LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Laura Hutchinson is a career technical education teacher at Lower Lake High School.

She has been teaching for 10 years as part of the Information Technology Pathway that includes Freshmen Wheel Computer/Keyboarding, Microsoft Office Collection 2007, and Adobe – The Design Collection and Dreamweaver.

The capstone class in this pathway is the newly created ROP Computer Technology course. Most students in this course are juniors and seniors who either completed a sequence of courses or already had the computer skills necessary to be successful in this CTE course.

According to Hutchinson, she is very excited about the ROP Computer Technology class and looks forward to how it will evolve over the next year.

Her plan is develop the course to the point where she can offer students industry certification upon completion.

Students in this course are learning a multiple of programs including Illustrator, InDesign, Power Point, Photoshop and ending with Dreamweaver.

The Dreamweaver unit will be the finale in the semester as the students will put to use all of the programs they have learned in the creation of a fantasy Web site.

With a small class size, students are able to work independently on projects with Hutchinson's assistance.

Surprisingly not all students in this course have a career interest in computers. Many say they are taking the course because they are creative but not artistic, enjoy a class without a lot of stress or like working independently.

There is at least one student enrolled in the CTE course who would like to pursue a career in the technology industry.

Sabastein Teague is a senior hoping to go on to college to become a software engineer or graphic designer.

CTE classes encourage students to take what they have learned in the classroom and utilize it in real world applications.

While some will utilize the skills they learned in their career paths, others will hopefully use them in their personal and academic futures.

For more details about the Information Technology Pathway at Lower Lake High School please contact Laura Hutchinson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Tammy Serpa is a program specialist for the Lake County Office of Education.