Gates Chili Central School District

A new club at Gates Chili High School is giving students the opportunity to explore a career path in education. The Future Educators Club (FEC) shows students behind the scenes of education and allows them to explore how the lessons they receive as students come to be, as teachers.

“I want to go into education because, I want to be a difference in a child’s life,” said Sadie B., GCHS student. “Many children have rough patches going into their young adult life, and I want to be seen as a teacher who can help the student through whatever they may be experiencing.”

Members of FEC attend a seminar where they work on important skills like how interact with colleagues, solve problems and manage their work. They also work on a task related to shadowing a teacher. Then, the following week, students are immersed in a shadowing opportunity with a teacher who matches their content area of interest. There, they can learn more about the profession and even help facilitate activities in the classroom. Being paired with a teacher in this capacity allows students to ask questions that they may not otherwise have thought of or felt comfortable asking during a typical day in the classroom.

“In the club, you get a real-life perspective on how teaching is in the environment you’re surrounded in, you get to see the other side of what you’ve been a part of your entire life,” Sadie explained. “It’s interesting to see how different it is, and all the planning that goes into lessons.”

For Gates Chili High School Spanish teacher Julie Gangai, participating in FEC as a teacher is an opportunity to pull back the curtain on the parts of teaching that don’t often get the spotlight.

“It seems that the most challenging aspects of teaching are the ones that often end up on the news or being talked about on social media,” Gangai said. “There are so many positive experiences that we have as educators that don’t always get that same attention. Hopefully the students in this program will get to see a lot of the positive side and be encouraged to continue exploring this career path.”

Right now, the club is made up of seven students shadowing seven teachers at the high school and middle school levels. As the program develops and grows, the district hopes to extend opportunities for students interested in elementary education to shadow teachers in grades K-5. In addition, the district is exploring ways for students to be able to use this experience to earn work-based learning credit towards graduation.