Get Involved
Gakino’amaage: Teach For Canada is looking for university partners who are interested in offering a Northern Practicum Program to their students. The program will allow teacher candidates to complete a teaching placement in a First Nation school.
Gakino’amaage: Teach For Canada’s Northern Practicum Program aims to connect teacher candidates with short-term teaching placement opportunities in the northern First Nations that Gakino’amaage: Teach For Canada serves.
What the program offers
Why Participate?
Offer your students a unique opportunity to gain meaningful experience teaching in a First Nation classroom, while helping to fulfill the short-term staffing needs of remote Indigenous communities. Gakino’amaage: Teach For Canada’s Northern Practicum Program allows participants to share their gifts, hone their craft, and gain hands-on teaching experience, all while finding out whether the North is the right fit for them.
Join us and make an impact in the lives of First Nations students by supporting teacher candidates to help fill important teaching roles in First Nations.
What surprises new teachers to the North the most?
- Freedom to teach outdoors
- Small class sizes
- The ability to try new things and creatively expand upon the curriculum
- Daily collaboration with other faculty members
If you are interested in learning more, or getting involved in Gakino’amaage: Teach For Canada’s Northern Practicum Program, please email programs@teachforcanada.ca.
“Having a teacher candidate come up and work in our school is an invaluable experience for everyone involved. Many teacher candidates have no idea what it’s like to work in a small community, let alone a remote location. The experience that a remote placement can provide the teacher candidate is, in my opinion, one of the best experiences that they can have as a new teacher.”
“Teaching in this community has been a truly life changing experience. I have had the opportunity to learn more about myself, both as an individual and as a teacher, from an amazing group of staff and students.”
– Participating Teacher Candidate
“In my 5 weeks, I learned so much about teaching and how important structure and routine really are to building a classroom. This experience allowed me to experiment with new teaching styles and really create a presence in the classroom that I believe comes from experience and comfort. I don’t believe I would have been able to grow as much as I have personally or professionally if it were not for the flexibility and freedom I was allowed within this community to really fine tune my skills.”
– Participating Teacher Candidate
“Every day of placement was a new learning experience for me, and I believe that I have grown significantly as a teacher.”
– Participating Teacher Candidate
“I always knew that I wanted to teach in an Indigenous community, but never knew how to go about it. There had never been a clear path. Once I heard about Gakino’amaage, I had found a reason, and a way to go North.”
– Leah Morrow, Teacher Candidate, Big Grassy River First Nation