Annie Armstrong pivoted from a career in film and television production to pursue a teaching career through the BEd Tech program (SHELBY JOHNSTON/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
While July may be summer vacation for schools across Canada, it marks the beginning of the teaching careers of students in UWindsor’s Bachelor of Education in Technological Studies program.
Hailing from all over the province, the BEd in Tech students spend the month of July on campus in the Faculty of Education before returning to their home school boards to complete their practicum and additional courses online.
A milestone at the start of their 14-month program is the pinning ceremony, welcoming the teacher candidates into the profession.
On July 10, this year’s cohort gathered to hear from representatives of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association before being called to the stage by the Faculty of Education’s Teacher Education Liaison Committee.
As they received their pin, each candidate shared an aspect of their teaching philosophy, and the ceremony wrapped up with the group jointly reciting the Educator’s Oath, a pledge to uphold the values and commitments of the profession.
Tim Tiegs, a coordinator and instructor in the BEd Tech program, says that this ceremony is an important marker for the teacher candidates at the beginning of their journey as educators.
“They've typically come from a career previous to this where there was no professional organization that oversaw what they did,” explains Tiegs.
“This is the point at which most of them realize, ‘I’m going to be a teacher. I'm no longer a carpenter. I'm no longer an electrician. I'm a teacher now.’ That's what this day does.”
The program is unique in that it recruits working professionals who have established careers in technological fields — from hairstyling and aesthetics to health-care, green industries and hospitality and tourism — and equips them to translate their real-world work experience into a career in secondary schools.
Kent Vollans, who came out of the automotive field and plans to teach transportation technology, called the pinning ceremony a great step forward.
After only a week in the program, he says his excitement for becoming a teacher is already growing.
“I came to this program with the idea of inciting change in the perception of the trades,” he says. “I’ve been here for seven days now, and I feel like a new person.”
Jesse Armstrong, who is studying in the technological design field, says he felt validated by the ceremony: “It makes me see that this is actually happening.”
Drawing on years of design experience, he hopes to ensure students embrace everyone’s ability to make a difference.
This type of student-centred and inclusive teaching is also something Brian Anderson, an incoming computer technology teacher, cites in his goals for the classroom, where he hopes to engage students based on their own interests and make them the centre of his teaching.
After the pinning ceremony, Anderson says that the event felt like a first step toward a teaching career: “It kind of feels official now.”
Pivoting from her career in television and movie production into a career teaching communications technology, Annie Armstrong says that the pinning ceremony helped put that shift into perspective.
“It helps get our heads into the space of what's about to happen and the importance of what these new jobs are that we're walking into, seeing the bigger picture and getting ready for a new life and a new chapter,” she says.
After a week of delving into curriculum theory, Robin Sanders, an industrial electrician working toward a career teaching construction technology, says that the day allowed him to take a welcome step back.
“We've been really focused on our classrooms and lessons, and it's been nice to zoom out and get a sense of all the larger organizations that are holding us through the whole process and through our careers,” he says.
For Sanders, the classroom is about getting hands-on and learning from experience.
“I want to bring like makerspace and hackerspace kind of ethics,” he says. “Just getting in there and learning by experience and working with your hands.”
To learn more about the BEd Technological Studies program, visit the Faculty of Education website.