you're listening to finding joy in education the podcast that focuses on what brings us joy in the field of Education each show you'll hear Joy stories from teachers of the Year Educators from all walks of life and leaders as well as hear hacks to enhance the teaching and learning in our classrooms this is finding joy in education [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to the finding joy and education podcast I'm your host Sarah painer and today's episode is episode five finding Joy through Career and Technical education joining me in the studio today we have three fabulous Educators ready to share their passion their heart and their expertise about Career and Technical education we have Mark Manser he is the Lead Teacher of the Business Academy at clwater High School we also have Dianna Russo she is the coordinator of the center of Education and Leadership at seol high school as well as Tom puser from Countryside High School who is the communication technology educator and they're all all here to share the wonderful things happening across their campuses so welcome guys thank you for being here thank you thanks for inviting us absolutely so Mark we're going to start with you I ask every guest what's your story well my story is long but I'll make it short though um I came from overseas um in 2005 and I owned a few companies overseas um so I've always been in business um the business was very successful which is the hotel management business and I sold it before I came to the United States 2005 I came like you know what I want to do something different I really want to be able to teach students how to start their own business how to be successful the whole world is going towards business so um got hired up pelis County as a business teacher and um I started from there and I started connecting the students with real business and to understand what's going on in the business world real life experience absolutely I can't wait to tap into that I know you have so much to share di know what's your story okay so I always wanted to be a teacher I always wanted to be a high school English teacher specifically um but so when I fresh out of college um I started teaching in middle school middle school English language arts and um got married started a family and then stayed home for a decade and a little over a decade actually had four children and so when it was time to go back to work um I ended up teaching fifth grade actually at a private school cuz that's where my kids were going at the time and um once I started doing that it was it was interesting because I I just always aimed for high school and then I started with middle school I was at when I my first job was Kennedy Middle School which is I I remember fundament and um and then so that was you know before before the the decade that I stayed home and then when I went back into fifth grade I was like oh I'm so scared I don't think I'm gonna like it and I loved it and then I did some Middle School TV production and I was like so scared I don't know and I loved it and then when I left there um I actually worked at um an adult ed for a little bit because I was trying to get back in the public school system and I was like part-time Adult Ed and I was you know again I don't know how this going to go and I loved it so the bottom line is I just love teaching I really just love teaching so um I ended up back in middle school language arts at seminal middle and I live I mean I went to seminal high and so when the job opened up at seminal High it just H just so happened to be in history not in English um but I was like I'm going to give it a try I'd been partnering with a great teacher at the middle school she was the history and I was English and we were kind of co- teing together so I jumped over to the history department and I jumped over to the high school and in the meantime my children had gone to seminal high school and they were in the cell program which is the center for Education leadership and I was like this is amazing because they're teaching kids the great joy of teaching right exactly what I love and so um it once I got to high school it was always my goal to try to get involved in the cell program and honestly I can't imagine a better place to land I love it I'm sensing a theme of I didn't know what I was doing but I loved it yes and I'm betting that that trickles down to the students as well that you're constantly having them take risks to try something new to see where their passion leads them and a lot of times they end up loving it I'm sure they do Tom what's your story uh I I grew up in a house that college football was like the end all be all and so that's what I wanted to be when I grew up that's why I went to Florida State to kind of try and learn from Bobby Bowen when he was there and did that for a year and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be but I still wanted to always coach and so I got into teaching just to fall into coaching uh ended up in Middle School in in Hillsboro County and taught and coached in Hillsboro County for 18 years and then wanted to get my own high school girls flag football program uh because it's a rapidly growing sport flag football is a passion of mine um and jokingly I said to my wife at the end of the two school years ago well if the job opens up at Countryside or at dunon I'll take a look and like two weeks later it opened up at Countryside and I was like all right well I'll go intervie over yeah right interviewed uh and they offered me the position I said I'd love to take the coaching position but I need to teach something too and they said well you can do uh Credit Recovery Algebra a biology or com Tech and I was like what's com Tech I had no idea what it was I'd never even open Photoshop or anything before but I I dug into it a little more I was like yeah this is right in my alley I can learn this sounds really fun and so when I got in there uh I got myself certified and the graphic art stuff and now we do uh stickers and t-shirts and I got a laser engraver and we moved one of the main copy machines of the school in and I teach my kids how to use all these different things they get certified in these programs everything they turn in is is geared towards what stuff they could do in the real world yeah and that's that's what I love and that's what I can't wait to hear about so so let's Dive Right into to CTE because it is a buzzword right now right you see it everywhere we hear about it from the Florida Department of Education we know that there's a huge push for this because we talk about our students being ready for life's and career outside of high school so I'm going to ask you each to just kind of give me your definition of what CTE is what are the possibilities of CT and why is it important in today's educational landscape so Mark I'm going to start with you honestly I think C is linking real life with Academia how can I look at the book and understand what's going on outside the classroom so when I one of the things I do I bring a lot of um people to be like guest speakers and I love it when I see the students actually linking with them understanding what they're talking about because they understand business one of the things that we do is we offer the certification the ESB certification entrepreneurship a small business has a lot of wonderful topics that links the students to the real world and that's what they need to do and what they need to see and that's the push back we get as classroom teachers from our students right it's why does this matter what does this do for me outside of this class and you answer that by giving them those real world experiences in those ask exactly and they ask me all the time I mean you've got your master and your doctorate what are you doing here I'm like no this is preparing you I'm preparing you real life and they love it you know you can see the the smile on them when they come to this CTE classroom they know they're going to learn something that relates to their not only future they're currently absolutely and I and I have a feeling we're going to hear more about that joy that CTE brings but Di give us a quick synopsis of what CTE might look like on your campus and why is it so important in the educational landscape today well I think one thing that we we probably all know and would agree is that um students are moving faster through the academic world than ever before right and they're taking High School classes in middle school and in college classes in high school and I think CTE is wonderful because it gives the kids a chance to really think about what they want to do next and get and get an actual real life taste of it you know like when I send the kids out to do their internships in our local elementary schools or in the middle schools or even in classrooms on our campus they get to see what it really feels like to be in that situation where you're you're the teacher and this this could be a career for you right it's like an internship for teachers right like right before we decide if that's what we want to do we make sure we put ourselves in the field and experience it firsthand so you're giving those experiences to your students as well that's so important yeah and I just I think all the areas the business department you know we have a um an academy and the e-commerce Academy at semal and they have established an online store and they you know they are very proud of it and they should be because it's actually something real and I I always think that you know they used to tell us when in teaching class you know you really want to give the kids that feel of the real audience if you can give them an authentic audience that they're creating something for they're more invested absolutely this is C is the perfect example of that wonderful Tom what about you tell us a little bit about CTE on your campus and why you think it's important for our students so it it was something I didn't really have a background in until I came to Countryside and the more I get into it the more I love it and the more I want to learn more about it um my kids get certified in in visual design in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator and they use that I have multiple students who have already gone to work in t-shirt shops wow uh and we took a field trip we've had a local business that kind of took us under their wing and partnered with us they've come into classroom multiple times we we went and saw them I'm doing an externship with them this Summer um so it's it's developing our skills sure we can use them all over campus the goal eventually is for us to be able to do hats and shirts and everything in a in a store like we uh like you talked about but to do it not just for the clubs and teams at school um but to start to Branch out in the community and do stuff that way and really develop that Countryside Community sure so I want each of you to kind of highlight maybe one or two program prams that you could talk about at your school but one you're once you're highlighting it I want you to share how that brings joy to not only the students but to the teachers as well because I think it's important that we also draw attention to the joy that this brings you already said as yourselves but also your colleagues how is this bringing Joy to the teaching profession in a time where the culture and climate is a little challenging right now and so it's sometimes we have to dig really deep to find that Joy so I'd love to hear about it maybe a particular program or an Endeavor that you've brought to your campus and how that brings Joy sure yeah I mean I work um for cake which is a Career Academy for international I work for cake too I mean yeah I would work for a cake right a sweet cake there yeah and honestly it's it's one of the things that I just love doing you know I mean that the students understand what culture is all about you know especially when we do something called the international trade show yes tell us about this I kind of saw some footage of this yeah Ju Just just imagine a whole gymnasium is full of 200 students that they have their own business they started their own business they can talk about their own business the 30-second elevator speech the marketing plan the sales plan the financial plan and they gain that confidence you know and and this is Joy this is real joy for me to see that that they can actually talk to adults because we invite the whole Community to come over 2,000 people they come and visit the trade show it's a huge event yeah I saw you had the mayor of clear waterer out before as well yes yes and you know I mean the support for the community is amazing and it it's it's it's amazing to see some of the Business Leaders in pelis County they come and they want to purchase some of these ideas talk about how validating that must be for your students to say this work I put in was worth it look what's happening ex yeah they they offer 100,000 200,000 they just want the idea and they just want to close their booth and sure want anyone else to visit this company stick a fork in me yeah yeah and and we've we've we've got I would say two to three um companies from the international trade show been recognized and um people invested in and you know it's it's just amazing it really brings joy to me as a teacher to see my students are tapping into the real world I love it that's such a great story Dean tell us about maybe a program or an initiative that you've seen at seol that you could brag about and how it brings joy to both students and teachers okay well at the senior year in then the cell program the students go out and they um they volunteer intern in the classrooms and we've expanded it in the last couple years we started out with Bower it's right across the street seino Middle's right across the street but I've got students now that go to anona Oaker sem Elementary Orange Grove and this year I I was getting emails from Schools i' NE never even heard of like do you think you could get us you could get all the way here um and you know I run in I live in seminal and I mean seminal is my place and so I run into people in the grocery store and they're like your intern is amazing like you don't understand the difference they've made in our classroom and this year this year I had a couple of stories where um the my student intern so you know if they're 17 18 years right they're in the classroom the teacher has um some maybe some students that are really struggling socially and they when that intern comes in they become their like lunch buddy yeah and they she the um one teacher from MRA she said you don't understand that they have they have changed that students oh I am 100% sure that it's accurate it's just an amazing you know as a teacher I feel so good about it I mean that's my joy but when I share those stories with my other students because I teach the younger levels and I say you know this this is what's happening in a classroom right now at Ur elementary school and it's just a it just spreads and it's something they can be really proud of and the teachers at the elementary level are so thankful and I think I mean as far as trying to boost the profession mhm I mean it even the kids who give me push back they're like oh they've come back to the I didn't I was really I wasn't sure I was going to do that internship I thought I was going to hate it the boy you know some of the boys are like I didn't want to do it and they're and they love it and they walk in and they're like you know they're like a celebrity for young kids are cheering and lining up to to talk to them they make them you know cards at the end they all sign it and I mean it's just it's growing and it's it's wonderful and I've seen some students come out of that and say I really think I could do this that's incredible and you think about the ripple effect of that so even just within the community in SEO like you said you have these elementary students that now have Role Models but also job opportunities for the future that they may never had thought of before I think you're doing more than you even realize with that so that's amazing great job Tom tell us a little bit about a program you want to highlight well I I got the idea from My Mentor in the county Shane D Martino at penel Park High School um but we made uh notepads that are copy order forms because everybody knows teachers can't don't like making copies line in the copy machine it always breaks anyway right so we moved one of the main copy machines into my room and I taught my students how to use the copy machine and so teachers just drop off the order form with what they need copied and my kids run the copies and deliver it back to them so they don't have to take time out before after school or on their planning period or lunch and the teachers like oh my gosh you have no idea how much time you say great so and the kids I have some that just walk in grab it and go they don't even have to ask questions they know what they're doing and every once in a while I'll get one it's is this color or not or whatever we're doing and we just we roll with it and the teachers love it I was say I'm sure it brings Joy to the teachers a lot one other one I would highlight is uh this year as we're branching out in into the different Tech areas uh we did an aluminum sign uh for for a wedding entrance sign for someone here at the admin building uh and we got pictures from the wedding so was designed by one of my students we die it onto a onto I don't know what that means but that sounds incredible but it it came out beyond what we thought it was going to be it was really really cool that's so I have like Goosebumps just listening to these stories this is absolutely incredible the opportunities you guys are providing for our students but for our teachers as well do you see this becoming contagious do you have a lot of um teachers that are looking to go into this field now after they see what's possible at your schools I I people relying on me more and more so yeah hopefully it continues to grow yeah we do a lot of different things that's wonderful it's funny you say that because I see a lot of teacher asking to be a participant in the trade show because they want to talk about their class to the other students and to you know to adults and it's it's it's becoming an educational showcase yeah show that is so great well before we end our time together I always like to end with joy stories so as you think about your career I want you to bring to mind a colleague a student an administrator a parent a story that you could share that brings joy to you and to those that hear it so Mark we'll start with you would you share a joy story with us please of course I mean honestly without the leadership you know I mean leaders help us you know Mark hunt Steve Plummer you know I mean those people are always there for us they help us when we ask for something but this year was a little bit different from me because I I have a student that uh she lost her brother crossing the road Road last year um you know trying to get to the school bus MH and it was very shy doesn't want to talk and then I approach her you know I truly believe in building relationship it's business right right so I started talking to her she she said you know I'm depressed I'm going through this and this and that I said you know what why don't you think about a business that relates to this tragedy she started thinking about it and she came up with a brilliant idea to save lives for the kids when they cross the roads a pedestrian idea she came up with a great idea her parents supported her she started talking about her tragedy she started getting out of her bubble and you should see her at the trade show when her parents came and they talked with her her 302nd elevator pitch was amazing I was in tears because you know you you see that student from the beginning of the year someone who doesn't want to talk about anything to someone who's advertising to save lives right yeah so it it was great that has touched my heart and everybody's heart when you know her story I love it that's so beautiful that's some I don't think I can we have so many I think as teachers it's often difficult to nail one down right and sometimes it is just a broad sense of well this is what brings me joy so Deana share with us a joy story yeah I I I was thinking about these stories and there are so many but um in in relation to the cell program the first year that I did sell it was the year after simultaneous teaching so it was we were just coming back and elementary schools weren't quite ready for us to come and volunteer at their at their sites at the campuses so um I was in kind of in the process of trying to figure out what to do with my students who should be interning and um I had a student um that she just she was just a challenge for me and she was struggling and not making some great choices and skipping out on class and um so I kind of had a one one meeting same thing build those relationships as soon as they know that you care enough to talk to them about it yeah it changes everything and so we had a little talk and I said I really want you to try something I'm going to do a teams meeting because we were all about teams meetings at the time right they said into an elementary school classroom and I want you to read them a story I want you to write the lesson plan you can work with a group you know and and so I kind of gave her this task and she was unbelievable like she got in front of the camera and they they read the little lady who wasn't afraid of anything it was right it was O and they acted it out and they had like they did this whole great thing and she just she came she came alive and she never she never skipped anymore and she came back you know toward the end of the year and she said you know I'm going to be a teacher oh and she's in the education program at SPC oh my go so I and I know she wasn't on that path before wow so I think that one experience of the real audience sure those kids you know responding to her reading the story yeah it was just it was great brings me joy just to think about it right now so phenomenal man these are really those are great stories uh mine is just you know help helping to to try and continue to build the sense of community Countryside you know um my dad told me as I was growing up like whenever you're going to get into something get in and dive in you know both feet in and just go for it so when I got to Countryside I just tried to insert myself into his many different things as possible not just coaching um but I I run the gold gang which is like the spirit club now and they asked me to be the announcer for the football games and things you know just growing that sense of community and knowing that my kids know that that you know coach P's room is a safe space you know like I can't tell you how many kids come and eat their lunch in my class and just hang out in there because they know it's it's a safe place to be they can hang out they with people they probably wouldn't have talked to otherwise absolutely and get to know each other and and just continue to grow that Community that's so beautiful I thank you guys so much for being here today and sharing your expertise your stories and advocating for this career in technical education that is so crucial to our future students and what we want them to be able to do once they leave high school so thank you so much again for being here today and for sharing and we are just so grateful for your leadership here in pelis County thank you guys this was wonderful [Music] welcome you are listening to finding joy in education I'm your host Sarah painer joining me today in our leadership lens segment is Mr Mark hunt executive director in the Career Technical and adult education department as well as Michael Hernandez principal at Northeast High School gentlemen thank you for joining us today thank you thank you Mark we're gon to start with you I ask every guest what's your story well I started right out of high school working as an auto technician uh for a Goodyear tire changing tires worked my way up to auto mechanic and worked for them about 14 years and decided that there had to be an easier way to make a living because when it was hot it was hot when it was cold it was cold out there um so I looked into teaching auto mechanics and was able to find a position at Irwin Technical College in Hills County okay as an automotive instructor and taught there and worked my way up and now I'm in pellis with Career and Technical education and uh have been able to lead the Career Technical education in Hillsboro orange Oola and in penel County wow that's incredible uh Mr Hernandez what's your story well I'm um the first of my family to earn a college degree wow congratulations thank you so before I guess Avid was a thing I was kind of avid I guess if you want to describe it sure um coming out of high school I grew up in pelis I graduated from penel sporg high okay and uh I thought I was going to go into the medical field that was what I had planned on doing and um found out uh through an accident uh and I had to go to physical therapy that I didn't care for it and decided at that point well I've been taking a lot of classes to prepare for medical field always liked school and enjoyed it so why not teach mhm so when I when I graduated and got out I decided to go and teach I was a science teacher coached football track and field was senior class sponsor you know did a little bit of everything all kinds of stuff and never dreamed of becoming an administrator by any means but I had a principal at a school I was working with who had politely harass me for I love it politely harass probably two years straight about getting my Ed leadership degree and he he finally wore me down I'm like fine I'll get it and I did it and then I sat on it for a couple years and um I was in Hillsboro at the time where I started my career so it was over there for about 13 and a half years and then I got recruited to come over to penis and started at Gibbs working uh through a grant through Rita vasquez's office to kind of coach and Mentor teachers and um started going through the screening process of become an assistant principal and got a job at Northeast as an AP got promoted to Fitzgerald middle as a principal for a couple of years and then back at Northeast where I am now I love it I love that journey and and so many of us have connections in panel's prior to teaching here which I think is so beautiful so let's Dive Right In about these CTE programs that we have um so Mark I'm going to start with you how do Partnerships between CTE programs and local Industries enhance The Learning Experience for students well it's a critical component excuse me because in our C programs we try to replicate the workplace for students uh because they need to know what the workplace is like that they're interested in because we want them to understand the real world yes to make that decision of you know is this really what I'm interested in right so those business Partnerships that we have through uh program advisory committees are critical because those business partners come in tell us what's going on in their industry at the time what trends are happening what's the employment opportunities like pay scales um technical expertise necessary things like that for our teachers to be able to be current with what they're teaching our students yeah I think about like one of the challenges we have as teachers is to make the learning real and relevant it sounds like that's exactly what CTE does and those business partners play a critical role uh with our programs to provide our students with internships job shadowing opportunities um the exposure to that business um that that's very important for our students it brings the the relevancy to what they're learning in the reality and I'm sure then their investment and their ownership in their learning skyrockets because they see the value of it beyond the four of the classroom it's tangible at that point yeah yes uh Mr Hernandez same question how do these Partnerships between your programs and the industries enhance the learning experience for students of course so um for us we have four CTE programs at Northeast we have a culinary an automotive Academy of Information Technology and Academy of Finance So within each of those programs we have advisory boards and business partners sit on those advisory boards and we partner with them to advise programs on next steps and opportunities for kids um so those opportunities are very rich and the kids look forward to them so for example we've had a a partnership with the cha Credit Union for many years we have a bank owner campus that is trained by a Chiva staff with their kids and they interview for positions and then they run that Branch we have Partnerships with pelis Technical College and our culinary and automotive and they train with those staff and they work in our programs they earn college credit on site and they can apply that and like the Academy of Information Technology we've built partnership with Dell computers our students are now repairing the on toone devices across the county that's awesome so they come in they fix them they ship them back out so they're they're getting this real world experience and earning industry certifications that can land them jobs right now in high school but make them very marketable but it keeps it very fresh and relevant to the world around them what's happening in today's society yeah and you kind of already did this a little bit but I'd like you both to discuss the um collaborations that have been particularly impactful so highlighting maybe a program or two that you've seen just flourish over the last few years and talk about its impact sure um one of the main things one of the critical pieces we've had is with um the nursing shortage in our nursing students and our high school programs um we've built a pipeline for those nursing students that are in our high school programs to dual enroll at panel's teex Technical College in the licensed practical nursing program so they start in the ninth grade in nursing and learn the fundamentals work their way up through the 11th grade as seniors they go to penelo's Technical College duel enrolled full-time in the LPN program we've had four cohorts come through the program now and each cohort has anywhere from 8 to 15 students that have graduated from high school finished the LPM program at pel's Technical College and have qualified to take the licensed practical nursing exam and we're running it about 98% pass rate for those students and those students are being offered positions as licensed practical nurses right out of high school incredible Michael what about you highlight a program for us yeah um I'm going to highlight our Automotive program uh one of the things that they've done this year which I just find amazing is we have the largest female population of Automotive students in the county so that's growing quite a bit and there's a huge interest so we have this strong fale cohort that are learning auto mechanics in being able to apply it um they went to the St Peak R Prix this year and worked with different race teams and got to go in the pits and do different things but it was just an amazing experience to see um these young ladies in a primarily male dominated ABS yes come in and take charge and do extremely well make us very very proud so very proud to see that and see the work that they're doing uh all of ourm have done a lot of work our Academy of Finance is absolutely fantastic they're one of the handful of DCH uhmy here in penelo one of the topies it's recognized nationally for 17 years and those students are phenomenal they get a a full comprehensive Financial education from banking to stocks and trade to Insurance to all different types of things sign me up I may need that yeah it's it's wonderful that's so great one of the capstones is they go to New York City each year the senior group and they get to visit Wall Street see a lot of things that they study in practice which is pretty cool that is awesome so what trends do you see emerging in CTE and how do you think that's going to shape the future of Education we've gotten feedback from a lot of students that a four-year program after they graduate from high school is really not what they're interested in they are are very much the instant gratification generation where they want to come in and learn a particular skill and go out immediately and start making money and then go back to school if necessary to get a degree or whatever is necessary to to move up so Career and Technical programs that provide a very direct Pathway to a career high high wage very relevant career nursing you know auto mechanics manufacturing things of that nature that they can go in and within a year or a year and a half learn the the craft earn the credentials the industry certifications and qualify for a high-paying job right out of of school as they grow within that career now they go back to school they're very much a uh education on demand sort of of of group where they'll go back to school and learn earn the credential that they need to move up and that is a trend that didn't exist a while ago you know it was always for your degree and and go and you think about how much money has been wasted on students who tried and then it just wasn't for them and the route that you're sharing allows them to become invested in it and to practice it and to be immersed in it before committed to that route well really Career and Technical is as much about what a student it does not want to do as it is what they do want do because we want them to select a career pathway that fits their their goals their life goals and then we can match the education path to that career pathway that way they don't go down a path and incur a lot of Deb earning a degree or something that they may or may not use sure um they need to sometimes mature a little bit as they graduate from high school determine what it is they're really interested in and then set the path after that Michael what about you are there any um trends that you see emerging in CTE yeah I I Echo exactly what Mark has said uh I I see that most for our Academy of Information Technology and it's very comprehensive we have kids who program 3D print they do cyber security they build and tear down computer they do anything on the tech side of things and a lot of these kids are getting industry certifications and earning jobs right away and are doing a lot of Programming type of work and making really good money at it and some choose to go on some don't they want to go right into industry and a lot of them use it what I call like on the spot as they're learning it they're getting jobs in the field right now yeah and applying their knowledge and very happy and very successful doing it so it's really cool to see what's happening in the classroom immediately affect you know students lives in a positive way it sounds like it's bringing a lot of Joy to the students here in pelis County um so we're going to end our time together by each of you having an opportunity to share a joy story so Mark I'm going to start with you would you share a joy story with us please well teaching gives you Joy stories frequently because students come back and visit and tell you what their success is but in Career and Technical education that is uh almost an everyday occurrence and one of the the stories that really warms my heart whenever I think about it is um We've Got U an employee here in the administration building whose son did not know what he wanted to do he graduated from high school was bouncing from job to job just didn't really have any direction and uh provided a little guidance for them uh went to panel's Technical College and did some shadowing of programs and and found something that he was interested in he wanted to to weld he went through the welding program and uh graduated with a job offer that he took uh making over 60,000 a year right out of school been out of school now about two years and is making about $80,000 and is just as happy as he can be and of course parents are very happy because he found his joy and found Direction absolutely um and those are the kinds of stories that uh you reflect on and feel like it's worthwhile now that you've helped someone and actually change their life that's so beautiful so beautiful Michael what about you a joy story uh there there are quite a few uh I really enjoy running into former students and then seeing being um matur and growing up and more adultlike and my my wife for the longest time and this is a little bit going back to my teaching days but she used to call me the mayor of riverie Tampa because there wouldn't be a place that we wouldn't go to that there would be somebody and they'd call me coach hernandis and shaking hands and kiss shaking hands and kissing babies and uh I think I think one of my um most fond memories I had a um a student his name was Patrick and he uh played football for me and he was actually in my science classes and he um came from a single family home uh came from South America um not well off the family struggled and he ended up graduating and worked his way through HCC Hillsburg Community College and went on to Georgetown and studied law and is now a lawyer wow and is just just crushing it just having a wonderful life uh and during his he was a speaker at his graduation ceremony for HCC and he invited me to go to it and I went to go watch him and he he mentioned in his speech something that I used to say when I used to coach and it just like it's like those things just cut you to the boat you know so it was it was just rewarding to see the success and the seeds that you plant yeah when they start to Blossom and it's just well now you have to share what he what he spoke about what was it from your teaching practice yeah so this was this was teaching and coaching so I I always kind of mix the two I don't I see them I see it all as teaching um so when for football he was a defensive lineman so I talked about uh how we play and I would use the word Relentless but I would use it in a good way about never quitting always doing your best if you make mistakes bouncing back from it being relentless in how you play the game but being a relent Relentless in life being relentless as a student not accepting poor grades being there and plugged in and just taking charge of your life in a positive way um and he he lived by that motto and now he's a lawyer so it's pretty pretty cool that is pretty cool well Mark and Michael thank you so much for joining us today for Lending your expertise your stories your experiences and thank you for your leadership here in pelis County in growing our CTE programs and and the joy that it's bringing to not just our students but to our teachers that are teaching this content as well so thank you so much on behalf of pelis County great thanks Sarah you're welcome thank [Music] you you are listening to finding joy and education today's episode focuses on finding Joy through Career and Technical education I'm your host Sarah P and you are joining us for our teach hack segment where we interview Educators that have some hacks to share that help bring joy to the classroom and to education joining me today in the studio we have Dr Amanda Daniels who is a nursing instructor at Palm Harbor High School as well as Dr Suzanne West curriculum specialist for family and consumer sciences and Health Science Education thank you so much for being here today with us thank you we are so excited to hear a little bit about some hacks you may have to share to bring engagement into the classroom and to bring joy to education but before we do that Amanda I'm going to ask you what's your story so I have been a nurse for nurse practitioner pediatric nurse practitioner for about 20 years now worked at I still work at all children's um keeping my skills up trying to keep relevant in the field um I got into teaching um kind of just fell into my lap but I've always enjoyed the teaching piece like precepting new people and doing that um at St Pete college but very quickly was put into an admin role and so that was mostly my focus when I was at the college but I really missed being in the classroom um and you know life throws twist and turns and um you know my family situation changed I went um was diagnosed with breast cancer and had some different things and opportunity came up for me to be back in the classroom and be back you know give back and I kind of jumped on it so that's where I ended up love it and Dr Wes tell us about your story well my story starts actually in high school CTE I am a product of a CT program at Countryside High School okay I was in the little cougar program yes I certifications to teach preschool um I ended up teaching preschool through college and actually my first job out of college was for the pilot program for VPK in the State of Florida they piloted at Kinder Care yeah they were hiring Bachelor teachers and so I came in and I did that I ended up moving back home and I started teaching Middle School family consumer sciences and then ended up kind of came full circle I found a job here back in Bales County and I was the teacher for the little spongers at Tarpon high school that's great so I got to be the teacher of the program I was in and it was at that time the curriculum specialist was my former teacher for the little cougars so that was fun um I did that for about 10 years and through that I was training adults and realized I was had an interest in that I ended up working at panel's Technical College as a childcare coordinator which was basically the same but I was training adults and then I was promoted to this position that's so great and any regrets none none it's been awesome I love it so ladies I'd like to hear some Innovative teaching strategies you've seen or used in CTE that have significantly improved student engagement and learning outcomes so basically highlight these strategies that you have learned to leverage and you've taught your teachers to leverage to increase student engagement so Amanda I'm going to start with you um so I'm a big believer in that um C1 do one teach one so uh my with my curriculum we very skills heavy like they have to learn a bunch of skills and we have to go out there and take care of human beings so we want to make sure that they're safe um so we really focus on you know I start every Monday where we demonstrate the skill and we watch a video of the skill and they have to be very engaged because you know they're antsy so they sure so they take online notes as they're watching ing the videos and um and then we demonstrate where I demonstrate the skill on a student and then they as the week goes on then they have to take a video of them doing the skill on a student and then I give feedback and then we do random skills check off where I they're scared to death of my popsicles literally I just shake the little like container and they all like oh Tod she's pulling a popsicle and so I will pull student so they have to be prepared and ready and so they'll go back um and uh you know I'll pull a student and they all get the skill and then they have to then demonstrate it for the class yes and so really just that constant re you know reinforcing and engaging them and allowing them to get up and practice it um they love making the videos like they love filming I'm sure they do yes but coupled with the feedback I is the key there is that you're providing that instant feedback on how they're doing the skill so that they can improve or change something yeah which is really important that they're getting that immediately yeah they and I think it really it utilizes what I mean they love to do the Tik Tok dances and they love to so you're leveraging already what they're interested in and what they know how to do that's smart so they enjoy it they like looking at themselves or being silly and doing all those things Suzanne what about you in an Innovative teaching strategies you've seen you know as a curriculum specialist I'm over several programs in a fast area of Industries and you know I see all kinds of things and all kinds of technology and Equipment some of that equipment is very high technology it's the same things you'll see out like for instance in culinary the same oven you'll see at the Venoy and in our medical programs we have these um we we're using medium Fidelity mannequins that can speak to you and respond and you can check their heartbeat you can feel their heartbeat you know but those can sometimes be a little bit stressful for students you know it's something that they're not used to and there is a level of safety that we have to be careful with sure so the strategy that I've seen a lot of teachers use or what we call either like a dry lab or a dress rehearsal which is like going through the movements with whatever that piece of equipment is with it not turned on or not really in use yeah so if it was culinary for instance they might bake a cake where they take the measuring and it's just air and they just go through all the Motions it's kind of like knowing what your different steps are physically feeling that so you know what to expect for when it's turned on or you know when when you're going to use it for real yeah well I'm sure it creates a lot of familiarity for them too where they're they kind of practice getting that feel of the instrument and to see what it measures and getting all that in before it's the real deal I mean that's that's so important a lot of times they freeze when comes time to use it even though you've showed them you know they just stare at it that's a great way to just kind of get them a little their feet a little wet yeah so when we think about this segment about hacks and creative approaches that have been effective in your program can you share any hacks that you would advise other teachers of similar programs to use that maybe could help yield better outcomes for students I think that we a lot of times Focus so much on like the knowledge we have to give them or just making sure like that knowledge comprehension and really that's such a small piece because we I try so I give them the little bit of information tell them to review it but we spend way more time on like application and like synthesis of it and so I think the more that we can get them up and moving and touching the equipment like so the media and Fidelity mannequins um just having them practice it like okay okay I'm going to walk you through it okay now you're going to do it with me right by your side okay now you're going to do it and I'm just kind of further apart and just the more they get to do it the more comfortable they feel with it so that when they go out into the fields feel very and we've talked about that on this very podcast about whoever is doing the majority of the talking is doing the majority of the learning right so when you hand that ownership to them and you have them participating and applying what you in teaching them that's where the Learning Happens that's where the joy is in education is watching them take over and and I'm sure that's based on you preparing them and feeling like they're ready for that do you have any other hacks you can think of Suz and that go with what you're doing in your in your schools one of the things I used to do as a teacher was make the students feel very comfortable making mistakes like you are going to mess this up all the way until the end of the school year and I expect you to do that and then reflecting on it yes and I found that when you do that there's less you know fear less embarrassment and also putting them in a team component yes where there were some students that maybe had a little more experience or in my case I had a mixture of levels right so the upper levels could really help the lower levels I think that for me teamwork worked really well because sometimes students just respond better to their peers than they do to adults and then reflecting every time well what did I do wrong this time and what should I do better and doing that consistently every single week what was our mistake how can we be better and I think a master teacher does that but also models it right so like you're probably modeling for them how to make those mistakes and how to reflect and I think that's the secret sauce There is that you're not just telling them it's okay to make mistakes but when you've made one you're probably openly showing like this is what I should have done I did this instead right so calling attention to it I think that normalizes it for our students and gives them more authentic opportunity to do that as well um you mentioned a little bit about your equipment that you have that is kind of state-ofthe-art so I'd like you to share a little bit about some of the things we could possibly see in your programs that our students in pelis County are actively working with right now so just kind of a moment to show off with some of the things that we have available to our students and either one of you can answer this question well I mean I'll just start and let Amanda kind of finish she's using it okay um we have been very for to work with St Petersburg College and other entities to get sponsorships and grants to purchase basically state-of-the-art simulation equipment for our medical programs and this was very important to us because Co was really a huge change for students going out doing clinicals sure all of a sudden they weren't really able to go out and they determined they needed more simulation and then they did research on that realized well actually simulation is really good before they go out so I was able to purchase uh nage tables in Juno mannequins for our programs to kind of create simulation labs and Amanda can kind of talk more about how that good I was going to ask you just kind of explain that a little bit of what that looks like what is what's the purpose behind it and and how are students interacting with that for sure so the anatomage table it it looks like a giant computer it's like six foot long table um really great for our biology and Anatomy so they can make it 3D they can spin it they can cut the body in half so they can really as they're learning anatomy and physiology which can sometimes just be a memorization game that it turns it into something that they can like see touch feel move it around um and so that is a great stepping stone uh as we move into simulation simulation is where we get that um taking what we've learned in applying MH so for instance we will have in my room I have a hospital setup so I have a bed I have a bedside table I have a um overbed table I have all the equipment that I would need and so for instance um my students have to learn how to put each other on a bed pan and I love it you get to know your peers really well when you're putting them on a bed pan and so um something as simple like uh introducing themselves I think soft skills are really lost um and simulation helps so much with just walking in and introducing yourself and um making sure patient safety you know like is the bed rails up or down is the bed up or down are you providing a safe environment for your patient and so they will walk into a room and they have to act like it's a patient um and they will come in and say you know I I'm so and so I'm going to be your CNA or your LPN and this is what we're going to be doing and then they have all the equipment and they have to go like wash their hands and then close the curtain and get the stuff and then actually put them on a bed pan we don't go any sleep in there thank you for clarifying no that's it that's as far as we go and then um just learning how to take them off and I think for the students as much as they're learning that skill they're also learning what it feels like from a patient perspective oh that's good would be so embarrassed if I ever had to do this said so can you now feel like see how your patient could be feeling and when you have a student walking through those steps what are the rest of your students doing so VAR just like before when we were saying various levels it's various levels throughout so you can have very basic simulation where I'm demonstrating it U where I'm walking one student through it to show the other students you have a lot of time when they're up in the classroom practicing it so now everybody's up out of there and I have I think six beds so I have groups of three or four like doctor West was saying like working together feeding off each other yeah so you have one student with the steps and another student acting and another student being a patient and they're giving feedback oh you missed this step and then they all get to change roles so that they all get that experience in each Ro and then it comes to high stakes simulation where ideally they're in a separate room from you and they walk you just give them a patient scenario and you say okay your patient today is Miss Smith she's a 73y old woman here is going to be her chart for today what are you going to do wow and then you see what they do and you let them and a good simulation only lasts 15 minutes okay because your focus is really on the debriefing sure part and again yeah um the motto in my class is rejoice in your failure um because I feel like that's where we learn the best I have failed so many times in my life but I wouldn't be where I was without that yeah so I tell my students I'm like let's Rejoice let's figure out what we messed up on like and we make it just fun like right and so you take that time you bring them out of that high stake scary room and you bring them back to their safe classroom and they talk about how that make me feel or like I was in there I knew what to do but then I got nervous so I forgot this piece so so you really it's on a Continuum from a very basic to like when we use these High Fidelity I can be in a separate room with the headset talking for the patient so that I can as the student is not following script sure I can change gears and see if they can get back on track is essentially getting what they need because you're tailoring it for every student's skill set yes yeah and the other students that are watching are learning just as much that's what I was and so when you come back you don't you don't need discussion they really like they're ready to vomit like their feelings yeah yeah and they'd really just um they're like oh I would have never thought of that or you know like she forgot to wash her hands and then we bring that back to like the standards and the curriculum and okay how is that applying sorry good Suzanne did she um is there anything else you wanted to add to what Amanda was sharing any other technologies that you guys are using in your schools that you want to share about you know in culinary we're just using a lot lot of the similar equipment that you would see in any restaurant I think the cool thing about our culinary programs is that they are they have health permits just like a restaurant and they serve food P I have been a recipient of that and it was very much worth it yes and it's pretty amazing the things that they're doing in there absolutely um so that's a big piece for us I think even the small pieces of equipment we have are just amazing even if they're not Hightech because as long as it matches what's in industry and the students can practice on it they're going to be well prepared for what they need to do when they get on the workforce yeah that's so great well I would like us to end our time together on a joy note so if we could each think of a joy story um this could be a story with a student a colleague an administrator a parent um that brings you Joy and grounds you in your why and reminds you why you're doing what you're doing so um Dr Dan would you share first please your joy story um yeah at the beginning of this year um so we started the LPN program at the high school and so we have Juniors um and so one of the students came up to me and I have a daughter that's a junior let me preface that so and she said I think that my mom knows you and I we were talking and I guess we did like a Little Mommy's and me thing back when our daughters were little and she said my mom um became a nurse when I was a baby because of your passion when you would talk about nursing and like the joy that you would exude when you talked about like your field right so she went back to school to become a nurse and I am just so inspired by my mom that now this is what I want to do and so wow yeah and it was like oh my gosh that was like 16 17 years ago yeah and I it really reminds me because I tell my students all the time I'm like I know we all want to do big Grand great things but we forget the difference we can make in the little interactions and that every interaction is something like we don't ever walk away from an interaction without something good positive like they're never neutral right and so it really kind of reminded me that something I didn't even know I did could be impactful to someone's life and their children's life and how you can impact the community and so even all these little things I do with my kids I hope they get to carry on and that's how they get to like if I can use my story and my things my failures is what I tell them this is how my life failed right but now you get to go make a difference in somebody else's life and how very contagious Joy is like when you share joy and you are doing something that brings you Joy it is absolutely contagious to those around you Joy story I have so many because when you work with little kids and big kids there's lots of funny things that happen but I would say the one story that really inspired me was you know for me I had my students four years in a row so I really got to build great relationships with them but when they come in as freshmen a lot of those kids coming in from middle school don't realize that that is a real pre preschool with real kids in there and that was like the first thing I would tell them on the first day of school hey I hope you like kids because these are real kids and they belong to people in this community so we got to be real careful yeah and um so anyhow I had one student that was with me all four years and about 5 years later she reached out to me after she graduated and she asked if we could go to lunch and I said absolutely I would love that you know I'd love to see what she's doing as an adult and we went to lunch and she said I wanted to take you to lunch because on that first day of school when you told me that there were real kids in there I thought oh no I need a schedule change I do not like kids not for me this is not what I thought it was going to be she thought it was going to have like the robot babies and um she said but I couldn't get a schedule change they wouldn't let me so I was like well I'll stick it through but she said I loved it and then the next year I loved it more and she's like now I'm a kindergarten teacher in Hillsboro County and she's like I just love being a teacher and it was because you know I got to watch you and the kids and learn and be there all those four years and the relationships I built it was just incredible to watch those kids grow up so that was really touching for me to know oh so these kids do want to be teachers when they grow up you know and it's all caught it's caught by our enthusiasm our joy our love for what we're doing so I can't thank you to enough for what you're doing seen and unseen that's happening in your um schools and your campuses and across pelis County so thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your Insight today with us on the finding Joy podcast thank you for having thank for having us um as we leave I'd like you to take a listen to some words from my colleagues I posted a question for my friends around the world and I asked them how does CTE bring joy to education and here's what they had to say good afternoon my name is Andre caras and I've been teaching in St Petersburg College in engineering technology for 5 years now I before that I was re richan development um and let me tell you I love teaching and I'm here to answer how does CTE um bring joy to education well many ways it brings me a lot of joice to see when students get Concepts it Electronics is um topic that can be a little bit abstract when the students finally get it and they apply mathematical or physical Concepts into their problems and into toble shooting and they finally get it is very rewarding besides I think I get we my students get certificates or they also get um as's degrees and I get to see when they get jobs they always call me and tell me they got a job or they get promoted in the jobs and that's very rewarding helping somebody realize their dream in technical education when the US needs more technical career is fantastic for me and that's how um I hope I bring the Joy by keeping them engaged when I'm teaching them but they bring me a lot of joy as well hello I'm Mr berett the executive director of Cenna quad and Oola County Schools CTE brings joy to anyone involved in the programs gives students confidence to grow confidence to build a resume and it also gives them the opportunity to work in a field that they can make good money and not have to go into debt the greatest joy it brings is it could actually end generational poverty by putting people in the workforce that have skills that just need that little bit of up skill to get him in the workforce hello I'm darl Thomas the 2023 Columbia County school teacher of the year I just can't escape that so the question posed was how does CTE bring joy to education and for me I'm not the best talker in the world so I'm going to instead of telling you how I'm going to actually show you how so come with me to the shop and we're going to walk around I have volunteers here we're in summer right now but I have volunteers here today to W so you can actually see what I see every day that's up this young lady certified this year first female to get certified at our school and there's another female who also got certified this was the first time we ever certified students at Columbia High School that were females and if that doesn't bring joy to take some nothing and do these SP you see here are all here on their own account because they love Seafood they love welding and they love to be here so how cpv brings joy to utation it is easy question for me to ask I mean all I have to do every day is just look around and see their faces when when when they pass a s of when they pass whatever test they're on at that time uh you still see the joy that they realize they can do something that's un difficult and not easy it's very hard and it's hot and it burns them but yet they do it anyway and uh that to me is all theoy you could add thank you good morning I'm Judy de I'm here at my alma moer Oola fundamental High School where the beginnings of my journey within engineering began at this time though I work at dunan high school as a Robotics and Engineering teacher joy and education is definitely found in CTE with with Career and Technical education opportunities for students in the high school they get to explore a variety of different things in my program they get to design and build robots flying Dr fly drones and learn about aeronautical principles learn about three 3D modeling and Manufacturing and use tools that engineer Engineers use in their trade what's really wonderful for students is that when they come to class each and every day to explore these things they're taking their math their science and their arts and they're putting it to work in a variety of different projects each one of these projects or competitions can lead to a future career through skills USA through a variety of uh robotics competitions they can either go to College they can go to technical school they can go to military or even directly to a career Joy that's what I see in the kids when they come to class um they're in the flow they love what they do hey everyone my name is Justin early I am Hernando County's 2020 teacher of the year and currently a game and simulation design instructor at wikii watcha High School in Brooksville Florida when I think about the core responsibility of an educator in Florida I think it's to prepare our students for the future and there's no better way that we do that than matching Academia with CTE Career Training and Workforce Development giving students the opportunity to dive into the career that they potentially want to go to and experience it is something that you can't measure on top of that Florida does a fantastic job with the capist program which actually promotes the idea for students to obtain industry certifications and their related workfield what whether it's being a future educator whether it's going into computers and computer science or working with farm animals there are all these different certifications that are available at the fingertips for students in the State of Florida having that opportunity to go and to actually feel what it's like to work in a job and figure out if that job is for you especially uh before you have the opportunity to go and take it as a major in college or go directly into the workforce I think is influential for students because of that I think CTE brings joy to education and students and Educators alike as Educators we're in the business of growing and developing great humans it's our job to set students up for success in their future whatever that may be for some that's a college or university for others that's a train skill that will prepare them for the workforce hi my name is Jenny GW the 2024 Hendry County teacher of the year and Florida teacher of the year finalists and I am a proud current technical education teacher Joy can be found in CTE courses through many different lens but I want to take a moment to share a recent Joy story derived from my own classroom picture this a quiet n9th grade girl who spent most of her first year of high school asleep or detached from the lessons this student always struggled in school and never really found her true Niche that is until she struck her first Arc in a welding booth and found her true passion she went from a student who always struggled and cared little about her education to a high school stor with AB Honor Roll on track for graduation and a full ride scholarship to a technical school you see Career and Technical education courses do more than just teacher curriculum they provide an outlet of opportunities so that all students can be successful my name is Jim mcken I'm the heating ventilation and air conditioning apprenticeship coordinator Technical College Clearwater um how does CTE bring joy to education well my apprentices uh are working full-time uh for a company during the day and that company pays for them to go to school at night for four years when they're done they become a journeyman and again the company pays for their education in a field that can't be outsourced so they're working full-time and they've got no college debt this job doesn't get old we don't give people a job we change their lives hi my name is Dr naine eie and I serve as a global education Community manager for Minecraft so CTE brings so much joy to education it provides students with Hands-On learning experiences they're able to develop the skills needed and is also relevant to the careers that they're going to enter into in the future and so one of the things that my students used to ask me is Mrs Dey how does this lesson apply to what I'm going to do in the future and so what CTE they don't have to ask that question they could easily see how what they're learning in school is going to be relevant to what they're going to enter into into the future and so we at Minecraft education understand that which is why in Minecraft education we have stem coding programming Project based learning so many things embedded within the game play so that students are learning all of these principles and skills in a fun and engaging way so that they are prepared for careers in the jobs of the future hello my name is Chandra Powell and I am a Career Technical educator at the panther nation of Dillard High 6 through 12 brck County Florida I was asked the question how does CTE bring joy to education I would just say that CTE is Joy when we think about all of the different core subjects mathematics our Sciences our language arts we know that those are important in just life General Studies in addition to that Career Technical um integrates all of those particular subjects we have to be involved with our mathematics whenever we're studying the various career clusters from culinary arts to to graphic arts to hospitality and tourism Even in our medical and health science Fields they're taking blood pressure and temperatures and Counting watching the various computer education type of um screens and things of that nature so how does Career Technical education bring joy the students get to learn the various career paths they get to choose one that they find joy in and I get so excited when I hear my middle schoolers study the various career clusters and they say oh my gosh I can be an educator I can be a a police officer I can be a judge a lawyer all the various careers that are there and one thing with Career Technical education not only do we study that as far as the responsibilities we learn the different educational centers the training centers what kind of Licensing is needed so Career Tech tecal education it is Joy it brings joy to our educational experiences to all of our students hi my name is Dr ranani and I'm a CTE teacher CTE brings a special kind of joy into the classroom because students can connect what they learn in the class to the real world there is nothing quite like witnessing the spark in a student's eyes when they realize that the skills they're learning whether it be coding designing or presenting are directly related to the careers they dream about this connection makes learning not only more engaging but also incredibly meaningful in my computer literacy classes students dive into a variety of Hands-On projects they build websites they learn about robotics they craft resumés they create presentations and they explore different careers each of these activities is a stepping stone towards their future success and I find so much joy knowing that I'm equipping them with the tools they need CTE also encourages students to think outside the box come up with new ideas and push the boundaries of their imagination knowing that I have a direct and positive impact on my students lives gives me so much joy hi my name is Kelly Smith Williams I am the 2023 manity accouny teacher of the year and I teach anatomy and physiology at leid Ranch High School GTE brings joy to students by allowing them to explore potential careers it allows them the opportunity to leave high school with more than just a high school diploma but the opportunity to leave with a certification for some of my students it's pharmaceutical Tech and for others it's mechanic work that they've explored at amazing colleges like man technical school I am very fortunate to explore these programs with the students and to see them flourish in a very Hands-On program and go further than they ever thought that they could