How can OCTE help you as a school administrator?
You may have questions about the role of technological education in your school community, and how technacy is like literacy and numeracy as an important learning connection for all subject areas.
You may have questions about pathways to professional apprenticeship as another post-secondary learning destination.
You may want info on Specialist High Skills Major programs across the province and how they are being run. What ways can different kinds of Ministry funding support your team's needs?
You may want to help a leadership team at your school. How do they become great tech department heads?
By partnering with OCTE, school administrators can keep on the pulse of what's happening in one space, and reach out to ask the important questions.
You may have questions about your teachers' emphasis course details, specialized AQs and qualifications, and what the standards are for teachers connecting to industry.
You may need to know how to look at your tech classrooms for standards and what they need to offer the best for student success. How can you support teachers to share a complex lab classroom with various tools, storage needs, and limited funds?
The connections through OCTE can help answer some of these complex needs.
It's about collaboration.
Traditionally 'tech' and 'academics' are having to collaborate even more now with STEM initiatives and the integration of technology in all core subject areas. We want to recognize French language schools, ESL students, Special Education spectrums, Indigenous peoples' perspectives, differentiated instruction, and many other layers within the education process all the time. OCTE is working with all the stakeholders across Ontario to try and address these needs.
OCTE is committed and focused on improving standardized safety requirements.
It’s a good idea to think about the standardized review of your technological education classrooms that is being done by the Ministry of Labour through a safety lens. Safety is an overall approach, a state of mind and a major focus in technological education that leads to great careers. Many Boards are currently developing their own technological education safety documents for standards and procedures, and it’s good to review a few examples from other Boards across Ontario to see how they are applying the new curriculum to build on best practices.
SafetyNET, toolSAFE, SAFEdocs and more...
If you’re a Principal wondering about how the Ministry of Labour is going to view your technological education labs, please direct your teachers to look at the resources and try and complete one of our SafetyNET templates. It will take them through a pre-project planning process, a review of the materials in their shops, the suppliers and processes they use, and encourage documentation of their safety training for themselves, their students, and classrooms. It collects safety information in one place for their own use, and respects their experience, pedagogy, and professionalism. It’s a crucial step in standardizing safety training in your technology program at your school, and can assist in communication in your school departments.
We welcome school administrators involvement and interest.
You can ask questions of the OCTE Principals Group lead at octeprincipals@octe.ca.
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