Greetings

I want to wish you and your families the happiest of holiday seasons.

As I look toward next year I am excited about all the opportunities available to technology education teachers in Connecticut. The number and topics of professional development activities as well as meeting and conferences is extensive (see below). I hope you take advantage of these opportunities by participating wherever possible.

The word from Washington is the President elect is a supporter of Career and Technical Education and will be looking to put people with CTE experience into the US Department of Education. There is even talk that he supports Perkins and an increase of dollars for this grant is not out of the question.

At the State level, even though our financial outlook is grim, we are moving forward with pushing the school reform plan. This means the concept of students being enrolled in STEM courses, CTE electives and Senior project is still part of the foundation of the plan. Technology Education is seen at the heart of these proposals. Our time is now.

I also encourage you to get involved or at least join your professional organization. ITEA, CTEA, CTELC, TSA all have a lot to offer you and your programs.

Once again Happy holidays and Happy new Year.

Greg

January 8-9, 2009 PLTW New England School Counselor Conference Worchester MA
January 22, 2009 Engineering by Design (EBD) One Year Later, CREC Hartford
January 26, 2009 CTELC Meeting #289 Howell Cheney Technical High School Manchester
January 29, 2009 PLTW Teacher Workshop Science and Engineering Magnet School New London
March 5, 2009 VEX Follow-up workshop
March 7, 2009 VEX Robotics Scrimmage South Windsor High School
March 10, 2009 Construction workshop Follow-up ITEB New Britain
March 18, 2009 CTELC #290 being finalized
March 25-28, 2009 ITEA Conference
April 4, 2009 Connecticut CTEA VEX Robotics Competition CCSU New Britain
May 8, 2009 CT-TSA State Conference Hartford Convention Center
May 9, 2009 PLTW Student Presentation Hartford Convention Center
May 14, 2009 CTELC #291 Pratt and Whitney Jet Engine Training Center in East Hartford
May 27, 2009 CTEA State Conference CCSU

I am sure we will be adding to this list and as new opportunities develop I will post them on this listserv and the Connecticut Technology Education BLOG at http://connecticut-te.blogspot.com/