Entering the Teacher Education Program at UVic

In a previous blog post, I talked about the motivations that ended up sending me to teach English abroad. I also shared a little bit about my history and perspectives surrounding Indigenous Studies.

In this post, I want to share a little bit about the UVic Education Program and what motivated me to finally choose this as an option for my future.

I feel that people are infinitely complex and there’s no set path to enter education; indeed, my peers who are taking Education are an example of this. It has been an interesting experience for me to get to know all of my new friends and what motivated them to enter the program.

I believe that is one aspect which makes the Education program here at UVic so compelling. Through being here with this wonderful group of people, I have learned almost as much from interacting with my peers as I have from learning from the teachers. We all have our own path that we choose to take in life and in this post I’d like to talk a little bit about how I eventually decided that the UVic Education Program is the right one for me.

Showing a group of friends the Harbour Ferry in downtown Victoria

It all started when I returned to Victoria from teaching English in Korea in 2016. After having spent five years abroad, I felt that it had been too long and I missed spending time with my family here in Canada. At first I took some time off of work, but eventually I decided to start teaching again. I taught from the Summer until the Winter at a local language school, teaching English to high school and adult students, and I loved every moment of it.

My school hosted events, and I sometimes had the chance to take students to activities such as whale watching, tours in Vancouver, and trips to the Royal BC Museum. However, I started to think about my life as a whole, and all things considered, returning to school to take a degree in education was an excellent option.

Cycling from Victoria and camping in Sooke 

In order to get into the 2017 PDPP Secondary program, I had to have all the requirements to enter the program ready before the end of April, 2017. In November 2016, I registered for some classes that I needed and then began other work such as gathering reference letters, updating my resume, and writing my letter of intent.

In the early Spring, they had interviews for entering the program and it was one of the most pleasant interviews I’ve ever had in my life.

Normally interviews are stressful experiences, but in this case, they let us know the questions in advance and allowed us to have the interview together with another person. It was a supportive environment and during the interview we were encouraged to cooperate with each other. It was a relaxed experience in comparison to some of the strict interviews I’ve had in the past.

I saw some whales while whale watching in Victoria near Race Rocks!

Taking my students on a tour of Craigdarroch Castle

I took my classes from January until April towards my major concentration of Social Studies and minor concentration of Japanese. In the Education Secondary Program, your credits towards major and minor concentrations are decided by a committee and a big part of my time leading up to entering the Education Program involved tracking down information on my previous courses to qualify them and count them towards the program.  

Entering the Education Secondary PDPP Program was certainly a process involving a lot of steps, but considering all of the opportunities which have become available in the last couple of years, I think that it was definitely the best choice I could have made—and I’m happy that I began the process sooner rather than later. I look forward to the future and having a chance to continue to do what I love.

What motivates you to be a teacher?

What subject would you like to teach?

If you’re interested, the path is certainly waiting for you…. just make sure you apply early!  

Sunset on  the water