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Week 1: Teaching Tomorrow — Education & Training Careers

6th Six Weeks | Education & Training Cluster | 5 class periods (50 min each)

Lesson Objective

Students explore the Education & Training career cluster through Hats & Ladders, compare traditional and alternative certification pathways for Texas teachers, design a creative learning space using the H&L "Community Classroom" workbook activity, practice job-search skills through the H&L "Job Search Scavenger Hunt," and apply leadership skills through the Powerskills Leadership module.

Demonstration of Learning

"I can describe at least three Education & Training careers, explain the difference between a traditional teaching degree and alternative certification, design a creative learning space, and identify two leadership qualities that make a great educator."

TEKS Alignment

  • d(1)(B): Explore and describe the CTE career clusters.
  • d(1)(C): Identify various career opportunities within the Education & Training cluster.
  • d(2)(A): Research and describe applicable academic, certification, and training requirements.
  • d(2)(B): Use available resources to evaluate educational and training options.
  • d(4)(E): Explain the value of community service and volunteerism.

Materials Needed

  • Chromebooks with internet access (1 per student)
  • Hats & Ladders student accounts + H&L Workbook (Ch 6: Education and Training, pp. 91-102)
  • H&L Powerskills Workbook (Leadership module)
  • Teach.org: teach.org
  • TEA Educator Certification: tea.texas.gov/texas-educators/certification
  • BLS, High School Teachers: bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/high-school-teachers.htm
  • eDynamic Learning Unit 7.2: Getting the Training You Need
  • Xello student accounts (Discover Learning Pathways lesson)
  • Printed Education Pathway Comparison worksheet
  • Printed Community Classroom flyer template
  • Projector for modeling

Career Connection

Education professionals shape every other career field, every doctor, engineer, lawyer, and entrepreneur had a teacher who helped them get there. In Texas, there are two main pathways into teaching: the traditional route (4-year Education degree + student teaching) and the alternative certification route (any bachelor's degree + alt-cert program like iTeach or Texas Teachers). Both pathways lead to the same TEA teaching certificate. Education is also uniquely connected to community service, a core value of the profession and the natural anchor for d(4)(E).

What is Happening at Irving ISD? Education and Training is offered at Irving High School, MacArthur High School, and Nimitz High School: a multi-campus pathway students can pursue regardless of their home school. Early Childhood Education is offered specifically at Cardwell Career Preparatory Center.

Vocabulary

  • Alternative Certification: A pathway to becoming a teacher without a traditional Education degree. Requires a bachelor's degree in any field plus completion of an approved certification program.
  • Student Teaching: A semester-long supervised classroom experience required as part of a traditional Education degree.
  • Community Service: Unpaid work done to benefit the community. Community service builds career skills like leadership, communication, and empathy.
  • Educational Aide: A paraprofessional who assists teachers in the classroom. Irving ISD's Teaching & Training pathway leads to this certification.
  • TEA: Texas Education Agency, the state organization that oversees public education and teacher certification in Texas.
  • Instructional Designer: A professional who designs curriculum, courses, and learning experiences (often for online or corporate training).

Bridge to Theory (Hats & Ladders)

H&L Ch 6 (Education and Training, pp. 91-102) covers two pathways: Early Learning and Teaching and Training. The chapter includes three named workbook activities used across this week:

  • Community Classroom (Day 1): Career Climb activity. Students design an exciting new learning space for third-grade science and create a flyer to persuade teachers to use it.
  • Powerskill: Leadership (Day 2): Students create a social media campaign to address voter turnout, practicing leadership decision-making.
  • Job Search Scavenger Hunt (Day 3): Students search for real job postings matching specific clues (team-based, food industry, remote, travel) and record company names, positions, and salaries.
  • Teaching Toolbox (Day 4): Career Lab. Students become the teacher: choose a grade level (Pre-K, 2nd, 4th), pick a learning goal, and design a fun grade-appropriate learning activity with clear rules.

The Hat Research template (Ch 6, p. 97) provides structured fields for career research used on Day 2.

IISD Instructional Strategies

  • Modeling: Teacher models the Community Classroom flyer on the projector and demonstrates a sample Teaching Toolbox activity before students design their own.
  • Think-Pair-Share: After researching traditional vs. alternative certification, students think individually, pair to discuss which pathway appeals more to them, and share with the class.
  • Stop and Jot: During the H&L cluster tour, students pause twice to note one education career they did not know existed and one question they have.
  • Active Monitoring: During Teaching Toolbox design, teacher circulates with a 3-checkpoint rubric (age-appropriate goal, clear rules, activity).

Week at a Glance

Day Focus Key Activities Deliverable
1 Education Cluster + Community Classroom H&L cluster tour + Community Classroom learning space design (Ch 6) Learning space design + persuasive flyer
2 Cert Pathways + Leadership Traditional vs. alt-cert research + Powerskills Leadership campaign + Hat Research Pathway Comparison worksheet + leadership campaign
3 Job Search Scavenger Hunt H&L Job Searching Steps + Scavenger Hunt activity (Ch 6) + Xello Discover Learning Pathways Completed Scavenger Hunt chart
4 Teaching Toolbox + Community Service Teaching Toolbox grade-level activity design (Ch 6) + community service reflection Teaching Toolbox activity + service reflection
5 Irving ISD Pathways + eDynamic 7.2 Irving ISD pathway map + eDynamic Unit 7.2 + H&L favorites Pathway selection + eDynamic progress

Formative Assessment

  • Community Classroom design and persuasive flyer (Day 1): d(1)(B), d(1)(C)
  • Pathway Comparison worksheet + Hat Research template (Day 2): d(2)(A), d(2)(B)
  • Job Search Scavenger Hunt completion (Day 3): d(1)(C)
  • Teaching Toolbox activity quality (Day 4): d(1)(C), d(4)(E)

Summative Assessment

Education Career Portfolio (Day 5): Students submit (1) Community Classroom design + flyer, (2) Pathway Comparison worksheet, (3) Job Search Scavenger Hunt chart, (4) Teaching Toolbox activity, and (5) one-paragraph reflection on whether teaching fits their career interests. Scored on education career knowledge (d(1)(B), d(1)(C)), pathway research accuracy (d(2)(A), d(2)(B)), and community service connection (d(4)(E)).

Differentiation

Scaffolded Learning

  • Provide sentence starters for the Community Classroom flyer: "My space is a _. Teachers should sign up because . Students will get to __."
  • Offer a simplified Pathway Comparison with one row pre-filled as an example.
  • Provide a printed list of Education hats so students who struggle to navigate the app still get exposure.
  • Allow students to describe hypothetical community service if they have limited real experience.

Extensions

  • Students research the Texas teacher shortage in a specific subject (math, science, special ed, bilingual) and propose how alternative certification could help.
  • Interview a teacher at your school about their pathway and present findings.
  • Compare Texas teacher salaries to three other states and analyze whether pay affects teacher supply.

ELL Language Support

  • Pre-teach: Education = Educación, Certification = Certificación, Community Service = Servicio comunitario, Volunteer = Voluntario, Learning Space = Espacio de aprendizaje
  • Bilingual Community Classroom flyer template with Spanish sentence stems
  • Pair ESL students with bilingual peers during pathway comparison research
  • Education careers have strong visual context for ESL students — they interact with teachers daily