{"id":405,"date":"2021-02-23T09:41:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T14:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/online\/?p=405"},"modified":"2021-05-25T11:07:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T15:07:49","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-cte-student-balances-teaching-and-weathercasting-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/online\/2021\/02\/a-day-in-the-life-cte-student-balances-teaching-and-weathercasting-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life: CTE Student Balances Teaching and Weathercasting Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because Bryan Schuerman has two careers to maintain and because he\u2019s a full-time student in the Ball State Online master\u2019s in career and technical education<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, his feet hit the floor squarely each morning at 2 a.m.<\/p>\n

From 2:30 a.m. until 12 noon, he works as weekday morning and mid-day meteorologist for WICS ABC News Channel 20 and WRSP FOX Illinois in Springfield, Illinois, prepping his forecasts and taping cut-ins for Good Morning America. He goes live from 5 to 7 a.m. on ABC and 7 to 8 a.m. on FOX. He also fills in as lifestyle anchor and producer.<\/p>\n

His work has earned the coveted National Weather Association Weathercaster Seal of Approval.<\/p>\n

Then He Heads to Class<\/h2>\n

From the studio, Bryan heads to his second career as a family and consumer science teacher at a nearby high school, where he teaches nutrition and culinary arts classes from 12 to 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor professionals like myself who are juggling not one, but two careers, I can fit in the time to make a degree happen at my pace<\/em>,\u201d he says, of the CTE program offered fully online.<\/h4>\n

\u201cAfter I got my teacher\u2019s license and graduated with my master of education degree, I always kept an eye out for any family and consumer science teacher postings,\u201d says Bryan.<\/p>\n

Among multiple areas, Bryan is certified to teach middle school science for grades 5-9, journalism, radio and TV broadcasting for grades 9-12, and family and consumer sciences 5-12.<\/p>\n

CTE Program is Filling in the Blanks<\/h2>\n

He says the family and consumer sciences license provided just a \u201csnippet\u201d of what is needed to teach family and consumer sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program is helping me \u2018fill in the blanks\u2019 that I did not get specifically from family and consumer sciences to make me a more, well-rounded teacher<\/em>,\u201d says Bryan, who is pursuing the family and consumer sciences concentration.<\/h4>\n

Ball State\u2019s program is ideal, he says, for people who want \u201cthe basics of how to administer a CTE program, as well as instructional strategies to make us better educators in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCTE Encompasses Many Careers\u201d<\/h2>\n

He\u2019s also learning how comprehensive the CTE field can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have interacted and shared learning experiences with students who are teaching dental assistant classes, audiology classes and more<\/em>,\u201d says Bryan. \u201cWhile the course work we are learning in this program is broad enough to encompass all types of career and technical education, the professors let us take that knowledge and apply it to what we are individually teaching.<\/em>\u201d<\/h4>\n

The pandemic has been a factor, he says. Through online forums, his classmates are sharing their experiences of teaching career and technical education courses remotely for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know, we are \u2018writing the playbook\u2019 for remote learning right now,\u201d says Bryan. \u201cSo listening to ideas from other classmates and bouncing my experiences off them has been a very pleasant experience.\u201d<\/p>\n