Welcome to Mr. Brad George´s Technology Education classroom at the Hale Middle School in Stow, MA. This is his 22nd year working with the 6-8th grade students at Hale. He currently teaches 6 classes a day, 2 sections each of 6th, 7th and 8th grade. Here, the school year is set up such that each student has 60 consecutive days in his classroom learning and doing Technology Education. At the end of 3 years they have completed a full year with him.

 In 1988 he started to change from Industrial Arts to Technology Education, which has many engineering components. While this change began with the suggestion from his administration that he upgrade his program to keep up with the changes in his field, Brad has since become an active proponent of the technology and engineering components. His accomplishments and work in this area is extensive. Brad�s efforts resulted in the inclusion of Technology Education in the Education Reform work in Massachusetts. Continuing to champion the cause he worked on the development of the original Technology Curriculum Framework, the subsequent revision, and served on several committees including the MCAS question committee, the Math and Science Advisory. He plays an active role in the Technology Education Association of Massachusetts (TEAM), a member since 1990, he was President of TEAM from 1995-1997.

How does the inclusion of engineering with technology education impact him? “I am very comfortable with the engineering component,” says Brad. “I feel it is the base for my subject.” As for results in the classroom, he says, “Students have always liked my class. I feel the engineering component has helped them to take my lessons and class more seriously and many have been influenced to pursue a career in engineering or related fields.”

While he has success in the classroom, Brad finds that one of his biggest challenges is to convince administrators that engineering is not an extra or sub set of science and that it should stand beside science as a partner subject.

 With all his experience in teaching and incorporating engineering into his classes, his advice to other educator is, “Make it fun to learn.”Brad�s main focus is the student. He has found that they will love to learn if each of them feels good about themselves in his classroom every day. Brad also recommends, “Take it slow and don't be afraid to fail.” And “Get involved with the professional organizations and universities.”