Recognizing classroom innovators: celebrating CTE month in your community.

Lynch, Sean

It's that time of year again! There's a buzz at ACTE headquarters and in classrooms across the country about CTE Month[R] 2015. Here at ACTE, we have been busy planning our own celebrations to recognize classroom innovators--career and technical education (CTE) professionals, students and partners from the community who are paving the way for the future of education and workforce readiness.

Celebrating CTE Month is a fun way to accomplish one of ACTE's core goals: spreading awareness of and appreciation for the importance of CTE through grassroots efforts and by working with the media.

This year, ACTE selected the theme "Recognizing Classroom Innovators" to guide our outreach and activities. The goal in so doing was to include a buzzword that often appears in business, technology and education news coverage--innovation--and apply it to the classroom to shine a light on the leaders who are changing the way students learn. Classroom innovators come in all shapes and sizes, whether it's a student who advances his or her classroom discussions in a unique way and finds new ways to apply newfound skills, or a business leader who makes hands-on learning a priority for his or her organization and provides students with a meaningful workplace-learning opportunity.

CTE Leads the Way: Seeing Students in Action

To prepare for CTE Month, we've been working with our champions on Capitol Hill to get the word out among policymakers that February is CTE Month. And we've worked with schools and students across the country to promote CTE through our PSA contest by having entrants create a public service announcement incorporating the CTE Month logo and theme. However, our favorite part of CTE Month is the opportunity to arrange a school visit for local leaders and members of the media, which helps to spread awareness of what today's CTE classrooms look like.

Whether held during CTE Month or another time of year, school visits provide great opportunities to demonstrate CTE students' skills, and these visits fit in perfectly with this year's theme. By introducing the public to innovators in your schools, you can make a positive difference in the way they think about CTE, as well as the way that CTE is reported on by the media. School visits also build awareness among students and parents in your community of the fantastic programs that are available to them.

Whether it's organizing the event, coordinating with classrooms and/or inviting attendees, planning a CTE Month school visit can seem like a daunting task. However, a little strategizing before you start organizing the event can go a long way.

We've compiled the following tips to help you get ready for your event and make CTE Month 2015 a success. Even if you can't get the visit done this month, don't worry. The following practices are ever-green:

1. Set a date. Start by determining a date that will work for you and your colleagues to have visitors in the school building. Do your best to make sure that all the necessary parties will be available during the event, including school administrators, educators and career and guidance counselors. To ensure that your attendees will have the best chance of being able to attend, it's often helpful to plan around other major community events and holidays, as well as to avoid Mondays and Fridays--days when some people will be out of the office or busy with meetings.

2. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Spend time dividing up responsibilities for the event, including conducting press outreach, coordinating student presentations and planning for logistics like parking and refreshments. Make sure everyone understands their specific duties, and communicate deadlines among the group so nothing slips through the cracks!

3. Don't reinvent the wheel. ACTE has created a variety of resources you can use to develop promotional materials and conduct press outreach for your CTE Month school visits. Visit www.ctemonth.org to access sample media advisories, press releases and graphics that you can adapt to your own celebrations and use to invite members of the media. Don't forget to review our "Targeting the Media" page in the ACTE Advocacy Toolkit, as well, if you need to brush up on the basics of press outreach.

4. Aim high. Invite a variety of individuals to the school visit--from reporters to school board members, parents and policymakers. Inviting leaders from your state or local government can be an effective way to educate them about the importance of CTE in preparing students for college and career, as they are often interested in learning more about issues of importance to their constituents. Try not to limit your own success by leaving out high-profile individuals from your invite list, and be persistent if you don't hear back from them the first time you reach out.

5. Be sure to get camera-ready. Members of the media are likely to bring along a photographer to any school visits they might attend, which is a great way to share an inside look at your program. However, remember that most students are under the age of 18, meaning that they will need to have a signed video and photo release form on file with your school to be featured in any photographs from the day. Be sure to plan in advance to secure these forms with the students' parents, or work with the photographer to ensure that all necessary privacy laws are respected.

6. Share your success. Send articles, photos and blog posts about your CTE Month celebrations (especially school visits) to ACTE headquarters! It's always great to see how ACTE's members are raising CTE awareness nationwide. Use your stories to share your good news with the broader CTE universe.

By following these tips and celebrating CTE Month in your classroom and community, you can show others firsthand what CTE is all about and help build understanding about how CTE is a crucial part of a robust education for all students. To learn more and see stories from last year's CTE Month activities, visit www.ctemonth.org.Tech

By Sean Lynch

Sean Lynch is the legislative and public affairs manager with the Association for Career and Technical Education. E-mail him at slynch@acteonline.org.

CTE MONTH POSTER CONTEST WINNER

For CTE Month 2015, we encouraged students across the country to submit a poster that demonstrates our theme for this year Recognizing Classroom Innovators. Congratulations to Christina Perini from Nashoba Valley Technical High School in Westford, Massachusetts!