Prior to 2023, our department did not have a consistent time that we met together during the school year. During my first year, we began establishing regular meeting during the day that were primarily faculty meetings that were centered on management issues. This was an important step in establishing an expectation, but teachers were primarily receiving information.

The next school year, we moved these meetings to after school to be more in line with the rest of the school. We also shifted the focus towards sharing  instructional practice. Each meeting a different teacher would host and share a recent practice that they found promising. These teacher led sessions ranged from Socratic Seminars to Jigsaw activities. It was an important step to move the focus towards learning and how we could impact that learning.

The school year we saw the most growth. One of the fundamental changes was identifying common curriculum. Most other PLCs share a common set of standards that they then apply the four critical questions to evaluate student learning and instructional practices. The CTE department primarily consists of singular programs that do not share common technical standards.

The key shift for us was putting the career back into Career & Technical Education. Career navigation includes landing a career, seeking promotion, changing employers, managing conflict, seeking feedback, retaining employment, and so much more. The essential parts of navigating a career has become a common curriculum that we are labeling "Be Pro". 

We landed on the expectations in the Artifact 1 around December, and we still have a lot of work to do in order to really begin teaching these career skills. It is the first step in answer question 1, and we are working to narrow and sequence what we really need students to master.