Middle and high school students interested in teaching had the chance to learn about opportunities in education at an event today at the University at Albany.
For the third year, Questar III BOCES hosted its annual Celebration of Teaching & Learning event at UAlbany.
Students in grades 8 through 12 from more than a dozen school districts across New York’s Capital Region participated. Questar III BOCES Chief School Improvement officer Terry Bordell says there are two main goals.
“One, to celebrate our teachers, our educators, but also to inspire current high school students to pursue a career in education and to be inspired to do so,” said Bordell.
The students each had their own reasons for exploring a future career in teaching.
Wynantskill eighth-grader Christopher Bayer says he is inspired by his mother, an educator.
“I always want to think to the teachers for amazing job teaching us every single day, including my mom,” said Bayer.
Eighth-grader Elizabeth Czubek, also of Wynantskill, said her work with younger kids makes her want to be an educator.
“Just because I've recently started babysitting for kids in my neighborhood, and it's really fun talking to them and hanging out with them and just like playing games with them, and that like sparked my interest for being a teacher,” Czubek.
The students got the chance to ask teachers outside of the classroom about their careers. Czubek says she learned some valuable advice.
“The first few years, I start teaching to take it slow, because it's gonna be a lot, but it'll be worth it,” said Czubek.
Maeve Clemons, an 11th grader at Averill Park High School, is also a babysitter and has worked with younger kids at Tae Kwan Do.
“It just made me realize that I can make an impact on kids’ lives,” said Clemons.
Clemons said she also learned something from the educators at the event.
“I learned that…teachers actually want to be there for the students, they genuinely care about the students and the relationships that they build with them,” said Clemons.
Tess Bates, a junior at Tamarack in Brunswick, wants to pursue a career in student counseling.
“Part of the reason why I want to be a school counselor is because I want to help kids that like, need help. And I see what like teachers have impacted my life as well as like my friends and I want to be a part of that,” said Bates.
One of the day’s educational ambassadors, Averill Park High School biology teacher Emily Caboot, says the opportunity to interact with teachers outside of the classroom is valuable, especially for someone who might see themselves at the blackboard one day.
“Taking them out of the normal school setting and bringing them to somewhere, like, they could go here for college one day, kind of opened that door to ask those different questions. And also, we saw behavior, like students acting, we had the eighth-graders acting like eighth-graders, which was great to see but they were genuinely interested and wanted to be here and asking those questions for the future,” said Caboot.
Caboot also has some tips to share about how to be an effective educator.
“Find your passion and have an open mind because going through the experience through, post-high school, you might take classes that may open up new doors or you have a mindset, or you're gonna go with this kind of education, but you want to find what your passion is,” said Caboot.
Questar III’s Bordell says getting more young people interested in teaching careers could also help fill a national teacher shortage.
“Some of those areas that I would highlight are world languages, ENL teachers, special education teachers, and then even beyond the classroom, principals, school social workers, school counselors. These are, they're tough, challenging jobs, but they're maybe the most rewarding jobs in the world too. Those are areas that I think I would focus on and say are maybe the most in need due to the shortage but we'd encourage anyone to go into any field in education,” said Bordell.
