The St. Vrain Valley School District hosted its first P-TEACH InspirED conference at the Innovation Center on Wednesday. Over 100 students and adults from SVVSD, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Weld RE-3J and the Estes Park Schools districts were in attendance to learn about the future of education careers.
High school students who are considering careers in education chose six discussion sessions from 19 sessions. Each session was geared to either individual interests in education or to college readiness. Students were able to glimpse what a future in education looks like through sessions such as elementary education as a career or building relationships and community with students.
Adults from neighboring districts were provided an opportunity to learn how SVVSD created and implemented its P-TEACH program. Adults also were able to learn what SVVSD students are learning in the program from the students themselves, said Dana Curton, P-TEACH coordinator.
The conference is part of the program created by SVVSD after receiving the Opportunity Now Grant. SVVSD received the $7 million grant to boost career pathways throughout the region. The program will support three career pathways — teaching, advanced manufacturing and cloud IT— already established in the SVVSD system.
“There tends to be a negative piece about teachers, that it isn’t a good job and that it doesn’t pay well,” Curton said. “We want to share our excitement about teaching. We want to share our energy about what it means to be a teacher. Students bring so much to class and we want to share that too.”
According to Curton, bringing students and adults from various districts together for this conference allowed them to expand their community. She said students in the P-TEACH program have naturally built a community of their own and she was excited to bring them an opportunity to expand their community into the conference setting.
