Congratulations to the 2013 Ohio ACTE Educator Award Winners!

Ambassador Award

Bunny Brooks, Lebanon High School

For the past 32 years, family and consumer sciences teacher, Bunny Brooks, has dedicated her teaching career to presenting and opening new opportunities to her students.

Five years into her career she began developing what Lebanon High School now calls the college life skills course. In this course, Brooks works to make sure her curriculum keeps up with the needs of her students as well as the changes on technology. One way she does this is by taking the ACT herself to know how to better prepare her students. She also works to find websites that her students can utilize in her course. She has presented this curriculum at the OATFCS, ACTE and ACT conferences. For the past 12 years, Brooks has been keeping statics on the schools ACT students. In the past four years, Lebanon High School has been able to stay above the national average for the ACT has well as increase the number of students who take it or the SAT.

This past year, Brooks organized the schools first college and career day. Working with Sinclair Community College, Brooks invited 65 groups presenting post secondary options, or career opportunities. During a two hour block in the school day, Lebanon’s tenth through twelfth graders were able to visit the career fair. The event opened again later in the evening, this time to the public. The event was such a success that Brooks and Sinclair Community College are already scheduling next years event.

Teacher of the Year

Teresa Bodey, Greene County Career Center

Teresa Bodey teaches a one year, senior program at the Teacher Prep Academy for Green County Career Center. Given only a year with her students, Bodey works to fit as much experience and knowledge into her curriculum as she can. She wants to make sure her students are able to experience all aspects of the school system, exposing them to primary grades, middle and high school students as well as guidance and administrative work.

She maintains partner ships with two and four year colleges that allow her students to experience campus life and gain firsthand experience in working with students who have disabilities. Her class also meets on a college campus, giving her students access to college resources.

Bodey is also a mentor at the career center where she prepares her students as well as new teachers to meet the needs of students.

Her teaching strategy is creating an environment in which everyone can learn. She helps her students adapt this strategy to their own teaching methods and to help figure out what kind of teacher they want to be themselves.

"I find great satisfaction in a student who "figures it out" based on experiences and opportunities they have had in the program," said Bodey. "For example,  this year I have a student with some medical issues that many people would say would preclude her from a teaching career. Throughout the course of the year, however, she and I have investigated and tried several alternative options to allow her success. Recently, she had a breakthrough understanding."

She receives frequent phone calls from her former students in college to thank her for preparing them so well.

"I am most rewarded when former students report they actually used what they experienced or learned in my program in their college work," said Bodey. "In fact, I immediately share the gist of conversations with former students with the current class so they can better understand how what they learn today will help them in the next stage of their career path."

Outstanding Career and Technical Educator

Daniel Frederick, Four County Career Center

Before joining the Adult Workforce Education staff in 2003, Daniel Frederick worked as a firefighter, EMT and public safety instructor. He worked with the Defiance Medical Clinic for 21 years. In the past ten years, he was worked to expand partnerships with other agencies as well as add new programs. He was also able to expand the Four County Public Safety program to seven counties in Northwest Ohio.

"The bottom line for me has always been helping students succeed," said Frederick. "My experience with students have convinced me that teachers do make a difference and I have built our whole program on student success, adding remediation programs, student success seminars and involving the families of Paramedic students in the orientation program."

Frederick has also worked to develop the Public Safety Community of Practice for the Ohio ACTE, programs about public safety at the annual OACTE conference. Growth in the Four County Paramedic Program can be credited back to Fredrick and his staff due to their outreach for more agencies such as the Ohio Air National Guard and ProMedica. Recently, the paramedic program received a letter of review from COAEMSP, in which the quality and credibility of their program was verified.

Frederick is continuing to expand the program.

"We are currently anticipating our site visit for National Accreditation for our Paramedic Program in July," he said. " New programs we are adding include Critical Care Transport, and IV Therapy for LPN’s. We are also working on completing application to become an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Training Center."

In the community, Fredrick serves as the president of the Ayersville School's Board of Education, the Ayersville Fire Chief, and is a Regional Facility Member for the American Heart Association.

Outstanding New Career and Technical Educator

Matt Simpson, Akron CIty Schools, Buchtel Community Learning Center

Masonry is defined as the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar. Matt Simpson but his building skills to work when he saved and reshaped the masonry program at Buchtel Community Learning Center.

Simpson graduated from the program himself, and then went on to travel to do his work. He created murals in the New York City subway system out of glass blocks. After heard that the masonry program at his old school was closing because they didn’t have a teacher, he applied for the job. According to Simpson, he wanted to give back to the program that gave him his amazing career.

He was quickly faced with the challenges of a dying program. There was a lack of interest in masonry, and the students he had tended to lack motivation and interest.

"When I began this school year, I knew the numbers for the program had been dropping, but I didn't know that I would only have one student who returned to my program," said Simpson. "The rest of my students are new juniors or seniors that were thrown into my class at the last minute. Many did not even know what masonry was when they walked through the door."

He had to find a way to change the program, all while attending school himself to earn his CTE endorsement.

He began to reshape the program by utilizing his pool of contacts. He used them to provide resources for his students as well as generate excitement by bringing in guest speakers. Simpson has also learned that hands on learning is the way to go with his students.

"Those first few days of class I learned that the textbook and worksheets were not out friends," said Simpson. "Once we got into the lab I quickly learned that hands-on activities would be where all our learning would take place. The students were able to visually see the skills and the knowledge I had and began to want to build their own skill set. It was so transforming for the students because it was no longer a sheet of paper that was being graded. It became a source of pride for them to do better than their peers when they could see tangible results.

He also hosted a masonry contest where his students as well as those from other schools could gain experience and put the skills that they learned to the test. A student from his program ended up winning first place in this competition.

Another big aspect for him when changing the program was motivating the students. He uses his story as a way to do so.

"I have never tried to be a cool teacher or a popular teacher when relating to my class," said Simpson "I try to impart to my students that I'm not very far removed from the position they are in and that with hard work they can build a good life for themselves. However, I make it clear they have to put in the work in order to succeed and the skills they are learning will be the skills they use for a lifetime."

He has also involved their parents to make sure they were getting motivation at home as well, even allowing a mother to come sit in on a class session when her son refused to do his work.

"I know have five seniors and seven juniors who- six months ago- knew nothing but are turning into true masons," said Simpson.

 

Outstanding CTE Professional in Community Service

  
Adam Schlosser, Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development

A campaign that Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development has long focused on is to make sure that all students feel welcomed, respected and valued by their peers. Digital Arts and Design Instructor, Adam Schlosser has worked hard to ensure that those values are instilled in his students as well as the community.

In 2010, Schlosser attended a summer conference where he learned about the Design Ignites Change organization. He was then introduced to Create! Don’t Hate!, a program that allows students to work with professionals to focus on social issues.

He then partnered with Landor Associates, a design firm in Cincinnati to help his students spread messages of positivity and anti-bullying. The students started by discussing the issue, then began meeting with designers. During those meetings they were exposed to what it would be like to be a designer in the professional world. Then, with these designers, the students created billboards to raise awareness on bullying. These billboards were displayed throughout the community to support the students and these issues.

Career Guidance Award

Janet Baughn, Greene County Career Center

Janet Baughn has done a lot in her 22 years with the Greene County Career Center. Here, she is the Associative School Career Pathway Counselor. She was a teacher at the beginning of her career, then went on to work in administration for ten years. This is her third year as a counselor. She has worked to develop marketing materials and recruit students for over 20 programs offered at the center as well as for 15 satellite career technical programs. She also provides the presentations to recruit students from partner school districts in the school’s county. At Bellbrook-Sugarcreek, Greeneview and Yellow Spring High Schools she has brought discussion about starting new career technical programs.

With the school, she serves as the High Schools that Work coordinator as well as the adviser for the National Technical Honor Society. She has also served as a judge for both the Skills USA State Extemporaneous Speaking Finales and the BPA State Presentation Management Individual Finals.

 

Image Award 

Eric Myles,Cleveland Public Power

Six years ago, Eric Myles, Deputy Commissioner for Cleveland Public Power (CPP), was faced with a problem. In the coming years, CPP would be seeing significant retirement rates due to an aging workforce in the field. He needed to come up with a plan to replace the large employee numbers that CPP would be losing over the next few years. The solution that he came up with was the Intern to Apprentice program with the Cleveland Municipal School District. In this program, ten graduating seniors per year are picked to internship with the company to ready themselves to work within the company after their internship is complete. These students work in full-time, paid internships over the summer.

Myles works to recruit, train, hire and retain these students chosen. Out of the fifty students who have been hired through this program, CPP has been able to retain forty-four of them. The program was originally designed to only last five years, but according to Myles it might be extended to at least a sixth.

 

Outstanding School Board Members

 

Rusty Roberts, Mid-East Career and Technology Centers

Rusty Roberts has served 30 years as the Career Based Intervention Coordinator at Meadowbrook High School, spent 15 years serving Cambridge City Schools and six with the Mid-East Board of Education, where he developed the Student Board Representative Program. This program allows two student representatives to serve on the school board. He developed the idea for this program after talking with Greg Parks, editor of his local newspaper, the Daily Jeffersonian.

“As a parent, educator and community leader I saw a need to create a learning opportunity to introduce students with real-life skills and experiences they will use the rest of their lives,” said Roberts. “From the application process to how a board functions as elected officials they are learning many valuable lessons in dealing with people and problems facing public education.”

He has presented his program at the Student Achievement Fair, the Ohio School Board Association (OSBA) Capital Conference and to High Schools That Work. His program has been presented to 20 school boards state wide and information about his program has been requested by School Boards in 15 other states. The Student Board Representative Program has won two national awards as well as being nominated twice for the American School Board Association’s Magna Award. OSBA has also featured his program in their journal, in addition to awarding him the OSBA Award of Achievement.

Roberts recently was able to open the program to Cambridge students who attended Mid-East. He also assists Mid-East with their activities as well as helps the students to be aware of the amount of opportunities that are out there for them.

“Students must have educational options and the opportunities to explore different careers during their teen years and into adulthood.” said Roberts. “The Mid-East Career and Technology Centers have a proven track record of student success while providing a wide-range of programs to challenge students. “

He also has worked to promote career-technical education throughout the community.

 Doug Maggied, Tolles Career and Technical Center

 For the past 15 years, Doug Maggied has served on the  Tolles Career and Technical Center Board of Education representing Hilliard City Schools. He was Vice- President for two years and has served as President for four years.

He supports the Project SEARCH Program, a program for young adults who have completed their graduation requirements that allows them to gain intensive transitional skills for training and entering completion employment. He also influenced a change in policy at Hilliard City Schools that allows students to defer graduation, but still participate in the ceremonies, allowing students in SEARCH to still work with their program.

"I felt this could be the difference between them having the opportunity for one more year of experience and growth enabling them to succeed after getting out of school," said Maggied

He also cares about the important messages of CTE, taking them to local legislators and participating in the Ohio ACTE Legislative Conference. In addition to all his work inside the schools, Maggied has worked as the construction project manager with Steed-Hammond-Paul, Inc., an architect firm, to renovate and construct several career centers in Ohio, including Tolles.

Sue Steele, Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development

Sue Steele has served on the Great Oaks Board for ten years, nine of those years being in a leadership role. When she served as ACTE liaison she attended many state and national ACTE conferences and National Policy Seminars in order to learn and work with the key issues.

"While these are challenging times, they are also times when career-technical education has the opportunity to show our citizens and education and business partners that the success of our students is vital to economic revitalization in Ohio," said Steele. "The mandate to measure student learning gains is an opportunity to focus resources on determining learning goals, assessing student progress, and then aligning our professional development to fill in the gaps. It is a challenge in career-technical pathways too often come to a common understanding of outcomes, but it is an opportunity to weave a closer connection with our employers."

She has since served as Vice-Chair, and this year, Chair of the board. She has also served on the Goshen School board for fifteen years, being either Vice- Chair or Chair 11 of those years. Steele is also a member of the Goshen Police Department Meditation Committee and on the vision team for the Goshen United Methodist Church. She was named educator of the year in 2009 by the Goshen Chamber of Commerce. Community is very important to Steele.

"I have spent much of my adult career working to create a community
where people enjoy living and have an opportunity to build a secure
future for themselves and their families," said Steele.

In addition to all of these commitments, Steele also serves on the Southwest Regional Executive Committee and the state Board of Trustees for the Ohio School Boards Association. Steele was one of this year's five Outstanding School Board Members in Ohio.

After all these accomplishments, Steele still stays modest about the work she does and values those who work with her.

"Without the help of such a wonderful and caring staff I
would not be a successful board member," said Steele."We all agree that what we do is all about the students and what we need to do to help them to succeed."

Gail Martindale, Greene County Career Center

Gail Martindale has served on the Board of Education Member from Cedar Cliff Schools for 16 years and has  represented Green County Career Center for the last six. In addition, she was  president last year.

Under Martindale, the school board has been able to create a plan to advance student improvement, develop an increased emphasis on agricultural education, brought Nurse Assisting to the career center as well as move Biotechnology to Xeina High School. She also helped move Marketing to Fairborn High School and implemented International Business and Finance at the school's main campus.

Under her leadership, the school received the High Schools That Work Pacesetters award. They also purchased 49 acres to build an equine learning facility fro future programs in Veterinary Science and Equine Science. She is also a leader in community service for her students. Last year they completed over 6,000 hours of community service.