After many years, freshmen will finally get to be taught by the right teachers. photo collage by Ben Scherer and Emanuel Morales-Gomez
The 20+ year old CCT program at TJ is experiencing a highly anticipated, impactful change.
The Careers + Communication Technology (CCT) foundations class has been a part of Thomas Jefferson High School for many years. It is a class typically offered only to freshmen students at Thomas Jefferson. The class covers all the pathways students can take through the CCT program. The program at TJ lasts for four years, offering training in audio production, business, computer science, graphic design, journalism, photography, robotics and video production. Robotics and business are not covered in the CCT foundations class, as they have their own freshman intro classes.
In past years, the CCT program had been run in a very specific way, where one teacher would teach the foundation class for all of the pathways. However, now students rotate to different pathways every five weeks. So, in a rotation, a student learns about one pathway at a time taught by the teacher who specializes in that pathway. Then five weeks later, they rotate to a different teacher who specializes in a different pathway. An example of this is a group of freshmen learning about journalism taught by Eileen Adair in the first five weeks of school. Then in week six, they switch to graphic design taught by Jonathan Howard. Below are the six pathways taught in the foundations class:.
Audio production is taught by Mark Mallaney, and is a relatively new class at TJ. Audio production has been taught at TJ for four years. Mallaney aims to teach recording and editing in Logic Pro. He also teaches his freshman students how to “arrange different audio clips to build energy in a song.” Mallaney is interested in teaching music to students, as he states that music is a “great joy in my life, so I like to pass that on to my students.”
Computer Science is taught by Patrick Sasser who is relatively new to the community, and he is teaching the programming section of the CCT program. The class teaches students how to make websites using both HTML and CSS, and using helper languages tools like Visual Studio Code. Sasser hopes that his students will know how to create awesome websites using HTML and CSS.
Graphic Design is taught by Howard, who has been at TJ for three years. In his foundation class, he teaches freshmen the basics of graphic design. This includes an introduction to using Photoshop and Illustrator. Howard wants his students to know how to express themselves by being able to “create new and interesting visuals,” and have fun doing so.
Journalism is taught by Adair, who has been at TJ for 20 years. She teaches freshmen through two rotations, journalism in the first rotation and photojournalism in the second. In her journalism unit, Adair teaches freshmen how students “can consume media” and “how to be a critical eye so people don’t believe everything they see or hear in the media.” She also gives students several opportunities to work on creative writing projects “to open students up to writing, particularly for reluctant writers.” After her rotation she wants her students to confidently express themselves through writing in their other classes. Through the use of creative assignments, Adair hopes to help students gain their confidence through writing.
Photography is taught to upperclassman CCT students by Lea Rabon, but she is not going to teach in the foundations team due to her Yearbook class. As a result, Adair will teach this rotation showing her students basic skills in Photoshop. She also teaches students storytelling through the use of photos.Video Editing is taught by Grant Laman, but he is not going to teach in the foundation class due to the Spartan Edition, so Sasser will teach this pathway of the program. During this rotation, Sasser teaches the freshmen video editing skills in Adobe Premiere Pro. Sasser wants his students to learn how to “edit videos appropriately” and create belief among his students that they “can use Adobe Premiere to create awesome videos.” This includes how to use ultra key effects to cut out green screen, use effects to create transitions between clips, audio gain, record voice overs, and add motion sittings like pans and zooms.
One opinion the CCT staff has shared is that the new rotation is a positive change.Adair explained how she personally felt like she was “spending more time teaching students to be prepared for everybody’s else’s classes.” Now she is able to build a base/structure for her journalism class by teaching it, instead of the other classes not related to her pathway. Mallaney stated a similar issue—he explained how his class was also not represented in the foundation class, so students were not signing up for it. Sasser further emphasized the necessary start of the rotations class, stating “there was a lack of expertise like how I couldn’t teach journalism in a certain way that it needed to be taught.”
The new addition of the evolved CCT rotations will allow students to experience what classes will really be like due to more individualized teaching. All the teachers emphasized that it did not make sense for a teacher to teach a subject that they do not normally teach. Howard explained the new system, stating “it’s exciting that we are letting students during freshman year taste all the options there are and meet the teachers in the different areas and explore things in a way that you can in a rotation.”
