Photo Credit: UNBC School of Education – Facebook Page (B.Ed. Orientation 2026 – PG TEP)

September 13, 2026 – Back to School

Look at the weather… doesn’t it look like fall? It was a somewhat chilly and damp day, but this week was the welcome back to school routine for the school of education where the outgoing cohorts in Prince George facilitate various indoor and outdoor activities for the incoming cohorts. This feature of the B.Ed. program is unique such that the newly inducted teacher candidates have an opportunity to connect and learn from “seasoned” teacher candidates who are just finishing up their coursework and heading into their final 10-week practicum.

It’s fun for me as a course instructor and observer to see this transition from the beginning of term 1 to term 4 within the program, and how caring and thoughtful the outgoing crew is to the incoming crew. The shift took only 12-months to get to where they are… from unsure to confident… and I am so hopeful for the K-12 school who have the opportunity to have one of these teacher candidates in their classroom, for either practicum or as their teacher. There are many amazing people who come through our teacher education program and the kind of learning they embark on, formal or informal, is humbling and inspiring.

I also had the opportunity to pop into the outgoing cohorts final classes for their cross-cutting courses where they had an opportunity to share their final projects to their peers and course instructor. These classes on Thursday and Friday are generally open to department members (and incoming cohorts), so I wanted to see what they had produced and listen to what they had to say in terms of their final projects and their learning. Of course, I was not able to see or listen to all of the students, but I was grateful to hear a handful of projects from each course and chat with the teacher candidates as they head into their final semester.

For the last couple of years, I have been teaching the teacher candidates for only the first two terms of four, so reconnecting with each of them at the beginning of their final term is awesome for me to see how they are growing and to see how they are doing in the program. This year, I will be working with a group of these teacher candidates to supervise their final practicum. It has been at least a few years since I have worked with teacher candidates in practicum in this program, but I am looking forward to working with the group who will be assigned to me. I am more excited about the transformation near the end of practicum. It happens around Week 8, and all of a sudden I’m standing with a colleague.

I am looking forward to meeting the new incoming crew in my class tomorrow morning. I switched days, so normally I would have started last week, but now I’m starting this week. I do appreciate the slow immersion back to school. That said, I am realizing that Monday classes come with a different set of challenges (i.e., long weekends, less classes, first class of the week, etc.). It’s nothing that a little planning could not handle. Also, this year’s group is a bit larger that last years group, which provides another set of challenges, but hey, it’s all in the work that we do in education. It keeps the work exciting and new. All is good.