Janet Webb

It is extremely important to have safety rules and especially safety exams that must be passed before they are allowed in the shops. This shows to the students how serious that safety is and how to make sure that they know the rules. 

I think adding in programs such as AVID has had an impact. I also think that having those conversations between teachers about their best practices and giving each other ideas and how can those ideas work in a multitude of different classes to give kids consistency and different ways to learn the same material. 

I think that my school district does a great job of allowing the CTE teachers and academic teachers time to collaborate. We have 6 scheduled collaborations for all teachers and then monthly collaboration for just the CTE teachers. I think the curriculum (common core) tries to help the academic teachers bring in real-life experiences into their classrooms and this helps the CTE because for those students we can show them.

Something that is successful in my school is the relationships that teachers and administration have with students and vice versa. Something that I think we could do a better job of is the relationship with administration and teachers. Open communication, support, being genuinely curious and involved in what is happening in the classroom. I love going into the different CTE classes to see what is happening and how the kids are interacting with the teachers. 

At our school, our CTE services over half the overall population in some form. It is integral in introducing students to careers and skills that they wouldn't necessarily learn in the academic world. This has helped reduce the dropout rate, increase our percentage of students attending either a 4 year, 2 year or technical school and for our local community, it provides a stepping stone to jobs.