l. Have displays of classroom activities and products:
- in your classroom
- in your building
- in public places
- in businesses, doctors’ offices
- at Parent Teacher Conferences
- other sites
2. Develop brochures describing your program:
- see above
3. Make flyers promoting special events:
- see above
4. Have calling cards available at all times. (Networking opportunities)
5. Have collateral promotional pieces available to parents, staff, potential students, advisory councils, and others.
6. Conduct Career Investigation Classes in your School–Be sure that information about your CTE program is included in the class content.
7. Offer yourself as a "career" speaker, offer to assist with field trips, offer to help find "other" appropriate outside speakers, etc.
8. Use Career Posters - Industry trade associations, manufacturers, business groups often provide professionally done career posters, or create your own. Display them in your classroom or lab, and post them around the school in the guidance area, career investigation classroom, hallways, etc.
9. Send mailings to Parents - Beginning with a letter of introduction to parents before school begins, mail updates and progress report letters to parents at least quarterly. Accentuate the Positive!
10. Arrange Career Presentations for Elementary/Middle School Students. Involve your students by having them do the presentations! Help them develop an outline, identify a few salient talking points, and provide time for them to practice. You should make the initial contact with the appropriate staff at the "other" schools, but have your students make all subsequent contacts and arrangements.
11. Meet at least quarterly with your building principal to bring her/him up-to-date on what is happening in your CTE program. Look at it as a briefing, focus on student accomplishment, be positive, speak of challenges you face, describe present needs, and don't forget to express gratitude.
12. Give a presentation to the School Board - Do all of the recommended things suggested in # 6 above, as well as have one or more students join you and present (See # 5 above).
13. Invite Your School Administrators to Competitive Events - If your youth group is involved in competitive events, inviting your Principal, Vice-Principal, Supt., etc. can pay big dividends. It is a great way to "show-off" your students. Invite them early.
14. Host a T-shirt logo design contest:
-give a prize to winner
-have t-shirts made (in your school, if possible)
-sell t-shirts as a fund raiser
-provide t-shirts to students in CT Classes
-other ideas?
15. Decorate Your Classroom Door - Many people pass your door each day who are unaware of what you and your students do in your classroom/lab. Have photos of students at work posted on your door. You can also have a Door Decoration Contest with your students
16. Host an All-School Technology Night - Think about this as an event that showcases student skills and competence. Co-sponsor this activity with other CTE staff. Invite the community, parents, colleagues, students, administrators and Board Members, friends, relatives, neighbors, etc.
17. Invite timely and relevant speakers from business and industry to your classes. Prepare your students on how to welcome and host guests. Make certain that this is a positive reflection of your students, your program, and your school. Have students write thank you notes.
18. Participate in CTE Week:
- Get CTE Week information into school newsletters, school newspapers, community newspapers, and student announcements
- Have the Supt., and/or Mayor issue a CTE Week proclamation
-Host a reception(breakfast, luncheon, coffee) for all staff and have students serve.
-Conduct a community open house for CTE Programs in your district. Make sure students are there to show what they are learning.
19. Schedule Related Field Trips – Ensure that a press release including photos follows the field trip. Don't forget to highlight the site you visited. It is good PR for them as well as your CTE program.
20. Utilize Alumni from your CTE Program - Graduates from your CTE program are a rich resource for your students. Use them as guest speakers, hosting job shadowing students from your program, tour guides on college campuses, advisory council members, etc.
21. Poster Contest
-see ideas listed under the T-shirt contest
22. Create a "Computer Buddy" Program – Match your students who have advanced computer skills with "younger" students from the middle school and/or elementary levels to serve as mentors.
23. Bulletin Board Contest
-see ideas listed under poster and T-shirt contest
24. E-Resumes and Portfolios – Have your students work with the Career Investigation classes and other students in your school to develop resumes and portfolios via the Internet.
25. Sponsor a Student Run Web Business - Students from Fertile-Beltrami high school offer web page design and site maintenance services to their local businesses, and they charge for their services. The funds are used for student scholarships. Contact Yvonne Halvorson at 218-945-6953, for more information.
26. Align your CTE curriculum with selected local, national, and/or college standards so that your students can earn a "credential" in addition to credit for your courses to create “Value-Added" Programming. Some examples are:
- ASE in the automotive area
-CISCO in the computer networking area
-MOUS in the software area
-Registered Youth Apprenticeships
-local credentialing
-Advanced standing College Credits in high school
27. Door Decoration Contest-have CTE teachers in your building decorate their doors with career area appropriate decoration. Give the winner a gift certificate or other incentive.
28. Arrange for Students to Job Shadow in the Community - Your students can be your best ambassadors for your CTE program. Use your business partners to help locate shadowing sites. Conduct a brief training session for the Shadowing Hosts. Prepare you students with tips on proper behavior, attire and confidentiality in the work place.
29. Give Annual Awards -Be sure your students who have earned skill certificates, college credits, youth organization awards, etc. are included in local student awards programs. If no such award program exists in your school, you and the other CTE teachers can create your own. (Also include press releases for the recipients.)
30. Movie Ads - The marketing committee at the N.E. Metro secondary program has develop a movie ad marketing initiative that is very creative and works well. A movie ad is run at local movie theaters before movies begin. Look for multiple screen opportunities. For more information, contact Mike Smoczyk at 651-415-5576.
31. Use Career Pathway Info. - Identify the majors that require your articulated courses and create a handout listing the post-secondary majors to show how participation in your program broadens student opportunities. Use it as a brochure/collateral piece as listed in #2 and #5.
32. Utilize Student Organizations – Incorporate them into your classroom and community. This is some of the best PR you can get.
33. Be Involved with 8th Grade Registration - Registering 8th grade students for 9th grade is usually a challenging time for all. Any thing you can do to facilitate the process will usual be welcomed. Offer to help as needed. Make collateral pieces you have used for other purposes available to share excitement about your program, offer a display of student products, offer a display that highlights with photos your students in action, etc.
34. Invite "Others" Into Your Classroom, Lab, or Shop - INVITE! INVITE! INVITE! Invite students, parents, teachers, principals, admin. assistants, cooks, custodians, board members, community partners, counselors, news reporters, superintendent, advisory committee members, friends, etc. into your shop, classroom or lab. ALWAYS have a collateral piece prepared to give to your visitors that shares the story of your students, their accomplishments and achievements. Teach your students to show hospitality to the visitors and at any given time have a student assigned to greet and host who ever stops in.
Extend your invitations personally, face-to-face. Encourage them to stop by at their convenience. Set personal goals to extend a certain number of invitations each week and keep track of the number of visitors who stop by. Have them sign in on a guest book.
35. Use Local Advisory Council Members - Your advisory committee members are your advocates in the community. You should establish and maintain a personal relationship with each of them. They should know your program better than anyone in your community.
36. Have a Collateral Piece - ALWAYS have on hand a promotional piece to give to visitors when they visit your classroom. The piece should be simple, depict students and/or student work with photos if possible. Be creative, current and fresh.
37. Offer 1/2 Day Exploration Day for 8th Graders - You will want to include all other CTE staff in this project. Be sure to get clearance from your principal. Begin work on the project early in the school year to insure that the Exploration Day occurs prior to registration. Work closely with the middle school administrators. Use high school students to host the 8th graders.
38. Honor a CTE Student of the Month - This could be done on a program-by-program basis, or by naming one Student of the Month for all CTE programs. In advance, determine how students will be nominated for the award, selection criteria, and who will make the selection, and how or under what circumstances with the award be made each month. Be sure to promote each student each month.
39. Use State and National Competitions to Create Interest - Promote like crazy the involvement of your students in all local, regional, state, and national competitions. Consider involving your students in the Super Mileage Car, Lego League, Mindstorms, Build a Robot, Star Events, etc.
40. Give Out Bookmarks - Bookmarks are an inexpensive promotional piece when ordered in large quantities. Have info/photos of your program on the bookmarks.
41. Give Out Book Covers - Book covers are an expensive promotional piece, but consider selling sponsor ads on the back cover to off set the cost. Approach firms that want to reach the student market, Do not overlook your business partners. Be sure to have them ready at the beginning of the school term(s).
42. Give Out Buttons - Buttons are an effective way to promote your program. Have them available to give to every visitor to your program, especially student visitors. Perhaps you have a business partner who would sponsor your button promotion.
43. Photos and Articles in the Local Newspaper - The surest way to get your program promoted through the local newspaper is to develop and maintain a personal, first name basis relationship with the local newspaper reporter(s) who are responsible for school news. By providing written articles and photos you make their job easier.
44. Place a "Brag Book" in a Waiting Area - You will find waiting areas in the school office area, guidance office, district office, career center area, staff lunch room/lounge, etc. where a Brag Book could be placed. Have your students create the books and be sure to include lots of pictures.
45. Conduct an Open House for CTE Programs - Work with all of the CTE teachers on this activity. Consider piggybacking with another high traffic activity already scheduled, such as parent conferences. Send out invitations, feature student work, and consider having students serve as hosts.
46. Contact Students before School Begins - Write a brief letter of welcome to your incoming students. Tell them a bit about your classes/program, a bit about you, and that you look forward to meeting them.
47. Use School Marquees - Be attentive to the availability of marquees in your school and community. You can often get no-cost or low-cost access to them. Expect to have to schedule access well in advance.
48. Get Involved in a Community Organization - This is always a wise thing to do. Your outside involvement puts a "human face" on you, your work in the schools, your program, and the school system. You can not under estimate the value of the personal relationships you will develop by being a positive presence in your community.
49. Use "Indoor" Advertising - Take inventory of the existing indoor bulletin boards, display cases, indoor marquees, shelves, notice boards in and around high traffic areas, etc. within your building. Display samples of student work, collateral pieces, etc. Also, be mindful of indoor display opportunities in other district buildings and the community.
50. Create a Website for your Program - If you have a website development class in your school, offer your program as a class project. Perhaps you have one or more students able and willing to develop a site for you. Note: Be sure your site will be linked to the school and/or district site and decide how you will maintain the site before you begin the development process.
51. Create a Cartoon/Comic Book Promotional Piece for Students - Contact Bemidji High School for a sample of their cartoon oriented promotional piece with a Career and Technical Education theme.
52. Host a Career Fair - Contact Princeton High School at 763-389-2422 for an excellent example of an annual Career Fair. They conduct their Career Fair in concert with student registration. Literally hundreds of people attend the “Fair” each year.
53. Host Career Demonstration Day - This activity could take a couple of forms. One could feature students demonstrating their work or another could be workers from the community demonstrating some aspect of their work. Schedule this activity in a high traffic area.
54. Add Value to Your CTE Program - By aligning your curriculum with selected local, state, and national standards your students can earn credentials in addition to credits. Examples of "Value-Added" enhancements are, ASE, MOUS, CISCO, Registered Youth Apprenticeship,
Tech Prep College Credit, NAR, locally developed skill certificates, etc.
55. Participate in Career and Technical Education Week activities - Submit CTE Week information into district and/or building newsletters, school newspapers, community newspapers, student announcements, host reception for school staff and/or others, etc.
56. Get Your Students into the Community - Job Shadowing is an excellent way to get your students purposefully into the community, and while in the community they are potentially your best ambassadors. To have the desired "pr" effect, this initiative must be well planned. Use your business partners and/or advisory council member help locate local shadowing sites. It is a good idea, if possible, to meet with your Shadowing Site Hosts. Provide for them a brief list of talking points (8-10) to share with students.
57. Sponsor Annual Awards or Participate in Existing Awards Programs - This an effective way to make sure your students who have earned Skill Certificates, Tech Prep College Credits, Youth Organization Awards, etc. are recognized by a larger audience. If no such Awards Program exists, perhaps your CTE colleagues would partner with you to develop one?
58. Sponsor Contests and Competitions within your Program - Some students positively respond to competitive activities, and there are a variety of ways to do that. As a general rule, they should feature student competence and accomplishment. Offer prizes, extra credit, etc. Some ideas are:
CTE Week Slogans
Button Designs
T-shirt Designs
Posters
Bulletin Boards
Ads
Radio Spots
TV Commercials
Skits
Other Ideas
59. High School Students Present to Younger Students - Prepare your present students to serve as ambassadors/hosts/guides when you have younger, prospective students visit your program. Prepare them with 2 - 4 salient talking points to convey to the prospects.
60. Take students to visit their state legislators or arrange to have students visit the legislators when they are home in the district. Make sure students are prepared to “sell” their story on the importance of CTE Programs to the students.
61. Sponsor a Career Education Day-(Example- Career in Health Care featured on a certain day-as an added twist, ask students to dress up as if they worked in a health career for the day)
62. Service Learning-Have students come up with ideas on how service learning can be incorporated into their CTE class and use their ideas for activities in your school
63. Conduct pre and post surveys in your school at the beginning and end of the school year to see if your efforts have made a difference in the knowledge students have about CTE courses and careers.
YOUR IDEAS???
