Teacher cadet is one of the many paths offered at the Epic Campus. The path is meant to prepare future educators for life beyond college by making them do lesson plans, study how to talk and understand teaching but also be actually in a classroom setting of their choice. I talked to Tara D., 26’ who is a part of the teacher cadet program and taught math at Euclid Middle School, about why she chose this pathway at Epic. “I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was a kid. I’ve always loved the feeling of helping others, especially when it comes to helping others learn.”
This program is one of the more rigorous programs at Epic, having lots of homework and big assignments regarding every aspect of the teacher cadet program, Tara says “The workload was very difficult to manage, especially with other hard classes in my schedule.”
I asked HHS Counselor Ms. Candy Riegel, why she thinks the teacher cadet program is helpful to anyone going into the education field. “It’s a great chance to see if you like it, and I’ve had students that say that this isn’t for them.” The future educator pathway is helpful to see if you can see yourself becoming a teacher through firsthand hand experience in classrooms.
Though the pathway may be difficult and hard to see through, “ Its was so rewarding” Tara says, when asked her what her favorite things she learned or did and she said “ being able to see all the work come together in cohesion at the end felt amazing, and I’ve learned so much about how I want my future to look.” Through learning about being a teacher and what skills you may need to have to be an educator, it helps prepare better then classes offered at heritage as Riegel says “teacher cadet is the only way you can get a full kind of broad view of what it would take.”
Students who are interested in being a future educator should look into this pathway at the Epic Campus.