Can Career and Technology Education Reduce the Cost of Dropping Out?

I saw a great graphic on Michael Smith's Principals Page Blog this morning that I wanted to share with you:

Brought to you by Teacher Certification Map and http://www.blogger.com/goog_366201192

Master’s of Arts in Teaching

 I agree with the blog's author when he states that, "It's both sad and tragic. Students need to do better. Families need to do better. Schools need to do better. Our country needs to do better."

As I talk to more individuals and groups across the country, there is always a huge concern about dropout recovery. But what there isn't enough discussion about is the importance that should be placed upon career and technology education and the various programs that we offer.

We have our traditional CTE programs (i.e. Agricultural Education, Business and Information Technology Education, Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Health Careers Education, Marketing Education, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Technology Engineering, and Trade and Industrial Education), but we also have dropout recovery programs, a young offender/probationer project, school-to-work, skills centers, which are occupational training programs and related services for incarcerated adults and for juveniles in detention centers (academic education, occupational training, and life skills are integrated into one delivery system), and Tech Prep.

We also offer Business and Entrepreneurial Services and Business and Industry Development programs and a myriad of other programs to assist in the growth and development of business and industry. In other words, career and technology education is aimed at economic development, as is all forms of education, but CTE is more flexible and easily adapted to state and local industry needs.

But the bottom line, for me anyway, is that education boils down to the individual and CTE offers the best opportunity to capture and assist those "1 in 4 students" that drops out of high school. That has long been one of our goals as our mission statement says, "We prepare Oklahomans to succeed in the workplace, in education, and in life."

So can CTE really reduce the cost of dropping out? ABSOLUTELY!

But we need your help in spreading the word about CTE. Many people I meet seem to have a pre-conceived notion about what we do and I know for me, people are amazed when they find out about the wealth of services that we offer. It's my hope, that the more you help spread the word, the more likely that these "1 in 4" students will know the value of what we have to offer them. And their return is quite simply a better life for themselves and their family.

New Automotive Assessments from the CareerTech Testing Center

I wanted to announce two new automotive assessments from the CareerTech Testing Center:

Engine Repair Technician and Manual Drive Train and Axles Technician.

These new online assessments are designed to evaluate students who are near the end of their studies in the areas of Automotive Service. As always, all of our assessments in automotive services, auto body, and medium/heavy duty truck are aligned with ASE/NATEF standards.

We now offer online assessments that cover all eight automotive service areas:

Brakes Technician
Electrical/Electronics Systems Technician
Engine Performance Technician
Heating & Air Conditioning Technician
Suspension & Steering Technician
Automatic Transmission/Transaxle Technician
Engine Repair Technician
Manual Drive Train and Axles Technician

(Click HERE for more information on our standards and assessments in Auto Body, Medium/Heavy Duty Truck, Heavy Equipment Maintenance, Motorcycle Repair, and Power Products)

Please contact the CareerTech Testing Center at 405.743.5412 to order these new assessments! As always, you can access these skills standards and others for FREE on our website.

LiveBinders: A Great Resource for Sharing Information

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by all of the resources you find?

I feel this way more and more every day. There is so much information out there and so many people are wanting to share their ideas with you and I forget where I put what between this blog, various bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. I also have friends that have created wikis to share their content with others and I have those to follow as well. Do you get these same headaches and the feeling that you are losing your memory to information overload?

A friend told me last night about a free site called LiveBinders that allow you to collect and organize your resources and then share them with others (publicly sharing your binder with anyone that visits the site is an option as well).

As the site states:

LiveBinders is dedicated to helping you empower others with the information you work hard to collect.

If you're like us, you've used 'creative' tactics to keep track of all your links either through email, word documents or endless lists in your browser bookmarks folder. It's hard to put a group of links together in any meaningful format. And sharing a group of URLs is cumbersome for everyone - the sender and the receiver. Have you ever looked through your bookmarks list and forgotten what they are all for?

We created LiveBinders so that you could do with digital information what you do with the papers on your desk - organize them into nice containers - like 3-ring binders on your shelf. With our online-binders you can also upload your documents and easily combine them with your links in a neat and organized way

We welcome you to create as many LiveBinders as you need to help organize the stuff you collect and share on the Web.

Check out the Civil War Biographies Binder as a great example (and take a look at the Animated Battles of the Civil War).

There is also a Collision Repair Binder that confirms my belief that this could be a great tool for career and technology educators.

Take a look and let us know if you have created any LiveBinders!

By the way, LiveBinders is offering a live demo on classroom uses on March 24th at 7:00 p.m. cst.

This Day: Taking a Snapshot at Today in History

For those of you that have followed this blog, you will know how much I like current events and history (Newseum, Mapeas, News Map).

I wanted to share a site that I just found entitled This Day. This website, created by Nikon, is an attractively designed look into historical events that happened in the past on the day you visit the site.

As the site states:

This day, today;

it seems no different than any other,

but something historical is happening somewhere in the world.

Each day is a milestone in human history.

The site also offers an option of a screensaver and a desktop gadget. It also offers a nice background soundtrack (that can be turned off), and an automatic timeline that shifts backwards which transports you back in time to key events in history.

Try This Day.

The People We Meet

I have to say that the one thing that makes life interesting is people.

Are you ever amazed at who you meet?  I was at an ICE (Institute for Credentialing Excellence) Conference a few years ago and I observed a lady during a reception with several hundred people. Although she was alone and seemed somewhat introverted, she worked the room like a pro. She picked out individuals or small groups that contained no more than three or four people and she met them all. And yes, I met her because I was also one of those wallflowers standing there eating my hors d'oeuvres alone. I may be slow, but I did learn something that night. I learned to not only develop contacts, but to develop relationships. And yes, years later, we still share ideas with each other.

Although I'm still not at her level of expertise, I try and develop at least several contacts and one new relationship from each conference or meeting that I attend. By "relationship," I mean someone that has similar educational interests that can be a core member of my PLN (personal learning network).

For instance, last week I attended another SREB Educational Technology Cooperative meeting and I missed seeing a few friends, but I renewed a few acquaintences and met a few new people that I could add to my PLN. I truly enjoy conferences and it's invigorating to be presented with new ideas, but to be honest, the speakers only serve as facilitators of ideas. It's the people you sit next to, during the presentation or at dinner, etc. that take these ideas and begin the discussions. This is truly the benefit of attending any conference and this is what excites me about people. The ability to learn and share is what makes life fun.

There are so many intelligent, make that highly intelligent people in the world and that is why I'm thankful for social media. The people I meet at conferences are no longer just temporary contacts, but I now have the opportunity to create life long professional contacts.

The world is now a much smaller place because of technology and I truly enjoy sharing and receiving so much valuable information from people at any time or from any place in the world.

If you haven't created a PLN, please consider starting one today!