The 2013 National Career Clusters® Institute was held June 10-12 in Fort Worth Texas, and resources are now available on our Web site Institute resources page. These are primarily Power Points, provided by our presenters.

Several presenters also blogged about their sessions prior to the Institute. To find these blog posts, go to http://blog.careertech.org/ and search under Career Clusters® Institute Series. Following is a blog (with the Power Point found on our Web site Institute resources page) for the breakout session Rigorous and Relevant Technical Writing in the High School by Carol Larkin, Instructor, Mentor Public Schools/Lake Shore Compact, Lyndhurst, Ohio:

Blog: Rigorous and Relevant Technical Writing in the Career and Academic Classroom

The Art of Writing is more than telling stories and responding to literature; it is the gymnastics of the mind on paper. Writing fires synapses, pumps ions, and speeds neurons along their path. Writing puts our thoughts and vision into something that a wide range of audience can comprehend. The Common Core State Standards has untethered writing from the English department and sent it across the curriculum. Writing now takes on the role of a real world application for our students. How do we integrate this real world writing into our Technology courses? Through an understanding of technical writing—its style, function and form—and technical writing projects! Why should technical writing be integrated into both academic and technical courses?

• Engages students in critical thinking and writing
• Prepares your students for college level writing
• Makes writing real and relevant to the student

The foundation of technical writing begins in English class with the study of form, style and function; while students apply what they learned about writing in their technical classes. As an Applied English teacher, I work with the technology instructors. We plan projects that require trip reports, progress reports, research, flyers, brochures, instruction manuals, presentations and much more. Our program has existed for over 15 years. On a yearly basis less than five percent of our students need writing remediation upon entering college. This session provides you with three critical components to create rigorous writing assignments:

• Knowledge of how technical writing differs from academic writing
• Structure for the Academic and Tech teachers to create rigorous writing assignments
• Real time projects combining technical class work with Language Arts writing.

Please join us for some “Take It With You Ideas” for your program.

Take advantage of the Power Point and blog resources available at www.careertech.org and learn more about the work of these outstanding presenters.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Scott Hess, Vice President of Community Partnerships, Ascend Learning CTE (pictured below right).

So you want to be a social worker? Well how about being a nurse instead? They help people too (and, um, we don’t have that Program Of Study)…

Questions and answers like these are not uncommon for students and their counselors as they try to create a Program of Study (POS) aligned with the student’s career goals and interests.

The dilemma facing many schools today is that, while they want to encourage kids to explore careers in all 16 Career Clusters®, in actuality, they may only offer options in 5 or 6 clusters.  Student participation should not be determined by the size or location of the school they attend.

The traditional ‘Vocational Education’ came under scrutiny because it only provided opportunities for a few students in a few jobs. In reality, we aren’t much better off today. The lack of access to a variety of programs of study is one of the biggest issues facing Career Technical Education (CTE), and it doesn’t only affect rural schools. We have heard from districts in the Washington, DC suburbs that want to respond to their students’ growing interest in local and organic farming, but do not have agricultural programs.  The only way to provide opportunities to all students is by “thinking out of the box,” using a little imagination, taking advantage of technology and creatively addressing outdated policies and other roadblocks.

Recognizing this dilemma, Ascend Learning’s CTE group is working with schools to help them develop and implement blended learning solutions. We bring schools modular content and interactive digital resources that can be used to craft courses that help students study towards industry-recognized credentials wherever they and whenever they have time to study. During our breakout session, we will share some of these resources and talk about strategies teachers can use to engage students in a blended learning format.

We also want to help you share your insights about blended learning with other teachers. We will be putting recommendations from the breakout session participants on the Ascend Learning CTE blog following the conference.

Scott’s vendor session is scheduled for Monday, June 10 from 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager