Career and technology conference draws teachers from across the state

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - This conference is like a huge classroom for teachers. The ALACTE Conference, otherwise known as The Alabama Association for Career and Technical Education, is happening this weekend in Mobile.

“They have about, I think over 1400 people here in attendance. It’s a terrific networking opportunity and learning opportunity for professionals,” said Stephen Dewitt, Deputy Executive Director of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).

There are plenty of subjects related to career and technical education... or ‘CTE’.

“This is our first conference in 2 years due to COVID, and so we come down and we have professional learning, industry tours, as well as provide some inspirational and motivational speakers and just want teachers to be able to come down, get the professional learning they need and to provide the best possible program for CTE learning for their students,” added Jimmy Hull, Assistant State Superintendent for Career and Technical Education and Workforce Development.

Groups like “Find Your Grind” are giving teachers advice on helping students find a career path.

“Remember that age-old question that sometimes we ask our kids: ‘what do you want to be when you grow up? We’re trying to throw that out the window and say ‘let’s think about who you are, what’s important to you, what are your values,” said Amanda McCann.

FOX10 News spoke with teachers, and they gave the conference an ‘A’.

“Exciting, yes exciting… I love it. I’m going to do it next year and every year that I am able to come back here,” laughed Harold Watson.

“Powerful and uplifting,” stated Brandon Broughton. “It rejuvenates you getting ready to start that school year.”

“Sometimes, it’s really easy to have burnout so this over the summer, coming back kind of gives us this new energy to realize that we’re in this thing together,” said Jason Blackwell.

The last day of the conference is tomorrow- just in time for teachers to apply the skills they learned in the upcoming school year.

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