Presidents Report
Karen Aalund, Work Coordinator
Mounds View Schools
As I write my final report as President,
I want to thank everyone for their help along the way. At
the same time that I was beginning my reign as President, I
was also beginning a new job at my school and one as a first
time mother. I couldn't have managed everything without the
support of the board and the patience of the MNACTE/SNP
members. I am retiring my position early, as my second round
of motherhood is staring me in the face. I will be on
maternity leave from March through June when my position
officially ends. I want to recognize Bob Lindgren for
agreeing to fill my position until the end of the school
year and continuing into next year. We have some terrific
leaders in our organization and I know he is only doing this
with the agreement that someone else steps forward to become
President beginning the 2010-11 school year.
I am excited that I will be around for
our 2009 state-wide MNACTE/SNP conference. It always proves
to be an amazing event with many outstanding and
inspirational speakers, due to the hard work and dedication
of our conference coordinators. If you haven't already
registered, please do so immediately by going to our website
www.mnactesnp.org
and clicking on the Conference 2009 link for registration
material and information. It's coming up right around the
corner, scheduled for February 12 and 13, 2009.
With sincere thanks and appreciation,
Karen Aalund
Saint
Paul Schools
Transition to Independence Program
Bonnie Jackson, Work Coordinator
Saint Paul Schools
Saint Paul Public Schools Transition To
Independence Program, (T.T.I.) is a Saint Paul public school
community based transition program for special education
students between the ages of 18 to 21 years old who are no
longer involved in a traditional high school program and
have not fully attained the transition goals in their
Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Karla Jauhola is the
Work Coordinator for the program that serves approximately
70 students.Karla graduated from University of Wisconsin
Stout with a degree in Vocational Rehabilitation and Special
Education. She also holds a Masters degree in Vocational
Education. Karla became the T.T.I. Work Coordinator in 1999.
She states that it is an exciting program that provides
transferable skills from community settings to independent
living. The students participate in positions from
volunteering to supportive employment moving towards
independent competitive employment. The progression of
skills from high school transition programs allows students
to be open to new possibilities or refining preferences.
The program puts students in the
community 5 days a week participating in job and job
training or other transitional activities. They are on site
4 days a week for 4 hours a day. The majority of students
participate in transition activities on day 5, which cover
the other 4 transition areas. Karla has developed some
outstanding sites for students. Aramark food service
division has a site at Hamline University is one of the
outstanding sites. The supervisor has been very supportive
of T.T.I. goals. The students work in the cafeteria and as
dining room attendants. They have hired a several students
long term. Another site is Bon Appetit Management Company
has students at Macalester College preparing the dining room
and serving lunch to over 1,000 students. They have also
hired students as long-term employees. Students also hold
individual supportive competitive employment at Twin Cities
Reptile, Perkins, McDonalds and many other businesses around
Saint Paul.
Karla states that volunteer services
provide a positive step in the process towards competitive
employment. St. Mary's Home is an excellent example of
volunteer services. A job coach and 5 students volunteer in
the laundry, delivering mail, cleaning and food preparation.
Students learn the necessary skills needed to gain
employment. Karla stated the frustrating barrier to students
today is the online application process. Karla continues to
maintain and build relationships in the business community
and can still bypass the frustrating online process. She is
always developing new sites and networking in the community.
Karla does an exceptional job of meeting the needs of the
T.T.I. students. Saint Paul Schools is fortunate to have
Karla Jauhola as an employee.
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Announcements/Calendar
2009 MnACTE/SNP Statewide Conference: February 12-13 at
Edinburgh USA, Brooklyn Park, MN.
Next MnACTE/SNP Board meetings: 3/12/09 &
5/14/09. Meetings are at Hennepin Technical College,
Brooklyn Park MN from 12:30 until around 2:30 or 3:00.
2009 ACTE Conference, November 19-21 in Nashville,
TN.
Are you on Al Hauge's email group? Al
works with the Adult and Career Education Division at MDE as
the Career Guidance and Transition Disabled Specialist.
Contact Al and he'll include you in Transition Disabled/Work
Based Learning developments for youth with disabilities from
the Minnesota Department of Education. al.hauge@state.mn.us.
Let
Us Shine in 2009
MnACTESNP Conference
February 12 & 13, 2009
Our organization's statewide
comprehensive conference is coming up super soon! This
year's theme "Let Us Shine in 2009" offers a time for
participants to reconnect and re-energize! We will jump
start our conference with keynote speaker, Cathy Newton, who
will be talking to us about "Living in Full Swing-To Keep
Your Cool in a Crazy World!" Our breakout sessions for the
day include the topics of: immigration documents, strategies
for working with difficult people and difficult
personalities, the new "3Rs", ISEEK, current child labor
laws, FASD, partnerships within a school system, and a
speaker from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.The
second day of the conference offers you breakout sessions
that focus on: drugs in the workplace, BestPrep, an insight
regarding youth and mental health needs, career planning,
on-line job applications and personality tests, and
self-advocacy and self-determination. Our conference will
close with another dynamite keynote speaker, Judy Siegle;
she will inspire us with her perspective of "Living Without
Limits."
Registration deadline has been extended
to February 4th, 2009.
We hope you can attend this conference
and look forward to seeing each of you!
Your Conference Planning Committee,
Beth Quest (chair), Cheryl Regenold
(conference co-chair), Cathy Braun, Ann Hicks, Valerie
Mattioli, Deb Olsen
ACTE
Once Again Puts On A Fine Conference
Karen Aalund
Mounds View Schools
I, along with thousands of others, had
the privilege of attending the ACTE conference Dec. 4-6,
2008 in Charlotte, NC. It was a good opportunity to network
and get inspired by the outstanding Career and Technical
professionals that work in the field of education.
The conference began with Daniel Pink
giving the opening general session. He's an author who spoke
mainly about his book, A Whole New Mind. He discussed the
brain being divided into the left and right hemispheres. The
left side thinks in logical, linear, and sequential ways,
while the right is responsible for processing, context,
synthesis and is the more creative in it's thinking. He made
the analogy of accountants being left-brained and designers
being right-brained.
Pink believes the world and future
careers are moving from left-brain thinking to right-brain
thinking due to the 3 "A's" which are Asia, Automation, and
Abundance. As for Asia, they are big on computer science and
engineering. High pay in the US results in the off shoring
of jobs to Asian countries. India is populated with billions
of people, so they have a larger workforce to pick from. It
is estimated that by 2010 India will be the largest English
speaking nation, making communication between the US and
India simple and, due to technology, free. Automation is
about how machines and software have replaced left-brain
thinking. Pink gave an example of how accountants are
becoming less needed due to the tax preparation software
available to people to prepare their own taxes. He also
discussed attorneys and gave an example of how a couple may
be going through an uncontested divorce, but some attorneys
will make it contested to make more money on the case. He
gave many websites focused on simple divorces, that people
use for a minimal amount of money. More and more people are
choosing to go the way of the web for less money, than to
hire a divorce attorney. As for the third "A", abundance,
Pink talked about our society living high tech and "high on
the hog." He talked about the storage space industry being a
$22.6 billion per year industry, due to people having so
much stuff and not enough space. He says the key to
developing new items is inventing something that people
don't know they're missing. He gave the example about the
IPOD. It was introduced six weeks after 9/11 and people
bought into it, even though the world and economy was
chaotic. Pink says that innovation happens in a chaotic
economy because so few people are developing items at that
time.
Pink continued to talk about how CTE
courses deliver right brain thinking skills and employers
are looking for people who have right brain thinking skills.
He said the abilities that matter most are high tech, high
concept, and high touch. People must be able to see the big
picture and the most successful companies have empathy. It's
hard to outsource massage therapists, cosmetologists, and
similar careers. He stated that self-made millionaires are
four times more likely to be dyslexic due to lacking
left-brain thinking. He gave examples of the founders or
Kinkos, Virgin Mobile, and JetBlue.
Pink was a wonderful start to an
outstanding conference. I hope to see more people at
next year's conference scheduled for November 19-21 in
Nashville, TN.
Job Skills Competition a
Huge Success
Kim Landecker, Work Coordinator
Sherburne Northern Wright Special Education Cooperative
Wayzata School District and the Sherburne Northern Wright
Special Education Cooperative hosted our first "DCD Job
Skills Competition Event" on Nov. 20, 2008. There were 97
students in attendance from Wayzata, St.
Michael/Albertville, Rogers, Elk River, Orono, Buffalo,
Monticello and Dassel/ Cokato. Students participated in
interviewing, application writing, general knowledge and
problem solving competitions.
For those students unable to participate in the above
events, some helped with breakfast and lunch preparations,
and/or participated in a modeling show. Students dressed in
"Appropriate" and "Non-appropriate" interviewing attire and
modeled their outfits by walking down the "Red Carpet"
runner. This was a HUGE HIT, and soon almost all 97 students
were lining up to walk down the "Red Carpet."
Other activities available for students to participate in
included; getting to know others, learning how to wear
make-up, hair styling and learning how to tie a sport's tie.
Students also enjoyed lunch, a guest speaker, and music
entertainment. The day concluded with awards given to the
top 8 competitors in each category. All students received a
participating certificate as well. The Sportsmanship Trophy
was given to Wayzata Schools this year. A GREAT time was had
by all!! We are looking forward to hosting our second "Job
Skills Competition Day" next fall.
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