Putting Students on the Fast Track

Errol Shook from Watauga High is one of the most successful teachers I know at preparing high school students for the high tech workforce. Over the past decade, an average of four seniors each year have gone on from his program to internships or paid positions on college or university IT staffs – many of them at Appalachian State, right there in Boone.

I asked him to share some of the strategies he’s used to establish this track record. He goes above and beyond that’s required, and is a wealth of Best Practices for the IT classroom. Here’s our conversation:

 Tell me how you’ve encouraged your best students to continue along the IT career path, and how that has turned out for them.

Every year I try to find jobs for students who are graduating from WHS, and who have done well in all of my classes. This year, one student finished an internship at Technology Support Services at Appalachian, and 3 graduating seniors for this school year already have jobs open for them to take or turn down at TSS at Appalachian State University based on the work they have completed.

That’s a great ongoing track record of producing students who go on to tech jobs after high school. What’s your secret?

I have been teaching Computer Engineering courses for 10 years. Networking in various forms during that time, and a Trade and Industry Advanced Studies course that covers UNIX, Programming as Scripts in Python, Perl, Ruby, and C/C++, some Circuit Design and how they relate to truth tables and binary so circuits can be built on screen with logic gates. All teach skills necessary to work in the tech industry.

Once you have a core set of classes that build on each other, you can take that content, and visit the places where you want to get your students jobs. Sell the curriculum to as many of those places as possible, and internships and jobs will come. Employers and colleges won’t know you unless you go talk to them. Build a strong base, and then, sell your students, on working hard to get the recommendation to go to those places.

Are there particular strategies you use in the classroom to get students ready for real jobs?

We do LOTS of labs. LOTS of hands on things, and in as many of those hands on labs I try to set them up as Real Life situations. The curriculum is the material to be covered, but if you don’ take the time to try to apply those topics to what is done at work, it is just a class. I use Linux to teach networking, and to compare differences in Microsoft Environments. Students have to set up and prepare a desktop for demonstrating k12LTSP. We build parallel processing clusters with as many as 42 computers that all classes participate in.

If you limit yourself to the box of the curriculum, students will not think out of it. Use the curriculum, and design a class, that teaches it, and applies the material.

Do you emphasize practical experience? Certification?

The classroom is setup as a fully functional shop. We do repair work and upgrades and virus removal regularly. It becomes more than a classroom that way. And we talk about the importance of certification, and what it means to have the documentation that you have done them.

Can you tell at the beginning of a semester which students are going to do well?

As a teacher, after a few days, its easy to see who has ability and who is going to need to work harder. But sometimes the kids with less ability will work harder though. Its important to watch those early interactions and then pair or group kids so that it is a successful match. I really stress the team work and group interaction. Being a good IT person is great. But you aren’t a great IT person, unless you can relate what you know to users.

If you could say one thing to a new or less experienced Computer Engineering teacher, what would it be?

Don’t ever think you know as much as you need to. This business changes hourly. and you do too. Use the kids to help keep you up to date. Let them research and tell you things. Have conversations with students about technology.  There is a classroom of them, and only one of you. They have time to read and be on the Internet. Learn from your students, as much as you teach them.

15 Things We are Thankful for This Season

While the overall national unemployment rate is at 8.6%, the tech industry unemployment rate is 2.4%. And the outlook for 2012 is even stronger. It’s a great time to be teaching Information Technology, or working with teachers who are doing it!

In spite of educational budget cuts and fiscal challenges for schools, we continue to have the opportunity to provide training, curriculum, resources and support for high school Information Technology teachers. We’re thankful for that and for many other blessings this year, including:

• A closer partnership with NCDPI in 2011, and a growing relationship ahead in 2012.
• Administrators who understand and support the need for professional development and resources for their teachers!
• Thousands of students at more than 150 high schools participating in our Computer Engineering and Digital Media programs.
• Our friends at CMOSS, LLC, who produced our best Computer Engineering resource yet.
• All the teachers who helped us bring Digital Media to the next level.
• All who provided quality training for us this year.
• A new group of talented teachers who are conducting workshops or writing curriculum for us.
• Participating teachers like Angela Sanders, who always has an encouraging word.
• Student success stories from teachers in our programs and workshops.
• The opportunity to become a Microsoft Certified Training Partner, selling out five workshops and training 100+ Microsoft IT Academy teachers this fall (with many thanks to Ricky Hardy, Valleri Harris, Paige Haney, Robin Isaacs, Helen Maness, and a growing list of successful MSITA instructors ready to deliver sessions next year).
• The chance to help prepare scores of Multimedia and Webpage Design teachers to teach new and unfamiliar content.
• The opportunity to promote the value of student certification through three outlets: CompTIA’s new and free Partner Academy Program, Microsoft’s IT Academy, and Adobe’s ACS certification.
• Our Twitter followers and Facebook friends.
• Newer, cooler Web 2.0 tools (such as Tagxedo for word clouds, Mindomo for mindmapping, SnackTools and Aviary for digital and multimedia).
• Our upcoming  revision and revival of NCDPI’s Foundations of Information Technology – a very exciting project ahead for 2012.

That’s a lot to be happy about. What are you thankful for as this year draws toward a close?

-Robin Fred
ExplorNet CareerTech

Congrats Due for Teacher-Student Success

One of the great things about working at ExplorNet is the opportunity to associate with some real quality CareerTech teachers who are preparing students for lifelong success.

This fall we’ve trained more than a hundred Microsoft IT Academy teachers across North Carolina, helping them take best advantage of a wealth of resources that prepare students for certification.  I’ve heard some inspiring success stories from teachers like Chris Eudy, who passed the Word certification exam during our Charlotte MSITA workshop and immediately put his skills to work in the classroom.

“It was only after I had a firm grasp of the concepts themselves that I was able to score well and then move on to actually help a couple of students (yes, at the alternative school in Henderson County) get certified in Word,” he says. “I am proud of these students and look forward to more getting certified.”

Several Computer Engineering teachers tell me they’ve had students achieve CompTIA A+ certification.  CompTIA’s new Partner Academy program is free for schools to join, and makes it easier to get students certified with discounted test vouchers.  It’s good to hear some teachers are planning to take full advantage of that.

We had the chance to work once again with SkillsUSA and FBLA, judging competitions for both and seeing first-hand some of the quality work done by North Carolina Business Ed and Digital Media students.

NC SkillsUSA Winners in Kansas City

Congratulations are due to all those who did well in those contests, and to students in NC IT programs who won at an even higher level. Reza Mohammadi at Guilford County’s Weaver Center had a national winner in SkillsUSA competition this year.  Allison Hassard won the Telecommuncations Cabling competition in Kansas City.  And Cecil Hobbs of Wilmington’s Ashley High had students place seventh in the worldwide Cisco NetRiders competition. Andrew McCarthy and Alex Hazeltine advanced after placing first in the state.

Leading the Transition to the Common Core

The move to Common Core state Standards – now underway in 45 states, two territories and the District of Columbia – brings challenges for educators.  The transition is getting into full swing in North Carolina, and as administrators and teachers learn more about what the standards are, they’re working through how to implement them.  What will they mean to teachers and students, and how will they change content and practice in the classroom?

“We’ve never had a national curriculum outlined across standards that are adopted by as many states as we have now,” says Rachel Porter, Senior Instructional Specialist for The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning.  Porter is leading a session for 70 principals and assistant principals, sponsored by the North Carolina Principals and Assistant principals (NCPAPA).  The administrators are at NC State’s McKimmon Center to formulate plans for making it happen, and making it work.

She notes that the language and terminology of the Common Core State Standards is different from what teachers may be used to using.  There’s no reference to ‘objectives’ – ‘standards’ and ‘domains’ are outlined in CCSS.  To further complicate matters, the adoption on CCSS comes simultaneously with new standards for all other subject areas.

“These standards require a different kind of planning and a different kind of structure in the classroom,” says Porter, noting that the Common Core State Standards are not focused solely on content, but more abstract concepts that reflect higher order thinking.

Those standards set an expectation that students develop the ability to read like a detective, write like an investigative reporter, listen like a safecracker, and speak like a teacher.  That’s no small feat, and will require intensive planning followed by effective execution.  The preparation to do that is now underway.

 

Session Features Windows 7, Cool Tools

Windows 7 and cool tools for the Computer Engineering classroom were in the spotlight at the North Carolina Trade and Industrial Teacher Association’s fall conference.  Asheville High teacher Bryan Morrisey led a session for us on preparing students for the A+ exams.

One change that exam takers are already seeing is additional questions on Windows 7.  Bryan covered several resources that give students a taste of Windows 7, along with links to online tools for evaluating system capabilities:

Compare Windows 7 Versions
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
Windows 7 Compatibility
Windows 7 Features
Windows Easy Transfer
Installing Windows 7 on a Netbook
Windows Virtual PC

Bryan also shared an interesting project from the Elder Geek website where students change the appearance of the Start button by changing a registry setting – not something that can be done in a lot of locked-down classroom labs, but an activity that provides some nice insights into operating system functions for those who can do it.  And he showed a couple of video websites that teachers and students alike will fine interesting: one where The Engineer Guy takes apart an LCD monitor (something you would never likely do in the classroom) and another with A+ exam prep videos from Professor Messer.

Last but not least, talk turned to a couple of Web 2.0 tools that can add a little variety and interest to the teaching of  vocabulary and concepts: the wordcloud tool Wordle and the mindmapping site bubbl.us.

Our thanks to Bryan for an interesting session, and to our hosts at NCTIETA!

Summer Conference Links and Tools

A lot of great tools and links were shared during Wednesday’s Computer Engineering and Networking sessions at NCDPI’s CTE Summer Conference. We’re using one of them to showcase the others.

LiveBinders is an online tool for organizing links and documents. It allows you to very quickly post favorite links into a tabbed structure that you can organize and share with colleagues, friends and family. We’ve set up a LiveBinder for websites and resources shared during our sessions in Greensboro this week.

LiveBinders lets you organize and share links - like the ones we're sharing at www.tinyurl.com/explornetlinks

Those sites run the gamut from Web 2.0 teaching resources such as Tagxedo, Animoto and VoiceThreads to articles on formative assessment and raising student performance. There are links to utilities like CCleaner and RKill as well as simulators, and lists of useful resources like lifehacker, and eventbrite.  We’ll preview some of those more in-depth in this blog in the coming weeks.

Our presentations have been uploaded there as well. If you teach Computer Engineering or Networking in North Carolina but couldn’t join us in Greensboro this year, we hope to see you next time around.

CompTIA Authorized Academy Program

Getting students certified is an ongoing challenge for IT teachers, and CompTIA’s Alan Rowland is joining us at an NC Summer Conference to talk about ways to overcome it.

CompTIA has long had a partnership program for schools called E2C. This year the name has been changed to the CompTIA Authorized Academy Program. Rowland says participating schools are considered partners rather than members, and the name reflects that. Dues are eliminated, removing a barrier that made the program less accessible to some. Schools that were E2C members have to reapply to the Academy Partner program, but there’s no charge and the process for applying has been simplified as well.

Immediate benefits for partners include discounted vouchers for students and teachers. Once a school purchases $500 in student vouchers or conference registrations, etc, additional benefits are sent out including free exam vouchers for teachers, banners, downloadable recruitment and teaching tools, and access to online forums and training materials.

A+ certification is a tremendous tool for students seeking their first job, whether it’s a full-time career move or a part-time position that helps them work their way through college. Getting students to understand the value of certification and invest the time and money to get certified is not always easy, but for students who have the ability to reach that level, it’s well worth the time.

CompTIA is taking steps to address the issues that sometimes prevent students from taking the exams, with the discounted vouchers to cut costs and now new steps to improve access to exams. They’re working with a company called Innovative Exams to seed secure exam kiosks in schools that place an emphasis on certification.

Details about the program are online at www.comptia.org/academy.

Online PLCs Can Help Teachers Meet Evaluation Requirements

North Carolina’s new teacher evaluation instrument includes measures of a teacher’s involvement in a Professional Learning Community. PLCs are great, but a problem for Career and Technical Education teachers is that they are often the only teacher in their school – or even the whole district – teaching specialized courses like Computer Engineering.

Moodle forums offer a way to connect with peers in far-flung locales. The forums we use in our ExplorNet programs connect teachers online and enable discussions about everything from technology to classroom management and teaching strategies that work in the IT classroom. At the first of several NC Summer Conference sessions for IT teachers today, Greg Thoyre of Orange High School and Geof Duncan from Knightdale High are leading a discussion about how Moodle and other online tools facilitate better communication across district lines.

NCTEP assessment standards are complex, and areas covered include Leadership, 21st Century Skills/Knowledge, Collaboration, Effective Communication and Ongoing Assessment. Moodle communities are conducive to all of that, helping teachers become more comfortable with online learning tools and collaborative processes. The systems typically have chats, forums and other features that can document teachers’ involvement in the PLCs.

Participants have different takes on and experiences with the new evaluation instrument. “It was a lot of extra work for us to do these things, and they didn’t really explain it to us,” says one participant.

Another notes that evaluations like the one being used with teachers have long been common in business and industry, and have helped determine raises and advancement.

“We have to deal with it either way, and we’re looking for ways to do it efficiently without creating extra work,” says Thoyre, adding that evaluations like to see teachers “stepping outside your boundaries.” They want to see real growth in teaching skills and professionalism, and participation in the online communities can illustrate that.

The benefits can extend to students as well.

“Once you start using these forums and chats with other teachers,” Duncan says, “you’re going to find that you start using them with your students.”

And students connect with the use of online tools. Thoyre tells about a student who kept quiet during normal class discussions, but came alive in online chats about the content, and outlines ways to differentiate instruction by pulling individuals or small groups aside for labs as the rest of the class works productively on assignments. These approaches truly impact students, and impacting students, in the end, is the whole point of teaching.

Even Better than Wordle?

Tag clouds have been an engaging way to reinforce vocabulary and other lessons, and over the past couple of years we’ve shown Wordle to a lot of teachers in QTL sessions and other workshops. Now comes a tool that is even fancier.

Tagxedo lets you create word clouds that have interesting shapes, with enhanced interactivity and just a lot more movement. Using it is as simple as entering a URL or pasting in text, and seeing which words pop out as the most significant. Take a passage of text from an article on the topic your discussing, and use Tagxedo to identify key terms or just start a classroom discussion.

Mark Brumley created a nice tutorial that you can find on the HP teachers’ site. I watched half of that and then created the following in less than two minutes.

Fast, easy, fun, and informative.

A Deal That Will Cost NC Teachers and Students

Lawmakers who are touting a “budget compromise” at the North Carolina General Assembly say it will save educators’ jobs. But in fact, the opposite is more likely.

The budget deal, which would cement cuts proposed by Senate Republicans – now reportedly has the support of the handful of Democrats needed to override a veto from Gov. Bev Perdue. The News and Observer reports the deal could lead to quick budget approval in both houses, with final approval by mid-June even if Perdue does veto it. Proponents say the proposal restores enough money to the budget to save hundreds of teacher assistant jobs, without extending part of the temporary 1-cent sales tax passed a couple of years ago. What they don’t advertise is that the plan restores the money for those teacher assistant positions by cutting allocations to local school districts across the state. That doesn’t mean there won’t be teacher layoffs – it just means local districts will have to make them later in the summer.

Together NC, a coalition of 120 advocacy groups, says this budget would ultimately still cut thousands of educator jobs and drop North Carolina to 49th in the country in per-pupil spending.  NC PolicyWatch calls it “a deal the state cannot afford.”

This morning, State School Board Chairman Bill Harrison received a standing ovation after telling board members there is no way the proposal could save teaching positions while slashing state funding to local districts. “The number that is going to be real is our number in terms of spending in the nation,” he said. “That will be real.” At Harrison’s request, the board approved a resolution saying the budget would cause “irreparable harm” and “has the potential to derail our public schools in North Carolina.”