Career & Technical Education (CTE) Month | A2Schools Podcast | Week of March 27, 2023

In this week's podcast, Andrew Cluley talks with Tom Pachera Director of Career Technical Education and Project Lead the Way for AAPS and Huron CTE teachers Allison Andres and Melissa Gordon.

February was CTE month so we talk about the CTE offerings available in AAPS, how the field of CTE has changed over the years and what students get from taking CTE classes. 

In AAPS good news we celebrate Huron's Science Bowl Team winning the Michigan Regional and qualifying for the National Science Bowl sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Transcript

:05

Andrew Cluley

Welcome to the A2 Schools Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Cluley, the Director of Communications for the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Unfortunately, today, Dr. Swift could not join us as we are getting backed up with meetings from last week's ice storm. Speaking of which, I just want to thank everybody from the community and the district that helped make it so that we could get our schools open as quickly as possible, particularly members of the ITD team, food services, the facilities team, and of course, the people that came and helped clean up the grounds and made them safe and able to have kids on the grounds.

:42

Andrew Cluley

Thank you to everyone and of course, to the DTE workers and the linesmen that they brought in from out of state to get the power back up as fast as possible. We thank them all. So today we decided we would since last week, we focused in on Black History Month, which I hope you got a chance to hear that podcast.

1:03

Andrew Cluley

If not, go, go click on the link and listen to it now. But February is also Career Technical Education Month, and so we decided that we would focus this week in on CTE. So, joining us today is Tom Pachera. He's the Director of Career Technical Education and Project Lead the Way for the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

1:23

Tom Pachera

Hi everyone, thanks for joining us today. I'm excited to tell you a little bit more about career and tech ed in the Ann Arbor Public Schools and I guess a little bit county wide and statewide. Here in Ann Arbor we're very proud of having more programs than the rest of the county combined. We have 11 different course sequences. We see over 300 students on the course of over the course of each day.

1:50

Tom Pachera

We have 30 CTE teachers in the district, and we're funded by the state and federal governments, which makes us a little different than your normal, I'm going to say normal academic classes. We consider ourselves academic electives. I'm also joined today with a couple of our amazing staff members at Huron High School. So I'll turn it over to Allison Andres to say hello.

2:15

Allison Andres

Hi, I'm Alison Andres and I am at Huron High School. I'm the co-department chair here at Huron and the Work Based Learning Coordinator and also teach a variety of business classes.

2:27

Andrew Cluley

And we also have with us today, Melissa Gordon, also from Huron.

2:30

Melissa Gordon

Hi, everyone. I teach accounting one, accounting two, personal finance one, business principles and management and note taking insight skills through the our CTE department at Huron.

2:39

Andrew Cluley

Well, thank you all for joining us today. And I think, first of all, let's just talk about a sense of what is CTE. I'm hoping, Tom, you can give just sort of an overview of sort of what types of classes students can take that would fall under the CTE umbrella.

2:55

Tom Pachera

You bet. We are, we're considered hands on and lab work courses. So really broad spectrum. We have cosmetology, culinary arts, homebuilding, auto tech, health sciences, we have engineering and then kind of wrapped up in our business courses, business administration and management, finance, financial management, marketing, school store. In computer science, we've got your average computer science classes, and then we've got accelerated AP computer science classes as well as cybersecurity.

3:30

Tom Pachera

And we mix in a little bit of biomedical engineering with some of our Project Lead the Way courses.

3:35

Andrew Cluley

So, it really sounds like that students have a wide variety of options that fall under CTE. And I'm guessing that that for many of the students that really brings their day to life that they really are passionate about.

3:50

Tom Pachera

Yeah, they get to focus on something that they're either somewhat interested in and want to learn more about it or that they're already very interested in. Students take a sequence of one or more of those categories. I mentioned earlier, and It’s a 1 to 2 year sequence of courses. And at the end they're considered a completer by the state of Michigan and by us.

4:13

Tom Pachera

But we're able to offer all those programs I mentioned, but not at every building. But we are able to transport our students from building to building across the district. Cosmetology is off site, homebuilding is off site. We are one of the few city programs left in the state that builds and sells a house every year for the past 53 years in and around Ann Arbor.

4:40

Tom Pachera

And we share that cosmetology program, which is a storefront program where you can go get your hair done or your nails done on State Street and Michigan Ave, Huron Valley Beauty School in the morning Huron Valley services Washtenaw County, the other eight school districts in the county with students and in the afternoon it's all 17 students are from the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

5:04

Andrew Cluley

And can you talk about for a parent or maybe even a grandparent I know I have my picture of what CTE was when I was in school, the old-fashioned shop classes and that type of thing. It sounds like we've advanced a little bit beyond that as the technology here in these industries has changed a bit too.

5:22

Tom Pachera

We definitely have advanced with technology, with software, with software applications, But we are still very much a hands on curriculum. I use our business classes, as an example, we were just talking earlier as teachers. When we started teaching, we had books to do our to build our grades and eventually we use spreadsheets and now we've got this amazing tool called Power School, and we keep up with the technology within the program as well.

5:53

Tom Pachera

So, our students have moved from checks and balance sheets to excel, and QuickBooks our auto shops, I guess are another prime example of that change in traditional automotive. Although we service cars from the fifties and sixties up to current day vehicles. So, we keep building on the tools and equipment that we have in the labs and give students what they need to succeed after high school.

6:24

Andrew Cluley

And I'm wondering maybe, Allison, you can talk about the students that you see in your classroom. Is there any traits that are common among them or would a person coming into our school not have really any idea that they're CTE class versus in any other class?

6:39

Allison Andres

I think I would say it's fair to say that department wide that once a student enters the business department or a CTE course, they typically stick within the CTE department. So, it's very common that me and Melissa and Vince will all have the same student in class because they really like the project based hands on learning. They really love the fact that when they leave our program, they are leaving with a skill which is unlike any of the other curriculum typically in the district.

7:04

Allison Andres

So, for example, when you leave auto, you will be able to change a tire on the side of the road if you need to. Same thing with personal finance. When you leave our personal finance curriculum, you will be financially literate for when you graduate high school and get your first paycheck and go off into college. So, I think those types of skill sets really set our programs apart.

7:25

Andrew Cluley

And I'm guessing that there's some good crossover that if you take the auto class, then the business class could help you out. If you end up wanting to open a garage or something along those lines.

7:35

Allison Andres

Absolutely. Yes. And we offer those types of experiences through entrepreneurship. We have an entrepreneurship class that will show you how to write a business plan and the product lifecycle and how to go about doing that.

7:45

Andrew Cluley

Excellent. And Melissa, what do you think is the biggest thing that the students get from these classes?

7:51

Melissa Gordon

Honestly, I think it's enjoyment. I think it's an excitement to come to class everyday because you're going to be using whatever it is that we're learning or teaching you that day at some point in your life. And for some of them, it's applying it right now. I remember when our home building instructor, Mark Valchine, would talk about, he actually, I was teaching geometry at one point because I also have math degree and he was talking about building trusses and how using the 30, 60, 90 triangles, how they would instead of teaching it the way we would teach it in geometry, he would teach the lesson of how they would build the trusses for the houses.

8:22

Melissa Gordon

So, him and his home building students actually came into my geometry class and spent the day with my kids, teaching them how to use 30, 60, 90 triangles in a real-world relevant way. And it clicked for some kids and it didn't click for other kids. And that's okay. But at the same time, it was a great recruiting tool for our home building program because these kids can see, oh, here, I could actually build something with my hands instead of just using a calculator or just writing something down on pen and paper.

8:49

Melissa Gordon

So I think that's probably what a lot of them get out of it, is they see this future value that might help them in school if they choose to go to a vocational school, if they choose to go to a community college or a four year degree, at some point, this can be a skill or it can be something that they look back on and go, Oh, I remember this time in high school when I did this and helped them throughout their career.

9:11

Andrew Cluley

And it sounds great just having that extra way to learn a skill because not everyone obviously learns the exact same way.

9:19

Melissa Gordon

Very true. Very true. And I feel like we give them that opportunity, be it through any of our classes. And we're able to reach such a vast group of students in different ways because it doesn't all have to be done one way. And we can have those conversations with our students and create projects or modify projects based off of what they're able to do or what they're not able to do at that moment in time.

9:41

Melissa Gordon

And then they can see growth throughout the semester and see growth, see what they what they're able to do at the beginning of the semester versus what they know and understand and they're able or capable to do at the end of the semester. So, I also think that's really helpful when the kids look back and go, oh my gosh, look at what I'm able to do now that I had no idea I was capable of at the beginning of the semester.

10:00

Andrew Cluley

And Tom, I think you mentioned this at the beginning, but roughly how many students are taking CTE classes in the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

10:06

Tom Pachera

This year we’re right around the 300 mark and those are students that are completing our courses. I really don't know the total number. We run many intro courses. Know your auto. We consider personal finance one of our intro courses, even though quite a few seniors take our personal finance course, many of our courses are offered for that senior math credit that students need for graduation.

10:35

Tom Pachera

Also, science credits, English credits. World language is another one. All our computer science classes count as a world language credit. Again, these are all state of Michigan Merit curriculum requirements. One thing that does also set our students aside or puts our students ahead of the game. Almost all of our CTE courses also carry some type of certification with them.

10:59

Tom Pachera

So easy ones to think about our safe serve certification in our culinary arts programs. So when  students, if students choose to go to work at a fast food restaurant or a restaurant, we have many in Ann Arbor. Their resume shows that they're already certified in serving safely. So, the restaurant owner doesn't have to pay for that certification.

11:21

Tom Pachera

The student doesn't have to take a couple weeks off to do that training. Our students leave with it. We moved that also to our school store this year. So, our students that are serving cookies and slushies also have that certification. Our homebuilders have OSHA certificates, and our auto tax students can leave with three ASE certifications. That's a very typical certification for mechanics.

11:43

Tom Pachera

CPR, first aid in our health science classes. And then pretty new this year, we've added Microsoft Office Professional Excel certification, as well as Microsoft Word Associate certifications. So it's just another thing that our students can leave with, whether they're choosing to go on to school somewhere or choose and go right to the world of work.

12:07

Andrew Cluley

I was just going to say that it seems like that they're getting some real-life skills that they can put on their resume to get a job right away, even if they don't plan on, you know, staying in that field long term. It still seems like a real opportunity.

12:20

Tom Pachera

Yeah, we think so.

12:22

Andrew Cluley

And I guess that does lead to the question is, is do we have a sense of where our CTE graduates end up? What what type of things do they end up doing as alumni?

12:34

Tom Pachera

That's an interesting question. Actually, tomorrow at our meeting, we're discussing our follow up survey. So, every year, state of Michigan asks us to do a follow up survey with our students. So, we've found that if we start that follow up survey in the spring of their senior year, we have a better chance of getting a hold of them in the fall after graduation.

12:56

Tom Pachera

We're going to do a much better job of tuning students in tune teachers into the follow up surveys. So, we can keep an eye on what they're doing in the state of Michigan, can keep an eye on what they're doing as well, not in a spying kind of way, but we want to know if they're going into the work based experience that we've prepared him for or if we've taught them exactly what they don't want to do in the world of work.

13:20

Tom Pachera

Michigan Department of Education works with Michigan Workplace Workforce Development. So, about every two years they analyze what jobs are needed in the state and that contributes to our funding for our programs. So, about every two years, the funding changes a bit within our programs. This year, I think it's pretty obvious that health sciences, health service technologies are the highest ranked in the state because we need health care workers, obviously. So that's those are the students that we get more funding for in our programs.

13:56

Andrew Cluley

You mentioned how one of the things that you can learn from this program is what you don't want to do in life. And honestly, that seems like a very valuable thing to find out in high school as well.

14:07

Tom Pachera

Absolutely. Especially students that are going on to university or college, they know what major they don't want as much as they know the major or minor that they do want.

14:17

Andrew Cluley

Melissa or Allison, maybe you have a story of a student that you've heard from that shared what what they've done with their CTE experience.

14:25

Melissa Gordon

I've heard from a lot of kids who've taken accounting and then go and take accounting in college and are exploring just being either a business owner or getting the experience in a business environment, but having an accounting background going into it. And they've all said that they know so much more of what's being discussed whenever they're in a business meeting and they're able to read balance sheets and they're able to read income statements and have a general better overall understanding of what's going on in the company.

14:54

Melissa Gordon

But I've also had a lot of kids come back and talk to me about personal finance and how their roommates have no idea what's going on. They'll email me and ask for our making ends meet budget spreadsheet their freshman year of college and say, can you just send it to me? I know, like I don't go to school there anymore, but would it be possible for you to send it?

15:11

Melissa Gordon

It was so helpful. And and then after they've created this spreadsheet, they're saying, Thank you. I've been able to manage my money so much better. My roommates are going into debt. I'm not. So that's always really helpful to see that they're taking those lessons that we've taught them and they're actually using them and they're not using them, five years, ten years from now, they're using them right now.

15:31

Allison Andres

And I've had the same experiences having students that have had the accounting curriculum have then gone on to HR, had the business management curriculum and still continue on their traditional business path. Today. However, though, I was out doing my work-based learning site visits and the owner of Latitude downtown, he is a Huron grad, unbeknownst to me until I met him today and he had Mr. Hunter as a CTE teacher and then went to Eastern for his business degree and now owns Latitude, which is an Indian Mexican kitchen fusion restaurant downtown.

16:06

Allison Andres

So yeah, I think just hearing those experiences and, you know, like, Oh yeah, I have Mr. Hunter. I remember him. It's pretty cool when you get out into the community, especially Ann Arbor. It's such a small community and there are so many stories like that where Ann Arbor Public School students are now business owners and have gone through CTE programs.

16:26

Andrew Cluley

Great. And when we are looking to the future, you mentioned the the health care related fields. What are some other things that you see as potential changes coming down the pike for CTE?

16:40

Tom Pachera

Computer science is probably our fastest growing area, cybersecurity in particular. That said, it's very difficult for us to find CTE certified teachers. I mentioned we've got 30 CTE certified teachers that I'm very proud of. It's hard to find CTE certified teachers. You have to have your bachelor's degree or teaching degree as well as over 4000 hours of work experience.

17:05

Tom Pachera

And it's pretty difficult to pull somebody away from a high paying job in business and industry to become a teacher. At this point.

17:14

Andrew Cluley

I guess I'm going to it leads me right to Melissa and Alison. What made you decide to get into being a teacher?

17:22

Allison Andres

Well, I always wanted to be a teacher as a child, but then went the way after high school to major in business management, because that's just what the expectation kind of was. And then I got my first job while still in that field at Ford world headquarters, and I walked in, I was like, there is no way I can work in this cubicle for the rest of my life.

17:49

Allison Andres

So back to the drawing board. And I found that Eastern had the business education curriculum because I really loved business and that whole entrepreneurial spirit. I just knew I couldn't be in that environment. So, I changed my degree and ended up in education like I knew I wanted to begin with right as a small child and then combine the two and here I am.

18:13

Andrew Cluley

And Melissa?

18:14

Melissa Gordon

I'm I am my parents are both educators. So, part of me thinks that it was genetic, but at the same time, I always knew that I really enjoyed business and I was lucky enough to go to a school that had a lot of business classes. So, I started taking those. My freshman year and I really enjoyed them and I all of a sudden it clicked senior year that this kid, you know, we could combine teaching with business.

18:34

Melissa Gordon

And as soon as I got into the classroom, I knew exactly that was where I wanted to be. So, unlike a lot of people who were where post back, they went and got a degree, got the work experience. I got my work experience while I was in high, while I was in college getting my 4000 hours in addition to going to college, so that when I graduated, I was able to go directly into becoming a CTE educator.

18:55

Melissa Gordon

So, a little bit different path than a lot of my colleagues who ended up being out in the workforce for a while before they came back to become teachers. But it's been really enjoyable and it's a great conversation to bring up with our students when we talk about career exploration, how did you get where you are and what about your what about your job is what you enjoy, What don't you like?

19:15

Melissa Gordon

What do you think you want to do, do or would you have done differently? So bringing I think our experience into the classroom also helps make it more fun for the kids. And there's a lot of engagement.

19:28

Andrew Cluley

Well, that sounds amazing. And as we're wrapping up this segment on the school's podcast, is there anything else that you guys would like to share as we celebrate CTE month here in Ann Arbor?

19:40

Tom Pachera

So I guess two more things I'd like to add on April 17th. Coming up quick at Pioneer High School, we have our annual college and career fair. This is the first year that we're combining that college and career fair with the Saline Schools. So it'll be a Washtenaw area college and career fair. We have over 100 colleges and universities signed up and 30 to 40 local businesses and our unions, as well as our military folks will be there.

20:07

Tom Pachera

Again, that's April 17th at 6:00 in Pioneer Annex. Next year will be at Saline High School, doing the same thing with hopefully even more. We'd also like to put a plug in. We're always looking for advisory members. Each of the programs that I mentioned has an advisory board. They meet twice a year to discuss curriculum, to take a look at equipment, to make sure we're sending students out with the tools they need to be successful in your businesses.

20:35

Andrew Cluley

Well, those are some good news to know about and some things to think about if students are not sure where they're headed for college or other post-high school opportunities, they can check that out on April 17th at Pioneer. Speaking of good news, this brings us to the good news section on the A2 Schools Podcast. And we're here at Huron, so we're going to celebrate some good news from Huron.

21:01

Andrew Cluley

And that's the Huron Science Bowl team led by Michael Damron, a science teacher here at Huron. They have qualified for the national Science Bowl sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. They won the regional competition a week or so ago to qualify for the Nationals. So, congratulations to the Huron Science team and best of luck in the national finals.

21:29

Andrew Cluley

Well, I would like to thank all our guests for being here today. So, thank you for joining us, Tom.

21:33

Tom Pachera

Thank you, Andrew

21:34

Andrew Cluley

Thank you, Allison, for joining us.

21:36

Allison Andres

Thank you. My pleasure.

21:37

Andrew Cluley

And, Melissa, thank you as well.

21:38

Melissa Gordon

Thanks for having me.

21:39

Andrew Cluley

And thank you for listening to the A2 Schools podcast. As always, if you have any questions about the Ann Arbor Public Schools, the first place to go to look for an answer is our website, a2schools.org. If you have a topic you'd like to hear about in a future episode of the A2 Schools Podcast, please email me communications@a2schools.org. And thanks again for listening to this week's edition of the A2 Schools Podcast.