Colleagues were intently taking notes as one of my students, Ethan, walked through a presentation about how educators can use AI more intentionally in the classroom. Ethan, a high school senior studying to be a secondary history teacher in our Teaching and Learning Academy, was presenting findings from his extensive research to school staff.
As part of this program at Morris County Vocational School in New Jersey, where I teach, students engage in research about a major issue in their school and learn how to plan effective professional development to support their staff. Ethan provides teachers with strategies and resources they can use in their classrooms, and through this assignment they learn a variety of skills, including how to design engaging professional learning opportunities, how to find and evaluate sources, and how to clearly communicate their findings to an audience.
When I tell people I work at a Career and Technical Education (CTE) school (also known as a vocational school), they often assume I work with students who struggle academically or behaviorally, but that is not the case at our school. In fact, that is a fairly old misconception about CTE programs.
Over the past decade, CTE schools have transformed into educational institutions committed to giving students a well-rounded experience, preparing them for the workforce and developing strong skills in their chosen career paths. These programs exist in many school districts across the country, either as standalone schools or programs integrated into school districts. Some include more traditional trades like automotive, cosmetology, plumbing, and carpentry, while others have expanded into industries like education, computer science, business, biotechnology, and healthcare.
The students I teach at the Teaching and Learning Academy as a teacher are interested in pursuing a career in education. County students apply to their desired program during the 8th grade. The process includes taking an entrance exam, submitting transcripts, teacher recommendations, a personal video, and, due to high demand, participating in a lottery. Our students are motivated, passionate, and committed to learning more about their field of interest.
As a CTE high school teacher and graduate of the same program I currently teach in, I have seen firsthand the benefits of this type of education by providing not only industry-specific training but also critical skills for success in any field, such as professionalism, accurate record-keeping, and effective communication.
There are many different types of high schools that students can attend, but regardless of the school model, all high schools need to think about how to address the gap between the skills today’s employers are looking for in their employees and the skills their employees actually have.
By design, CTE programs consider questions related to this gap: Do students know how to think on their feet? Can students apply the facts, definitions, and key concepts they’ve learned to a project? What skills will students need to be successful in the next 5, 10, 15 years? I think about these questions every day as I prepare students to pursue careers in education. And over the years, I’ve found that incorporating CTE skills into my education provides my students with a deeper learning experience.
There are many practices, strategies, and ideas that any high school can use from the CTE model to close the skills gap. Here are a few:
Develop learning opportunities around real-world issues, problems, and ideas
At my school, we place a strong emphasis on creating authentic learning projects for our students. It’s hard work, but it has great benefits. Authentic projects have three main elements: they integrate different skills, they have a real audience (think not just the teacher in the classroom), and they relate to real-world problems.
When I started thinking about a real learning project, I was overwhelmed, but I started small. The New York Times Learning Network, which provides educational resources, held several contests and challenges for students, and I participated in one of them. The first thing I started with was multimedia. Challenge I asked my students to talk about what high school life is like. We spent time brainstorming to list the emotions, struggles, fun moments, and everything else they have about their high school life. They started rich discussions about what the purpose of school should be and got creative to find unique ways to express their ideas using text, images, audio, video, etc. This project was easy for me because it came with guidance like rubrics, models, and examples to help with lesson planning. The students enjoyed it a lot and since then, we have participated in several projects, some of which are: One Page Challenge Contests such as one in which students respond to a New York Times article and another in which students submit articles. Original Podcasts A contest students can share Opinion Essay About issues they care deeply about.
As they became more familiar, I began to design their own projects. For example, my students would read different books on education to learn more about the challenges and solutions in the field of education. Instead of hosting a class discussion, students would host roundtable discussions about their own books, coming up with their own discussion questions and takeaways to share. The goal is for each student to facilitate rich conversations based on the main themes of their books and gain experience leading engaging conversations. In this project, students will engage teachers, school leaders, and families in the conversation.
Recently, I took on a more involved project: my students hosted two Family Learning Nights at a local elementary school. The students built booths for the students and taught parents important math and reading skills so they could better support their children at home. They also gained experience running a school-wide event, learning valuable skills from start to finish. Parents and school administrators were amazed at how well the teenagers organized a community event.
Invite guest speakers to provide additional perspectives
Guest speakers contribute to deeper learning and help students connect with the world outside the classroom. In our CTE programs, guest speakers also provide students with a more direct introduction to the industry they are pursuing.
Earlier this year, I taught three lessons on classroom management. Students learned to identify different behaviors, practiced creating behavior management systems, and had the opportunity to give and receive feedback on the implementation of behavior plans. I invited a local certified behaviorist into the class to provide insight along the way.
My students observed children in the preschool on our premises and identified a range of behaviors. A behaviorist visited our classroom to help students understand the various reasons why young children exhibit different behaviors, guided our efforts in digging through data from observations, and supported them in designing individualized behavior plans for specific students. She provided industry-specific language, discussed best practices, and helped my students implement practical plans to support the preschoolers in our building.
Combine subjects to make them more meaningful to students
Interdisciplinary connections allow students to explore topics from different perspectives. If students can see how a topic is covered in English, history, and science, they will have a deeper understanding of the topic. CTE programs are uniquely positioned to build interdisciplinary connections because of their focus on real-world applications. Students work on projects that focus on transferable skills and allow them to integrate knowledge from core academic disciplines.
During a recent meaningful curriculum development unit, I took my students to a local museum to meet with the museum’s curriculum director and collections curator to learn how they create programs for children. The students evaluated the museum’s education programs and worked together to design new curriculum. In the process, the students learned about important historical events and analyzed them from the perspectives of art and English.
They then combined their knowledge of how students learn with their own experiences as young people visiting the museum to provide feedback to museum educators about the museum’s current programs. The unique combination of history, art, and English language education gave them a glimpse into how subjects can be woven together in an integrated way. It also exposed them to new career paths in education.
Teaching at a CTE high school has allowed me to continue my passion for teaching by challenging me to think outside the box and provide an authentic and engaging experience for my students, and more importantly, it has given my students a strong foundation of skills to help them enter the workforce and succeed, which is so important, especially with an unknown future.
