Aaron and Rachael explore the world of Career and Technical Education (CTE) with special guests from York County School of Technology. Teacher Development Instructor Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero discusses her innovative teacher development program, which borrows from the Educators Rising curriculum, and its role in preparing the next generation of educators. Senior student Grace Rinehart shares what inspires and motivates her on her journey to become a teacher.
Aaron and Rachael explore the world of Career and Technical Education (CTE) with special guests from York County School of Technology. Teacher Development Instructor Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero discusses her innovative teacher development program, which borrows from the Educators Rising curriculum, and its role in preparing the next generation of educators. Senior student Grace Rinehart shares what inspires and motivates her on her journey to become a teacher.
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Voiceover:
Welcome to Duty Free Lunch, the official podcast of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Join us as we unpack the issues that matter most to you. From cutting-edge classroom strategies to thought-provoking policy discussions, if it impacts PSEA members, it's on the menu.
Aaron Chapin:
Hello, and welcome to Duty Free Lunch. I'm PSEA President, Aaron Chapin. Joining me today it's PSEA Treasurer, Rachael West. Hello, Rachael.
Rachael West:
Good morning, Aaron. How're you doing?
Aaron Chapin:
Wonderful. Excellent. It's been a busy school year so far. I was able to get out onto the west side of our state. I was able to stop into one of our schools. It was the Gateway School District. I was able to sit in on a class of some prospective educators.
It was about two dozen different high school seniors, juniors, some sophomores, and they're all looking at making education a profession. It seems to be a trend that is picking up some steam around the state right now.
Rachael West:
That's spectacular. We do need to bolster that pipeline a little bit. It's neat to see teenagers interested in getting into the classroom again.
Aaron Chapin:
That's right. And last year, last school year, you actually were able to witness the beginnings of this in Pennsylvania?
Rachael West:
I actually got to go to the Ed Rising Conference. It was the first conference that we've had and it was at Millersville. It was a really neat experience and the energy of these high school students getting ready to look forward to that college experience and then being in the classroom was really incredible.
Aaron Chapin:
Yes, I'm really looking forward, not that I want to fast-forward the school year at all, but I'm really looking forward to the spring where the second annual conference will take place in Pennsylvania. I know in Pennsylvania we've got, I think we're up to 35 different school districts now taking part in the Educator Rising Program, Rachael?
Rachael West:
And I think we have even more that are doing other types of programs that are also helping us bolster the pipeline. So I think we're headed in the right direction.
Aaron Chapin:
I agree, and it's really interesting to see just the variety, the different spin that these school districts are putting on it. That's really what our episode is going to be leaning towards today. We're actually going to be talking about the career in technical education, and we have some great guests here to discuss it with us.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero is the teacher development instructor at York County School of Technology. She's in her 27th year of teaching. You'd never look it by looking at you. Could never tell by looking at you. And she's also worked as an English teacher in Bermudian Springs High School. She's been a staff developer for the IU 12 before she transitioned to York Tech in the education program.
She's completed her doctorate in curriculum and instruction, and I can tell she's excited to be part of building this new teacher development program at York Tech. So welcome to our podcast today, Melissa-Ann.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Thanks, Aaron. Great to be here.
Aaron Chapin:
Thank you, and she brought somebody with her today. Also joining us in the studio is Grace Reinhardt. She's a senior at York County School of Technology. I think you're the first high school student we've had on.
Grace Rinehart:
Really?
Aaron Chapin:
Yes, that's right. She's planning on attending your college to major in early elementary and special education. She hopes to become a first grade teacher or an autistic support classroom teacher. Grace, welcome to the podcast.
Grace Rinehart:
Thank you for having me.
Aaron Chapin:
That's right. The first student we've had, Rachael.
Rachael West:
I know.
Aaron Chapin:
I know. I'm excited too. It's great to have you both here. We got a lot of questions because we want to get a feel for how your program is working. So Melissa-Ann, just start by giving us an overview of the teacher development program at York County School of Technology. What makes it unique compared to the other CTE programs that are out there?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
One of the great things that makes York County School of Technology unique in itself is that it's a four-year comprehensive school. So we actually pull from all of the districts in York County. Students apply and come into our programs for any of the technical education programs that we have there.
So, they take English and math and science and history all in our building and they take their shops in our building. So there's no transfer time.
Aaron Chapin:
Oh, that's good for the kids.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Yeah, it's fantastic. It gives a lot of kids a lot of time. So we spend up to four and a half hours within a shop. So I have my students for a block period of three hours and then later another hour and a half.
And in our program, we started as an early childhood program and last year when the state started the CIP code for General Education, York decided to expand the program and they hired me for that position.
What we do is we actually take students to classrooms. So for the first three hours every morning we take our students for hands-on experience in early childhood through third and fourth-grade classrooms.
Aaron Chapin:
Oh my God, that's excellent.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Yeah, so these kids get hands-on experience that I didn't even think about until I was in college.
Aaron Chapin:
Same here.
Rachael West:
I was going to say, I definitely did not get any classroom experience prior to being in college and having to take those practicum classes that we took.
How does your curriculum prepare students to become future educators? What specific skills do you emphasize? What is that program piece look like?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
So, I'm really concentrating on asking my students when they're in the classrooms, working with the teachers to pay attention to what's happening, what teachers are doing because as we all know as educators, we didn't really know what was on the other side of the desk until we got on the other side of the desk.
They really are learning about how to break down standards and how to write clear objectives and they get the opportunity to actually write lesson plans and implement lesson plans with students. So they have that sort of hands-on experience that again, we didn't get until we got to college. So, they have the opportunity to really decide if this is the career they really want to get into. They get the nuts and bolts of stuff.
Rachael West:
That's interesting because we know, I actually went to college with Melissa-Ann, so we have friends that we went to college with that started out that freshman year and maybe got into the classroom, and some of them not until they were in their junior or senior year and got enough time in the classroom to realize that, that wasn't the career path for them. So this is actually really helpful.
Grace, what drew you to this program and specifically, the career path in particular that you're looking at, the early childhood and special ed?
Grace Rinehart:
So for me, a lot of it was walking out with the experiences I'm going to have and being able to work with kids. I was so excited when I found out we were actually going to be able to work with kids and it wasn't just something sitting in a classroom learning about it. Like Dr. Pero said, getting to see what's behind the desk. I've always wondered, there's so many things that happen behind the scenes. So, what are those things? Can I learn about those things? That's what really drew me in.
Rachael West:
Neat. I like that.
Aaron Chapin:
She's going to have so many more experiences than her colleagues when she gets to college and it's going to give Grace a leg up. Absolutely.
Rachael West:
You're absolutely going to have an advantage heading into those first few classes and heading into student teaching that other people don't have. For sure.
Aaron Chapin:
And that is beautiful. You actually will ... It's not necessarily just sitting in a classroom and learning. You're doing it and you're getting that flavor for what it's like to be a teacher.
Grace Rinehart:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
It's great. So Melissa-Ann, the new, and this is something that is new to me as well. We've got these new state CIP codes, that's C-I-P for everybody out there, for teacher education. It's recently been implemented. So can you explain some of these changes that this code introduces and how it's going to impact your program?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
So, that's a great question. My program didn't exist until July of last year. So when I started at York Tech, I had a list of tasks. The CIP codes are called tasks, and a list of tasks that students need to master by the time they graduate from York Tech.
If you look at it, it's pretty much a list of all the things teachers need to know and do in order to do our jobs well. And it includes things like reflection and writing lesson plans and observations of other teachers. There's all kinds of stuff.
So I am taking the program and deciding what parts are really important for students at this age to know and be able to do. And what's really great is that the ED Rising, the Educators Rising Program has a curriculum that I've been able to dive into and say, "Okay, well there's pieces of this that I really ... I don't need to make this up off the top of my head. Somebody already did some of the back work so I can use it in my classroom for students."
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah, and we've talked about Educators Rising on other podcasts that we've done. And so it's great to see how you're building your area, is using it for how you think needs to happen. And that's the beauty of the program. It does allow some individuality. Are there challenges that you maybe see with this CIP code kind of stuff?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
I think that there's a lot and I do feel like sometimes the age of the students that we're working with, we're talking about freshmen through seniors, so 13 to 18 or 19. There are some things that we do in education that at a developmental level, 13, 14-year-olds might not really fully understand. Oh heck, I didn't fully understand them until I was 22 or 23.
So I think that, that's part of the challenge is explaining what it is, but not necessarily that they have to master these skills at the high school level, but that they know that they exist and that they know what all the, like Grace said, the stuff that's behind the scenes, that at least it's there and you have to be aware of it in order to do this job.
Aaron Chapin:
But you got 13 through 19. I think when you said 13 through 19-year-old it's like, "Wow," it really hit me. But that's a good opportunity though when you have students that young, exposing them to the world of education. Would you agree?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Oh, absolutely. And there are some students who at the end of last year, after their freshman year were like, "This is not the place for me." All I could think was freshman year of high school is definitely a much better option than junior year of college when you've already spent all of that money and now you're like, career shift.
So, that's a good thing. I also have a lot of students who are realizing how much more is in education besides teaching. So they're like, "Wow, there's so many other parts of this job, so many other positions within a school," that their minds are also going to other things that they can already, once they teach, go do something else.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah.
Rachael West:
Absolutely. So we keep referring to Educators Rising and we know that you've integrated that into your curriculum. It's not an implementation, more of an integration of how you do that. For our listeners who don't know, Ed Rising is a national program that prepares high school students to be educators in a grow-your-own type of format.
And PSEA is actually the state coordinator for the program in Pennsylvania. Educators Rising allows a lot of customization. I've heard you talking a little bit about that as we go. So could you be just a little bit more specific about what you did to integrate it or take and leave things? How are you using that?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Sure. So there's a full curriculum. It covers all of the CIP codes that Pennsylvania state put together. So there's already pre-made lessons and pre-made PowerPoints and pre-made resources. So I don't have to dig too far to go find stuff to start with. Since this is only the second year I'm implementing program and I don't have a toolbox, so they handed me a toolbox to work from.
We all know as educators that without that it's a 24/7 job. So now it's like a 22/7 job.
Rachael West:
Right. Right.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
But yeah, the Educators Rising Program also allows us to take students. I brought three of my students last year to the state conference so that they could see what teachers do beyond classroom work. Come see the conferences. I'm trying to get my students out and about in the educator world so that they can see what else we do besides stand in a classroom and teach.
I am hoping to implement some of the competitions this year. I didn't get a chance to last year. Again, I'm still getting my feet wet, but I want to look into some of the competitions. It also, I really believe, gives the students an opportunity to add something else to their resume like, "Yes, I'm a part of this larger group and I have this now network of people that I can reach out to and ask questions to."
Aaron Chapin:
That's brilliant.
Rachael West:
Excellent. So I'm going to ask you a little bit deeper now. Outside of the classroom, we keep talking about this is outside of the classroom and they get to have this experience. Can you talk about any partnerships or collaborations your program has with local schools, organizations that help the students gain their real-world experience?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Sure. So regularly, we spend mornings out with students. We work in York City with the York YWCA. We've worked with the York JCCs. We bring our students to classrooms in the York Suburban School District. Early Head Start is also one of our partners, and I'm hoping to expand that partnership into other districts that we can locally get to from our school, to be able to integrate that.
In addition, I will be offering a dual enrollment through Hack for education credits so that the students who graduate from our program will walk away with a couple of education credits under their belt as well.
Rachael West:
So you've got the work experience and you've also got some potential college credits. So I'm going to turn to Grace and ask you, can you tell us a little bit about what your study experience has been like? What have your experiences been like in the classroom, and other things you've been doing?
Grace Rinehart:
Yeah. So I've been in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade and I've also been in autistic support classroom and I fell in love with working with special ed. I was so happy when they wanted me back there. Then working with little kids, it's crazy how one year I go from working with kindergarten to then going to third grade.
It's such a jump, but it's always such a fun time getting to work with them. I've been at Valley View Elementary for a lot of my experience and everyone there is absolutely amazing. So, I love going there. I've also been to East York Elementary, that's where the third-grade classroom was and that was a really fun experience as well.
Rachael West:
So you got some time in special ed and autistic support, you said and after your experience, you're drawn more to the little littles?
Grace Rinehart:
Yes and no.
Rachael West:
And the autistic support.
Grace Rinehart:
Yeah, so with the littles it's definitely so much ... You have to make sure you know what you're doing and you're organized because they're kind of chaotic and all over the place. So it's definitely interesting to kind of regulate that and learning how that is. Going out and working with the kids, that's one thing that's been so nice to ... It's like a trial and error type of thing.
Aaron Chapin:
Absolutely.
Rachael West:
I think that more kids should get a chance to see what that's like because I hear you saying that's something I don't think even college students going in would have thought.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
And now that she's talking about autistic support, we also work with the York Learning Center. So we have our students in the preschool and in the upper-level classrooms, which the York Learning Center is run by IU 12 and it's all special ed students. So we have our students in classrooms with students with special needs on a regular basis.
Aaron Chapin:
And it's so important, especially as you get into the college level, to get as many of those experiences as possible that you've had, Grace, already you've had again, another leg up on your colleagues to be, but it's so important because you just don't know.
You think you might know where you want to teach, but you never know until you're really in it. For myself being, I did kindergarten and first grade and third grade and fourth and fifth, it took ... There's such a difference between that and it's important.
Rachael West:
I am secondary education, so I've worked mostly seven through 12. I've taught every grade, and going into college I was certain what I wanted to do and I thought I wanted to teach algebra and trig. I was certain that's what I wanted to do. Then I got to spend some time in a middle school classroom and I was like, "Ooh, I think I kind of like this."
I student taught high school, but when I got the opportunity to teach middle school, I realized that, that was my wheelhouse. And it would've been ... Maybe I would've even got that middle-level certification for that four to eight or whatever if I had, had time to really look into it before I was already in college.
Aaron Chapin:
I'm watching Grace as she talks about being in the classroom. Unfortunately, all of you out there listening, you can't see Grace, but her face lit up as she starts talking about it. That's exactly who we need to be getting into this.
So Melissa-Ann, in what ways do you assess the effectiveness of your program? How are you going to measure student success both during the program and after they graduate? What looks like success to you?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
So, one of the things that CTE programs run is the NOCTI, that's The National Occupational Competency Testing Institute. So they run these tests at the end of every program and our CIP code has one. It's going live this year.
So, Grace will be the first class. Grace's class will be the first class to take the multiple choice part of the NOCTI test. That actually is a competency number on whether or not they're prepared for or have done their tasks well.
In addition, there's a performance measure and that performance measure hasn't been piloted yet. So, I sort of volunteered my class' tribute and they will be running the-
Aaron Chapin:
Congratulations, Grace.
Grace Rinehart:
Thanks.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
... they will be running the pilot this year for the performance part as well. And the performance part is the hands-on, the doing part of, what have you learned to do? It's lesson planning and things like that.
Aaron Chapin:
That's really exciting though. I know it's testing, but it's still exciting to see just so you can see that success, just really how your program's doing.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Absolutely, and it's a different kind of test. It really is a hands-on, like show me what you know about this thing that you're passionate about, which is why you came to tech in the first place.
Aaron Chapin:
So Grace, when you're done with this, this year, what's success look like to you?
Grace Rinehart:
See, that's a hard question to measure because there's so many things that can make you look successful, especially in education in general. But for me, I think it's going through college, getting a good teaching position and just feeling like I'm making a difference in the classrooms.
That's been my biggest, "What your why?" as Dr. P says. So that's my biggest thing, is I want to make kids love school the way that I love school. I'm so passionate about it and that's what success would look like for me.
Aaron Chapin:
And that's really what this program is. It's to inspire any desire to come back to your area after you get all your teaching. I know it's a long ways off, but any thoughts about where you might want to end up in the state?
Grace Rinehart:
See, I've thought about it and I haven't at the same time. Probably within the York area, stay local. That's probably, I would say.
Aaron Chapin:
Okay. I think that's fantastic and I think as we go around the state and we see these programs, I think there's a lot of your colleagues in high school feel some kind of desire to go back and really pay it forward. Hopefully that's what you're going to do. So guess what, Rachael?
Rachael West:
Is it pop quiz time?
Aaron Chapin:
Well, Jeff's not here so the pop quiz goes to you. Go ahead.
Rachael West:
All right, so pop quiz means that you're going to try to just answer quickly, and it's a little question here. So what do you think is the most pressing issue facing CTE education in Pennsylvania? And if you have an idea of what we could do to address it.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
I really think that CTE still gets a bad rap, right? They're these hands-on jobs and we forget that those are the people that we need to fix our cars and replumb our houses and fix our electric. So I really think we just keep having to stress how important CTE education is, and not just push kids to college degrees, but to push kids towards career options, any career options because there's so much education to be had and it's not just at a university.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah, it's not the CTEs that we grew up with.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
No.
Aaron Chapin:
They are so different, so important now, Rachael.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Absolutely.
Aaron Chapin:
So important, and I've seen it in the community where I live and my wife teaches, but also where I taught. They are such a big part of a great opportunity for our students today.
Rachael West:
I know that in this area, so York Tech students come to, but also in some of the districts now, they are starting to have their own smaller selection of options of CTE programs. I think it is starting to be recognized a little bit more about how important it is. I'm glad that we have you here to talk about it today.
Aaron Chapin:
One thing I just want to touch on briefly before we leave, you were talking about the credits at the Harrisburg Area Community College. I love hearing that your students are going to have that opportunity to get credits. Is that starting this year or down the road?
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
It should be starting in the spring.
Aaron Chapin:
That's awesome. We've heard from a number of school districts that are actually using the Educator Rising program that, as we're getting a deal finalized as we speak, by the time you listen to this, maybe it's even done, but there's a possibility of earning three-credit classes from the Penn West set of universities as well.
Rachael West:
Yeah. So they are working on having that just as a embedded piece of the Educator Rising program. And that Penn West College, it's kind of what you were talking about with those early Educator 101 kind of classes where you can be a couple of credits ahead of your colleagues when you head to college.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, and imagine leaving high school with almost, not quite a semester, but almost a semester of tuition-
Rachael West:
Already handled.
Aaron Chapin:
... already off and free to the kids, just part of this program. So it's fantastic to hear that. So, keep up the great work. This is a really ... Again, we can't stress just how important these type of programs are to help take care of the pipeline issue, Rachael. We need more inspired educators.
Rachael West:
It's great to see Grace light up when she talks about it. And when you go to the Educator Rising conference, just the amount of energy in that room, it kind of restores my hope that, that's the direction we're headed.
Aaron Chapin:
I can't wait for the spring. I can't wait to keep hearing about these different examples. So unfortunately, we are all out of time and our guest today have been the York County School of Technology Teacher Development Instructor, Melissa-Ann Pero. Thank you very much for being here.
We also had Grace Reinhardt, future educator of Pennsylvania. We can't wait for you to be in the classroom. So thank you very much.
Dr. Melissa-Ann Pero:
Thank you so much for having us.
Aaron Chapin:
And Grace, good luck. Enjoy this time. It's the best profession you can ever be in, so enjoy it.
Grace Rinehart:
Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Aaron Chapin:
You got it. Thank you both for joining us today and thanks to all our listeners for tuning in once again. Have some feedback? Got some questions for us? Want advice from Rachael? Got to send us an email. Come on, we need to start getting some emails. You guys are slacking out there. Let's get those emails out. You got to send it to podcast@psea org. Again, I'm Aaron Chapin.
Rachael West:
And I'm Rachael West.
Aaron Chapin:
And you have been listening to Duty Free Lunch. Bye for now.
Voiceover:
You've been listening to Duty Free Lunch with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Visit psea.org/podcast to learn more and don't forget to subscribe and share. Paid for by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.