| Announcements: March 31, 2010 - May 4, 2010 | |||||
Tech Prep Tuesday Newsletter May 4, 2010 CATEMA Reminder!! CATEMA (Career And Technology Education Management Application) system helps to identify students with articulated credit. School districts that have a local articulation agreement with Central Texas College or Temple College, or have a teacher that is eligible to teach Advanced Technical Credit (ATC) courses, may participate in CATEMA. The deadline for using the CATEMA system for the 2009 2010 school year has been extended to June 30th. Once the system has closed, teachers and students will not be able to submit any further information for the current year. For more information please contact Misty Harrell at mharrell@templejc.edu, or Carol Lance at 254.298.8480 or carol.lance@templejc.edu. Workshop Follow-up About 30 area educators attended the 21st Century New, Emerging, and Evolving Careers workshop at the Nolanville site of Region 12 Education Service Center on April 13th. Featured speakers included Christine Holecek, ESC Region 12; Wanda Williams, Workforce Solutions of Central Texas; Dr. Dana Watson and Mark Winans, Central Texas College; Dr. Daniel Spencer, Temple College/Texas Bioscience Institute; Anita Steele, Texas State Technical College; Sarina Swindell, Texas A&M University- Central Texas; and Don Owens, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Watch for workshop highlights to be featured in a news article on the Consortium website later this month. Upcoming Area Activities May 14 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM SureScores College and Career Readiness Workshop at ESC Region 12, Session # 34032, Waco; FREE funded by THECB May 15 9:00 AM to 4;00 PM 2010-2011 Modules 4 & 5 New CTE TEKS Workshop at ESC Region 12, Session # 33859 Choices Planner Offers Tools to Help Students Prepare for Summer Jobs The Choices Planner program from Xap (formerly Bridges), features several job search tools that may help students have an edge on the summer job market. The Resume Builder is a good place to start. Students are guided through the process of creating a strong resume that outlines their qualifications and skills for the type of job they want. Another tool, Cover Letter Creator, offers a few different templates to give students a solid starting point for creating a letter. If a student gets called for an interview, the Job Interview Practice tool offers tips on the best way to answer the questions that might be asked. Finally, the Thank-You Letter Builder provides students an excellent resource to help them follow up after an interview. ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Newsletter April 27, 2010 Legislative Update During a breakout session at the ACTE Region IV Conference in San Antonio earlier this month, Jan Bray, Executive Director for ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education) discussed national education policy and issues. Here are a few highlights from the presentation: National Challenges Concern about U.S. student performance U.S. global competition Improved transitions between secondary and postsecondary education 21st century skills U.S. Education Challenge The U.S. high school graduation rate is 17th internationally with a 73% graduation rate One third of all high school students dont graduate on time The U.S. college graduation rate is 14th internationally with a 66% graduation rate Among people 18-24, the U.S. ranks 5th internationally in college enrollment with 35% of people attending college In urban school districts 50-60% of students drop out of high school Up to 55% of college freshmen must enroll in remedial courses in reading, writing and mathematics One in four freshman at 4-year colleges fails to return to school for a sophomore year One in two freshman in community colleges fails to return Political Environment Economy is taking center stage in every discussion Short congressional calendar because it is an election year session only 114 days Administration encourages all Americans to enroll in at least one year of higher education or job training ED Four Priorities Adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices Turning around the lowest performing schools Appropriations Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Act funded at current levels - $1.3 billion ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Newsletter April 20, 2010 Funding Available for CTE Training Opportunities Training for the new CTE (career technical education) TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) is highly encouraged and will be helpful both in the classroom and as articulation agreements with area community colleges are updated. Training for Part II of the ATC (Advanced Technical Credit aka Statewide Articulation) Program will be necessary for teachers participating as all current ATC approvals will expire this summer. Although ATC courses are not Tech Prep per se, they can be used in a Tech Prep six year plan along with locally articulated courses and technical dual credit courses. The Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium is the recipient of some reallocation funds and part of the money will be used to help Tech Prep teachers attain training. Also, counselors and administrators may request funding to help with summer professional development so that they may keep abreast of all the new changes with CTE. Up to $150 per person will be available for approximately 30 educators. Funding will be on a reimbursement basis only. Requests should be made through each districts Tech Prep contact. Each contact was sent information on how to apply for the money last week. All requests must be received by April 28. Each district should compile requests and send one letter to the Tech Prep director. Awards will be announced by May 3. TEKS training will be available at many of the state summer professional development conferences. Each of the area education service centers are offering training as well. Here is a list of opportunities: Region 6 ESC Training is currently underway. Region 12 ESC Training available at Connect3 Conference June 8 9 and Modules 4 & 5 will be available for some clusters May 15 at Copperas Cove High School. Region 13 ESC Training is June 14. Region 15 ESC Training is by cluster, various dates April through June. ATC Part II training options include summer professional development conferences and regional opportunities. See the www.atctexas.org website for a list of sites and dates. ATC training opportunities through this consortium may be available for a limited number of courses either this summer or in early fall. Deadline for training for ATC Part II is the end of October this year. Teachers should complete Part I training online and look at the transcript requirements that are stated on the ATC website. If you have any questions, please contact Sherry Hollinger at shollin@templejc.edu or 254-298-8482 or Carol Lance at carol.lance@templejc.edu or 254-298-8480. ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Newsletter April 6, 2010 Non-Traditional Career, Gender Equity, and Special Populations Resources National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) www.napequity.org National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science (IWITTS) www.iwitts.org Career and Technical Special Populations Training and Resource Education Center http://ctsp.tamu.edu Perkins Data Resources www.thecb.state.tx.us/apps/Perkins/perkdata.cfm 21st Century New, Emerging, and Evolving Careers Workshop Register now only a few seats remaining! Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Time: 8:00 AM Noon Location: Region 12 ESC Nolanville Target Audience: Secondary counselors, administrators, teachers, post secondary advisors Registration Information: Register through ESC Region 12 at www.esc12.net/events/default.html Space is limited. Session # 33635 Cost: FREE Sponsored by Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium; Substitute reimbursement available for member schools Information: Contact Sherry Hollinger at 254-298-8482 or shollin@templejc.edu ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Newsletter March 30, 2010 New Feature for Bridges Choices Planner A great new way to show students how their career plans will impact with world around them is with a new site that links with Choices Planner. It is called IMPACT and is located at http://impact.xap.com. IMPACT links careers to current events. The first edition looks at the recent earthquake in Haiti and helps students discover how many careers and volunteer activities are involved with the rebuilding of that country. National Technical Honor Society Looking for a way to recognize outstanding career and technical education students? The National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) is a non-profit, educational organization established to honor excellence in career and technical education. Thousands of schools and colleges throughout the U.S. and its territories are affiliated with the Society. For more information about NTHS, please see this website: www.nths.org. Area Job Fairs 2010 Central Texas College Community Job Fair Wednesday April 21, 2010 10:00 AM 3:00 PM Killeen Civic & Conference Center Killeen, Texas Temple College Job Fair Wednesday - April 28, 2010 9:30 AM 2:00 PM Temple College Pavilion Temple, Texas ============ |
