Blogs
Meeting with my Fellowship Mentor
My mentor for the 2017 ACTE Fellows program is Shelly Rust, Advanced Culinary Arts and Baking Pastry Instructor at the Kokomo Area Career Center in Kokomo, Indiana. She is a 2014 ACTE Fellow and is currently the Indiana ACTE President.
Like me, Shelly came into the Career Tech arena from the restaur...
Three Keys to Success in CTE
It has been a pleasure to work with my mentor, Mr. Patrick Biggerstaff, who serves as the Director of Area 31 Career Center in Indianapolis. Patrick is a former ACTE Region III Fellow and was recently elected as the VP-Administration Elect for ACTE.
Patrick is very passionate about Career &...
A Timely Mentor
Have you ever had a conversation with somebody that seemed curiously timely? I just had one of these conversations when I spoke with my mentor, Rachael Mann. Despite it being only February, this year has presented itself with several challenges that left me questioning why I am in education. As we b...
I Already Know Everything. I Need a Mentor, Too?
My name is Tommy Hamilton and I am the 2017 ACTE Fellow for the Business Education Division. When they told me I was going to have a mentor, I thought, “Great, another micromanager to steer me to the finish line.” But as it turns out, the word “mentor” can be both a noun and a verb.
Rich ...
CTE Across the Years
ACTE is celebrating 100 years of CTE with the anniversary of the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917. This legislation authorized federal funds for supporting secondary vocational training, beginning a century of investment in progress in career and technical education. The legislation has chan...
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 distr...
My Drive for CTE
As I reflect on my teaching career as a Marketing Education and DECA Advisor for the past six years at North High School in Akron, Ohio, I consider my DRIVE for Career Technical Education (CTE) and how it got me where I am today. As a former human resources executive in the automotive industry, ...
College and Career Readiness . . . For ALL
“Career and Technical Education (CTE) is for students who aren’t college-bound.”
“CTE isn’t really education, it’s job training.”
“CTE is training for entry-level job skills, not for post-secondary education.”
The list of misperceptions could continue to go on - and we all...
How ESSA Can Shape a General Education Classroom
As the successor to No Child Left Behind begins its march through public education, it will create many ways for “real-world” skills to be integrated into all classrooms. The Every Students Succeeds Act, better known as ‘ESSA,’ provides opportunity for classrooms to incorporate 21st century ...
College or Career Bound – Building a Professional Portfolio
The best way educators in CTE fields can demonstrate career connections to students in/outside the classroom is to get students to industry and industry to students. Instructors need to provide job shadowing opportunities to CTE students, and business owners/employees need to be solicited by instruc...