Blogs
Techniques Returns with A VISION of High-quality CTE
It's here! It's here! It's the happiest time of the year! A new school year brings a fresh start, new pens and crisp paper — and Techniques! For 2019–2020 Techniques returns with A VISION of High-quality CTE. As the premier event for career and technical education (CTE) professionals nationwide,...
Choosing a Career Path
“All roads lead to Rome,” according to the medieval proverb. That is, travelers can take a variety of paths and all end up at the same place.
Education can be seen in the same way. Students learn in different ways, at different times, and in different settings. Some are comfortable with verba...
Teaching Strategy: Got 30 Seconds? Talk About It.
Career and technical education (CTE) students are asked to learn hundreds of new concepts and technical terms every year. How can CTE teachers know when their students have processed the learning correctly? How can we catch thinking errors when they occur? The answer is simple: Frequently check for...
Teaching Strategy: Start Strong! Captivate Students on Day One
Imagine you are a high school junior the morning of your first day at your new career tech center. Maybe you’ve enrolled in a half-day automotive, culinary, computer programming or health careers program. What do you envision? How do you hope the day will go? Do you hope to learn differently than ...
Changing Careers, Chasing a Dream
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in the technical aspects of things. I loved understanding how things worked and I seemed to gravitate toward engines. Although this was a primary interest of mine, everyone always told me that I couldn’t be successful in that field; I was led t...
Literacy in CTE – Why it has to be us.
As I work with our district instructional coach, who is also my partner in teaching a graduate course this summer titled, Literacy in CTE, I keep coming back to the same thought, “How did we ever lose sight of this?” And some of us didn't. If you were one of those wise souls who kept literacy st...
Using Dog Sled Racing to Teach Genetics and Nutrition
My mother, an elementary school teacher for 32 years, worked hard to connect her students to subject matter. Mom did this using real life, high interest events, one of these was the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. The Alaskan Race is held every March and covers 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome. The Iditar...
EXCERPT: Instructional Coaching & Its Role in Career Development for CTE Teachers
What is an instructional coach?
Quality teacher professional development is essential to the outcome of student achievement. In their careers, teachers must be challenged with new ideas in order to foster a classroom culture of student engagement. The instructional coach is an embedded professional...
The future’s so bright…I gotta wear shades!
As an educator, it is my job to teach my students. As someone with compassion and vested interest in her students, it is my privilege to help them find a successful career after high school. In an Alternative Learning Environment (ALE), we face the harsh facts that less than 5% of our seniors wi...
Happy Spring Everyone!
Happy Spring Everyone!
It's great to start feeling the winter thaw, but that also means getting ready for the work ahead this year. These are exciting times with the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century (Perkins V) Act reauthorized by Congress and renewed interest in ...