OISE concurrent teacher candidates begin professional semester

January 30, 2012

by Tamara Jones

Earlier this month, year 4 teacher candidates from the Concurrent Teacher Education Program began their Professional Semester at OISE. More than 140 Concurrent candidates arrived at OISE from the six undergraduate partner units involved in the program: the University of Toronto Scarborough, the University of Toronto Mississauga, the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, the Faculty of Music, and St. Michael’s College and Victoria College in the Faculty of Arts & Science. This year’s Professional Semester is the second offered in the Concurrent Program, which accepted its first applicants in September 2007; the program’s first graduating class will convocate in June 2012.

The 2012 Professional Semester Orientation Day included a welcome assembly, meetings with the Mentored Inquiry in Teaching cohort coordinators, and a pizza lunch. Dean Julia O’Sullivan welcomed the candidates to OISE at the assembly and reminded them of the increasing importance of the teaching profession. Kathy Broad, Academic Director of Initial Teacher Education, Eleanor Gower, Director of the School-University Partnerships Office and Student Services, and Antoinette Gagné, Director of the Concurrent Teacher Education Program, also spoke at the welcome assembly. Kaitlin Brock, a Year 5 candidate from the University of Toronto Scarborough provided the Year 4 candidates with advice and encouragement based on her experiences in last year’s Professional Semester. The assembly concluded with a video produced by the University of Toronto Scarborough Concurrent candidates who attended last year’s Professional Semester. In this video, created for their Celebration of Learning Day in April 2011, the candidates expressed how much they had enjoyed their time at OISE.

Paul Kelly, the Partnership and OISE Unit-level Co-Coordinator for the Concurrent Program and an Instructor of the Mentored Inquiry in Teaching course taken by the Concurrent candidates, said that “the Concurrent Teacher Candidates from across the University of Toronto were very excited to finally attend OISE and were filled with a mix of anticipation and anxiety knowing they would soon be experiencing their first practicum and being ‘the teacher’.” Greg Boudreau, also an Instructor of Mentored Inquiry in Teaching, added that “there was a strong sense of community evident as they renewed their friendships with their specific cohorts.”

The Year 4 Concurrent candidates will be at OISE full-time until the end of April, during which time they will complete the majority of their BEd program components including a seven-week Practicum beginning in February.

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