District-Wide Pride in CTE
One of the most eye-opening and rewarding experiences I’ve had so far as an assistant principal in the Connecticut Technical High School System (CTHSS) was when we conducted a district-wide professional development event for all our schools’ faculty and home office administration. We are a district of 17 high schools across the state of Connecticut with one home office. We service approximately 11,200 students and employ over 1,000 teachers and pupil personnel, in addition to each building’s administrative team and our home office staff. So, gathering all those professionals together in one place for an organized professional development event is no small feat. However, our district performed the task with flying colors, and on November 3rd of 2015 all of CTHSS was gathered at the XL Convention Center in Hartford, CT for what would be an informative, inspiring, and collegial PD opportunity.
In remembering this event, however, I do not recall the name of the motivational speaker who addressed us, or even the many titles and topics of the PD courses that I attended or that were being offered. I remember it was all extremely high-quality, and I know there were many takeaways, but those are not the highlights of the day that stuck out to me. Instead, what I remember most are the displays and showcases that each school had created. Before the PD, our superintendent Dr. Nivea Torres asked each school to compile artifacts from their different Career Technology departments and create a showcase booth whereby the rest of the districts’ faculty could view and get a sense of each school. At the time, I worked at Platt Tech in Milford, CT and I was put in charge of this great task. I went around to all our career technologies and asked each instructor and their students to provide an artifact that speaks to what they do and who they are. The first response I got from everyone was, “Just ONE artifact??” And even though I knew it would be impossible for each shop to capture its essence is just one artifact, I knew I had limited space with which to work, so my reply was, “Yes, and make it good!”
It was an honor to collect these artifacts and display them at Platt’s booth on the day of the district-wide PD. However, what was even more inspiring was being able to walk around and view all the other schools and their booths and to see what other students and career technologies around the district were doing. It was truly awesome to see all the “cool” things that CTHSS students were doing: building robots, designing web layouts, manufacturing items, 3D printing, creating TV shows, building electrical circuits, building houses, installing HVAC and plumbing into residences, fixing and maintaining automobiles, styling hair and performing cosmetology, creating blueprints, printing materials….the list is truly endless. And all this was captured at our district-wide PD; it was beyond inspiring.
The memory that stuck with me the most was the moment I saw Abbott Tech’s display (one of Platt’s regional sister schools) and thinking to myself, “Wow, that school really has it going on.” Their display was the best of them all, and it placed top among the 17 schools. I said to myself on that day that I’d be proud to be a part of the Abbott family, and just a short year later, I was lucky enough to find myself among them.
CTE schools should take every opportunity to showcase themselves, display student work, and come together as a family to share practices, technologies, and artifacts. We all have so much to learn from one another, and I give a lot of credit to our CT district for coming together and celebrating the work we do on behalf of our industries and our students.
Submitted by Ms. Jayme Beckham, Assistant Principal at Henry Abbott Technical High School, Danbury, CT