Welcome to Building Futures
The Building Futures program began in 2004 with the purpose of establishing support and guidance to new teachers about to embark on their teaching careers. The Ministry of Education recognizes how critical it is to the success of a new teacher to be familiar with the goals, key education programs and priorities of Ontario's education system.
Building Futures provides teacher candidates with information about the development and use of effective teaching strategies that can be used in the classroom. A series of workshops are aligned to current ministry priorities and presented by experienced and dynamic educators with classroom and education policy expertise. Practical and essential resources developed by teachers, for teachers, will be available to participants at the end of the program.
The program is the first professional learning opportunity where teacher candidates can interact with educators who have all been there – in the classroom, writing report cards, creating lesson plans, speaking to parents. These educators want to share their own teaching experiences and strategies with you, as new teachers. We reali ze it is a big step to the classroom and we are helping this transition.
Previous participants of the program found the program rewarding. Comments have included:
“Overall value of the presentations is very high. Extremely beneficial to gain insight from ministry officials.”
“Each conference provided me with wonderful resources and important necessary information that can enhance my future practice as a teacher.”
“Presenters were knowledgeable and passionate about the profession.”
To learn more about the program being held at your faculty, please go to About the Program at Your Faculty. Please remember to check the site on a regular basis as the information will be updated throughout the year.
All students deserve our best effort to help them achieve success. The skills you learn at university and the resources you will find through Building Futures will make you part of a larger community of innovative educators — educators committed to student success.
Building Futures Goes Green!
In recent years, the Ministry of Education has made significant improvements to the Building Futures program in an effort to organize greener events. Some of the initiatives we have taken to date include:
- Completing event registrations online and confirmations by email
- Generating post-event surveys and certificates of participation online
- Eliminating the distribution of paper handouts and hard-copy resources; participants instead receive a USB flash drive and a link to downloadable ministry resources and workshop presentations
- Working closely with the catering staff at each faculty to reduce/eliminate as much waste as possible at each event.
We also need your cooperation – here are some actions you can take to help us stage even greener Building Futures events:
- Bring your own beverage container (travel mug) to cut down on waste created from disposable cups
- Bring your own materials for taking notes
- Use the recycling bins available at your faculty, and encourage your faculty to increase its recycling efforts by making more bins available.
Every bit helps!
