Welcome to my journey! I was selected as one of the Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE) New Professional Fellows for 2018 representing Family & Consumer Sciences!

Blog Post One: A Shared Passion for CTE

As a new professional fellow, I have 3 years teaching and CTE experience. I came straight from high school with a love for Family Consumer Sciences and Career Tech. I was excited when I found out that my mentor will bring a new perspective to CTE for myself as she comes from 20 years industry experience prior to teaching.

I am blessed to have Shelley Rust as my fellowship mentor this year. Shelley has a vibrant personality that is contagious and energizing when talking about Career and Technical Education. She is currently a ProStart/Baking & Pastry/Culinary teacher as well as the Indiana ACTE Organization President. I am excited to learn from her leadership and grow my passion for CTE as she has through her numerous experiences with ACTE.

Looking towards the future, we both believe that CTE is going to get bigger, stronger, and become even more of an asset to our country’s job outlook. ACTE is our advocate and together we will be able to help grow young professional to fill new and emerging careers in addition to those in high demand.

One piece of advice Shelley said she would give to her former new CTE professional self, is to be flexible and give students real life content/practice. As Career and Technical Education teachers it is our duty to provide students what they need for real life whether that is for college or career success. This experience has given strong leadership skills, advocacy tools, and professional development opportunities to so many before me. I am excited to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to ACTE and the hard work the organization does day in and day out for us and our students.

Blog Post Two: The Greatest Region Ever

The title seems a little biased, but as the most diverse (covering the highest number of states and territories) Region V is one that I am proud to be a part of. April 11-14, 2018 Colorado hosted the Region V conference in my hometown of Colorado Springs. We had at least one member from each state represented at the conference including Alaska and Hawaii!

Divisions were able to attend industry tours around the area including business partners, schools and non-profit organizations including The Mill, Care and Share Food Bank, Pikes Peak Community College and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Members were then bussed to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame for appetizers and an interactive dinner catered by our very own Brother Luck; whom you may have seen on a recent Top Chef season on Bravo TV!

Breakout sessions were my highlight of the conference. Seeing other professionals and business partners share their insights on how to better CTE and better prepare our students for the future is of endless value. Gaining public speaking tips and tricks from Rachel Mann and how to better market my CTE program from Sean Wybrant were two of the greatest and inspiring sessions I have ever attended. I was also lucky enough to be able to present at the conference as well on Google’s Education Suite that helps make classrooms more interactive and come to life through technology.

Region V is working towards building and getting more members involved in leadership roles throughout the organization. We have many representatives throughout the Divisions, participating in Region and National Fellowship programs and various committees for ACTE. With the support we give one another and the love our members spread across the country, Region V truly is “the greatest region ever.”

Blog Post Three: National Policy Seminar

National Policy Seminar was one of the best advocacy efforts I have ever had the opportunity of being a part of. Colorado had a strong group of CTE stakeholders and we were able to meet with 9 of our state legislators during the seminar. We were able to share what Career and Technical Education looks like across our beautiful state with Jared Polis, Scott Tipton, Mike Coffman, Ken Buck, Michael Bennet, Mike Coffman, Corey Gardner, Doug Lamborn.

NPS is the perfect place to learn more about what is going on in the legislative word for CTE. As a teacher, it can be hard to have the time to stay in the loop with all the new bills, laws and initiatives that can impact our world so greatly. This year, the legislative priorities Colorado CTE focused on was: support for postsecondary and workforce readiness and career pathways, aligning career and technical education to ESSA, addressing Colorado’s growing CTE educator shortage, strengthening CTE and training partnerships, and prioritizing school funding, Many of these initiatives align with the national priorities as well. One of the biggest takeaways I had from the seminar this year was the training that the ACTE staff and guest speakers gave us on how to advocate for those priorities not only to the legislators on the Hill at the Capitol but also back in our home states within our schools, districts and communities.

During our meetings with the national legislators, we were able to share our stories and bring our classrooms to the front of their minds. When it comes to advocating about education, I found with our meetings with the staff members in various legislators offices that they want to know who the students are in the classrooms we are fighting for. By bringing a personal aspect to the conversation it makes the priorities more about the people it will impact and less about the financial or political impacts their support will make. The hardest thing about advocating is that we will always have someone on the other side that does not see our viewpoint nor the priorities we do. When we get shut down by a legislator, or their staff member that our cause is truly not one that they support, it can be discouraging. However, CTE is about making the different in the lives of everyone. We impact our students, their families, the schools and communities we work in and the world as a whole when a CTE student becomes innovative and uses what they have learned in our classroom to invent the next life saving device. Keep fighting for what we do and what you believe in. Advocating is the best thing we can do to continue to make Career and Technical Education even better and all it takes is a little courage to share your story.

Blog Post Four: "Hacking Leadership" 101

As a new professional, developing leadership skills is a focal point of our fellowship experience. Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis’ “Hacking Leadership: 10 Ways Great Leaders Create Schools That Teachers, Students, and Parents Love” is an easy read with a plethora of tips for developing leadership with an education focus. Although I have no current intentions of becoming a school administrator in my career, I am a leader within my department, school and zone (our district is split into 3 zones).

Each chapter of the book is separated into sections: The Problem, The Hack, What You Can Do Tomorrow, Blueprint for Full Implementation, Overcoming Pushback and The Hack in Action. By doing this, you can easily reference easy to do applications of leadership skills, activities or changes to make your school a better place to “work, learn and lead” (District 49). I had three main takeaways from this book that I began implementing after reading, focus on building relationships, start adult passion projects, and be like water.

Building relationships is number one in working with people. I spend the first two weeks of school solely focusing on building relationships with my students, and them amongst one another. After reading, I am more dedicated to building relationships with my colleagues as well. We have all heard the term “it takes a village” and it is no different within education.

Adult passion projects are one of the coolest ideas from this book that sparked my interest. As a Certified Google trainer, I love all things innovative and building students ability to critically think. This idea takes the “Genius Hour” idea and applies it to adults. Getting the adults in the buildings to be able to focus on a professional goal they have for themselves with the support of the school is a way to not only build internal leaders, but also create enthusiasm for learning again in teachers who may be sitting on the back burner.

Finally, being like water. Being a leader means continuously striving to better yourself and the environment around you. Sanfelippo and Sinanis encourage leaders to be like water with “constant movement and subtle pressure.” As water you can push those around you to their potential greatness, bring energy when it seems a drought has formed, and provide nourishment for the school, its teachers, staff, students and their families. Hacking Leadership brings reality of most schools to the front picture and provides applicable and realistic changes for school leaders of all positions to implement.

Blog Post Five: Family and Consumer Sciences, Not Your Grandma's Home Ec.

Family and Consumer Sciences comes from a rich history of strong women, fighting for their own education and the life skill education of others. We were founded by Ellen Swallow Richards, a chemist who found value in life skills (otherwise known as “domestic skills”) that should be taught in public education. Thus, Home Economics was born. Though our history we became known for teaching students how to cook and sew, however, as society became more complex and dynamic family issues continued to rise our profession was rebranded to better represent the diverse body of knowledge we teach.

Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS/FCS) was coined in 1994, but still today, many FACS teachers continuously fight to prove we are more than our past. We educate for individuals, families and communities, addressing various topics from abilities, relationships, human development, culinary arts, workforce readiness and more. Students design Habitat for Humanity homes, create and execute service projects to address a problem unique to their community and develop leaders that will fight for human rights. We are the WHY in education. We teach students how to live and how to help their neighbor thrive.

I could not be more proud to be a FACS teacher. I see where we have come and I am excited to continue to evolve for the future. We are an art that society overlooks until it is too late. With individuals flooding in debt, obese yet malnourished, smart yet cannot problem solve, selfish and full of acceptance for others, there has never been a more vital time for our body of knowledge. If life gets your fired up, you have a passion for making other independent yet empathetic for the community, Say Yes to FCS.

To see more information about Family & Consumer Sciences or our “Say Yes to FCS” campaign please visit https://www.aafcs.org/fcsday/home and celebrate FCS Day December 3rd!

Blog Post Six: Teaching Shortage from the Eyes of a New Teacher

As warriors in education we have all heard the endless news about the country’s teacher shortage. We continually hear about this societal issue from a statistic and data perspective of political and school leaders worried about what the future looks like. As a new professional, I would like to share some insight into the world of a new teacher today.

When I told people throughout college I was going to become a teacher, most thought I was crazy and was throwing away my money (since everyone knows teachers are millionaires right?) Luckily, I knew teaching was my calling from a young age and I have an amazing mentor, Annie Friesema, that pushed me towards Family & Consumer Sciences. I think if I did not have that background, I would have ran just then as the world continuously discouraged me from my dream.

When did education become low supported and respected career. I specifically teach an Education & Training pathway for students interested in working with children or in the world of education. My students get a first hand, realistic look at the expectations put on teachers and unfortunately I continually hear them getting the same response from society as I did. “Why are you becoming a teacher, you know you won’t make any money, you’re crazy.” The saddest thing about this, is that they hear it from their current teachers when they run to them in joy (or for an interview assignment) telling them they think teaching is their heart’s calling.

I want to challenge us in education. Do not just fight for yourself when it comes to addressing the teacher shortage. As a new mom, I want my son to have amazing and passionate teachers as I did growing up. If we continue to push our own students away from the occupation, how are we ever going to solve the shortage. Instead, let’s educate our students, teach them problem solving and how to become an innovative leader so they can fight for a change in our industry. We are the creators of all occupations, let’s not forget about our own.

Blog Post Seven: Life as a New Professional Fellow

This last year has been packed full of professional development, growing as a teacher, leader and overall individual. I was blessed in this experience to be supported by my family and colleagues to pursue such a unique program as a new teacher. My students have been especially supportive, understanding why I was always gone and respectful to subs that were in and out of my room,

The fellowship experience began with a nervous excitement to applying to something I honestly did not think I would be accepted into. With letters of support from my colleagues and administration, I knew whatever was to come my way I was going to push hard and make the absolute most of it. Shortly after the announcement of my acceptance, we were on our way to Vision in Nashville to learn more about what I had just gotten myself into. Little did I know I was going to be the one presenting in front of other potential fellows a year later, only in San Antonio.

Conference after conference I went to meet other professionals, share my knowledge and successes with others (even though I had only been in the classroom for 3 years). CATFACS to share my excitement and love for Family & Consumer Sciences, National Policy Seminar advocating on the Hill to our legislators about education and CTE, Region V networking with business and industry partners, CACTE winning the New Teacher of the Year and culminating my experience at Vision again, where it all began. It was the never ending seminars, workshops and presentations that made me a strong, grounded and flexible teacher that I am now.

Now, although we did travel a lot to amazing places, it was also great to see and talk to the other new professional fellows every month during our meetings. We discussed what it is to be a leader, to continue to grow and support others through book studies, guest speakers and our own experiences. Learning how to jump head first into blogging and interviewing legislators and organization leaders are skills that will last me a lifetime.

I am so thankful that those around me gave me the push to put myself first in order to pull others up behind me. As I exit my fellowship, I encourage you to give someone that push that you think would spark that something special into a flame of leadership and advocacy for CTE. We need you and we need them. Go to conferences, present your strategies, nominate those around you for awards and just get involved! The students and future are counting on you!