7.30.2012

Summer Conference 2012

Summer Conference 2012 is this week! Can you believe it?

This year we have introduced our Tweet Team who will be live Tweeting this very interactive conference. There will be a live Twitter feed during the general session and we encourage participants to use the #okacte hashtag to make sure that their voice is heard.

I will be doing two presentations over the Cooperative Alliances with special guest from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and a presentation over Moving from POS to RPOS. Both presentations are during the Guidance section at Moore-Norman Technology Center, South Penn Campus.

I hope to see you this week at Summer Conference! And be sure to Tweet with #okacte

7.27.2012

4H Roundup

Thank you 4H!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to present at the 91st annual Oklahoma 4H Roundup and share with 4H members how they can get "College Credit Now, Degree Tomorrow."

I have multiple opportunities to speak to fellow educators about CareerTech and the Cooperative Alliances, but it is always something special when I get to talk to students. Some of the questions that they come up with will keep you on your toes and they are usually somewhat receptive to my bad jokes, which always makes a presenter feel better!

The crew that puts on Roundup always does a terrific job and I always enjoy the opportunity to present. Thank you 4H! 

7.19.2012

Inside the Magic Kingdom

Our functional area has been been involved in a study of the book "Inside The Magic Kingdom" by Tom Connellan. 

The book follows several executives from different companies and backgrounds as they meet a former Disney cast member and learn about seven keys to Disney's success.

The lessons that the executives learn are illustrated by stories from cast member viewpoints, Disney exeuctive viewpoints and from their observations as they learn about and explore the Magic Kingdom.

Besides learning some cool Disney trivia, the keys are concepts that can be incorporated into the culture of a successful business or agency. Concepts like paying fanatical attention to details, using multiple listening post for feedback and that every cast member is important are a few that you will explore.

When I learn the most during a book review is discussions that are generated. We talk about the easy ones like customer service and who are customers are as well as talking about harder questions like our culture.

We are not yet finished and I look forward to the next conversations that our team has. Who knows, maybe when we wrap up I can share with you some of the Magical Moments that we have created!

7.18.2012

Oklahoma recognized as Featured Best Practice

Oklahoma was recently recognized as a Featured Best Practice by the National Association of Career Pathways Leadership.

NACPL Featured Best Practices

NACPL Best Practice Document (pdf)






Disclosure - I am the Southwest Regional Director for NACPL.

7.10.2012

Postsecondary Transitions Grants

Last year I took over the management of the Postsecondary Transitions grant. I enjoyed the opportunity to work with several recipients in helping transition students to postsecondary education and I am confident that their students benefited as a result of their efforts.

This year, the requirements were tightened up and a more concentrated goal was given to applicants. 

The goal that they wrote to was to increase the number of Oklahoma CTE students who complete high school with college credit and pursue and complete a postsecondary credential or an industry recognized certificate or degree that leads to a high-wage, high-skill or high-demand career by providing student opportunities through preparatory services that include one or more of the following goals: 

  • Comprehensive education and career planning - Helping CTE students create a vision for their future through academic and career awareness, rigorous Programs of Study and family participation
  • Awareness of student opportunities - Holding CTE students to college readiness standards through engagement in rigorous Programs of Study that include academic and technical courses
  • Student Transition Success - Providing CTE students secondary to postsecondary transition support that reduces the college remediation rate for CTE students
I am excited to be working with Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center as the recipient of this year's grant. Their plan has a lot of good ideas for transitioning students and I am excited to see that plan be put into action.

You can bet that I will be sharing the good things that they are doing with you.

7.09.2012

BSA's NOVA requirements released

The requirements for the BSA's NOVA awards have been released. 

There are four Nova awards. One for for Cub Scouts, Webelos Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturers. Each covers a component of STEM—science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.


What is great about the awards is that they line up with career and technology education very nicely. One can quickly envision a Scouting CareerTech event that would accommodate both Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and 4H members.




For each of the NOVA awards a Scout must work with a counselor and with their counselor they complete a module. As an example, for the Boy Scout NOVA award, a Scout completing the "Shoot!" module has as an option the following requirement:

Simulations. Find and use a projectile simulation applet on the Internet (with your parent’s or guardian’s permission). Then design and complete a hands-on experiment to demonstrate projectile motion.

  • Keep a record of the angle, time, and distance.
  • Graph the results of your experiment. (Note: Using a high-speed camera or video camera may make the graphing easier, as will doing many repetitions using variable heights from which the projectile can be launched.)
Discuss with your counselor:
  • What a projectile is
  • What projectile motion is
  • The factors affecting the path of a projectile
  • The difference between forward velocity and acceleration due to gravity
After a Scout earns the NOVA award they can complete more in depth study of STEM and work on the SuperNOVA awards.

There are STEM programs for both Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and 4H programs. Beyond the programs, these organizations have opportunities for CTE students through the Interest Project and Merit Badge programs. They also have robotics programs and compete in FIRST Robotics competitions.

Girl Scout STEM: http://www.girlscouts.org/program/basics/science/
Boy Scout NOVA awards: http://scouting.org/stem
4H STEM program:  http://www.4-h.org/youth-development-programs/4-h-science-programs/

Click here for a search on this blog covering Scouting CareerTech and STEM related post.



7.06.2012

Individual Career Plans

One of the issues that we set out to resolve as a part of the National Programs of Study Institute is the terminology used in CTE.

Currently, Oklahoma uses the terminology of Plans of Study to describe the course sequence of a Program of Study.

We love acronyms and when using the the Program of Study and Plan of Study terminology both have the same one, POS. This can lead to lots of confusion about what you are talking about and what it actually entails.

In an effort to eliminate some confusion, we are changing the Plan of Study terminology to Individual Career Plan, or ICP.

We know that people will call the course sequence different things. Career Plans, Individual Career Plans and others. That is ok, we just will no longer be referring to them as Plans of Study and wanted you to be aware of what we are talking about when we say Individual Career Plans.

Please be patient as we work this new terminology into our everyday vocabulary. You will start seeing it in the CareerTech glossary, on Power Points and soon on our website.

We think this is a good change that will help clear up confusion. Thanks for your help in spreading the word.

7.02.2012

POS Graphics

One of the projects we undertook as part of the National Programs of Study Institute was to create a graphic that explains where Programs of Study fit into Oklahoma's structure of Career Clusters.

The graphic below is a result of that effort. The graphic shows that POS encompasses the Cluster level, Pathway level, Major and Courses.

We hope that by providing graphics as we talk about Rigorous Programs of Study, or RPOS, we will help clear up that a Program of Study is much more encompassing than simply a Plan of Study. We think our graphics do just that.



(The first graphic is an Oklahoma CareerTech designed graphic. The second graphic explains the framework and is originally designed by the Perkins Collaborative Resource Network. It can be found in its original format here. Thank you to the PRCN for permission to change the colors of their great graphic.)


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