Family and Consumer Sciences

Part 4 of 4

Family and Consumer Sciences, which you might remember as Home Economics, is alive and well at Opelika High School.  In fact, Martha Cates is in the process of revamping the courses that are offered in order to help Opelika City Schools meet the new accountability standards.  Throughout the years, this program has provided Opelika High School students with the opportunity to learn about safe food handling, sewing, childcare, and a variety of other essential life skills.  Mrs. Cates has recently begun to grow the Early Childhood Education of this program as well.  It is her vision to offer students not just a classroom discussion about how children learn, but to provide her students with hands-on experiences in an elementary classroom setting.  Students are taking their book learning into actual classrooms in our community to truly grasp the role that teachers play in the lives of young children.  Through partnerships with Morris Avenue Intermediate and Jeter Primary Schools, Mrs. Cates’ students are partnered with an experienced classroom teacher and allowed to go into their classroom multiple times a week to work with children of various ages in an educational setting. 

While Mrs. Cates is preparing students for possible careers in childcare or education, she is also preparing them for jobs and careers in the food industry.  The next time you walk into any restaurant or food establishment you need to look for the “ServSafe” certification.  This will tell you that someone in that building has been trained and certified to properly handle and store the food you are planning on eating.  Mrs. Cates has been certified to give this test to her students while they are in her Food and Nutrition class.  This means that students can receive their “ServSafe” certification while still in high school, which provides our community with a well-trained and qualified workforce.  When a student who has this certification applies for a job in a fast-food restaurant or other food service industry, they have a better chance of getting a job and then being promoted to higher paying jobs because they come to the table with an established set of skills. 

So, the next time you walk into a restaurant and see their “ServSafe” certificate, remember that at Opelika High School, Mrs. Cates preparing her students help you eat safe food.

Health Sciences at Opelika High School

Part 3 of 4: Health Sciences

At the beginning of this school year, 2014-2015, Opelika High School was able to offer two Health Science courses that we had not been able to offer in previous years: Sports Medicine and Introduction to Pharmacy.  While it might seem easy to add different courses to the master schedule that our students are interested in or that relate well to our community, it is not.  Many decisions had to be made well before the start of the school year to prepare our school, students, and faculty for this change.  The first phase of this came when Opelika City Schools Superintendent, Dr. Mark Neighbors, appropriated another teaching unit to Opelika High School so that an additional Health Sciences teacher could be brought on board to help teach some of the new courses as well as the foundations course that prepares students for the more rigorous courses.  We then applied for and were awarded a grant from the Alabama State Department of Education to help pay for the new equipment needed for this expansion.  Thankfully, we had a Career and Technical Education Department Head, Tiffany Yelder, and an amazing Health Sciences teacher, Leigh Kemp, that made this process very manageable.  Finally, after many interviews Opelika High School Principal Dr. Farrell Seymore was able to find the right person for this new position, and he hired Natalie Downs.  All this happened prior to any student stepping foot into one of the new courses we were offering.  However, we knew we were on the right path after spring registration took place and we had over 120 students interested in the new courses as well as the Health Sciences program in general.

Since the beginning of this school year, it has been a pleasure to walk into the rooms of our two Health Science teachers and see them engaging students in conversations and activities that were designed to allow them to think about the many different aspects of careers in the healthcare industry.  Both Ms. Kemp and Ms. Downs have also had many wonderful guest speakers from Veterinarians to Pharmacy Technicians come to their classes and talk to students about the different aspects of their jobs. 

I have also had the opportunity to speak with Leigh and Natalie about the things they are having students participate in throughout the community and the ways in which they are seeking to continue growing the Health Sciences Program at Opelika High School.  The number of community events our students have become involved in is a great testament to their teachers’ determination to expose them to more than just the classroom.  Opelika students volunteer at EAMC, the Community Emergency Response Team, Blood drives, Auburn University football games, along with awareness and philanthropic campaigns throughout the community.  All this while still teaching and preparing students to compete in local, state, and national competitions through HOSA. 

If you live in Opelika, I am pretty sure you have noticed that the healthcare industry is a valuable part of our community.  At Opelika High School, we strive to provide students with the opportunity to leave high school with the knowledge and skills to become a valued member of our community.

Taping and ankle in Sports Medicine

Change bed sheets with a person in bed.

Looking up medications for Introduction to Pharmacy class.

Practicing injections.

Celebrating Career and Technical Education during CTE Month.

Part 2 of 4 - Fantasy Football Marketing

One of the many challenges of teaching is to find ways of teaching the course standards in a way that interests students and covers the appropriate content.   In fact, teachers are evaluated on their ability to do this.  Standard 1.2 and 1.3 of the OCS Teacher Evaluation Program state, “Activates learners’ prior knowledge, experience, and interests and uses this information.” and “Connects curriculum to other content areas and real-life settings to promote retention and relevance.”  It takes a lot of time and effort to create plans that not only meet the course standards, but get students excited about learning.

Mandi Edwards, OHS Marketing teacher, found a way to do just that through Fantasy Football.  During the Fall semester Mrs. Edwards’ students were assigned a project that would require them to apply many different aspects of marketing in a way that most of her students would enjoy and learn from.  Students were allowed to create a mock Fantasy Football team and track their player’s points throughout the semester.  However, this was only the hook to get them to engage in the marketing content that Mrs. Edwards’ was required to teach.  As these students learned about the different aspects of marketing, they took what they learned and applied it to their Fantasy Football team.  The assignment required students to choose a location for their team and do research on that location.  Looking at demographics, competition in the area, and possible corporate sponsors they had to justify their team’s location.  Then students had to select a team name and tie it to the history of their chosen location.  Once this was done, students designed logos, uniforms, and other merchandise.  They also looked at associated costs, pricing, and profit for their teams.  The last piece of the project was for students to create a variety of promotional and business materials that would help them market their team in their city and throughout the country.

It is experiences like these that will help our students make the connections between what is being taught and what is happening in life outside of school.  The great news is that they do not just happen in Mrs. Edwards’ Marketing classes, they happen every day in multiple classrooms throughout the Opelika City Schools. 

Career and Technical Education Month is February.  In honor of this, we will post a blog about something Opelika High School is doing in one of the six Career Tech Programs offered.

Part 1 of 4: Opelika Middle School Career Tech Expo

Part 2 of 4: Fantasy Football Marketing

Part 3 of 4: Health Sciences

Part 4 of 4: Early Childhood Education

It seems a little crazy to be thinking about the 2015-2016 school year in January, but students will be registering for classes in the upcoming weeks.  That means that every 8^th grade student and parent of an 8^th grade student is about to go through the transition from middle schooler to high schooler.  This move can sometimes be a little confusing, intimidating, and nerve wracking for both students and parents.  This is why Opelika City Schools offers a variety of opportunities for parents and students to make that transition a little bit easier.  For instance, on February 10 the OMS PAC Meeting will be focused on registration for 8^th grade parents.  Staff from Opelika High School will be present to help fill out the documents needed to ensure upcoming 9^th graders have the classes they need and want.  Parents will also have the option to sign up for an individual meeting with their child’s Guidance Counselor  to help ensure each schedule is correct.  For those that can’t make the February 10 meeting there will be similar meetings held on February 18 at the Opelika Learning Center on Jeter Avenue and February 19 at Carver Primary School on Carver Avenue.  Prior to the start of the 2015-2016 school year, all upcoming Freshman and parents can attend the “Freshman Orientation” held at Opelika High School.  This experience will provide parents and students a chance to get to know some of their teachers, see where their classes will be located, and gather information about life at the high school. 

One of the first things that happens to prepare 8^th grade students for classes at Opelika High School happened on January 26 and 27.  We call it the OMS Career and Technical Education Expo.  We use this event to help all 8^th graders experience some of the elective courses they can take as Freshmen.  Teachers from Opelika High School select student leaders from their class to come to Opelika Middle School and make a short hands-on presentation to small groups of 8^th graders as well as answer any of their questions.  It is a great opportunity for OMS students to see the many options available to them as they begin their high school experience.  It is also a great opportunity for Opelika High School students to practice the leadership skills they have been learning about in all of their Career Tech classes.  OMS students leave with a better understanding of what courses they are interested in as well as what those courses involve.  It always amazes me that there are some students who do not know that they will be expected to put their hands in dirt if they take a Horticulture class.  Our main goal with this event is to help students get interested and excited about coming to Opelika High School in hopes that they will take the classes that interest them the most.

The video below is a 4 minute summary of what all 8^th grade students experienced at the OMS CTE Expo. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2aLLCsLM0