Diary of Rebecca
Narrative by: Cenet Inal
February 20, 2035
Joe and I have been considering for some time moving outside of Toronto. Joe works remotely meaning he could work anywhere he wants to. Myself on the other hand I would simply have to transfer school districts. I am pretty sure I won’t have a problem transferring to the rural school districts since many people have decided to move out of the city for a better life and as a result, they are in desperate need of elementary teachers in those school boards. As much as I am accustomed to our life in Toronto, life here has become unbelievably expensive to maintain and the city is beyond overcrowded. Though we’ve seen a decrease in population during the past two years, the levels of immigration post 2020 had and continue to have a significant effect on the population of Toronto. The mass immigration that occurred between the years of 2020 – 2024 caused many people to settle into the city of Toronto for its job opportunities and diverse communities, however we are just starting to see the beginning of the effects of this being reversed. Despite government assistance programs I truly believe though for Toronto to become in a liveable condition with lower life costs and to become more lightly populated. To provide a better future for the kids it seems like a good idea to talk to Joe tonight and actually start looking into moving outside the city.
One of the concerns I have about moving outside the city is the weather. In the winter even when you simply step outside the Greater Toronto Area you are able to see the change in weather. Though climate change is really starting to show its effects so really, I am not entirely sure how the weather will be. The weather today was surprisingly warm, it was a whole 15 degrees Celsius, though I am not sure why I am so surprised, we’ve been having surprisingly mild winters since 2024, and the winters have only been warmer ever since. There has been quite an effort to reduce climate change. For instance, upon receiving backlash from the citizens about yet another increase in carbon tax, the federal government that was elected in the year 2025 eliminated the carbon tax. After tons of protests by citizens in the past few regarding climate change the government recently allocated a higher budget to improve transportation. The aim is to try and improve the infrastructure of the existing transportation to make it more reliable, so people choose to take public transportation. As well, the government also wants to make the transportation between cities more reliable, to reduce traffic on the highways and keep the communities in the province connected.
A concern I have about moving in general is leaving my comfort zone. I have been at the school I am currently teaching at for 6 years now. Some of the students in my current 6th grade class I have taught two years in a row already as they were previously in my grade 4 and 5 classes. Moving to a new district means building new relationships with my students, which could take a lot of time and effort. In the class I have right now I know my students and they know me well enough that they do not take advantage of the technology we use in the classroom and use it for alternative things. When I call in substitute teachers, I am comfortable enough to leave a plan where students can engage in the assigned e-lit and e-math games that I have left for them to complete their rote learning for the day. I am able to be creative with the curriculum because I know my students’ abilities. Like today I had my students engage with Chat GPT in ways that could enhance their critical thinking. I gave them all the same assignment to write a short story with the same prompt using Chat GPT and compare their stories with their groups. I then asked them to slightly change the prompting, the wording etc. and asked them again to share their responses with their groups. I then asked them to share their results and we discussed some of the limitations and possibilities of using A.I..
Much of what we teach now relies on Indigenous pedagogy. The school system looks very different now than from when I was in school and even from when I was completing my teaching degree. As teachers there is an expectation for us to heavily focus on what is relevant to our students. Moving from the city to a rural area would indicate having to re – learn a lot of different things. Some questions that are pondering in my mind are: do the students in rural areas have different learning relevancies, if so what are they? When I spoke to my grade 6 students today, many of learning what is relevant to them were issues and concerns about living in the city. For instance, one of my students was super excited about being able to take geography in the 7th grade, in hopes of being able to do some city planning in the class. What I am thinking in my mind then is what is relevant for those students in the rural areas? I guess my concern then lies with am I equipped or knowledgeable enough to teach this? Yes, we have a base curriculum to teach our students, but if you talk to any teacher, they will tell you that teaching goes beyond teaching the curriculum.
Though moving means there will be a lot of changes in my life I think it will ultimately be what is best for my family. Our living costs will significantly decrease as we might be able to afford our own house instead of renting. In the summer we have the capacity to grow our own food. I won’t have to sit for hours in traffic trying to get home from work. The kids will be exposed to fresher air away from the city pollution. In general the family will live a less stressful life if we move.