Blogs
Time is moving WAY too fast.
It seems like only yesterday I started what I now affectionately call my ‘leadership journey’. I was lost, truly, but not in a ‘I don’t know where I am’ sense, more of a ‘I don’t know WHO I am’ sense. I had come to the awareness that I wanted my life to mean more. What that meant I w...
Talk to your kids
I have said for a long time that we need to talk more to our kids about the work we do and the careers we have in order to foster their thinking about the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” In fact, this was a suggestion that I came up with as a result of the research I did for my ...
In Online CTE, Focus on Interaction
Educational researchers have long recognized the social and situated nature of learning. Learning – particularly learning as it relates to a skill or trade – is social because it is passed on slowly over time by experienced masters to novices, much as CTE instructors pass their hands-on knowledg...
Play
Sitting at the front of my room I had a tile board that read “Play is the Highest Form of Research” one of my favorite quotes from Einstein. I have often used the word play when I want to dive deaper into something I’m learning. I used it so much I had a high school student tell my “you play...
Times Change – Human Connection Does Not
The importance of connection among other people is proven. Some would even argue that the sense of connection within your career is more important than any money, prestige, or accolades earned. The energy and trust we build through human connection is often the bedrock of our success within our care...
Cyber Security in CTE
Have you ever thought about a topic that you truly felt needed to be a CTE program of study? If you have, what steps have you taken in order to make it happen? What topic was it?
At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, I was introduced to a Cyber security competition that I chose to introduce ...
Start With Why
In his book, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek presents the idea that great leaders inspire others by starting everything with the question why. He uses dozens of examples of great leaders who have a clear sense of why. Sinek points out how these leader...
Career Development in a Virtual Landscape
One of the main goals of Career & Technical Education at the high school level is to prepare students for career success. To that end, the CTE Department of Durham Public Schools defined its mission as to get all students “Future Ready” (#futureready). During a COVID closure of schools i...
Law Enforcement Class in a Rural Context – Culture and the Military
Before I dive into culture, I do want to focus on the involvement with our local military recruiters. From the beginning, I wanted to have a class where the local recruiters could speak frankly with students who were interested in the military. In our environment, a JROTC program probably wouldn’t...
Fostering Creativity in Career and Technical Education
To foster an environment of creativity and learning, it is important to start by forming meaningful and supportive relationships with students and the teams we work with on a daily basis. When you ask people to reflect on their most profound moment of discovery or learning, their responses include a...