“I know there are far more grads than there are jobs right now; it’s so competitive,” she says. “I am determined to get a full-time job in Dufferin-Peel Catholic, so I keep taking evening and summer AQ courses. I want to be in my own classroom and I’ll do what it takes to get there.”

Di Cesare has already earned English as a Second Language, Part 1, and is working on Part 2 this school year. She plans to take Part 3 in the summer. She also has Religious Education, Part 1, Reading, Part 1, and her Early Childhood Educator certification.

She teaches her own kindergarten class every afternoon at Sts. Martha and Mary. In the mornings she looks for half-day occasional work, which does not come up very often, she admits. “It’s worth it,” she says, “to have full-time half days of work this whole year. The experience and the joy of having my own classroom and students is fantastic, and I hope it will help me secure a full-time position next year.”