Tahoma High’s Career and Technology Education program offer teens opportunities to create tangible products and gain real world experiences
Published 3:58 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Erica Schweitzer wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she grew up.
A senior at Tahoma High, she arrived as a 10th grader, searching for direction.
“I didn’t have any role models outside of my family until I met Mr. Haag,” Schweitzer said. “Now I want to be a video editor.”
Schweitzer is one of Rick Haag’s video production students, a program which is part of the schools Career and Technical Education curriculum, designed to help guide students who may not have a clear path after high school.
“Anything you want to do… Mr. Haag can show you how to do it,” she said. “And he gives us top of the line equipment for it.”
Schweitzer was one of a number of students who told the CTE Advisory Board group about the impact one of the courses has had on their lives during a meeting in the Tahoma High library on Nov. 2.
Culinary arts students showed off their chops with a fall and Thanksgiving inspired dinner of roast turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, carrots, salad and made from scratch dinner rolls and cupcakes.
“The beauty about CTE is it’s tangible,” said Tahoma High Assistant Principal Diane Fox. “It’s measurable, it’s hands on. The students come up with ideas. They make decisions.”
The mission of the CTE curriculum, Fox explained, fits into a theme for the high school this school year.
It manifested itself in a video made by four of Haag’s students where Principal Terry Duty, kids, staff members and others lip synced to Journey’s 1980s hit “Don’t Stop Believing.”
“It caused quite a stir here in Tahoma High,” Fox said of the video. “This is our theme for the year. Don’t stop believing in kids.”
Members of the large group Advisory Board meets three times a year, Haag explained afterward, with the group acting as an oversight committee that provides guidance for the CTE programs.
“The main objective is to have community business people help us understand what is needed for our young people to be successful in the world of work,” Haag said. “It is a time for the advisory members to see the type of work that is being done and hear from those that are part of the work and most effected by the guidance that the group provides. It is also a great place to provide authentic audiences for our students. It is one thing for our students to preform in our classrooms and stay within those controlled safe four walls. It is another when their work is actually serving a purpose in the real world. Culinary actually catering an event, video production work broadcasts to a audience or is posted on the web, a sign language student demonstrates her skills in front of a live studio audience, this is what Career and Technical Education is all about.”
But, Fox pointed out, districts across the state face cuts and CTE is not safe from such cuts.
Still, the success of the curriculum at Tahoma High is such that staff want to do more.
“We’re going to grow our program despite some concern and worry,” Fox said. “We’re going to launch some programs next year (such as) financial algebra. We will develop CTE programs that meet a defined need. So, we want to look at employability.”
Fox stated that students will be able to take part in a new robotics program to help train young people who are interested in engineering jobs, something she said is a huge need in Washington state, which can help propel teens into technical college programs or a degree from a four-year university.
Haag is on the verge of getting his new program, Film Academy, approved. The program for juniors and seniors will be an integrated approach with a team of six teachers across several different subjects ranging from drama to English to social studies to video production. The hope is to gain board approval in December or January and launch Film Academy in the fall.
Students in DECA, marketing, Future Farmers of America, automotive maintenance, all offered their experiences in CTE.
“DECA is teaching us how to be business leaders,” Ben Fisher said. “I’ve competed in internationals, I was the first Tahoma student to compete at internationals. I have a lot more confidence. It teaches us to act more professional. It’s a lot of fun.”
Dakota Nichols, a junior, who is a member of DECA and is a marketing student, said those two programs have changed his outlook.
“I have friends and family who have a four-year degree who can’t get a job,” Nichols said. “Thanks to marketing I’m more confident. DECA is the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life. Last year I went to internationals and I met business leaders from around the world who showed me what I can do with my life.”
It’s the experience of these students, Fox said, that matters.
“We are growing despite challenges to encourage post-secondary plans,” she said. “We want to make sure all post-secondary plans are valued. We’re not just asking kids, ‘What four year college are you going to?’ Our goal is to really get students thinking about where they’re going.”
Fox explained that none of this would have happened without teachers.
“These are very poised young people who have walked away from Tahoma High School with a passion,” she said. “You can’t get that without the fairy dust, the magic (teachers bring).”
