Teacher Externship: Connecting Education to the Workplace

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Teacher Externship Connecting Education to the
Workplace
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Teacher Externships are..

• designed to connect classroom teachers with
  business professionals in their field of study in
  order to make students learning experiences more
  relevant to the workplace.

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Extern History
The teacher externship was formed through
two leading organizations that focus on education
reform (Houston A Challenge) and economic
development (Greater Houston Partnership). The
project has also received generous support from
the Mayors Office of the City of Houston since
its inception.
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Teacher Extern Outcomes Teachers will be
introduced to modern workplace equipment and
actual challenges in the workplace have the
chance to work together with employers to
understand what students need for
success in the workplace learn ways to connect
the classroom to the modern workplace help
employers understand the importance of classroom
instruction have a real world experience in a
career field related to their teaching field
build alliances with local employers and gain
personal mentors from the workforce
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Extern Host Outcomes Host companies will
develop a deeper understanding of the
relationship between the knowledge and skills
required in their workplace and quality teaching
and learning provide meaningful experiences
for teachers that will connect the classroom to
the modern workplace build stronger alliances
with public schools to develop a college and
workforce ready labor force identify alignment
between organization and public school core
values
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Teacher Externship Areas

• Arts
• - Community Artists Collaborative, DiverseWorks
  
• Community/Government
• City of Houston, County Commissioner, Port of
  Houston
• Communications, Media
• SBC, Houston Chronicle, PBS
• Energy
• CenterPoint, Duke, El Paso, Enbridge, Horizon
  Renewable Energy, Newfield, Shell
• Financial Services
• Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo
• Health Services
• Baylor, UT Health Science Center, Texas
  Childrens Hospital
• Hospitality
• Chilis, Houstonian
• Technology
• Hewlett Packard

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2007 Extern Week Itinerary
Monday 6/4 Breakfast/Orientation 8 a.m.
11a.m. Work with sponsor 1200 p.m. 5
p.m. Tuesday 6/5 Work at company location 8
a.m. 5 p.m. Wednesday 6/6 Work at company
location 8 a.m. 5 p.m. Thursday 6/7 Work at
company location 8 a.m. 5 p.m. Friday
6/8 Work at company location 8 a.m. 1130
a.m. Luncheon 1200 p.m. 200 p.m.
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Teacher Externships 2003 - 2007

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Measuring externship success
Houston A Challenge gauged extern week success
through

• Online surveys for sponsors and teachers
• Teacher reflections and final reports
• Sponsor reflections

And we found that
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Teacher Reflections Extern Program

• The externship experience was a big success for
  me. I wasnt sure
• what to expect, but everyone that I meet was
  so helpful and informative
• about their role. It has given me a new look
  for teaching math. Its not just
• numbers its much more then that. Im really
  excited about teaching
• Geometry this coming school year.
• I truly believe in the teacher externship.
  Teachers really get out of touch and
• need to go into industry to see how different
  industries are operated.
• Students need to know what to expect, what to
  prepare for in technical
• school or college. We as teachers need to
  know how to prepare our future
• leaders of tomorrow.

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Sponsor Reflections Extern Program

• The Houston A Challenge externship is valuable
  to all teachers.
• High school students have many science courses
  available to them, but they need to see how these
  can be applied. I realized high school teachers
  are as dedicated to their profession as we are to
  ours.
• Businesses should have on-going partnerships with
  education so we can influence the future
  workforce.
• Teachers have a passion for what they do, but
  face struggles in students connecting school to
  work. The A program provides them with real
  world examples.

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How have students been impacted?
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Measuring Student Impact
The number of students served by teacher
externs 100 teachers externs participated in
Summer 2007 X Average teaching load of 100
students 10,000 students served in the 2007 -
2008 school year
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Measuring Student Impact

• Houston A will organize several school visits
  to observe how
• teaching and learning has been impacted as a
  result of teacher lessons
• that integrate job shadowing experiences from
  the externship.
• Teachers will also participate by surveying
  their students to
• ask them about the levels of relevance and
  rigor in their
• externship lessons.