Blog 4: Communication in Career & Technical Education (Skyline Welding Program) REVISED

   

     Typically, I spend most of my teaching day is spent in a 30 x 30 classroom with no windows, so I often know little about what is happening outside the 200 building! Even in the hallway, I am surrounded by nothing except English teachers. Don't get me wrong--I like being a part of the English department, but occasionally, it's good to see other parts of the school and talk with friends and colleagues in other departments, so . . . this week, I decided to get out and about and find out what my friends are doing in professional writing and social media. As serendipity would have it, the first person I ran into was Mike Drobitsky, the welding teacher. He invited me over to see what his kids are doing and discuss professional communication with him. This turned out to be exactly what I was looking for (even though I didn't know it at the time!)

     Mike, or "D," as he is often affectionately called by both colleagues and students, was teaching his Advanced Welding class when I stopped by. I was impressed by the work the students were doing. They all got to work on their respective projects right away with no long instructions from D. In fact, it looked more like a professional welding shop than a classroom because of the caliber of students. Over the past couple of years, D has obviously taught students the basics (safety, different types of welding, etc.), but he has also taught them to be self-starters. Each seemed to have a mission, and was actively engaged in it. Listening to them talk, it was clear I had stepped into an unique place, one in which I didn't completely belong. D and his students have their own welding vocabulary (I would have understood more in a World Languages class), but along with that, they share "ways of acting, thinking, and interacting" with each other, making it a unique discourse community (Gee 17). They have a straight-forward communication style with each other, perhaps because they have worked together for the past 2 to 3 years and know each other well, or because this is a non-nonsense type of environment. When working with fire and hot metal, it's essential to get one's point across the first time! Politeness and polite language take a backseat to keeping everyone out of the ER! Yet, this informal--dare I say, rough--style of communication is simply part of their discourse community and has nothing to do with lack of respect or manners. D and his student welders seem to like and respect other; they understand the discourse of the welding shop and,  even though it was a bit foreign to me (as someone from outside the discourse community), it works for them.

  

     The welding students work on a number of charity projects throughout the year. D point out some of the projects students had been working on. Last year, they made metal name plates of all staff members at Skyline (I absolutely love mine!):

They have made a barbecue/smoker for a barbecue champion on the professional circuit:

They also made special "rods" for tying down wheelchairs for disabled athletes who throw discus:

     As a teacher, I am in awe of the work D and his students do. D is clearly passionate about what he does, and that passion has rubbed off on his students. These students will leave high school as both high school graduates AND certified welders, which makes them immediately employable! That's certainly more than I could claim after my high school graduation!

     As a student of rhetoric and writing, I am equally impressed with D's use of social media to promote both his program at Skyline, as well as CTE (Career and Technical Education), in general. D has a Facebook page (Skyline High Weld Shop) and a news feed that goes to students and parents. For D, communication is vital, in order to keep students and parents informed, as well as promote the work of his students. D notes that many people forget that the "C" in CTE standards for "Career." In addition, too often, in the rush to teach "College and Career Readiness Skills" and increase the number of students attending college, "career" takes a backseat to "college" in far too many high schools. As a certified welder, nationally certified teacher, and avid reader, D is working hard to change that, along with the stereotypes that surround many "blue collar" careers. One of the myths surrounding these career paths is that welders, mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, etc. don't need to read; D dispels that myth right away. Embedded in his curriculum is a great deal of technical reading. The welder who can't read is a safety hazard to herself and others. To be successful and 100% skilled, the welder must be able to read technical writing.

Student heating metal in a forge

Student shaping hot metal; D supervises

Student working on his welding project

     Teenagers are more likely to use Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter than Facebook these days; however, none of those formats would meet the needs of D and his students in keeping a running record of students' accomplishments and conversation. These would be wiped away quickly in other venues. D has obviously asked some of the questions consummate professionals ask themselves about their use of social media, including, What are the problems are to be solved?" and "Is social media meeting the intended goals?" (Fagan-Smith). D's reasons for having a Facebook page devoted to his welding classes are multi-faceted. Besides promoting the literacy aspects of CTE and keeping the "career" in CTE, D wants to showcase (and maybe brag about, just a little) the work his students do. D also uses the page as a positive public relationships tool for CTE, welding, and his students. Parents, students friends (e.g., former CTE teachers) and administrators are the primary audiences of the Skyline High Weld Shop Facebook. Too often, professionals write in abstractions, forgetting their are real people reading the writing (Zinsser 166); D is not one of those. Even though D must keep his diverse audiences in mind when writing, he maintains a warm, personable style on the page, never forgetting the real audiences to whom he is communicating (Zinsser 166).

      The Facebook page is open only to those who have been invited in, which keeps inappropriate comments and unintended audience participation to a minimum. In addition, the beauty of the welding Facebook page are the ensembles of modes involved. The text is mixed genre--combinations of informative, narrative, and persuasive-- and  include multimodal aspects of the media; D has a variety of posts (written by him, students, or other "friends"), as well as pictures, short videos, and links, all purposely placed for maximum positive effect (Kress).

     Social media has been used to keep students and parents up-to-date on important school-related information for the past decade or so. The use of Facebook pages to promote a high school program, however, is fairly new. Other than D, I don't know one single high school teacher who has a Facebook page devoted to his/her classes or program at my school. I applaud D and his students on their use of social media to promote the work they do!

     On a completely "social note" . . . D has two female students in his Advanced Welding class. It was fabulous to see them there! I mentioned to them that when I was in high school, girls weren't allowed in either welding or auto mechanics classes and, even if they had been allowed, most of us wouldn't have taken either class because of peer pressure. It just "wasn't something girls did" in the 1970's. 😢

All I can say is . . .

YOU GO, GIRLS!!!!!!

Works Cited

"Business Writing: Writing in Your Job." On Writing Well: 30th Anniversary Edition, by

     William K. Zinsser, Harper Collins, 2006.



"Discourses and Social Languages." Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, by

      James Paul Gee, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2014.

Fagan-Smith, Barbara. "The Changing Role of the Communication Professional."

     https://www.iabc.com/the-changing-role-of-the-professional.

"Multimodality, Media, and Genre."Literacy in the New Media Age, by Gunter R. Kress,

     Routledge, 2003.