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Kentucky Farm Bureau CONGRATULATIONS! Leslie Watkins, Reidland
High School, Teacher of the Year The Kentucky Association for Career and Technical Education (KACTE) participates in the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) national awards program to promote excellence in career and technical education. The Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation and Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance sponsor the annual Career and Technical Education Awards, which seek to recognize: Ø individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the field; Ø programs that exemplify the highest standards; and Ø organizations that have conducted activities to promote and expand Career and Technical Education programs. KACTE conducts the awards program, which is organized under the guidelines established by ACTE. There are 12 award categories, each with various criteria and eligibility requirements. KACTE members and individual program areas are encouraged to participate each year by submitting nominations to the KACTE Awards Committee chair. The Awards Committee reviews the nominees and selects the winners. Information on the awards, the criteria and the nominations process may be viewed on-line at the KACTE website, www.kacteonline.org. KACTE award winners are entered into the appropriate ACTE national award category for the following administrative year. In recent years, several KACTE members have been recognized nationally, including: Ø 2004-2005 KACTE President Sarah Raikes, Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, Washington County High School, who was the first recipient of the Outstanding Teacher in Community Service Award; Ø Donnalie Stratton, program consultant, Kentucky Department of Education Division of Career and Technical Education, who received the Carl D. Perkins Humanitarian Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by ACTE; and Ø Sandra Miller, Ph.D., professor emeritus, University of Kentucky, who received an ACTE Outstanding Service Award. THIS YEAR, KACTE presents two state winners – the Career and Technical Education Teacher-of-the-Year Award and the Outstanding Service Award.
Career and Technical Education
Teacher-of-the-Year
This prestigious award recognizes teachers who are providing outstanding Career and Technical Education programs for youth and/or adults in their respective fields and communities. Recipients must have made significant contributions toward innovative, unique and novel programs serving to improve and promote Career and Technical Education. Eligibility for this award is: Ø Member must be currently employed as a full-time classroom/laboratory teacher in a Career and Technical Education program. Ø Contributions and achievements on which the nomination is based should have been made within the past 10 years. Ø The nominee must have been a member of ACTE for at least the past five consecutive years. Innovative, creative, cutting-edge, hands-on approach – all these phrases describe programs begun, piloted, launched and taught by Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Leslie Watkins. “Always a need, and always a program to meet the need” has been her philosophy. Evidence her program is outstanding can be seen in cutting-edge strategies used in her classroom and the development of innovative projects. Some of these include implementation of Tech Prep, integration of academics and Career and Technical Education, participation of students in skill standards assessments, and alignment of curriculum to state and national standards. Watkins built an exemplary Child Development Services program within her community with a highly successful transition rate. She is an accomplished grant writer who wrote and implemented Tech Prep grants in her school system and organized several integration projects, all of which had a direct positive impact on student achievement at her school. Whether it was helping single teen parents with a support system, preventing drinking and driving accidents with Project Graduation, beginning a new hospitality and tourism industry course, creating a freshman transition course into high-school life, supervising student teachers and mentoring intern teachers, she always was there filling a need and helping others. Integral to her program is the Career and Technical Education Student Organization – Family, Career and Community Leaders or America. She serves as adviser to the group, which affords opportunities for her students to apply what they learned in the classroom as well as develop leadership skills. To her credit are numerous regional and state officers as well as numerous regional, state and national competition winners. Watkins takes leadership roles in professional organizations, her school, her church and her community. She is the 2005-2006 president-elect and will be the 2006-2007 president of the National Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences. She served as president of the Kentucky Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences. She served on numerous organizations in her community as a board member and adviser. She has been an active KACTE/ACTE member for 22 years. She attended and presented at the annual ACTE convention four of the last five years and also attended the ACTE National Policy Seminar in Washington, DC. Her peers at state and national levels recognize Watkins as an outstanding teacher. She received National Board Certification in 2002. In addition, she holds Rank 1 certification and a Masters Degree. She seeks and enjoys new challenges and the opportunity to excel. A former student writes: “Mrs. Watkins was very instrumental in my current employment position as a preschool teacher at a local child development center. Making a difference in little ones’ lives is a gift from God. I am very blessed to be able to work with children and get paid for a job I love. Sometimes I think about where or what I would have been without Mrs. Watkins’ guidance. She trained me well, and I am grateful for that instruction.” Her passion and zeal for teaching, work ethic, professional commitment, and genuine care and love for her students earned Leslie Watkins the 2005 Kentucky Farm Bureau Career and Technical Education Teacher-of-the-Year Award.
Outstanding Service Award
The Outstanding Service Award recognizes educators who have made the highest meritorious contributions to the improvement, promotion, development and progress of Career and Technical Education. Ginny Ellington’s long contribution as a program consultant for Family and Consumer Sciences through the Kentucky Department of Education Division of Secondary Career and Technical Education alone would be sufficient to earn her this honor. But after retirement from the state, she assumed a role as a teacher educator at the University of Kentucky. “Ms. Ellington’s leadership and commitment to students in the State is evident through her efforts to provide a quality educational environment for all students to learn at high levels through Family and Consumer Sciences experiences,” Robert DeHoag, principal, Spencer County High School, wrote in support of a previous ACTE award nomination. The lengthy list of projects, duties and awards highlights Ellington’s efforts in support of Career and Technical Education programs in the state. She served on the Articulation Work Group for the Governor’s Task Force on Early Childhood Education. She was project coordinator on Family and Consumer Science curriculum development, and she was a member of the Kentucky Family and Consumer Scieces Skills Standards Task Force and the Guidance and Counseling Task Force. She was project director for an integrated curriculum project with Marketing Education in establishing a Hospitality Services Career Major. At the regional and national level, Ellington served as the lead consultant for the National FCCLA STAR Events. She has served five years as a member and one year as chair of the National FCCLA STAR Events Advisory Team. She was chair and Central Region representative on the FCCLA State Advisors Coordinating Committee. She was co-director of the SREB (Southern Region Education Board) Drop Out Prevention Program in Jefferson County, KY, and was co-director of the SREB Middle Schools That Work project. She has advised seven national FCCLA officers from Kentucky. REPRESENTING KENTUCKY in the 2005 ACTE national award competition are last year’s honorees: Ø Mark Raleigh, Principal and District Career and Technical Education Coordinator, Covington Board of Education, for Outstanding Career and Technical Educator; and Ø Janet Scott, Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher, Meade County High School, for Outstanding Teacher in Community Service. Congratulations to Janet Scott The first level is ACTE Region 2 competition. At the ACTE Region 2 Conference in Williamsburg, VA, Oct. 13-16, 2005, Janet Scott was named regional Outstanding Teacher in Community Service. Regional winners will be forwarded to the ACTE Awards Committee, and Janet will be one of five finalists at the ACTE Convention in Kansas City, MO, Dec. 8-10, 2005. CONGRATULATIONS to all of the 2004 and 2005 award winners!!! KACTE extends a special thank you to Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation and Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance for sponsoring the awards program. Please consider nominating outstanding individuals for their contributions to Career and Technical Education. The state level award applications are available at www.kacteonline.org. Watch for award application deadlines in the fall on the state and national websites. |
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