Lawrence High School auto tech teacher Luke Lang puts the finishing touches on a toolbox for a student from his summer class on Friday at the high school. Lang spent a week this summer working an externship with Fannin Fabrication in Topeka, where he learned on-the-job skills that he hopes to pass along to his students.

For one week, Luke Lang’s task wasn’t to go to work in his Lawrence High School classroom but to operate as a welder for Fannin Fabrication Co. in Topeka.

He spent his time there transforming a pile of steel into a trailer.

“There’s a lot of little things I didn’t know, but it was just a great advantage to be able to see that and how they do it in the real world,” said Lang, who teaches automotive technician and manufacturing classes.

He will be one of four Lawrence teachers looking to use their on-the-job experience to teach students in the fall. The federal Carl Perkins grant funded the summer externships for the district, and administrators say the teachers’ experiences will be valuable, especially as the high schools ramp up efforts in career and technical education.

Free State teacher Pam Pine and LHS teacher Betty Currie spent a week in June learning about nearly all jobs at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Jane Rock, of Free State, spent a week at Kansas University Hospital in Kansas City, Kan.

All three of them will teach classes this year in what’s known as the district’s “health career pathway.”

The teachers said their time spent learning about hospitals means they can fill in students about the kinds of health-related jobs available.

“We’re hoping it will give the kids more options than just your basic health class,” said Pine, who will teach explorations of health careers.

Aside from taking several classes related to health careers, in the spring semester students will have the chance to land their own internships in the health field.

“There’s going to be a lot of need for all of these different aspects of the medical profession,” Currie said.

Lang will be part of the “manufacturing career pathway” slated to start in 2011-2012.

District administrators said students will benefit from the teachers gaining experience this summer.

“Industry is changing all of the time,” said Patrick Kelly, the district’s curriculum specialist for career and technical education. “And if your teachers don’t keep up with industry, then we’re preparing (students) for what used to be, not what currently is.”