TDSB Central Cohort @ Central Technical School (I/S)
About the TDSB Central Cohort @ Central Technical School
The MT program is partnering with TDSB’s Central Technical School (CTS) to offer a school-based teacher education option for MT candidates in the I/S division. School-based teacher education experiences offer extended experiential learning opportunities through observation and engagement in the daily life of the school. The focus of the MT-Central cohort is to provide teacher candidates with an opportunity to be part of a school community over two semesters and learn how school staff and students work intentionally to enact commitments to access, inclusion and high expectations for all. Located at Central Technical School (Bathurst and Harbord) within the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the school site is accessible by TTC.
About Central Technical School
Central Technical School is a full-service secondary school that provides programming at every level! Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, we pride ourselves on serving a diverse student population of over 1000 students! The world is welcome at CTS! We boast outstanding technical programs and a visual arts centre second to none. We have specialized programs for students with Learning Disabilities, and Mild Intellectual Disabilities, and English as their second language. We have 11 Specialist High Skills Major Programs, and 4 Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Programs. Additionally, we partner with University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Osgoode Hall Law School to support our LAWS (Law in action within schools) to provide a 3-year program that lets our students explore ad experience law and justice. All our programs are designed to help students engage better with school, develop important skills, and prepare for post-secondary. CTS staff, in partnership with families, employers and community agencies are committed to the cultural and moral development of our students.
CTS’s new Vision and Mission
CTS believes in student voice! Last year, students created CTS’s new Vision and Mission:
Our Vision:
Is that Central Technical School is a place where students leave with:
- A love of learning
- The real-world skills to choose their next steps
- A strong sense of self and others
Our Mission:
Central Technical School needs to be a place of:
- Student-centred imagination and action
- Cultural enlightenment
- Safety
To make this happen, students constructed our strategy, of how we will do this:
- We treat each other as precious.
- Adult knowledge and imagination to ensure a learning culture for all.
- Assessment that honours the brilliance and diversity of the learning journeys of students to ensure choice in their next steps and experience.
- Shared power and responsibility to keeps what’s good working and take actions on what is not.
- Access to a diversity of adults to affirm the many identities of students and adults.
- Advocating to change the inequities in the TDSB to have the ability to make choices that best support our vision.
TDSB Central Cohort Information
- One day on-site at Central Technical School and three days on site at OISE
- For 2024-25, the MT timetable does not support teacher candidates in Black Future Educators’ Pathway (BFEP) to also participate in the Central Cohort
- This cohort has the same number of required courses, electives, and practicum blocks as other I/S students in the MT program, with the key difference being that two of the courses typically held at OISE are held at Central Technical School.
- The school-based courses include classroom observations (integrated into course assignments) and provide an opportunity to connect theory to practice.
- These days will also have workshops and presentations led by CTS and TDSB teachers, staff, students, and administrators.
- One of the cohort’s school-based courses, CTL5701: Theory & Practice of Community-Engaged Learning, requires OISE teacher candidates to contribute to school life through active involvement in school and/or community initiatives – thus being a reciprocal experiential learning opportunity. This course fulfills one of the two MT electives.
- Option to request a practicum placement at CTS (note: entry into this cohort does not guarantee a practicum placement at CTS as this depends on Associate Teacher availability each year).
- Central cohort teacher candidates also receive a signed letter of recognition from the school principal, highlighting the special professional learning experiences that were undertaken.
School-Based Programs provide I/S teacher candidates the opportunity to:
- Engage in school-based experiential learning beyond their practicum placements. Be a part of a school with a diverse student body and a staff that centres racial justice, equity, and enlivening educational commitments to all within their community.
- Experience the adaptable, responsive, and reflective practice required to work in a school community that puts student learning at the centre of pedagogical and pedagogical commitments.
There will be an information session held as part of the “MT June Jump-Start” event where I/S candidates can learn more about the cohort and ask questions. Following this session, all Incoming I/S teacher candidates will receive a link to a form to rank their preferences for I/S cohorts.
Applicants will hear in August about their cohort assignment
Questions?
Questions about the Central Tech Cohort can be sent to David Montemurro d.montemurro@utoronto.ca
Questions about MT Admissions can be sent to: ctladmissions.oise@utoronto.ca
