Trial by Fire: My First Year Teaching Technical High School

My first year teaching at a technical high school was a true trial by fire. From classroom management and lesson planning to connecting with students and balancing real-world trade skills with education, the experience pushed me to grow in ways I never expected. This is the honest story of the struggles, lessons, frustrations, and rewarding moments that come with stepping into a trade classroom for the very first time.

Transcript

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Hello, this is Sean from Tech Training Solutions. Hey, when I first started doing uh YouTube channel chats and all that, I was starting the teaching world. I've been at it for about a year. It's almost finished. I got about a month. For those teachers out there, my goodness, you get an award. These wonderful adults, uh, they are what you call a tester. They test. And I thought that wasn't the case, but apparently it is. I have a lot more respect for the teaching world. Now, not to say they're babe kids, they're just very active, they like to see what they get away with, they like to have fun. I used to be that way. I don't want to be in there to the ways I used to be, because I used to be crazy. Uh, I used to try to get away with stuff too. Uh, I can see that. So, what was my year like? Well, let me tell you, when I left my last company, Kimmy and Clark Corporation, it was a whirlwind of thoughts and mindsets. And I go to my orientation at my new job, and I thought I would get time to prep to learn the craft of teaching kids in high school. Because I teaching military people, it's easy because they listen to commands, uh, controls, I guess put them down for push-ups, stuff like that. I have a lot more control, plus they're adults, easier to instruct versus high school kids. Now, when I first got there, again, orientation, stuff like that, a whirlwind of meetings, teaching me how to teach high school students how to handle certain personalities, IEP, stuff like that. Different world, right? It's soldier. I gotta do what I gotta do with you. It's just what it is. But here's different. So, August 25th, my first day at my new school, and I go there, assuming again, I have time to prep, to get things ready, organized. Uh no. Something called a PLC. So that's where professional learning something, right? It's where you basically learn how to teach certain subjects. There's a subject of the day, you learn that subject. One could be about IEPs, one is how to teach a certain way, they make it fun, entertaining. Well, it's good stuff. But the thing is, I haven't even really looked at my lab yet. I got right in a PLC, first break, I run down to my lab and I go in there, and that thing was blown up. Dude, I'm talking trash that's been there since June. Smell like crap, trash everywhere. I'm like, oh my gosh, what the hell is this crap? Thinking that the people there had to clean it up. Took me half a day to get all the trash out, sweep up, get things organized, but I had PLC again. I had to go back, do the PLC thing. The next day, think I had more time. No. And by the way, there was no curriculum. They gave me a book and said, uh yeah, Moon. Because in soldier military teaching, you have a set curriculum which you can adjust, you can fix, you make better, you can add, just can't take away. There was no curriculum, right? There was just a book and something called a SIP for NOCTI. You had to follow. Uh, the SIP didn't really 100% make sense to me because it didn't seem exactly in order. So entered the PLC, I run down thinking, when am I gonna teach first? I I don't know what to teach. Well, luckily for me, it was already set. I had to teach them the rule book, right? So kids are gonna go there, uh young adults, and they have to follow the rule book. Well, in this school, you can't have phones. Some schools you can. This one is no phones. Be uh respectful, uh responsible, uh safe because we're in a lab, we're electrician, that's a course. You're dealing with 120 volts, you're dealing with 240 volts, you're dealing with hammers, nails, stable guns, which I didn't like them using, uh, screw guns, impacts, drill bits. This is what they're dealing with, right? So we had to teach about the rules no phones, be respectful, be kind, don't talk in class, all this stuff. So that's a week, but because as a technical school, each school district starts differently. So instead of a week, it's three weeks of teaching the rule book. Now, the major problem for those in the teaching world, I was supposed to have 25 students. Well, the other teacher quit right before school. So instead of having 25, I had 45 in each class, a.m. and p.m. 45. In a military setting, won't be no issue. I taught over 120 soldiers, no issue, but I can't treat them like military. I had to teach them with kind of gloves, which is tough because I like to get in people's faces, I would like to get very direct and in your face and say what I think, but I can't do that. I had to be different. So teaching 45 students, it was no longer about really teaching. I taught the rules, I taught the safety of the lab, but then when it came to doing any type of real stuff, oh I was like surviving. So what I did is a lab is huge with a bunch of bays, you probably saw in the videos, and a wall. So I second years do the bays, and I had my first years against the wall, just learning how to cut in, learn how to splice, how to terminate, how to twist. Uh, I did all that for a while. That's of course after they took OSHA, by the way. OSHA was priority. They can't go in the lab until OSHA's complete. OSHA is complete, then they go out in the lab. Well, this kept going on, right? Uh, of the survival mode. AM is like zombies. No energy, not up. Because we start at 7:30. So they are dead to the world. Uh, they don't want to be there in that early. They want to be there, but not that early. So I'm fighting that. Trying to maintain contact with 45 people, which I usually could do in the military, no problem. But this one's a little more difficult because I had a lot of um energized individuals in those sleepy class. So I had to maintain that discipline. But getting them to do stuff was like pushing. And in my eyes, if you want to trade, you're gonna learn, you're gonna do what you can, but not the case with these students. Not all. Uh, some really wanted to learn, some I had to keep pushing. Now, that's AM. PM. Oh my. Yes, it is the opposite. Think of uh devil, right? That's what I had. I had four of four of those reminded me of me when I was crazy. I was all over the place. Apparently, they say I may have aided. I'm not sure. But the great thing about my high school is is you got bullied, you got picked on if you were annoying. Um was so I had to learn to control it. But here we're a gentler world, which is good. We don't want that. Uh it was tough. Trying to keep them safe, trying to stop them from destroying stuff, right? When they're all over the place, which nothing wrong with that, but they touch something and they want to experiment, they want to hit it hammer, they want to do things that they really can hurt them, and they don't realize, right? This stuff can kill you. And I'm trying to get it through their heads that this stuff can kill you, even though thank goodness the panel we had was an arc fault slash GFCI breaker from uh Leviton. It's one of those with the wireless stuff, it's very expensive. Kind of annoying when you're trying to do 240 because two GFCIs will trip. So PM, just trying to keep them calm, trying to keep them safe. 45 people. I did have a helper. Her name was Miss Knee, amazing. She did very nice, respectful, helped me out. All the kids were hitting on her, of course. She is beautiful looking. So they're all hitting on her. Uh managed herself, she did great. Uh, she was a great help during that time. So I was like that for about a month, month and a half, survival mode. I even had a VA appointment. I didn't know how to take off, so I canceled that. This is the VA where I just had a colonoscopy and I had to get it double checked. Well, I missed it. So hopefully nothing bad's happening. So that was a whirlwind. That was my first month. Then we finally got a new teacher. Great guy. We split. He had the first years, I had the second and thirds, and some first. And then I was finally getting everybody together. Now I can build my curriculum in my head. So now I got time to think. He's building his curriculum. Uh we really didn't have any, so we're building from scratch. So what's happening now, right? We get in our class. Now I'm trying to set the ground rules because I got to kind of set the ground rules, no phone, uh, be respectful, get in uniform, get out there to work. I'll be honest. Out of all the people, I would say 60% wanted to really be there. 20% just wanted to try it out, and the rest were just getting away from the home district. That's it. They would not wanted to be in their school. That's the main reason. So, dealing with that, I want to take care and get the really 60% to be amazing. The other 20%, I had to keep pushing. And the rest, I just gotta keep them safe. I'm trying my best to show them the fun stuff, right? Electrical's boring. It is what it is, but there's some fun things. We have a motor controller system there, learning how to run motors, photos, uh, cells, sensors. I had all that, I brought it in. No one seemed interested. I had drives, browle, software, stuff like that. Not really interested, but they at least like the motor controllers. I had the Marin up, I had them do the booklet, trying to keep them entertained. I had them do services, I had them do other things. Keeping them focused and safe, but learning the trade. I went through the SIP, different settings, which was safety, number one, NFP 70E, um devices and switches, services, tools, power tools, multiple things. Going through it in some type of order, trying to make sure that not only get ready for a test, but they're also knowing this information for life, for a career. Because I'm telling you, electrical work helped me one, start a business, two, provide for my family, and then three, it lets my mind go. Because without this, I'd be just having a dead job, killing my brain, right? Uh this I was gonna go back active duty, met my wife, so I had to find a job, so I became electrician. I'm just telling these guys, I'm this is a good trade. Females, males, doesn't matter. This is a good trade. We're all looking for bodies to get in here to help us build America. So, with the 60%, they're kicking butt, they're doing things right. I have a list of all these jobs they have to do, a rubric of how to do it, how to keep things neat. Uh then I had to do a rubric on housekeeping, which I made a skill. They are horrible at housekeeping. Now I have teenagers that can understand, but trying to remove that mindset because you know the rules of electricians were dirtbags, right? Everybody I talked to, oh, you're an electrician, are you gonna clean up after yourself? That's the joke, right? I made sure I cleaned up. They don't. So I had to put that in the Rupert housekeeping, and I marked it. All right, 10. Nope, you got a zero, you look like crap there. And I had them doing real work and keep that up, and then we're running out of stuff to do, so I thought, how about I team them up in teams of two? They start their own business, come up with their own business plan, their own symbol, and now they're gonna bid work, they're gonna bid the demo, and that worked great for again. Not the 60, but I got 75% of them really wanting to do this, and that was working well. Well, but then people in co-op wanting co-op, they come back on one Friday, every Friday, and I'm trying to get them to work too. They don't want to come there and work, they're only there to check in. I gotta learn that world, the co-op thing. So after that, further on, got the holidays past January, February, March, a month before our actual NOCD test exam. I went through everything already, so I decide to go over it again, but this time go more detailed, specific for NACTI to help them ready. Right? They should have learned already, but I'll be honest with you, high school students have this thing called a brain dump. At a certain point, no matter what, they brain dump like a toilet and they forget. So I had to keep reiterating things to throw it in their brains, so hopefully, mentally, they get a like called muscle memory with the brain. This looks familiar, these don't. That must be the answer. That's what I was trying to get to. I helped them with that. I also was practicing not the NATI, but practicing how to run Ben Conduit, how to make three-way single poles, four-ways, outlets, switches, doorbells, timers, just drilling their head and how to do those. But then I was noticing, and I should have noticed from the beginning, but there were second years, I assume, but out of you and me, they couldn't splice. I would say 30%, 35% were splicing really well. 10% was okay, and the rest was horrible, man. I'm just talking, I I would vomit from the bad work I'm seeing. It was uh how bad it was. And I would tell them that I'm like, dude, no offense, but uh I I'm getting sick from seeing this. Let me show you how to do it right. So I would show them the right techniques, I would show them how to do it, six inches from the box. Don't forget the GDP six inches too, box needs to be grounded. I was telling them all this, and you know what I really found out, which I really got to drill them in next year, and luckily I have these labs that look really good, is three ways. I don't know why they couldn't grasp this thing called travelers, right? Three ways, they have something that's called travelers, they only go to certain spots on the three ways. That is it, and the rest is you're either power or you're like, that's it. But yet they couldn't grasp it. I don't know why. I would say maybe 35% couldn't get it. It was very frustrating. I'm like, what am I doing wrong? I picked up three ways like this. I picked four ways up like this. Now, of course, give them a break. I know certain journeyman out there, he didn't know how to do it. So I'm teaching journeyman how to do three ways and four ways. I was shocked when I was, you know, in union, couldn't believe that. So with that, I had to reiterate three ways, four ways, switched outlets, how to splice, do the six inches. I tell them wire nuts should be in the back of the box, and your six inches should be coming out. Nice and neat. That while you're not pushing your wires with the wire nuts, makes it so annoying. Make it nice and neat, have the wire nuts in the back, and then feed it in like a wave fashion, you know, reiterated that. Finally got what say 85% looking good. The 15% was okay, but don't really want to listen anymore. So they moved on. So I got them ready, right? I'm hitting the naughty stuff, getting them ready. Not specifically, because I don't know any of the questions. I did take the test, so I had an idea. Um, and the physical exam, I did that before them, but I also didn't teach to the test, not my thing. Got them ready, and I gotta say, I got all but one that passed. And the one really good kid, but between you, I think it was you and Chat CTP or or AI. And you're not learning when you do AI. Every time I'm giving quiz quizzes and work to do, his answers were really good. I'm like, I need to prove it, and I need to use the computer. That's why next year, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, next year I'm only using paper. That is all we're using. We're only gonna use the computer for fun things, like games, stuff like that. That's it. It paper, paper, paper here. It's gonna be a pain for me. That's why I'm gonna make a cheat sheet keys. So I put it over there, and oh, that's a 90. Oh, 75. That way it's set. I can knock them out. There's no more cheating on Chat GTP. They have to know the information or research it. That's what's happening next year. So, needless to say, one failure. I feel bad for him, but I I think he was doing Chat GTP. The other ones may have too, but their answers don't seem like it. It seemed like they at least wrote in their own words. Hands-on, 100%. Hands-on. It's easy. I'm not gonna tell you what it is, not loud. Um, it's pretty easy, pipe bending, stuff like that, a lot of wiring. So they got that done. So they're passed. Well, now, what is it, May? April, after the NACTI, which was April 20th, talking about checked out. And I'm trying hard to keep them working. My lab was a mess, right? Whoever wired up was was horrible, should never be in the industry. So, what I did, I had them rip it all out. And now I'll have them rewire in a professional manner. Conduit, except for some spots. Mostly everything is conduit, one spot because I got to use the top for storage. There was a lot of tripping hazards when they were going up there getting stuff out. So I fixed that. So they ripped it down, they got things ready, they did a planning, uh, and now they're piping in and they hit a wall, which is called the summer vacation, which is not even hit yet. And I'm pushing them like, look, you gotta get done. If you don't get done, I'll finish, but I'd rather you get done. This is your project. You can put your name on this. This will say 2025 class, 2025. This is yours. I'll never do this until I retire at 62. Well, some took it, some aren't. Seniors checked out, gotta chase them around and get them to work to a point. But then this thing called, which your older guys will appreciate, pickable, not pickable. What's that game? Where you hit? I forgot. It's the game with the what you hit around with your feet. Well, that's out. I used to play it, so I understand how much fun it is, but now it's out, and every chance they get, I'll I'll turn away and I'm looking at something and fixing something or doing something. I'm hearing them getting louder. Look, they're playing it. I'm like, dude, come on. I don't want to get in trouble. You'll get in trouble. Let's stop this. Put it in your pocket. So I finally had to take it. So they started doing this. And next thing you know, I said, Whoever brought this back, thank you. Thank you. So we got that. Then we had other things happening. Now it's May 19th. We have graduation coming. Seniors are so checked out, they don't end school until later. But for my first year, I must say, I had a lot of great help. I call my teacher teachers. They're uh, I'm not a teacher, I'm a tradesperson. I'm gonna get qualified eventually. I'm allowed to do it as a tradesperson. I just had to take certain things. My teacher teachers are amazing, they're teaching me such good things. Um, I'm still not understanding for those teachers out there. You're gonna laugh at me. Think, pair, share. I don't know why. I can't grasp that. I tried it once, completely blew up. I did like uh you write an answer a question on the board. That is interesting. You got people up. Uh, I'm trying different approaches. I had them go up in teams, compete against themselves, who's the best presentation, grade them. I've done things to get their knowledge, get them entertained, but my teacher teachers, they're amazing. They are a great help. I have a good assistant principal, really good principal, awesome co-workers, because I I'm not used to the civilian side of teaching. Uh military, I would have tore them up, can't do that here. Uh, I'm learning. So, me and my counterpart for next year, we'll come with a plan. We're developing a strong curriculum that we're gonna follow and adjust accordingly. We're gonna put it in stone, which not stone, I would say um soft block because we move it around, and then what we're gonna do with that, we're gonna keep making it better. So let's say something happens to me or I retire. Whoever takes over, they can change it, but they have something solid to follow, which me and him did not, right? We're following it off of a book, which we don't really like. We're just doing it because it's there. We're ordering a new book, we're ordering 2023 code books, uh, because I think the newest one they have is 2020. Uh so that's that's what we're doing next year. We have a great plan. We're gonna meet up in the summer. Um I have my business, by the way. Uh, so I'll be doing this during the summer, trying to get this to become big bigger, this training and electrical services. I provide interview preparation for anybody who needs help. Look, just give me a call. I can help you. If you like it, we can keep going on. Uh, I'm also trying to develop a training program outside here. I'm trying to develop, it's called the boot camp of electrical. If I can get a building, if I can get funding, what my plan is a 12-week course. I'll train anybody off the street wants to learn. 12 weeks. Every week, though, I'm gonna be blunt with you. Yo, you're doing this, you're getting, you don't have an initiative, you gotta do this, gotta get initiative, man. You don't want to keep being like this, you're not gonna get a job, or you will, but you get paid low. That's what this program's gonna be. And when you're done, I'm gonna try my best to network all these electrical contractors looking to hire, and hopefully, they hire you. Now, you have to get yourself that job, but I could prep you and do a lot of that. That's what I'm gonna do once I get money. I'm also reaching out to industrial companies out there who need support. Me and my two other friends who left Kim and Clark. We are amazing troubleshooters, we are great at preventive maintenance work, and we can support you. Right? We can help you, guide you. I have two companies. One's the electrical services, the other company is my training consultant. I can run apprenticeships, I've done it before, left that. Uh, so I'm here for you. So, Sean from Tech Train Solutions talking about my first year teaching. All right. I had good kids, I understand. I was the same way. Uh, I'm learning how to deal with them next year. Did tell them next year I'm being extremely strict because this year was tough. Uh, but next year I'll be extremely strict. Make sure they follow the rules, get them to be respectful, and I'll be respectful back and always help them out. So, again, follow me, Tech Train Solutions. My name is Sean. Oh yeah.