A Culinary Student cooks a sunny side-up egg in one of the hands-on labs.
As September comes to a close, it’s hard to believe that my district has already completed 8 weeks of school. It’s a wonderful and bittersweet time in my middle school Career and Technical Education (CTE) classroom. My students have grown so much in these last 8 weeks. But in one week, they will move on to their next quarterly elective. It’s one of the downsides to having the best job ever. My kids rotate each quarter as they explore the elective wheel. From CTE, they will venture off to P.E., then Spanish, and then Art. Next quarter, the Art students come to me.
This new pilot position was in response to a policy created by the Arizona Legislature in 2017. Our state’s accountability system now graded our schools based on the percentage of students that complete a CTE Program. My district has always had an amazing CTE program. I even took 2 years of woodshop in high school without realizing the opportunities that the CTE program offered.
After I was offered the job, I sat with the Director of CTE to ask what the vision was for my class. The purpose of my new job was to introduce the CTE program to middle school students and allow them to explore careers and trades so that they would come to high school potentially knowing what CTE programs would benefit their goals. By giving middle school students a chance to explore earlier, we would eventually have an increase in students completing programs and getting certifications for employment at the high school level.
In the last 3 years that I have been teaching CTE, I have taken on the mission of introducing my students to the trades and the CTE programs offered at our local high school, but also orienting them to how high school can catapult you into your career earlier. CTE teachers teach life skills every single day. They are preparing students to be college AND career ready. I tell my students about my experiences in high school. How I didn’t know that I could appeal my C in Art until it was too late, thus it brought my GPA down. In my class, we explore what college is like, how expensive it is, and how to pay for it. My students then explore the benefits of trade schools compared to college. So many of my students don’t realize that trade schools are an honest and noble postsecondary option. I talk about how I was (unfortunately) snobby in high school and had turned up my nose at community college until I ran out of scholarship monies for my university. After transferring, I got to experience the benefits of smaller class sizes and cheaper tuition at Pima Community College during my sophomore and junior years. The original goal for my class was to see if we could create CTE program completers at the high schools but the more I have immersed myself into CTE, the more my goal has shifted to awaken my students up to what the purpose of education is.
By far my students’ favorite part is the stations. I am blessed to have 11 different career-focused stations in my classroom. These modules harness the power of blended learning and hands-on learning to create opportunities for students to gain real-world experiences. During the second month of the class, students can be placed into a station based on their career goals and current interests. The stations focus on the careers listed below. They complete labs from drawing blood to cooking to creating commercials or solving crimes.
A Nursing Student practices suturing a wound on a leg.
Nursing
Sports Med
Biotechnology
Video Production
Energy & Power aka Engines
Home Maintenance
Intro to Computer Science
Intro to Engineering
Design and Marketing
Culinary
Forensic Science
So while I am sad that my students will soon leave me to go on to do great things in the other electives, I thoroughly enjoy going through these experiences with my students. The most empowering part of my job is knowing that I am making a difference for my students. I would love to hear about experiences you may have had in CTE programs throughout Arizona. What did you learn from these programs that still have an impact on you to this day? Or if you didn’t get a chance to participate in a CTE program, what do you wish you could have taken in middle school or high school?
Sara Mora
Sara Mora has been living her dream of being a teacher for the last 12 years. She studied Elementary Education at the University of Arizona and was selected as a Rodel Oustanding Student Teacher. Sara taught 1st grade in Nogales for 3 years before moving to 2nd grade in the Sahuarita Unified School District to be closer to home. In 2017, she obtained her Master’s in Educational Technology from Northern Arizona University. This degree opened the door for her to move into a brand new position at the newest K-8 in Sahuarita. Sara was tasked with designing and implementing a middle school Career and Technical Education program geared towards college and career exploration. And though not required, Sara worked towards getting certified in Career and Technical Education so that she could do justice to her position. After her first year in this position, she was selected as an Arizona Education Foundation Ambassador of Excellence Teacher of the Year for 2021. When she’s not teaching, she’s advising her Video Production Club and facilitating Technology Professional Development for her district. In her spare time, Sara also works as a health coach, enjoys volunteering her tech skills at church, traveling with her husband and son, reading, and making Tik Tok videos.