Celebrating 75 Years of Success was the theme for the 2001 National conference. In New Orleans, each day started with exciting and motivating program sessions. Dianne Mondry, our ACTE president, opened the conference introducing Deborah Norville for the first general session. Her motivational presentation set a positive tone for the remainder of the conference.
The second general session featured Harvard Psychologist Howard Gardner. In his theory of multiple intelligences, he defines intelligence as the ability to interact successfully with other people. Gardner?s theory is described as radically changing our understanding of education and human development.
Saturday?s general session featured John Alston who presented, ?Attitude in Action?. Attendees of the conference could leave this session with practical knowledge that can be incorporated within organizations and communities. As a fellow classroom teacher, as well as multicultural consultant, psychologist, and author, John used humor to enhance audience personal awareness and people skills.
The closing session presented Henry Winkler. His motivational program entitled, ?If You Will It, It is Not a Dream,? highlighted his belief that not all children being taught fit the cookie-cutter mold, and some need no boundaries to discover their potential.
The members from North Dakota had a chance to participate in the general sessions, concurrent sessions of their interest, the trade show, and the business meetings. This would be a good time to start planning for the 2002 convention in Las Vegas. The ACTE Annual Convention and Career Tech Expo will be held Thursday, December 12 through Sunday, December 15. Visit the web site at http://www.acteonline.org/ for information. You may find that attending a conference such as this is one of the best professional activities you can do.
Pam Stroklund
As a first time attendee, I enjoyed every day of the National ACTE Convention held in New Orleans. The top-notch speakers delivered wonderful messages, while the variety of sessions provided new information. The large array of exhibitors in the Career Tech Expo was awesome. Dianne Mondry did an excellent job presiding over the conference.
I can't forget to mention New Orleans itself: the atmosphere, the shopping, the food, the nightlife, the people, the riverboat cruise, and the streetcar. OUTSTANDING!
I came home with many ideas and memories. I would encourage anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to attend an ACTE Convention to start looking at Las Vegas in 2002. You will have a great time!
Sincerely,
Pam Stroklund, 2001 New Professional
By Al Liebersbach
NDACTE President Elect
We had a great response to the request for applicants for the new professionals awards to the National ACTE Convention and or the Region V ACTE convention. Over all nine individuals submitted applications for the New Professionals. After look over the applications the NDACTE has awarded new professional grants to four ND teachers help cover the costs of attending the National ACTE Convention or the Region V ACTE convention.
The 2001 ? 2002 NDACTE New Professional award recipients and what conference they plan to attend and what division they are from are;
Carole J Smolnikar South Heart, Killdeer, Richardton Guidance
Mari Borr Mandan High School FACS
Duane Johnson Magic City Minot T & I
Marlin Aagneses SE Voc-Oakes Admin
Smolnikar, Borr and Johnson attended the ACTE Convention in New Orleans in December and Marlin Aagenes will be attending the Region 5 conference in Sun City Idaho in April.
In addition to the NDACTE new professional awards we also had two North Dakota ACTE members apply for and receive National ACTE grants. The two individuals were;
- Maria Carpenter Magic City Minot Business Education
Pam Stroklund Magic City Minot Business and Information Tech. Ed.
It was really great to have such a good response to the request for applicants and I am sure that each of the attendees had a very positive and educational conference.
By Al Liebersbach
NDACTE President Elect
The North Dakota Association of Career and Technical Educators is seeking candidates for the office of vice president. The vice president will serve on the NDACTE Executive Board and will move on to the offices of president-elect, president, and past president the following years.
I strongly encourage each service area to nominate a candidate. From the nominations received two candidates will be selected by the screening committee for placement on the ballot for election at the all-service conference.
I association vice president should be prepared to make the following time commitments. Attend the association executive committee meetings at all-service conference, the October meeting at NDEA conference, and the January meeting annually. As the vice president moves through the officer chairs he or she should be prepared to attend the following national conferences: Region V conference in April during vice presidents year, National ACTE Policy Conference in Washington DC as association president elect in March, and National ACTE Convention in December as President.
To nominate some one or to nominate yourself please complete the enclosed application and mail to Al Liebersbach, Mandan High School, 905 8th Ave NW, Mandan ND 58554. Applications must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2002. If you need additional information please call Al Liebersbach at (701) 663-9532.
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MARCH 15th |
Nomination from service areas or individuals for the Office of Vice President must be postmarked to chairperson of Nomination Committee. |
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MARCH 20th |
letter sent to candidates, asking for resume and positions statement, Deadline April 1st. |
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APRIL 1st |
Nominee?s resume and positions statements must be postmarked to chairperson of Nomination Committee. |
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APRIL 15th |
Nominating Committee completes review and selection of two candidates. |
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APRIL 30th |
Candidates notified of nominating committee selection |
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JUNE 1st |
Candidates names sent to NDACTE President |
- Candidates may begin campaigning immediately upon selection notification. Campaigning may be done up to time of voting at All-Service Conference.
- Campaign expenses are responsibility of the candidate.
- The names of two candidates will be placed into nomination at the NDACTE business meeting. Nominations may also be made from the floor.
- Each candidate will give a brief statement (three minutes) of personal goals and/or desires (platform statement) for the office.
- Each candidate may have two people give a brief (three minutes) endorsement statement.
- Candidates for the office of vice president must be willing to commit him/herself to a four-year obligation. The normal procedure is vice president, president-elect, president, and past president.
- Each candidate should inform and secure support from his/her employer prior to running for office.
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RETURN BY MARCH 15TH, 2002 TO:
Al Liebersbach
NDACTE Nominations Committee
Mandan Senior High School
905 8th Ave NW
Mandan ND 5855
Phone # (701) 663-9532 Fax (701) 663-5398
Do you know a high school senior who plans to continue his or her vocational-technical training at one of North Dakota?s two-year post-secondary schools in the fall? If so, this student may be eligible for the Reuben T. Guenthner scholarship. This scholarship, provided through the Vocational-Technical Education Endowment Fund, honors the memory of a former state director of vocational-technical education and leader in VTE at both state and national levels.
Eligibility for the $400 Reuben T. Guenthner scholarship is limited to a 2001-02 graduating senior who:
- has completed one or more vocational-technical education courses in grades 9-12;
- plans to enroll as a full-time student in a North Dakota public post-secondary vocational-technical program of two years or less.
More detailed eligibility information and application forms for the scholarship are now available at www.state.nd.us/vte/students/scholarships.html.
Encourage your VTE students to consider applying for this scholarship as they make the plans for education beyond high school.
Continued contributions to the VTE Endowment Fund will allow the development of additional scholarships in the future. Make an investment in the future of vocational-technical education. Invest in a VTE student!
By Gerald Wettlaufer
As most of you already know, Darrell Dettmann has indicated that he will be leaving his position as Executive Secretary of the NDACTE. A committee has been formed to find a replacement for him. We certainly want to ?Thank? Darrell for his many years of service to the association and wish him well in his retirement.
The search committee consists of Al Liebersbach, Bunnie Johnson, Ervin Vanveldhuizen and myself. As of the date of this writing, several applications have been received and interviews will be forthcoming. We hope to have a new Executive Secretary picked by early February.
An ?event? is scheduled at your school. You anticipate that crowds of parents, grandparents, and other patrons will attend. You and the other vocational-technical teachers have been offered the opportunity to showcase your programs. How will you begin?
Why not use the VTE booth as the focus of your program marketing activities?
You?ve seen the VTE booth at the All-Service Vocational Conference and other statewide meetings. The bright blue backdrop and the matching blue-covered table do attract attention. Personalize the booth with photos of local VTE students for the greatest impact or use the set of statewide photos that accompanies the booth. Provide brochures or other handouts describing local programs and add the bright yellow ?Get the SKILLS You Need? brochure that lists all the post-secondary VTE programs in the state. For even more information, include current-year copies of the North Dakota Career Outlook newspaper and order a supply of the excellent brochures available from ACTE, the Association for Career and Technology Education. Or ? use the booth as a site for skill demonstrations by students or hands-on activities for viewers.
There are two booths. One is housed at the state VTE office on the 15th floor of the state capitol. The other booth is located at UND in the Business Education and Information Management Division, on the 3rd floor of Gamble Hall. Either of these booths is available on loan to schools if it isn?t scheduled for a statewide event. There is no charge, but the requesting school is responsible for picking up and returning the booth.
To reserve a booth, contact:
by Bill Totenhagen, Guidance Representative
This is my first news article as Guidance Representative on the NDACTE Board, so I thought I would choose a subject that relates to counselors and other career and technical educators. I help coordinate the State achievement testing at my school and interpret the results with students, parents, teachers and administrators. There are some major changes in the testing program this year. The mandated grades are now 4, 8, and 12 instead of grades 4, 8, and 10. The decision to test seniors caught my attention when I first read about the changes.
Most of the Seniors I work with have already taken the ACT test at least once by the time March rolls around. They know that the ACT is important for college admissions and take it fairly seriously. I don?t know how seriously they are going to take an achievement test that will have little or no impact on their future plans.
It appears that there will be more testing and higher stakes testing on both the national and state levels. I have spoken with teachers and administrators who are concerned about schools being graded or funded according to how students do on a single standardized test. These tests have a place in evaluating how our students are learning in comparison to students in other parts of the country but are only a piece of the picture. Data such as school grades, teacher-developed tests, hands on achievements, and community, school and work activities.
A special concern for career and technical educators is whether standardized test scores are an appropriate method of measuring achievements and skills gained by students taking career and technical education courses, participating in student organizations, and completing cooperative work assignments. Accountability is a term that is frequently mentioned in this new round of educational reform. There is a real desire to obtain numbers to determine a bottom line. It?s fairly easy to produce numbers with standardized tests, but it?s much more difficult to determine what those numbers really mean and how to use them to make educational decisions.
I think every educator agrees with President Bush?s desire to see that no students are left behind, but I think there are concerns about committing too big a share of limited resources, time, and money to increased testing and relying too much on test scores to evaluate students, teachers, programs, and schools.
Contributions to the Endowment Fund are invested through the North Dakota Community Foundation and the interest is used for projects that will promote and extend vocational-technical education. The Reuben T. Guenthner scholarship, established in 1999, is the first of these projects.
Under the rules of the ND Community Foundation, income equal to 5% of the principal can be expended each year. The VTE Endowment Fund principal is just over $10,000.00, making approximately $500.00 available for projects each year. There have already been suggestions for additional scholarships and other projects. How can these projects be funded? By continuing to ?grow? the Endowment Fund!
Contributions to the Endowment Fund are accepted at any time during the year. Make contributions in your own name, to honor a colleague, remember a supporter of VTE, celebrate Groundhog Day, or for any one of a million other reasons. Checks should be made payable to the ?ND Community Foundation? and should be designated ?for the VTE Endowment Fund?. Send your contributions to:
Sandy Braathen
Business Education & Information Management
PO Box 8363
Grand Forks, ND 58202-8363
Do you believe in the future of vocational-technical education? Say, ?yes? through the VTE Endowment Fund.
In Memory of Majore Lovering