This spring, Tracey Mailloux (BEd ’02), grade 3 teacher at Cataraqui Wood Elementary School, will host her 60th teacher candidate on practicum.
This is an extraordinary milestone that reflects her deep commitment to mentorship and the critical role that associate teachers (ATs) play in preparing the next generation of educators.
Tracey’s path to teaching was not a straight line. She completed her undergraduate degree in science with a minor in French before pursuing a career in human resources. While working in HR, she realized something was missing.
“I’d always wanted to be a teacher,” she says. “I used to play school in the basement when I was a kid. My teddy bears sat at desks and I’d give them worksheets.”
While working in human resources, she began teaching a night course in Human Resources at Seneca College. When she later moved to Kingston, she continued teaching evenings at St. Lawrence College while completing her Bachelor of Education at Queen’s. At age 30, she left a successful career in HR to follow the path she had imagined since childhood.
“I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t get into Queen’s, it’s fate.’ But I got a really thick envelope in the mail,” she laughs. “So I quit my job and went back to school.”
More than twenty years later, she says the decision was the right one. “I loved human resources, but teaching has this creative aspect. When a student doesn’t understand something, you get to figure out another way to explain it. That challenge, that puzzle, is something I really love.”
Tracey became an associate teacher almost immediately after completing her BEd. At the time, new teachers were expected to wait two years before hosting teacher candidates, but the Queen’s Practicum Office reached out during her first year of teaching with an urgent request.
“They called and said they had a teacher candidate without a placement and asked if I’d take them,” she recalls. “I’d only been teaching six months, but they knew I had some teaching experience from the college courses. So, I said yes.”
She’s been an associate teacher every year since and the reason is quite simple: “Someone did it for me,” she explains. “When I was in teacher's college, one of my placements fell through two days before I was supposed to start. Another teacher stepped up and took me at the last minute. I’ve never forgotten that.”
Over the years, Tracey has worked with teacher candidates (TCs) with many different personalities and teaching styles. “They’re all different,” she says. “Some are go-getters right away. Others need a little time to see how everything works before they step up to the front of the class.”
She helps ease nervous TCs into teaching by scaffolding the experience. A hesitant teacher candidate might begin by leading short activities, such as reviewing the morning bell work with the class. “It’s only five minutes, but it helps them rip off the band-aid,” she says. “Then next time they’re teaching a full lesson.”
Teacher candidates also play an important role in supporting her bustling classroom. In today’s busy classrooms having another adult present can make a meaningful difference. “I have students who need support,” she explains. “With a teacher candidate there, we can each take a student and really help them. It’s like being able to split yourself in half.”
While teacher candidates gain invaluable classroom experience, Tracey says the learning is reciprocal. “They teach me too,” she says. “They come in with new ideas, new approaches, and they ask questions that make me think about why I do things.”
Sometimes those insights reflect new learning happening in teacher education programs. Recently, a teacher candidate shared updated language around personal safety lessons. “
I used to say ‘stranger danger,’ and he told me that now they talk about ‘tricky people,’ because the statistics show the danger isn’t always strangers,” she explains.
Teacher candidates also bring fresh lesson ideas. One TC designed a culminating activity for a Grade 3 math unit on area where students created a model town using grid paper, placing buildings such as schools, malls, or skating rinks. “It was more creative than what I had been doing,” Mailloux says. “I asked her to send me the worksheet. Now it’s in my folder for next year.”
Mailloux’s Grade 3 students are enthusiastic about teacher candidates as well. When new placements begin, the excitement spreads quickly through the school. “They absolutely love it,” she says. “When the teacher candidates come back for another placement, you hear kids in the hallway saying, ‘The TCs are back!’” Students form strong connections during the practicum placements and the goodbyes can be emotional.
For Tracey, hosting teacher candidates is both practical and deeply meaningful. An extra adult in the room helps, but mentorship and collaboration are what keep her signing up year after year.
“The first few days take time,” she admits. “There are lots of questions. But then they take over lessons, and suddenly you’re working together and learning from each other.”
After more than two decades of hosting teacher candidates, Tracey still finds the experience energizing. “Their enthusiasm is contagious,” she says. “Sometimes they arrive in October when you’re tired after the start of the year, and they bring all this energy and new ideas. It reminds you why you love teaching.”
And for Tracey, the reason she began hosting teacher candidates still holds true today:
“Someone stepped up for me,” she says. “So I’ll keep stepping up for them.”
If you are a teacher in our catchment area and are interested in hosting a Queen’s teacher candidate, please contact our practicum office. Each partner district school board has its own process, and we are happy to help you figure out how to become an AT in your district.