Teacher Externship Program

Houston A+ Challenge's Teacher Externship Program sends K-12 teachers to work with business professionals in their fields of study, in order to make students' learning more relevant to the workplace.

Experience. Each summer, dozens of classroom teachers spend a week in local businesses from across the Houston region, representing energy, aerospace, construction, nonprofit, legal and medical fields and civil service.

Connect and Create. After Externship week, teachers use their firsthand experiences to produce lesson plans and teaching units that introduce students to ideas, problems, and situations that they may encounter in the workforce.

• News and Video from the 2010 Externship

Generous support from Shell Oil Company and the Greater Houston Partnership make the annual Externship Program possible.

The popular Teacher Externship Program has grown rapidly since its pilot year in 2003, when it launched with six teachers from Reagan High School. Nearly 100 teachers and 30 businesses from throughout the Houston metro area participated in the weeklong program in 2010.

Similar to a job shadowing or immersion program, externships place classroom teachers with business professionals in their field of study.

The experience gives teachers insight into the business world, provides them with new ideas and tools for classroom lessons, and reenergizes them for the school year ahead. Year after year, teachers tell us that lessons planned through this externship help them to add relevance to the classroom and to connect with students in new and exciting ways.

In addition, externships help businesses understand both the importance of classroom learning and the resources that students need to graduate high school prepared for the workplace. In this way , businesses get the chance to help build a highly skilled labor force that is in step with the ever-changing needs of the workplace.

For teachers in career academy programs, externships are particularly important to ensure that they are preparing students for success in specific careers. Companies are also realizing that time invested in business-education partnerships can reduce the training needed by new hires.

Click here to download the brochure