At the beginning of the school year, District 225 spent $58,235 on new and improved materials in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department to enhance the learning experiences of students, Dawn Hall, Instructional Supervisor of the CTE department, said.
The new equipment includes iPads in Fashion for all the Advanced levels, a Finance Lab in Room 1137 that includes two large TV screens, and a double oven in the Foods room, Hall said. The money that the department received from both grant funds and donations helped to make these upgrades possible over the summer, Hall said.
“Improving and updating technology and software [helps] to support students in their courses to learn and develop skills aligned to industries such as Fashion and Design, Business, and [Foods],” Hall said.
The new devices are a massive improvement from the typical Chromebook and stylus provided to Advanced Fashion students, senior Ella Kaled said. The updates in the studio benefits students, since they now have the ability to make their sketches more realistic, Kaled said. One way fashion students will do this is through sketching on Procreate, a program that is a full art studio on one screen, helping students with digital art, Kaled explained.
“[The new program] allows us to [make our designs] as realistic as possible [with] brushes that can imitate the texture of leather, satin, or different materials,” Kaled said.
While all of the new equipment will help students get accustomed to advanced technology that is used in certain job fields, the iPads allow students to explore the different facets of the fashion industry, Melissa Pfister, Fashion and Apparel Design Teacher, said.
“Giving [students] the opportunity to explore, whether it’s the design or the business side of fashion [is beneficial],” Pfister said. “All of these tools give [students] new opportunities to learn more about [careers in fashion].”
In Business classes, students are able to gain hands-on experience through a Finance Lab, created this summer, that includes a real time stock ticker and two 55-inch flat screen TV’s, Business Teacher Brian Whalen said.
Additionally, the business classes are also utilizing a new software called Personal Finance Lab. This new software is used in college settings, so students are able to gain familiarity before entering post-secondary education, Whalen said.
“[As] teachers, [we] are always looking [to provide] ad- ditional opportunities for students,” Whalen said.