The Technical Educator

All teachers--including career and technical education (CTE) teachers--play a vital role in building a thriving PLC. In this practical resource, the authors explicitly outline how to improve teaching and learning by integrating PLC best practices into CTE programs. Teams of CTE educators will learn how to clarify their purpose, discover their common denominators, and incorporate powerful collaborative processes into their daily work. Use this resource to learn the vital strategies necessary for building and improving teams: Become familiar with the common issues that prevent CTE educators from engaging in the collaborative PLC process. Learn why and how the PLC process benefits both CTE educators and students. Learn how CTE educators can create collaborative programs that are tailored toward CTE fields of study. Receive professional guidance and concrete, achievable teaching strategies for creating an effective PLC process. Access a checklist of crucial action steps for career tech teams at the end of each chapter. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Establishing a Collaborative Culture Chapter 2: Forming Collaborative Teams Chapter 3: Setting Up the Logistics of Teamwork Chapter 4: Identifying Essential Learnings and Developing CTE Curriculum Chapter 5: Designing Instruction and Assessments Chapter 6: Reflecting on Data Chapter 7: Responding to Student Learning Epilogue: Turning Parking Spaces Into Rest Spaces Appendix A: Glossary of Terms Appendix B: Reproducibles

This book examines how industry-desired employability skills—or “soft skills”—are taught and learned in high school career and technical education (CTE) engineering and engineering technology programs. Identifying, recruiting, and keeping workers with strong personal and interpersonal skills is a constant challenge for STEM employers who need to hire young workers to replace an aging technical workforce. To answer the call, teachers interviewed explained that they maintain regimented daily classroom routines that include individual and small group hands-on activities and projects. In turn, their students explain learning personal responsibility, work ethic, teamwork, leadership, conflict management, and social skills in the classroom. Narratives from the workforce and classroom interweave to put employability skills frameworks into action.