NATFACS - National Association Teachers of Family & Consumer Sciences

Racing Toward Charlotte
December 4-6, 2008 - Charlotte Convention Center, NC

Charlotte is shaping up to be an exciting professional development experience. Bookmark this site and keep checking for the latest information on the premiere professional development experience for career and technical educators.

Daniel Pink is a best-selling author and an expert on innovation, competition and the changing world of work. His book, A Whole New Mind, charts the rise of right-brain thinking in modern economies and explains the six abilities individuals and organizations must master in an outsourced and automated world. What Pink has to share has dramatic impact on career and technical education, and he will share that as this year’s Opening General Session speaker. You certainly won’t want to miss what he has to say as it will really set the stage for the entire Convention.

Willard Daggett, President of the International Center for Leadership in Education, is recognized worldwide for his proven ability to move education systems toward more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. In Charlotte, he will share his thoughts and insights as the Closing General Session speaker. His enlightening, entertaining and motivating messages will help you look at education differently by challenging your assumptions about the purposes, benefits and effectiveness of American schools. Daggett inspires his audiences both to embrace what is best about our education system and to make the changes necessary to meet the needs of all students in the 21st century. Be sure to attend this informative and thought-provoking session on Saturday, December 6.

Pre-Convention Workshops
ACTE has developed three pre-Convention Workshops that will take place on Wednesday, December 3:

Developing Proficient Readers by Embedding Literacy Skills in Career and Technical Programs

Students must master critical reading skills for success in preparing for college and careers. HSTW has identified six essential skills that ensure reading comprehension and higher order thinking skills for all students. These skills link to state and national proficiency standards and helps students bridge the transition from high school to postsecondary studies and to a job. In this Workshop, participants will examine those reading skills, match them to content in career and technical classes, and practice strategies to help students master the skills.

Analyze skills that lead to reading proficiency for a career and postsecondary study;
Match reading skills to content in career and technical classes;
Identify strategies that teach students essential reading skills; and
Apply an eight-step process that embeds reading standards into authentic activities, projects and problems assigned to students in career and technical classes.

Registration for this full-day Workshop is limited to 100 participants. Coffee, continental breakfast, and a light lunch will be served. This Workshop will take place 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Charlotte Convention Center.

Technology Centers That Work – A Framework of Key Practices and Conditions for Improving Academic and Technical Achievement

This Workshop is designed for teams of teachers and administrators from shared-time technology centers and from technical high schools, focusing on using Technology Centers That Work (TCTW) of the Southern Regional Education Board. TCTW provides a set of benchmarks for tracking improvements in school and classroom practices and in technical and academic achievement and in transitions to work and further study.

Develop awareness and understanding of goals, key practices and conditions that have been customized for shared-time technology centers;
Determine the status of their school and classroom practices according to a set of benchmark indicators;
Determine whether their career and technical curriculum, instruction and courses meet the requirements of Perkins IV;
Examine strategies for using 21st century skills to advance college- and career-readiness standards; and
Leave with a set of actions for implementing the goals, key practices, and conditions of TCTW at their center.

Registration for this full-day Workshop is limited to 100 participants. Coffee, continental breakfast, and a light lunch will be provided. This Workshop will take place 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Charlotte Convention Center.

In this Workshop, attendees will learn the secrets of increasing enrollment and retention, reaching the right audience, and developing a winning marketing organization! These decisive and timely enrollment strategies are critical in today’s highly competitive educational marketplace.

Stop being “the best-kept secret in town” and discover how to maximize enrollment, retain students through consistent engagement and relationship-building tools, make the most of your existing organizational and financial resources, and proactively shape community awareness and opinion.

The significant power of the “Enrollment Funnel” in recruiting new students while retaining your existing students.
The keys to developing a marketing- and enrollment-driven organization by understanding and developing the “Wade Factor.”
How to create strong organization copy points that can drip the value of your district successfully throughout all your marketing efforts.
How to create program copy points that get noticed and make your programs easy to understand. Short, sweet and to the point!
The strength of target-marketing high school and adult programs to the right audience at the right time.
How to use testimonials effectively to sell your programs and demonstrate the true value of CTE.
The essential steps to overcoming the biggest objections and stigmas of CTE.
How to create a powerful “Home Field Advantage” throughout the enrollment and retention process.
How to use cost-effective marketing technology and products to deliver a consistent message of value that gets noticed.
The critical strategies required for achieving significantly more within your

It’s not just theory — you will hear about the “best practices” CTE schools across the country have created and used from these strategies and turned them into significant enrollment and retention success stories.

Registration for this half-day Workshop is open. Refreshments will be served. This Workshop will take place 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. in the Charlotte Convention Center. Participants will receive a $200 discount coupon on marketing products.

Much of the success of last year’s Convention in Las Vegas was due to the content provider partnerships ACTE established. Those will continue in Charlotte. To date, ACTE has secured the support of:

Association for Career and Technical Education Research—The best minds in CTE research will be in Charlotte discussing the latest findings and what research stills needs to be accomplished.
High Schools That Work—ACTE will be expanding its relationship with HSTW through the addition of two pre-Convention Workshops on December 3. These are in addition to the concurrent sessions HSTW will be providing.
National Association of Agricultural Educators—NAAE will once again be developing and coordinating the agricultural education sessions.
National Career Academy Coalition—NCAC is partnering with ACTE to bring career and technical educators a strand of sessions dedicated to career academies and small learning communities.
NOCTI—Because of interest and demand, NOCTI will once again facilitate a one-day conference on assessment on December 3.
Project Lead the Way—PTLW will facilitate half a dozen sessions this year in Charlotte, focusing on pre-engineering and biomedical.
Tools for Schools—This year ACTE is helping schools focus on marketing. Tools for Schools will direct a pre-Convention Workshop that will teach career and technical educators how to more effectively market their programs.