Nearly 500 teacher candidates, 35 school boards, schools, recruiters and professional agencies tag-teamed with eight technology vendors for a unique day of “next steps” at Brock’s Hamilton campus.

Last week, the v Hamilton campus was flooded with concurrent, consecutive, and even graduate students who were seeking information, advice, and guidance from local, provincial, national, and international teaching representatives.

Dorothy Buchanan, partnership coordinator in the Department of Teacher Education, attributes the strength of the relationships that have been built over time with these educational partners as one of the main contributors for a fruitful event.

“One of the successes of this career fair is that Brock has extremely strong partnerships across the province as well as across Canada,” said Buchanan. “We have people from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec coming to hire our teacher candidates, as well as international schools.”

The reputation of Brock’s Faculty of Education and its teacher candidates continues to thrive, evidenced by the attendance of David Orr, supervisor of recruitment and human resources at the Calgary Catholic School Board, whose decision to attend the event was strongly driven by Brock’s reputation.

“I’m very impressed with the students – they are prepared, professional and are asking the right questions,” said Orr. “This is the first time we’ve been here and your reputation for your education program is very strong, it’s what drew me here.”

Most teacher candidates were focused on future employment, diligently gathering information to make an informed decision that not only met their needs, but their prospective employers as well.

Concurrent Education students Brooklyn Agnoluzzi and Mitch Delle Monache paired up for the day, hoping to gain insight into what their future might look like.

“It’s nice to actually talk to a representative face to face,” said Agnoluzzi. “It’s nice to get to know the different school boards and what they have to offer.”

“Everybody seems to be interested when you say you’re from Brock,” said Delle Monache. “It’s interesting to see what’s offered from some of the boards [outside of Ontario], there’s a lot to think about.”

Other students, who were less focused on immediate employment, were connecting with representatives from Graduate Studies, the Centre for Continuing Teacher Education, and the Qualifications Evaluation Council of Ontario, as they plan for ongoing learning after graduating this spring.

On site to support students were representatives from Career Services. Building on workshops held throughout the year, teacher candidates were able to drop by for resume consultations throughout the day.

And while the halls were packed with students and school boards, the gym played host to the Tech Showcase.

The Tech Showcase featured some of the latest educational technology being used in classrooms today and provided a unique opportunity for students to learn more about the latest tools and techniques for teachers.

“It’s vital for teacher education students to connect with educational technology companies,” said Kyle Tuck, systems administrator and technician in the Faculty of Education. “This allows future teachers to discover tools that will improve their ability to differentiate instruction, and engage students in K to 12 classrooms using 21^st century teaching skills.”

This year’s technology showcase included Learning Bird, Cube for Teachers, Strategic Transitions, GeoSpacial Niagara, NEXED, Joe Zoo, Brock’s IRC, and the Brock University Gibson Library.