DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708080605

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   68 lines

EDUCATORS' TOUR IN REAL WORLD ADDS RELEVANCE TO CLASS WORK

In two words or less, explain what employers are looking for in job candidates.

Answer: Work ethic.

``That's what we're the most excited about,'' said Wynn Dixon, vice president for quality and human resources at Chesapeake General Hospital. ``We're all focused on that because that's what's most important.''

The value of hard work and diligence is just one of the messages 17 city teachers and administrators will bring back to their students after spending three days touring six of Chesapeake's largest businesses this week.

The tours were the brainchild of the district's Academic Tech Prep Committee, a group of school and business representatives started earlier this year to find ways to make the academic curriculum more relevant to the needs of the workplace.

Dixon said the effort has been eye-opening for business and school representatives.

``Seldom do we get a chance to step out of our little box and see the other side,'' said Dixon.

A chance to see the other side - and relay it more effectively to her students - was what motivated Debbie Dixon to sign up for the program during her summer vacation.

``I'm probably the last one they're (students) going to touch base with before they step out into the jungle,'' said Dixon, a 12th grade social studies teacher at Oscar Smith High School. ``A lot of the kids don't have a realistic view of the competition.''

Dixon said it was useful to see first-hand how a variety of corporations worked. The companies the group toured included Chesapeake General Hospital, Sumitomo Machinery Corp. of America, Mitsubishi Chemical, Household Credit Services, American GFM Corp. and Southland Technologies Corp.

But no matter how different the companies toured, some of the same themes emerged time and time again.

``Everyone is stressing teamwork,'' said Dixon.

While the most successful people are those who can work well in teams, sometimes that quality isn't stressed enough in the classroom, said Charles Smith, vice president of human resources at Southland Technologies.

``At least when I was in school, nobody ever taught you how to work together with other people. They taught skills, but most of those were to be used individually,'' Smith said to the group Wednesday.

That may be changing, said Dixon, adding that in her classes she requires that students work together on projects and even assign each other grades.

But while the big things employers look for in prospective employees are work ethic and teamwork they notice little things as well.

Sometimes really little things.

``For you English folks, it's the (use of) the apostrophe. It seems that everybody messes that up,'' Wynn Dixon told the group of teachers, who nodded in recognition.

Dixon told the teachers that basics like grammar and spelling might seem ``very simple to you, but I think the point you might take back is that we are paying attention to things like that.''

And for Bruce Mayhue, a math teacher at Great Bridge High School, the tours have given him something else to take back: an answer to the age-old student question, ``When am I ever going to use this in the real world?''

``I can say, `This is where it's used at Mitsubishi Chemical,' '' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MORT FRYMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Charlotte Riddick, left, and Loula Brox, Deep Creek High School

teachers, took part in an educators' three-day tour of six

Chesapeake businesses including the Southland Technology plant on

Wednesday.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu