| Announcements: May 6, 2009 - August 25, 2009 | |||||
Tech Prep Tuesday Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium Newsletter August 25, 2009 Welcome to the first edition of Tech Prep Tuesday for the new school year. Most Tuesdays, you will receive important Consortium and Tech Prep information via this e-newsletter. Your time is valuable, so the newsletter will be brief and to the point. Please email Sherry Hollinger (shollin@templejc.edu) if you do not wish to receive the newsletter. Consortium Staff Contact Information Sherry Hollinger - Director shollin@templejc.edu 254-298-8482 Misty Harrell - Outreach Coordinator mharrell@templejc.edu 254-298-8483 Carol Lance - Administrative Assistant carol.lance@templejc.edu 254-298-8480 The Consortium office is located on the third floor of the Temple College Business Training Center at 19 North Main in downtown Temple. The mailing address is: 2600 South First Street, Temple, TX, 76504. Upcoming Events Fall Technical Assistance Workshops – Two identical training opportunities are scheduled this year, September 23 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM and October 2 from 8:30 – 11:30 AM. Each workshop will feature three sections: Tech Prep 101 (basics of Tech Prep and Consortium opportunities), CTE PEIMS coding, and Tech Prep 102 (information about articulation, Advanced Technical Credit program, AchieveTexas, P-16, and subgrant opportunities). Details will be announced next week. Bridges Training – A professional trainer from Bridges will conduct training for Bridges products on October 15 and 16 at ESC Region 12 South in Nolanville. Watch this newsletter for details on the training and registration information. Partner Visits – In the coming weeks, Sherry Hollinger and Misty Harrell will contact each of the Consortium’s secondary and post secondary partners to schedule a time to visit with Tech Prep contacts and any other personnel who are interested in meeting. New materials will be distributed during the visits. ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium Transition and Transfer June 2, 2009 Texas in Focus: Central Texas The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Susan Combs, recently issued a report examining the forces driving change in Central Texas and the factors affecting the development of its economy. Demographics for the region are included in the report as well as information on infrastructure, health care, and education for the area. To access the report online or order a report, go to the following website: http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/central/. Thank you for a wonderful year! Although some of you will be teaching or doing administrative work this summer, many of you are beginning time away from the academic world. We appreciate your participation and support with Tech Prep activities this past year and look forward to working with you during the coming year. The Tech Prep office will remain open during the summer, Monday through Thursday, so please contact us if you have any questions or concerns. This will be the last edition of Tech Prep Tuesday, however, until late August. Have a wonderful summer! Sherry, Misty and Carol ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium Transition and Transfer May 26, 2009 CTE TEKS Update If all goes according to schedule, the State Board of Education will have the second reading and final adoption of the CTE TEKS in July. Professional development will begin in the fall. Approximately 400 content teachers and ESC CTE specialists will be trained at three two-day sessions in October/November in Austin. From January 2010 and continuing through summer 2010, about 24,000 teachers will be trained by an ESC CTE specialist and content teacher at regional sessions and summer conferences. Implementation for the new CTE TEKS is scheduled for the 2010-2011 school year. Labor Market Update Wanda Williams, special projects manager at the Central Texas Workforce Board, presented the annual labor market and emerging jobs briefing last week in Killeen. The population of the Central Texas region (consisting of seven counties) is expected to grow from an estimated total of 421,129 in 2008 to about 450,000 in 2013. While the national unemployment rate is currently about 8.9 %, Texas and the Central Texas region are in better shape. The Central Texas area has a younger than state median age (31.2 vs. 33.6) and its citizens have close to the state median in income levels. There are good levels of education in the region. The sectors of education, military, and health care are economic stabilizers for the region. The Key Industries and Targeted Occupations for the region were presented at the briefing. Participants were given the opportunity to provide input on the information. If Your School has a Bridges Subscription, Remind Students to use it during the Summer Summer is a great time to think about the future! Here are a few suggestions to encourage students: direct students to add Bridges to their list of Favorites and provide a Quick Start guide to remind them how to access the site; help prepare students for summer employment by pointing them to the Job Hunting activity; customize Choices Explorer’s parent letter and let them know about this opportunity. CATEMA Reminder All CATEMA input for the 2008-2009 year must be entered by the end of June. Please contact Misty Harrell at 254-298-8483 or mharrell@templejc.edu if you need assistance with the program. ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium Transition and Transfer May 19, 2009 Last Call for Connect3 Conference Assistance Connect 3 – College, Certifications, Careers – is a regional CTE conference scheduled for June 9th and 10th at ESC Region 12 in Waco. The conference is designed to help teachers, counselors and administrators enhance their communication and continue to build partnerships with all stakeholders in the education of our future workforce. The Consortium has limited funds remaining to help area partners attend this conference. Contact Sherry Hollinger at 254-298-8482 or by email at shollin@templejc.edu immediately for more information. CATEMA Reminder!! CATEMA will be closed for the 2008 – 2009 school year on June 30th. Once the system has closed teachers and students will not be able to submit any further information for the current year. For more information, or to schedule a day for training, please contact Misty Harrell at 254.298.8483 or mharrell@templejc.edu. Also, please remind students, especially seniors, that they may be eligible to receive free college credit for articulated courses. Interested students should contact their college advisor for further information. Tech Prep Presentations While planning for the next school year, keep in mind that Tech Prep staff members are available to give presentations throughout the year. Examples of presentations include: In-service on Tech Prep, ATC program etc. for CTE faculty Classroom presentations to students on the advantages of Tech Prep, articulated credit, and going to college CATEMA training for CTE teachers College and parent night presentations Presentations on non-traditional careers Please contact Sherry Hollinger or Misty Harrell to schedule a session. ============
Tech Prep Tuesday Central Texas Tech Prep Consortium Transition and Transfer May 5, 2009 Tech Prep Saves Students Time and Money The potential cost savings for Tech Prep students and their families in this area averages about $849 per Tech Prep student! This number assumes that the Tech Prep student is able to take advantage of nine hours of college credit and would have spent about $300 on books for those courses. Using these assumptions, if all the Tech Prep seniors from 2008-2009 were able to take advantage of this opportunity, the cost savings for this year for this consortium would be over one million dollars! To see the potential cost savings for students in each district, please go to the following website: www.techpreptexas.org. Once in the site, click on Tech Prep Consortia, Map & Consortia Information and then Central Texas. Under Regional Data, see the report entitled “Potential Cost Savings for Tech Prep Students and their Families, Seniors 2008-2009. Other interesting data that has been updated recently and available under the Regional Data section described above includes reports on articulation agreements and Tech Prep enrollments. Summer Conference Opportunity Available Connect 3 – College, Certifications, Careers – is a regional CTE conference scheduled for June 9th and 10th at ESC Region 12 in Waco. The conference is designed to help teachers, counselors and administrators enhance their communication and continue to build partnerships with all stakeholders in the education of our future workforce. Central Texas Tech Prep has funding available for the conference, and district contacts were notified of this opportunity a few weeks ago. There is still some funding available (up to $300 per person on a reimbursement basis only) for this conference. Funding will be available to partner districts that have and code Tech Prep students (PEIMS code 3). To apply, each district interested should send a letter via email on school/district letterhead to Sherry Hollinger at shollin@templejc.edu by noon on Thursday, May 7. Please state the name, title, discipline taught (if a teacher) and brief reason why it would be beneficial to attend. (Please do not send a fax.) The funding may be used to reimburse costs for the conference registration ($200), mileage needed to attend the conference &/or pre-conference (June 8th) costs. For more information about the conference, please see the ESC Region 12 website @ www.esc12.net and reference session number 30514. Please contact Sherry Hollinger at 254-298-8482 if you have questions. ============ |
