The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Virtual expo on career tech programs set
Lake Shore Compact instructors find new ways to engage students in their trades despite learning format changes
Among the ever-growing list of organizations turning to virtual programs to safely continue traditional events amid the novel coronavirus pandemic is Lake Shore Compact.
It announced a virtual expo will be held on Jan. 28 to showcase its high school career tech programs.
Lake Shore Compact, a consortium among the Mentor, Euclid, and Wickliffe school districts, offers a variety of career tech programs for high school juniors and seniors from the three districts which allow them to earn industry-recognized credentials and experience in their chosen fields before entering the workforce or higher education.
This school year the programs have been in a hybrid format, or fully virtual depending on the host district.
Compact Director Joseph Glavan said that they usually hold a large yearly expo event open to Mentor, Euclid and Wickliffe 10thgraders and their families to get a look at the assortment of programs. It is typically held in an auditorium, which was not going to be feasible this year.
Instead, he said they undertook the process of creating an entirely virtual presentation for each of the programs they offer — such as auto service technology, welding, culinary arts and criminal justice.
“During our expo, families will have the opportunity to join live Zoom presentations of our programs, take virtual tours of the classrooms, interact with the teachers and students, and get a “feel” of what each program has to offer,” Glavan said.
He added that families can register to look at up to three different programs, and the virtual 3D classroom tours, which are already available to view on the website, are very detailed — students will be able to examine where they might be sitting during class, doing lab work, or working on cars in the case of the automotive technology program.
“It’s such an individualized experience,” Glavan said.
He said that the opportunity this year to redo their website in order to make it more interactive and add the virtual tours has been a “silver lining” amid the challenging year in academics. Glavan said it was not something they could offer before the pandemic, but intend on keeping and updating the virtual tours indefinitely now.
Glavan said he hopes expo attendance will be higher than ever since sophomores and their families will not have to travel anywhere this year to learn about their different programs.
The career tech programs themselves have undergone many format changes over the past year as well — Glavan said that since Mentor and Euclid classes have been either virtual or hybrid, and the programs are primarily hosted by those two districts, staff in Lake Shore Compact programs had to likewise find new ways to teach career tech classes.
Glavan said an example of the new practices instructors had to implement in order to stay connected to students can be found in their construction management program.
“Working at the Ohio Carpenters Union, our construction management instructors were able to adjust the traditional textbook curriculum to a new more accessible online-based curriculum that is able to be accessed by all students and will still allow them to earn their Ohio Department of Job and Family Services recognized Pre-Apprenticeship certificate,” he said.
“When Mentor Schools pivoted to online learning in December, instructors Jim Capel and Mike Glodowski Zoomed live from our renovation home and provided tutorials for students,” he added. “Likening it to a show that would be on HGTV, we jokingly referred to their class as ‘Tool Time with Jim and Mike’.”
He added that they also remodeled the Allied Health program’s facilities, which is a popular program that allows students to earn their State-Tested Nursing Assistant certification. The classroom and lab located in Mentor High School can now accommodate more students, and allow them to take their state test in the learning lab as opposed to needing to go to an outside medical facility.