TC High's Career and Technical Education welding program gains recognition

TUBA CITY - Jonathan Yazzie is one inspired and challenging Tuba City High school teacher.

He's only been at TC High a little over two years, but is already gaining state notoriety.

According to principal Jacquelyn Wauneka, Yazzie recently received attention from the State of Arizona Department of Education for his exemplary welding program at Tuba City High.

Yazzie's outstanding Career and Technical Education (CTE) program starts with Intro to Welding that includes stick welding and cutting torch skills along with welding safety that is modeled after the state approved Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10-hour training to metal inert gas (MIG) and Flux Core Arc welding.

The second half of his challenging program includes gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) or tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding in the Welding II class, because it requires more in-depth instruction and students that are in this class are taking on the huge project of construction of the new shop at TC High in the vocational wing of the new two-story building.

Each of these welding classes is articulated with Coconino Community College (CCC) with students receiving three community college credit hours for their time.

But the area that has been gaining the TC High welding program its unique status and most interest is the instruction.

Yazzie incorporates Dr. Robert J. Marzano's researched based teaching philosophies into his curriculum.

Each lesson is designed with a beginning, middle and end assignment and all areas have expository literacy elements.

These Marzano based elements provide the framework for most of the narrative assignments for his classes and also make great reference for notes, organizers, outlines, reading, and pre-writing.

Yazzie also expressed appreciation for guidance on his classroom instruction to a former professor at Northern Arizona University (NAU) for helping him understand and customize lesson plans for TC High students based on their individual academic needs.

Yazzie has classroom sizes up to 30 students, which include about 25 percent female students.

He encourages his female students to pursue what he feels is a "non-traditional" female career like welding and added that females are just as thorough about grasping the welding teaching and understanding concepts quickly and effectively.

He also thinks that his young female students exhibit a greater patience and attention to detail than his male students and feels that is an asset to learning about the welding trade.

Yazzie added that administrative support from TC High and his program supervisor, Robert Windmiller at TC High have helped to make his program a success.

Windmiller states, "As the Director of the Career and Technical Education at TC High, it was my pleasure to translate Jonathan's vision for a custom built classroom facility that would house state-of-the-art equipment for his students ... Right now, Mr. Yazzie is working with the Arizona Department of Education and the Northeast Arizona Technological Institute of Vocational Education (NATIVE)-our joint technical education district to assist other CTE teachers across the reservation to develop programs similar to the one at TC High."

I am also looking forward to Jonathan being able to issue his own American Welding Society (AWS) Certification at TC high and offering night classes."

James J. Wojcik, the state supervisor for welding said, "My personal opinion is that one of the strongest welding programs right now in the state of Arizona is located at Tuba City High School."

Supplies and equipment for the TC High Welding Program were purchased with funds from the TCUSD partnership with NATIVE, the joint technical educational district with federal career and technical education funds.

The NATIVE partnership headed by Superintendent Karen Lesher has accelerated development of all of the CTE programs at TC High.

Yazzie has been actively involved in facilitation of this NATIVE partnership on behalf of TCUSD.

For more information on the TC High welding program, contact the TC District Office of Public Relations at (928) 283-1185.