Erie’s Public Schools have announced the launch of a new career and technical education program that will focus on preparing and inspiring the educators of the future.
Erie’s Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education program encompasses 18 different programs that help students find a personal path to success in fields such as automotive technology, digital media, early childhood education, engineering, construction trades and protective services.
The Aspiring Educators is a two-year program that prepares its students to become elementary and/or secondary school teachers using a curriculum that encourages students to use leadership, ethics, communication and decision-making skills in order to address the current challenges in the education field.
Students in the program will have the opportunity to learn in a classroom that they design and equip, while covering topics such as lesson preparation strategies, classroom management skills, the stages of child development, special education practices, professionalism and ethics.
The students will participate in field experiences across all grade levels where they learn from Erie’s very own Public Schools teachers.
The Aspiring Educators program is based at Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy, but it is open to junior and senior high school students from any EPS high school.
Including Erie High School, Collegiate Academy or the Patrick J. DiPaolo Student Success Center at Emerson Gridley – enrolled in the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program
This program is funded partially through the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The association was awarded a three-year, $250,000 Great Public Schools Grant from the National Education Association and was provided $10,000 toward the program’s curriculum.