CTE is officially a part of mayors plan!  In 2015, our Mayor released ONENYC, the plan for a strong and just city based on four lenses: growth, sustainability, resiliency and equity.

Last week, City Hall reported on the progress on the each of the four lenses. CTE is repeatedly called out in ONENYC as a valuable, high impact program and a critical part of the current NYC workforce development plan, codified in the Career Pathways report.   Download the full report and read about CTE in pages 62-64.

Long Island City – In celebration of Pi day and Women’s History Month, the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s STEAM education initiative hosted 20 female high-school students from two high schools located in Queens, NY (High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture and Robert F. Wagner Jr. Secondary School for Arts and Technology) at the 2016 Introduce a Girl to Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Day.  This event was developed in an effort to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, Architecture/Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) related disciplines to young women and to establish an inclusive path for New York City’s youth into the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) fields. 

Grady senior Malique Harry, who is also a member of the Superintendent's Youth Leadership series, competed in the Monroe College Best High School Pastry Chef competition and won second place, earning a $36,000 scholarship. He also won two additional cash scholarships at the Annual C-CAP competition. He was coached by his culinary teachers Ms. Eva Yourman and Ms. Dawn Watson. Directly above are photos of Malique with the dean of Monroe and his prize winning mousse. For a complete list of winners, please click on more info.
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GNYADA hosted the 2016 New York Automotive Technology Competition finals in February. Beating out 11 state-wide team, Nicholas Bhurasingh and Julio Pineda, along with coach Miguel Sierra from Thomas A. Edison High School in Jamaica, won top ranking.  

The team went on to compete at nationals. They performed in high fashion, and joined the ranks amongst the top 10 in the nation.  Cheers all around to Thomas Edison, their teams and a job well done.

This recognition honors the hard work, vision and drive these students have to excel in robotics and give back to their community.  

With another strong win added to their list, the Robo Tigers are set to compete in the 2016 First Robotics Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 27-30th.

The High School of Fashion Industries selected 5 Finalists at their 2016 Industry Partnership Program, with corporate partner, Kleinfeld.  Students will continue on to final judging at Kleinfeld, on June 1st, 2016.

This spring, 82 high school teams from all five boroughs competed during the NYC High School Mock Trial preliminary rounds at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, Brooklyn Federal Courthouse and Queens Supreme Courthouse. The Justice Resource Center, the NYC coordinator, invites attorneys and federal judges as volunteers to judge the rounds. Students took on the roles of prosecutors, defense, and witnesses in the case The People v. Kelly Roberts, written by the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA).  Students were coached by their Law Academy teachers and MENTOR attorneys.

Honorable Torres declared High School of American Studies at Lehman College the Mock Trial champion at this year's final round on April 18 at the Southern District of New York's Ceremonial Courtroom. The American Studies team competed against Tottenville High School. Several participating schools, attorneys and educators came to watch as finalists gave their arguments. The two finalist teams will represent NYC at the NY State Mock Trial rounds in Albany, NY, from May 15-17, 2016. 

On Friday, April 15th NPower – The Community Corps coordinated a site visit for 30 students from Queens Vocational and Technical High School (QVTHS) to Bank of America in Manhattan. The structured site visit, or job shadow, aimed to de-mystify tech careers in finance for QVTHS students by introducing them to a select group of professionals at the Bank. The students heard from professionals involved in information security, trading floor tech support, infrastructure and networking, IT project management, customer experience, risk management, and compliance.   

The students received a warm and enthusiastic welcome followed by an introduction to Bank of America by Allyn L Shaw – Chief Operating Officer – Workspace Services. Professionals from the Chief Technology Organization (CTO), Risk, Compliance, and other teams shared their personal stories on how their careers at Bank of America began.

In addition to learning about how a bank functions, and how an entrepreneur could get approved for a business loan, students also received great advice on always being open to new ideas and opportunities.
The highlight of the visit for the students was the opportunity to view the trading floor from the visitor platform and to learn firsthand how trading has evolved, from runners taking orders across the trading floor 15 to 20 years ago, to the more sophisticated computer trading of today.  All the students commented, “I thought the trading floor would be louder, like in the movies.”  The Bank of America tech team responded, “Technology fixed that.”

In April, a cohort of CTE educators completed the first leg of a professional development series, designing and aligning curriculum to 21st century academic, technical and sustainability standards.
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CTE educators from similar content areas collaborated, and got acquainted with tools to innovate their curricula while meeting the NYS benchmarks for program quality. As CTE educators completed this round of PD, they showcased their curriculum design and mapping exercise to industry experts within a curriculum council structure. Each council is set up as pod of CTE teachers, industry experts and postsecondary partners. Curriculum councils have been developed in three sectors- Construction and Installation; IT and Business and Finance.

DT&L is hosting two myDOE Week events next week. MyDOE Week is a monthly series of learning and engagement activities designed to welcome new employees and to inform current employees by helping them learn more about the NYCDOE’s mission, structure, and strategic priorities; and provide opportunities to create interpersonal relationships and information networks. All Central employees are encouraged to participate!
 
Please join the Framework for Great Schools in Action Workshop this Wednesday, April 27 from 2:00-3:00pm.

Framework for Great Schools in Action Workshop
Register here
Wednesday, April 27
2:00pm -3:00pm
52 Chambers Street, 2nd Floor Conference Room
Join the Division of Teaching and Learning (DT&L) to learn about the Division’s support to create the conditions for high quality teaching and learning throughout our schools. Participants will learn about the DT&L instructional vision, theory of action, and how the Vision for School Improvement is driving learning and growth within Central and across our schools. All central staff are invited to attend!

The Office of Postsecondary Readiness is looking forward to continuing to support you and your school in ensuring that all students graduate college and career ready, and we are pleased to announce this year’s College Signing Day as a part of those efforts.
 
College Signing Day is New York City’s adoption of National College Signing Day, a program of the First Lady's Reach Higher initiative.  College Signing Day is held on/around May 1 to coincide with the date that most seniors must inform a college of their plans to enroll. Here in NYC, we are on Spring Break the week prior, we encourage you to have as many seniors as possible make decisions by Friday before the break (April 22) and celebrate them for making those choices on Monday, May 2nd. We hope you choose to join us as part of this exciting effort!


Why host a College Signing Day?
     ·         To recognize all students for their postsecondary plans
     ·         To support students to make a decision that is best match and fit for each student
     ·         To strengthen your college-going culture and wrap up the school year with a celebration
 
To participate, PLEASE REGISTER TODAY.


Once you are registered, start planning some great College Signing Day activities! Activities to help students make a college decision should happen throughout the month of April, leading to a culminating “Signing Day” event on May 2. For example, these activities can be:
 
     ·         Meeting with students to help them compare financial aid award letters and other information that can
               help your students when making a decision of where to enroll in the fall.
     ·         Hosting an assembly, pep rally, pizza party or school wide celebrations on May 2nd.
     ·         Participating in social media by using the #ReachHigher #CollegeSigningDay #CollegeAccessforAll
               hashtags on facebook and twitter
 
Resources to help you plan:
     ·         Free training for NYC college advisers on how to effectively compare financial aid award letters and
               packages. College financial aid letters are inconsistent and confusing, learn how to make sense of
               these critical documents in order to help students make an informed college choice. Click here to
               register.
     ·         The NYC College Signing Day Toolkit will provide you tools for how to support your students make    
               informed decisions, checklists for hosting successful May 2nd activities and more!  Click here for toolkit
               (please disable pop-up blocker from web browser to see this document).
     ·         National Reach Higher College Signing Day resources- Toolkit  and  Registration and speaker
                request form 
 
Thank you in advance for your willingness to participate in this important college planning event. Your participation will support our students make informed choices encourage students and their families to make college a part of their future.

Volunteer for the 4A's HS ReACT Competition on May 11!  Click HERE and register today.
 
The ReACT event is a one day holistic advertising competition, where students from IAM (HS for Innovation in Advertising & Media) and MECA (Manhattan Early College School for Advertising) will be paired with industry professionals in order to deliver a plan based on a client brief. Students (6-7 members) and their professional counterparts (2-3) are paired together to deliver a campaign strategy, media plan and creative execution that delivers on the brief.
 
Feel free to join as an individual, 2-3 paired professionals or to be on the same as a specific student you may have met in the past. Feel free to forward to your agency counterparts or other industry professionals who might be interested. 
 
Location: Manhattan (details to follow)
Time: 9-3p or 10-4p.  
 
Brand hint: Some people sport a classic look, while others create a design all their own! ; )
 
See you on 5/11/16!