Tech Prep Tuesday - February 23, 2010

(posted February 2010)

Tech Prep Tuesday Newsletter
February 23, 2010


Education Open Source Conference Follow-up
More than 750 professionals gathered in Austin for Education Open Source 2010 earlier this month. Several educators from the Central Texas region were featured in breakout sessions during the conference. Dr. Daniel Spencer and Dr. John Idoux gave a presentation on Texas Bioscience Institute STEM Education. Alison Belliveau, Temple ISD, and Karen Denney, Copperas Cove ISD offered a session titled, “District Redesign with AchieveTexas.” Region 12 ESC Specialist Christine Holecek discussed using labor market data to meet the needs of students in one session, a new curriculum guide for practicum in education in another, and was featured in a “screening room” presentation on college and career planning with students. Don Kuempel, Hutto ISD, and Fred Khozein, East Williamson County Higher Education Center offered a session on their auto tech program
Many of the presentations from the conference are located on the conference website at: http://educationopensource.com/2010-conference-presentations.
One of the featured speakers was Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. In a voice of support, she challenged participants to expand CTE programs from high school to college to the workplace and place a higher value on working with your head and your hands. Combs explained the $20 million Every Chance Every Texan campaign she successfully established with support from the 81st legislature.
Additional information about the conference will be featured in upcoming issues of Tech Prep Tuesday.
New CTE TEKS Training

Training for the new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills will eventually be available on-line; however, this is not projected to happen until after August 2010. The priority for training on-line will be for Modules 1-3. The content specific modules will follow after that and will be a resource only and not meant to be the primary training. Teachers should attend one of the face-to-face trainings at the education service centers or summer professional development conferences. Watch this newsletter for dates on these trainings.

Heart of Texas Tech Prep is holding content specific TEKS training for the Ag Science, Food & Natural Resources cluster at TSTC Waco on March 2 and has invited Central Texas area Ag teachers to attend. If you are interested in attending, please contact Sherry Hollinger at shollin@templejc.edu or 254-298-8482 or Carol Lance at carol.lance@templejc.edu or 254-298-8480 for more information and a registration form. Registration deadline is February 25!

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