Student agency is a perfect vehicle in CTE for students' hands-on learning.  The best way for students to learn is to have them actively participate in projects that relate to what they are learning.  The more relevance the students see in it for themselves, the more likely they will be active in their hands-on learning.  Our students are learning through both operating drones and understanding the rules and regulations from the FAA to pass the Unmanned Aircraft General Remote Pilot exam.  Our projects allow them to learn though the process of establishing their own initiative and enthusiasm, keeping them focused… >>>

Active participation from students, SWOT, four-corners, entrance and exit cards, talk tickets, dry-erase boards and hypothetical real-world scenarios, these are all useful tools to allow students to express their opinions and conclusions.  Those opinions and conclusions are essential for the students to come up with results developing their critical thinking skills, communication skills, and listening balanced with speaking to express those opinions and conclusions in a manner that is constructive, productive and insightful.  

In our class we allow for open discussion, and as the material is pretty much straight-forward, we use an adequate amount of hands-on activities to illustrate what… >>>

Lessons with engagement appear to be one of the most effective ways to succeed in students' learning and applying what they've learned.  Depth of knowledge and productive failure seem to be ways that are novel and unique to success in retention and mastery of both the material and the technical expertise given by the teacher.  Active questioning provides support in the students' confidence and participation, more than merely calling on students one-by-one when the teacher's goal is to get the students to give an answer.  The notion of having the students take the lead on discussions, research, interpersonal communication with… >>>

Stay focused and determined.

Coming into CTE as a Special Instructor, I am fascinated by the concept of productive talk.  Learning how active talk stimulates neural pathways in a student's brain, this concept helps to reinforce our methods of allowing our students to ask questions during each class period, WHILE WE TEACHERS ARE DISSEMINATING THE MATERIAL.  My approach in previous teaching opportunities was to have students ask questions as I was presenting, rather than have them wait until the end of me speaking, or the end of the entire lesson.  That way, asking questions and getting answers in the moment provides for better retention. … >>>

Leadership in career readiness is about more than just teaching students how to become "the boss." It is more about teaching resilience, critical thinking, and problem-solving

There are a lot of things to consider when thinking about financial literacy.  It is important to discuss some of the less obvious hurdles, like insurance or professional memberships, that may not be discussed elsewhere.  These are also important considerations that need to be included in a budget.

I loved reading about including interactive activities in my classes for students to experience.  It is so important for students to be exposed to these concepts, like in Shady Sam, but gamifying it makes it more interesting and less threatening.

I love the idea of using real-world scenarios to help students think through what they may face one day.  AI is really great for generating scenarios to have students work through.  I also love guest speakers wh can answer questions about what really happens as opposed to what is written in a book.

My husband works in the trades.  He always says he wishes that he knew what options were available to him.  He learned his trade through working for various other people who were willing to teach him.  Knowing that there is actual training available to young people could have saved him a lot of time and money in the long run.  Making sure students know about opportunities is really important.