By: Paige Scofield Campus Life Editor
The Pacific room of the Werner University Center was bustling with students the afternoon of Feb. 10, when Western held the Future Teacher Conference. Educators from across the state presented sessions on important topics for students who are studying to become educators.
“This conference is designed to help people prepare to enter the job market to get a job in education,” said Aeylin Summers, president of Oregon ASCD, “Mostly the participants are future teachers. The point of this conference today is to start to give future teachers information so they know how to organize, so when they have to go to job fairs they’re as competitive as they can be.”
The Future Teacher Conference was broken up into three different sessions, with six different choices of presentations participants could choose to go to in each session.
“They have to do with different aspects of preparation. How to think about the process of getting a job from the perspective of what a principal would want, how to think like a first year teacher, so you can prepare for a question in an interview. You can learn things from these sessions to help you organize your thoughts,” Summers said.
Western prioritizes its students and makes sure that events can be held to benefit them. This event brought in teachers and principals from all over Oregon to help students get a better idea of the field they’re entering. The Future Teachers Conference has been a long-standing annual event in Western’s history.
“This is the 12th year that this conference has been sponsored here at Western. It is the largest student chapter for future teachers in the nation, right here at Western,” added Summers. “And that’s because you have people here in your educational school that understand that for these people who are pouring their hearts and resources into becoming teachers, that [Future Teacher Conference] is a great step for them.”
This event was able to be at Western because it was sponsored by the Confederation of Oregon School administrators, the Oregon Education Association, the Western Oregon University Student Chapter of ASCD, formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and Oregon ASCD.
Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu
