CBU launches pilot project to train teachers
Weekly seminars cover wide range of topics
Students enrolled in Cape Breton University’s bachelor of education program are attending courses covering subjects like mental health awareness, suicide prevention and treaty education.
The new weekly series is optional and so far all 20 students enrolled in the bachelor of education program have attended every one.
“I’ll go every Wednesday because I know that any extra knowledge is going to be helpful. I am glad it is happening,” said Shauna Ryan, 26, from Cumberland County.
Glace Bay native Victoria Clarke, 21, agreed.
“I’ve taken something out of everything that we’ve done up until this point. All the handouts that they’ve given us, I’m like, this is so important, I have got to keep this.”
Kristin O’Rourke, manager of the CBU teacher education programs and a part-time bachelor of education instructor, said one of the reasons for the seminar
series is to give the teachers of tomorrow more tools.
“It’s the realities that students bring with them (to the classroom). We can prepare people to teach content and to be inclusive and to make assessments, but it’s how do you prepare for some of those serious issues that students
bring with them,” said O’Rourke.
“It’s hard to put that into courses so that’s why we’re bringing in a lot of community members because they are the experts in these fields.”
Another reason CBU started the seminar series is to address the province’s new public school curriculum that includes more in depth studies in treaty education and Aboriginal history.
The CBU students did a fullday seminar on this and spent the morning with a Mi’kmaq residential school survivor.
“When I went to high school there wasn’t a lot of talk about treaty education, so I think it is good there is going to be now,” said Clarke, who wants to be a French immersion teacher.
O’Rourke said special attention was put into picking the weekly seminar topics and the community experts delivering them, to ensure the information covers students training to teach elementary and secondary school.
“We realized our teachers need to be a little bit better prepared with some of the realities that come with teaching. It’s not just about assessment, course delivery and content delivery,” she said.
“All these other aspects are just as important in the teaching profession. So this was our opportunity to try something new while we are restructuring a few things.”
Both Ryan and Clarke said the seminars will make them better teachers.
“I feel better prepared for the other aspects in the classroom because I know that you’re not just there teaching the students, you’re involved in every aspect of their life,” Ryan said.