That "CTE" Guy - CHAT-CTE: Finally—PD That’s Personal

Steven Bross
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Education
  • Updated Semiweekly

This isn’t your typical education podcast. CHAT-CTE is built for the trade teachers—the welders, the cosmetologists, the culinary kings and queens—who teach with their hands, hustle, and heart. Each episode tackles the real-life challenges of CTE teaching: from writing a curriculum when you’ve got zero time, to using AI tools that actually help, to managing a shop full of teens with more energy than a MIG welder. You’ll hear honest stories, get practical tools, and leave with something you can use tomorrow. Hosted by a CTE mentor who’s been in the fire and came out forging something better. This is PD that respects your craft, your time, and your why. Because you're not just teaching a trade—you're changing lives.

  1. S2 - E34 - Season 2 Finale: Thank You for Pressing Play - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    4d ago

    S2 - E34 - Season 2 Finale: Thank You for Pressing Play - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Season 2 finale. Short one this week — five minutes, signature open, no news, no rant. Just a few callbacks to the season that meant something, and the thank-you you earned for pressing play. The show comes back July 1st. When it does, it's a different thing. Bigger. Sharper. Some stuff I've been building for a while that I haven't talked about yet. We'll get into all of it then. For now — finish your year. Close the laptop. Put the lanyard in the drawer. Rest. See you July 1st. CHAT-CTE is brought to you by Blueprint-CTE. blueprint-cte.com.

    7 min
  2. S2 - E33 - Your Five — Building the Machine That Keeps You Standing - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    May 27

    S2 - E33 - Your Five — Building the Machine That Keeps You Standing - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    At least 26 states reported a CTE teacher shortage this year. And here's the gut-punch: the industry-to-classroom teachers — the electricians, chefs, and nurses we recruited specifically for their skills — leave the profession about 25% faster than teachers from traditional ed programs. When they go, the class doesn't get a sub. It gets canceled. Whole programs disappear because nobody else in the building can teach them. So this week, we're talking about the people problem. At the News Desk: Mabel-Canton, Minnesota — a tiny rural district where the community voted 67% YES on a referendum to build a brand-new CTE building. Proof that when people actually see what CTE does, they fund it. Then the federal CTE teacher shortage data — and what it really says about the industry-to-classroom pipeline. Then a Pennsylvania bill that would make shop class mandatory for every student grades 6 through 12. Great intent. One problem. With what teachers? The lesson: how you don't become the teacher who's gone in two years. The official org chart your district handed you is a lie about how your day actually works. There's a real chart underneath — and it's built floor-up, not top-down. Your five: the custodian, the front office, your para, IT, and the one veteran who knows where everything is buried. Build those relationships before you need them. Plus a rant about testing season — the academic calendar that's at war with your shop, and the email chain you're never on. And a Toolbox tip: map your whole year on one page, draw a line at winter break, and stop letting testing season ambush you in March. Finish the year. Then go rest. CHAT-CTE is brought to you by Blueprint-CTE. blueprint-cte.com.

    26 min
  3. S2 - E32 - I See What You Did This Year - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    May 20

    S2 - E32 - I See What You Did This Year - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    It's late May. You've got two, maybe three weeks left, and the tank is empty. So this episode breaks format on purpose. We open at the News Desk with three stories about who actually values CTE work. First, the good one: Dean Technical High in Holyoke, Massachusetts unveiled a permanent wall of apprenticeship pathways — ten local trade unions, each with a QR code linking kids straight to wages, benefits, and applications. It cost almost nothing. Every CTE program in the country should be looking at it. Then the one that'll make you swear at your dashboard: Texas's big teacher bonus-pay program can reach six figures — unless you teach CTE, in which case the official advice is "talk to your TIA lead." Translation: the system was never built to measure what you do. And the one you actually need: Workforce Pell goes live July 1, putting federal grant money behind short-term workforce training for the first time ever. Here's what to tell your seniors before they graduate. Then we set the systems aside. No framework this week. No playbook. Just a few honest minutes for the teacher who got in the car every morning, opened the shop door, bought the supplies, and stuck with the kid who was hard to love. The work nobody graded. The work that mattered anyway. Plus: a rant about the "cross-curricular initiative" nobody actually cross-curriculum'd with you — a one-way street with a collaboration sign on it. And a Toolbox tip about thanking your industry partners before summer hits, one I'll admit I don't do enough myself. Finish the year. Then close the laptop and rest. We need you back in August. CHAT-CTE is brought to you by Blueprint-CTE. blueprint-cte.com.

    20 min
  4. S2 - E31 - What to Capture NOW Before You Forget Everything - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    May 13

    S2 - E31 - What to Capture NOW Before You Forget Everything - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    What to Capture NOW Before You Forget Everything It's May. You're cooked. And every August, you wish you had notes. This week on CHAT-CTE: the five-minute capture system that protects everything you learned this year — before grading season eats your brain. Plus the news desk hits hard with Virginia's CTE Signing Day, the Trump administration's praise-then-cancel routine on CTE grants, and the teacher shortage in 26 states that nobody's solving fast enough. Then the rant: counselors who still think your shop is where the kids "who aren't going to college" get parked. (We see you, healthcare. We see you, construction. We see you, cosmetology.) And in the toolbox — the exact AI prompt that turns your capture notes into a 60-second program description your counselor will actually read. Twenty-two minutes. No fluff. Let's go.

    15 min
  5. S2 - E30 - AI for CTE Summer Planning: What Works, What Doesn't - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    May 6

    S2 - E30 - AI for CTE Summer Planning: What Works, What Doesn't - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Summer is almost here, and if you're a CTE teacher, you're probably caught between two feelings: relief that the year is ending, and that nagging voice in the back of your head reminding you that you said you'd plan better next year. Sound familiar? Here's the truth: the teachers who plan in summer have a completely different school year than the ones who don't. Not 10% better — a different universe. The reason most of us avoid summer planning isn't laziness. It's that planning a year from scratch is overwhelming. That's exactly where AI changes the game. In this episode of That CTE Guy, we get tactical about using AI for summer curriculum planning. You'll learn: The 5 things AI is actually great at when planning your yearThe 4 things AI is terrible at (and why you can't skip the human work)A 5-step playbook for using AI to organize your task list this summerA copy-and-paste prompt you can steal and use todayWhy the "conversation phase" matters more than the planning phaseWhether you're a brand-new CTE teacher staring at a 200-item task list with no curriculum, or a veteran ready to finally work smarter instead of harder, this episode gives you a real, usable framework you can put to work this week. Mentioned in this episode: Blueprint-CTE — the curriculum planning app built specifically for CTE teachers. Turn your giant task list into a real, usable teaching plan. Free to start: blueprint-cte.com Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if this helped you, share it with another CTE teacher who needs to hear it.

    18 min
  6. s2 - E29 - Why I Built Blueprint-CTE — An AI Tool for the Rest of Us - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Apr 29

    s2 - E29 - Why I Built Blueprint-CTE — An AI Tool for the Rest of Us - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Every CTE teacher knows what August feels like — a stack of district task lists, a half-broken curriculum from whoever taught the class before, and 180 days you somehow have to fill with real, standards-aligned work. I lived that for years. So I built Blueprint-CTE — an AI tool that reads your district task list and builds you a full year of curriculum, lessons, and assessments, all mapped to your standards. It learns from YOUR materials, in YOUR voice, for YOUR program. In this episode: why generic AI tools keep failing CTE classrooms, what Blueprint actually does, and the free PD library I built inside it. Try it free — no signup required — at blueprint-cte.com. Type in any CTE class and get five real bell ringers in 15 seconds.

    15 min
  7. S2 - E28 - So You're the SkillsUSA Advisor Now… Good Luck! - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Apr 22

    S2 - E28 - So You're the SkillsUSA Advisor Now… Good Luck! - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Being the lead SkillsUSA advisor looks great on paper — competitions, leadership, student growth. But what does it actually cost you? In this episode, Steven sits down with a fellow CTE teacher to talk honestly about the advisor role: budget battles, student participation, getting other teachers involved, and the time it really takes. If you're advising now, thinking about taking it on, or quietly wondering if it's worth it — this one's for you.

    24 min
  8. S2 - E27 - My End of Year Survival Strategy - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Apr 15

    S2 - E27 - My End of Year Survival Strategy - (CTE) - Career And Technical Education Professional Development

    Forget counting down the days. In this episode I break down the strategy that gets me through the wildest stretch of the school year — when seniors are checked out, schedules are unpredictable, and real curriculum feels almost impossible. It's simple, it's practical, and it just might change how you feel about the end of the year.

    14 min
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About

This isn’t your typical education podcast. CHAT-CTE is built for the trade teachers—the welders, the cosmetologists, the culinary kings and queens—who teach with their hands, hustle, and heart. Each episode tackles the real-life challenges of CTE teaching: from writing a curriculum when you’ve got zero time, to using AI tools that actually help, to managing a shop full of teens with more energy than a MIG welder. You’ll hear honest stories, get practical tools, and leave with something you can use tomorrow. Hosted by a CTE mentor who’s been in the fire and came out forging something better. This is PD that respects your craft, your time, and your why. Because you're not just teaching a trade—you're changing lives.

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