JackPowers's blog

 
"I believe that we need a national PR campaign for skilled labor."
 
"Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. And there are 450,000 openings today in trades, transportation and utilities. The skills gap seems real, and it's getting wider."
 
"To really make a difference, we need to change the perceptions of a much larger audience, and challenge the prevailing definition of a "good job." Americans need to see these workers for what they are - the key to civilized life as we know it."
 
See a transcript of Mike's testimony at Discovery Impact.
 
 
 

Pioneering technology entrepreneur Jeff Pulver is extending a special Educators' Rate for teachers attending his latest Twitter conference, #140edu: Exploring the State of Education NOW on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 2 and 3 at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue in New York City.
 
The full rate for the conference is $140 (tweets are 140 characters or less)  but teachers can apply for the $1.40 rate on-line, just 140 pennies.
 
From the web syllabus:

twitter has become a popular platform for educators from around the world to discover and connect with each other. The #edchat chats continue to grow. In a world that has become flat, educators are just a tweet away from each other and each day they continue to discover and explore common ground and are sharing experiences and observations for how to best approach education in the era of the real-time web.

This year we made great progress in our support for career and technical education in New York City. Council and Commission members shared their insights and experiences with teachers, students and principals in every CTE discipline. Some of this year's highlights illustrate the scope of our efforts.  (Please add your perspectives -- and anything or anyone I've missed -- through the comments link below.)
 

CTE Commissions and industry partners are planning professional development events in many career and technical disciplines on Tuesday, Election Day, November 2, 2010:
 
Automotive Teachers Technology Conference
Graphics Teachers Technology Conference
Education for Sustainability
Work-Based Learning Coordinators' Conference
Technology in Health Care and Education
 
Click the links above for the full page PDF flyers for these events with agenda, locations and registration details.
 

Students at Art & Design High School were targeted by Junior Achievement League of New York to participate in a pilot with Fashion Fantasy Game (http://www.fashionfantasygame.com/). This Internet game requires students to use their entrepreneurial skills to run an internet business. The students had to design garments, design space and market their wares. It was a mini lesson in entrepreneurship in the fashion world. The program concludes today with the announcement of the winners. The winners will have their garments constructed and a runway show will be held at Lim College on June 1. The students will also shadow at Diane von Furstenberg during the summer.

The students were interviewed on April 13th, answering questions about their involvement in the game. See the ABC story online: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7384271

NY1 News' Roger Clark reported from this week's Virtual Enterprises gathering of VE students, teachers and even some parents from around the world:

The 13th annual Virtual Enterprises International Trade Fair at the 69th Regiment Armory on the East Side hosted 143 businesses Wednesday, but not one product was sold. Rather, it was the end result of a program that allows city students to create and manage a fake business and virtually trade with worldwide customers through an online bank.

View Roger's report.

Norman Thomas alumna Chavon Mack describes her own success with internship and how she's paying it forward with a new crop of students.  --Ed.

I believe that Work-based Learning (formerly LEARN) is a significant program for today's youth. In 2002, I was a LEARN participant from Norman Thomas High School. I've been greatly influenced by the program, and was fortunate enough as a junior in high school to gain work experience in a potential field of my choice. That experience opened many doors for me that I didn't think were possible, coming from a low income family. I became an invaluable intern to the office of Info Edge, Inc. Info Edge, Inc. is a design resource library company that works with architects, interior designers and furniture professionals. It also runs a design industry web site called SpecSimple.com.

In this short video clip, students at Automotive High School in Brooklyn describe a shop class project to modify a Mercedes diesel engine to run on French fry grease from the cafeteria.

Notice the small orange plus sign and graphic at the end of each story: 
 
It's an "AddThis" button that lets readers post a link to a story on CTEcouncil.org to their social media networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and more. Try it out and  post a story to your own social media page and then let us know:
 

One of the great NY CTE programs is now recruiting teachers and students for the new school year. Kim Svoboda (ksvoboda@usatoday.com) sent the attached recap of last year's program with some great photos and quotes. Here's an excerpt: Students from New York City high schools participated in the 2008-2009 Dream Job Program. Students participated in the 20-week curriculum and then each student submitted a written essay to win one day in their chosen Dream Job! Students spent one day in their chosen Dream Job with corporations and organizations throughout New York City.