On Mar. 31, incoming freshmen came to the high school to look at the CTE classes, which lets them see what they can be interested in high school classes and career-wise. A teacher for the technology CTE class, Ryan Barnes, says that it’s beneficial for the students to come so they can ask questions and find out what’s available to them.
“It lets them know what class opportunities that they could have in high school. I think that they don’t fully understand what is available to them, and it offers them an opportunity to ask us questions,” Barnes said.
A teacher of the ag CTE program at Hallettsville, Christie Michalick, finds that even if students are not going to college, they can get certificates through the school and go straight into the workforce.
“Not everybody is going to take a college career path, so I feel like more people are open to technical education and our programs can give you an introduction into that and will give you some skills that will lead into that, and if that’s not your strong point anyway and you plan to go straight into the work force then you are definitely going to get skills that are going to help you jump into that too, and we’ll prepare you for college as well, but this will give you a lot more options,” Michalick said.
Having the eighth graders coming in right before they enter high school could help find something that can be their future career like what happened with the CTE teacher of kinesiology, Shannon Flores, it’s better for them to be taking the classes immediately so that they can get ahead or find out if it’s what they really want to go into.
“Just to get them started early, you might think it’s a lot of hard work, but it can be entertaining, it can be something joyous, and it can be a lasting career like mine,” Flores said.
Having them come in early can also help with misconceptions, with ag where kids feel like they have to raise an animal or be a farmer. If you do ag there’s a lot more to it.
“If they have an open mind and they’re positive and they realize that there are a lot of different opportunities, some of them they kind of have a preconceived notion that agriculture education is just about the sows, cows, and plows, those kids it’s a little harder to reach them, and a little harder to show them that there are other things out there,” Michalick said.
These CTE classes are able to help students gain skills that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
“These are classes that adhere to life after high school; they’ll learn things that they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives,” Barnes said.
