School teams should include the high school principal or assistant principal, the career center or career/technical director, career/technical teachers, academic teachers, and college partners.

Employers across the country report a serious shortage of qualified workers in a whole range of fields. Thirty-nine percent of the students surveyed in the 2004 HSTW Student Survey said that their teachers should have placed more emphasis on writing technical reports. Thirty-four percent said that teachers should have shown how mathematics is used in specific career/technical areas and 33 percent said that teachers should have shown them how science is used in specific career/technical areas. This workshop will advance students’ understanding of technical concepts by showing teachers how to engage students in strategies that connect career/technical studies with real-world applications in reading, science and mathematics.

Each team member should choose a strand and remain in that strand throughout the workshop. Teams will be given time to work together to devise plans that incorporate the learning from all strands.

OBJECTIVES:

As a result of this workshop, participants will

• get a set of mathematics problems they can use in their classrooms;
• learn how to engage students weekly in solving mathematics problems they will encounter in the workplace;
• study the examinations their students have to pass in mathematics; and
• develop a comprehensive plan for integrating mathematics content into career/technical courses.

OBJECTIVES:

As a result of this workshop, participants will

• learn how the science teacher and the career/technical teacher can work together;
• learn how to get students to identify a problem they want to investigate;
• teach students how to design a study for an investigative science project;
• teach students how to gather and analyze date; and
• teach students how to report orally on the results of the study.
   

OBJECTIVES:

As a result of this workshop, participants will

• learn a set of strategies to engage students in reading and interpreting technical materials;
• learn how to put literacy goals in place;
• learn how to use writing assignments to engage students in research projects; and
• develop a comprehensive plan for integrating literacy skills in career/technical content.

At the conclusion of this workshop participants will complete letters to their principals and/or superintendents summarizing what they have learned at the workshop, what they will do in their schools and classrooms when they return to integrate academic knowledge and skills into their instruction, and what kind of support they will need in order to be successful.

For further information, e-mail ProfDevPrograms@sreb.org.