Tuesday, May 31, 2011

CNYTEEA Survey - PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO PARTICIPATE!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JLF3FHY

Please take the few minutes to complete this survey so I can develop
a program of events and to ensure that deserving colleagues are recognized.
I plan on taking the nominations that are gathered to develop voting
ballots for the 75th Anniversary Celebration & Annual Steak Roast.

Monday, May 23, 2011

CNYTEEA Year End Picnic at Marty's Hermitage

   

Over 20 folks gathered for great food, drink & fellowship
Central District VP Michael Barbieri                                  & Steve Poydock 
JD Mondrick & the host with the most, Marty Collins
Chris & Mike hangin' in the Kitchen

   
Marty Collins was given an Appreciation Award for his continued support and hosting Annual Picnics 
Mike Barbieri & Myself presenting the
NYSTEEA Regional Teacher of the Year Award to Chris Hurd (Center)
An excellent discussion was held after dinner on the future of our discipline and the role that CNYTEEA & NYSTEEA will play in providing leadership and guidance.

CNYTEEA Steak Roast & 75th Anniversary Celebration

We have a significant milestone approaching, our organization's 75th Anniversary! It is considered by many to be the oldest organization of it's kind in the state, something to be proud of for sure! We have decided to combined the annual "Steak Roast" with this occasion and to have it in a more central location and at a restaurant. The Fireside Inn in Baldwinsville was selected due to it's location, quality of food at reasonable prices and a few of us have a connection to the host! Steve Poydock, Marty Collins and myself will be meeting in June to begin the planning of this special evening. If you have any input or would like to join us please contact me. Please mark your calender and make it a point to attend this event!

Date: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th (5 – 8 pm) 
The Fireside Inn – Baldwinsville

2012 NYSTEEA State Conference - April 18-20th - SYRACUSE

The 2012 NYSTEEA State Conference will be held at the Syracuse University Sheraton located on the SU campus. CNYTEEA members, it is our turn to make sure that the up-coming conference showcases all the best of Technology Education. Our Central District Vice President, Michael Barbieri mbarbieri43@gmail.com  has stepped up to take the lead in organizing and running the conference. Mike lives in Nichols, NY and teaches in Tioga Central School District, so he is going to need help from our membership. Please consider contacting him to offer your assistance whether it be with  the pre-planning, working during the three day event or offering to be a presenter during the conference.  

Friday, May 20, 2011

Collaborative Project ~ Technology & Social Studies

This past fall, our school district had a "Collaborative Professional Developement Day" so my good friend and 7th Grade Social Studies Teacher, Jon Bick and I decided to do something between our classes. I had an existing "Lego Maglev" activity that I have been working at for the past couple of years. Jon's slant on the activity was that he needed to approach this unit from a historical aspect of mass transportation in the United States... therefore I needed to include rail. Here is a short video clip of Jon and one of our students commenting on the collaboration.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Tech Tips to Share!

A neat idea was shown to me by one of my friends at 
the NYSTEA Conference last week. Above is a sketch of an orthographic projection of
a simple shape that when folded, the three dimensions can be displayed
My students have discovered a simple solution to
the problem of transporting their CO2 Cars. 
They used empty Pringle Cans


SME May 2011 Monthly Meeting ~ Lean Manufacturing at Nixon Gear


SME May 2011 Monthly Meeting Announcement
Lean Manufacturing at Nixon Gear
1750 Milton Ave, Syracuse, NY 13209
May 19, 2011
Tour starts @4:00 PM

Come to this technical meeting and tour to see how Nixon Gear has implemented Lean Manufacturing in their 45,000 sq. ft. state of the art facility. Nixon Gear features CNC grinding and cutting of helical gears, spur gears, worm gears, sprockets and splines, including technologies such as robotic loading and CNC gear analysis.

Learn how Nixon Gear began the process of Lean – where they started and what they learned. Tour their shop floor and see examples of Lean practices they have implemented. Hear directly from the people who led the efforts.

Dinner to follow at Twin Trees Two.
1029 Milton Ave, Syracuse, NY 13204

Tour limited to first 25 people - Sign-up now!

Reservations MUST BE MADE BY May 17th

Tour starts promptly @4:00 PM - Dinner: following
Members: $20.00 * Non-Members: $25.00
* Students & Retirees: $15.00

For Reservations call: Lori at D-K Manufacturing Corp
(315) 592-4327 or Email: lori@d-kmfg.com

Please provide your name, COMPANY, phone number,
and number of people attending


If you make a reservation and are unable to attend, you must
contact either Lori at (lori@d-kmfg.com), or Don Sutliff @ 487-8834
before the event or you will be responsible for the cost of the dinner.SME May 2011 Monthly Meeting Announcement
Lean Manufacturing at Nixon Gear
1750 Milton Ave, Syracuse, NY 13209
May 19, 2011
Tour starts @4:00 PM

Come to this technical meeting and tour to see how Nixon Gear has implemented Lean Manufacturing in their 45,000 sq. ft. state of the art facility. Nixon Gear features CNC grinding and cutting of helical gears, spur gears, worm gears, sprockets and splines, including technologies such as robotic loading and CNC gear analysis.

Learn how Nixon Gear began the process of Lean – where they started and what they learned. Tour their shop floor and see examples of Lean practices they have implemented. Hear directly from the people who led the efforts.

Dinner to follow at Twin Trees Two.
1029 Milton Ave, Syracuse, NY 13204

Tour limited to first 25 people - Sign-up now!

Reservations MUST BE MADE BY May 17th

Tour starts promptly @4:00 PM - Dinner: following
Members: $20.00 * Non-Members: $25.00
* Students & Retirees: $15.00

For Reservations call: Lori at D-K Manufacturing Corp
(315) 592-4327 or Email: lori@d-kmfg.com

Please provide your name, COMPANY, phone number,
and number of people attending


If you make a reservation and are unable to attend, you must
contact either Lori at (lori@d-kmfg.com), or Don Sutliff @ 487-8834
before the event or you will be responsible for the cost of the dinner.

Monday, May 9, 2011

2011 NYSTEA State Conference

Outgoing NYSTEA State President Clark Greene - Look to the Past Toward Future Challenges

During the NYSTEA Banquet, outgoing State President, Clark Greene spoke about the events that took place immediately after the change over from Industrial Arts to Technology Education twenty five years ago. It was an extremely interesting topic to me as I entered my first year of teacher during that time... I remember it well! Here are some of the talking points of Clark's speech:

Clark Green - 25 Years of Technology Education


A look at the past toward future challenges
• 5 Key Indicators
1. Lack of unity about the mission and goals of our discipline( yesterday & today).
2. Consensus about technology education's relationship with our past (Industrial Arts)
3. Lack of a universally adopted curriculum
4. Need for critical mass of proactive teachers inside & outside of the classroom.
5. Lack of sustained support from government,  Deptartment of Education & others.



Representative Assembly votes in name change to NYSTEEA

On the evening of Wednesday, May 4th the epresentative Assembly voted in by 81%
to for a name change from NYSTEA to .....
New York State Technology and Engineering Educators' Association (NYSTEEA) 
There was considerable discussion on the name change, but the deciding factor was that we needed the change to give the general public a clear and distinct focus on what we do. During the debate, Joe Clayton had me look up the deinition of the word engineering:






en·gi·neer·ing/ËŒenjəˈni(É™)riNG/Noun

1. The branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures.
2. The work done by, or the occupation of, an engineer. 

As you can see by the Blog Headline... our local association will be now known as CNYTEEA. 

Central New York Technology and Engineering Educators' Association

It was also reported that there are 2,900 Technology Education Teachers in New York State HOWEVER only 10% are members. That needs to be changed! Even though CNY has one of the largest state memberships, many of you that read this blog and receive my weekly e-mails did not join the state association. You really must join next school year, the NYSTEEA has and will be working on you behalf to keep the Middle School Mandate and to promote technology education! 

In other items of interest from the meeting was: 

Incoming NYSTEEA President Mike Fry miketfry@hotmail.com  is intending to be very proactive and involved in Albany (his home) to push Tech Ed & maintain the mandate relief.

It was also reported that there be a STEM summer institute at Syracuse University in the works. depending on the interest and logistics a definite date will be set soon.

Phil Dettelis - New York State Education Department Liaison

Thursday afternoon the conference participants had the opportunity to hear from Philip Dettelis, who is our discipline's liaison at the State Education Department.  Phil spoke on the following topics,
• Middle School Mandates relief & Middle School Flexibility
• Common Core - His suggestions to us was to reach out to Math as a collaborative partner.
• Teacher Evaluation Approval
• RTTT
• STEM
• The resignation of the NYS Commissioner of Education and it's possible impact on Tech Ed.
• Regents Research Fund
• State & Local Cuts
But the point that he kept coming back to again and again was.... that we must be proactive and head off the cuts by reaching out to other disciplines - collaborate! We cannot hide in our labs and shops and expect the cuts to miss us and go away. The more we collaborate with other disciplines (Like science & math) the harder it will be for school districts to justify the cutting of technology education! Phil is willing to communicate and provide assistance so feel free to contact him: pdetteli@mail.nysed.gov

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Get Your Students to Participate: 2011 Student Surveys ~ Chuck Goodwin

New York State Technology Education Association 
Participate in our 2011 Middle School Student Survey 
Participate in our 2011 High School Student Survey 
THIS YEAR’s DATES – Pick one day that works for you! 

Monday - May 9th thru Friday - May 20th, 2011 

Why: This survey data will ultimately help support your own TE programs and the vital work of our association as we interface with the Board of Regents and Commissioner of Education. Our 2005, 2007, 2009 & 2010 student survey results ARE very positive and helpful. For greater validity and credibility we simply need to gather more student data.  


GoTo: www.nystea.com to find our past survey questions and results. 

When: The survey will be “HOT” and “ONLINE” for student and teacher access between  Monday May 9th Thru Friday, May 20th

Where: GoTo: www.nystea.com and the survey links, for the MS and HS will be available and easily found by going to our main web page, scroll down and click on the survey. Please be sure to stress to your MS and HS students that they select the correct link for their respective survey. 

Questions: There are 36 questions. For the HS there is one short essay question asking students to write how technology education classes have impacted them personally and with their future.  

Timeframe: This survey will take students between 15 and 28 minutes to complete. 

Strategy: If you have a full compliment of computers, in your classroom, with Internet access, then you are all set. If you don’t have adequate computers, then schedule one of your school’s computer labs on the date you can fit this survey activity into your schedule. Why not schedule it in today!! 

We all can agree Technology Education is a powerful learning experience that enables students to discover more about themselves, the relevance of their academic subjects and to become more technologically literate. The survey information can provide local and state level decision-makers with the critical data they want and need to see about what we teach.  We especially want to share this survey data with the Regents. 

Please contact Chuck Goodwin at cgnystea@stny.rr.com with any questions or concerns. 



SUNY Buffalo - State-wide assessment of the current status of Technology Education

Attention Fellow Technology Educators:
We are a group of graduate students from Buffalo State College under the direction and advisement of Clark Greene,  New York State Technology Education Association (NYSTEA) President. We are in the midst of completing a state-wide assessment of the current status of Technology Education. Upon completion, the assessment will detail the connections of Technology Education to other academic disciplines, and demonstrate the value of Tech. Ed. in our educational system.
Overall, we hope to provide a platform for the more definitive identity of Technology Education. It is believed that this project could have a positive impact on our discipline and produce far-reaching results across the state and beyond. 
We would appreciate your help on this endeavor. Below you will find a link to a survey that we have created to collect data regarding the current trends in Technology classrooms across the state. This online survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.
Thank you in advance for your participation. Please forward any questions or comments to: TechEdNY@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Rob Tomkins, Courtney Lewis, and Carlene Heimiller