Last week I had the opportunity to attend the ACTE Convention in Las Vegas! (Thank you OkACTE!) Let me share what I brought home from the conference and all the presenters and attendees.
(On a side note, it was pretty cool that at every turn you saw someone from Oklahoma. Oklahomans are representing our state well in CTE as attendees, presenters, award winners and in leadership positions. If you didn't know, the Past President and President Elect of ACTE are both from Oklahoma!!)
After attending the First Timers Orientation Thursday morning, it was time for the Opening Session with OVAE Assistant Secretary Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier and Tim Sanders.
Dann-Messier spoke about how America is facing a skills recession and that CTE + experiential learning equals success for the future. She also spoke about the need for seamless secondary to higher education transitions and industry recognized credentials.
Sanders opened his keynote with great advice for anyone who speaks. He shared that "The only reason to give a speech is to change the world." Tim worked at Yahoo and his website says that he is a people-centric business expert. Tim had a great message about relationships and the Law of Reciprocity. You can view his keynote outline here.
After taking a quick walk through the CareerTech Expo and looking at what seemed like a 1,000 vendors, it was time to head to the ACTE Assembly of Delegates meeting. For those who do not know what the Assembly of Delegates do, they are your voice in matters related to ACTE and CTE. These are the people who vote for you. It was interesting watching the process and attending the assembly.
After the assembly I attended the New and Related Services (NRS) Luncheon and Business Meeting. Oklahoma's Claire Zevnik-Cine is the NRS Vice President and presided over the meeting.
The rest of the day was filled with break out session covering topics all over career and technology education. I attended "How Washington Works" and it was a great session with two of ACTE's Public Policy Staff. They shared about the political process in Washington and insight into how a bill becomes a law, and it is a lot different than what I learned from watching School House Rock!
Friday started with a General Session and some awards! Oklahoma brought home a pair of awards and a congrats goes out to Jeanette Capshaw, Moore Norman Technology Center, who is the Outstanding Career and Technical Educator and Buddy Neasbitt, Great Plains Technology Center, who was named Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher.
During the general session participants had the opportunity to listen to a panel discussion that included a continuum of education, from the President of Gateway Technical College down to two students.
The breakout sessions for day two were just as plentiful. I attended a session on being an under 40 professional in CTE and gained some great insight from fellow professionals. Next was a session about starting career education early and then on to the transition to college.
I had the opportunity to attend the ACTE Town Hall meeting where members had the opportunity to ask questions and get answers about the issues that relate to them. One of the questions posed was where do the arts fit into CTE?
This was also the day with the second Assembly of Delegates meeting. We heard many diferent reports and learned about membership, finances and more dealing with ACTE.
The last day of the convention was just as full as the first. I attended an open source session that discussed tools for the classroom that are free!! Next a session about data and then on to the closing general session.
John Hofmeister, CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy and author of Why We Hate Oil Companies was the first speaker. hofmeister spoke of our energy issues as a country and offered some solutions and great insight. He is the former CEO of Shell Companies.
He was followed by Matthew Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft. Crawford had many wonderful insights into CTE and the manual trades and shared that the skilled manual trades is a life worth living and that we should publicly recognize manual trades people and students.
After attending the Region IV Business Meeting, it was time to check out and grab a plane back to Oklahoma. It was a great trip and I brought home a lot of good information that I hope to share with other CTE professionals on how we can provide opportunities for our students.
If you want to see what was Tweeted about, search Twitter with the hashtag #acte10 or click here. If you want to see some of the great information shared, browse the presentations from the convention sessions.
Who knows, maybe I will see you next year in St Louis!!
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