Competency-based education ensures that all students have the opportunity to learn at their own pace. It allows the flexibility for students who have mastered the material to move ahead of the rest of the class, and build upon their acquired skills. This is especially critical in an inclusion classroom, where students of all ability levels are required to learn the same curriculum. But having students at various levels in the same class presents a whole set of different challenges for the teacher.

The old saying "Do as I say, not as I do" no longer holds any weight when it comes from a teacher's mouth. Students are less likely to obey verbal directives if they see that the teacher doesn't even follow his or her own rules. What you need to do is model the positive behavior that you want your students to demonstrate. Following this same premise, if a teacher wants their students to learn how to be accountable for their own actions, the teacher must also hold themselves accountable. This means that follow through becomes extremely important in the classroom, even with the most routine activities. Holding students accountable each and every time they miss an assignment or homework, even the simplest of tasks, is critical for ensuring that accountability is reinforced.

The ultimate goal is for all students to build the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in a global economy. This is often referred to as being “college and career ready.” But what exactly are the skills one needs to define themselves as being career ready? According to the Career Readiness Partner Council, the recently released report entitled Building Blocks of Change: What it Means to be Career Ready, defines just that.

In a typical academic setting, students may all be on the same grade level, but are inevitably different in terms of skill and ability levels. This is especially true in career and technical education, where the curriculum is competency-based. Therefore, at any given moment a classroom full of 20 students could be ready to learn 20 different skills. This makes it a bit difficult to manage from the teacher's perspective, as it is physically impossible to teach different lessons to each student during the course of one class period.

One of the major themes of 21st Century Education is standards-based education. In my opinion, that theme is most prevalent in Career and Technical Education (CTE). In CTE, students must meet the academic and technical rigors in math, reading, writing, the ISTE NETS•S, and the program of studies (technical standards) for their occupational program. Considering the challenges this may cause, it is often overwhelming when teachers initiate this in their classrooms. Below are some simple examples of how to engage students in class and facilitate their learning, while at the same time having them meet both the academic and technical standards.

One of the most important skills that we can teach our children is how to be a good listener. As they get older, they can better understand how valuable it is to be not only a good listener, but to also learn the art of active listening. The classroom is an ideal setting to develop active listening skills, as students can be taught that although listening to the teacher is important, listening when their classmates speak is equally as important.