Tech Valley High School has always had the promise of not only educating students in a unique way for tomorrow's workforce, but sharing what it has learned from its non-traditional education environment.
Throughout its five-year history, Tech Valley High School has offered enrichment opportunities for educators and business leaders alike by hosting study tours, welcoming visitors and providing insight to those who seek information on project-based learning and the teaching of 21st Century skills.
Hundreds, if not thousands of business leaders, educators and others from up and down the eastern sea board and as far west as South Bend, Indiana, have made their way through TVHS' classrooms to see how school educators combine teaching 21st Century skills with project-based learning in partnerships with businesses, unions and universities.
Those efforts took a major step forward in the fall of 2009 when the school was designated by the New Tech Network as an demonstration site. The designation means that TVHS has been singled out as a national model to help improve learning for the 21st century. School administrators from around the country looking for an example of the New Tech Network’s practices at work will be referred to TVHS.
TVHS role as an education incubator was further expanded in the winter of 2010 with the creation by Capital Region and Questar III BOCES of a formal process to provide regional and state-wide dissemination of Tech Valley High School’s offerings and findings.
This new initiative supports schools in the integration and assessment of 21st century skills, such as:
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Self-direction
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Critical thinking
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Communication
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Collaboration
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Information and technology literacy.
Coaching is being conducted by Tech Valley High School teachers and administrators, including teacher Stacia Snow, who will share what TVHS has created, how the process was integrated and what faculty and staff have learned through the process.
Guidance is also provided on how to work cooperatively with businesses and business leaders — a unique and highly successful area of the TVHS experience.
Customized offerings include, but aren’t limited to:
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Teacher and administrator shadowing
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Teacher internships
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Coaching
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Support in the assessment of 21st century skills through rubrics
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Assistance in developing an implementation plan.
Click here for a complete list of professional development offerings.
For more information on the service, call Laura Lehtonen at (518) 464-3999 or email her at laura.lehtonen@neric.org
Click here for a list of study tours.
To register for a tour, click here.
