Wyatt a semifinalist for national teachers award
Jarred Wyatt, a teacher for the high school’s Career Academy of Siloam Springs, is a semifinalist for the 2019 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.
He is one of 50 teachers from across the country and two Arkansas teachers up for the national award. Chris Weeks, a construction management teacher at Bentonville High School, is also a semifinalist.
The award program, began in 2017 by Harbor Freight Tools company founder Eric Smidt, recognizes outstanding instruction in skilled trades in U.S. public high schools and teachers who inspire students to learn a trade that prepares them for life after graduation, according to a press release from the Calabasas, Calif.,-based company.
The teachers are competing for $1 million in prize money, the release states. A group of 18 finalists will be announced in October, the release said. Three first-place winners will each receive $100,000, including $70,000 for their schools and $30,000 for the individual. Fifteen secondplace winners will each receive $50,000, including $35,000 for their school and $15,000 for the individual, the release states.
Wyatt’s background in trade education began at a young age. He grew up on a farm in St. Joe, Ark., and also worked for his dad’s construction business. He graduated from Marshall High School in 2007 and went on to earn a degree in agriculture education from the University of
Arkansas in 2012.
Before becoming a teacher, Wyatt spent five years working for industries such as John Deere, J.B. Hunt and Nance Machine. The experience was key in preparing him to teach trade skills, he said.
Wyatt began teaching in the Siloam Springs School District five years ago. He first taught engineering and robotics at the middle school before moving to the CASS program last fall.
CASS is a part of Siloam Springs High School’s career and technical education program. In CASS, students learn skills such as industrial maintenance, welding, machining, HVAC and mechatronics, preparing them for careers in the skilled trades. The curriculum is guided by the National Center for Construction Education and Research testing standards, Wyatt said.
Students also learn soft skills, such as how to succeed in a job interview and the importance of showing up to work consistently and on time, he said.
Currently the program has about 45 students and graduated around 15 students last spring.
“I get a lot of calls from people looking for jobs, wanting kids from this program, because they know what the CASS kids are capable of,” Wyatt said.
Many people are retiring from trade skills and there aren’t enough young people coming out of school to fill the slots, he said. There are more jobs available and they pay higher than when Wyatt graduated from high school 10 years ago, he said.
CASS gets students interested in those jobs, connects them with the people running the companies that will hire them and gives them the skills needed to go into an interview and feel confidence, he said.
“It’s something I’m real passionate about because a lot of people don’t understand you don’t have to go to college in order to get a good job,” Wyatt said. “It helps, but I have kids coming out of this program and going to work, making more money than I am now or going to school for a year and get out making twice as much money as I am. They’re not doctors, they’re not engineers, they’re not lawyers, they’re kids going out and working with their hands.”
Wyatt’s passion for teaching trade skills aligns with the goals of Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence program.
The competition aims to drive a greater understanding and investment in skilled trade education, believing that access to quality skilled trades education gives high school students pathways to graduation, opportunity, good jobs and provides the country with a needed workforce, the press release states.
“Skilled trades teachers help hundreds of thousands of students each year experience the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that comes from learning a trade,” Smidt said. “The teachers, their students and skilled tradespeople everywhere, too often don’t receive the respect and gratitude they deserve. Without them, construction would halt, homes, cars and appliances would fall into disrepair and our infrastructure would crumble. We are thrilled to be able to honor and elevate the importance of their work.”
In the next round of competition, semifinalists will be asked to respond to online expert-led video learning modules designed to solicit their insights and creative ideas about teaching practices. The contenders will be asked how ideas from the modules might be used to inspire students to achieve excellence in the skilled trades. Two rounds of judging will occur by independent panels of reviewers and winners will be announced on Oct. 24.