Summer teacher externships announced

06/03/2015 - SCOE has announced the development of a second consecutive year of summer teacher externships, bringing Sonoma County businesses and career pathway teachers together with a shared goal of increasing the connection between career-focused classroom instruction and the workplace. Representatives from the following businesses and high school career pathway programs will participate in externships scheduled for June 2015:

• Benziger Winery and Sonoma Valley High’s Agriculture Pathway
• Buck Institute and Piner High’s Health Science and Biotechnology Pathway
• Keysight Technologies and Windsor High’s Axis STEM Academy
• Labcon and Montgomery High’s Sustainability with Alternative Technologies Pathway
• SC Barns and Elsie Allen High’s Agriculture Mechanics Pathway
• Santa Rosa Police and Elsie Allen High’s Public Safety Pathway
• Vintners Inn and Healdsburg High’s META Pathway and Windsor High’s Vineyard Academy
• Zimmerman and Associates and Sonoma Valley’s School Engineering Pathway

Throughout the externships, teachers will engage in activities with business and industry representatives to learn how classroom content and learning strategies are applied in the workplace. The goal is to increase teachers’ ability to connect theory and practice and bring an understanding of workplace practices into the classroom. Educators and industry representatives will share their experiences, exchange valuable insights into the demands and challenges of education and the modern workplace, and join together to make learning more meaningful for students.

As a result, teachers will expand their industry-based knowledge, then transfer it to the curriculum by designing and implementing new classroom activities, projects, and work-based learning opportunities for students. Students will have the opportunity to work in groups as they engage in cooperative learning and real-life, problem-based assignments.