Hello all,               I want to welcome all of you back to another school year but more importantly, wish you good luck and success!  What we teach and do in the         classroom with our students is special and I know all of you along with myself feel that teaching is paramount to any other profession.                 As far as CTEEA is concerned, our board and myself are here to help in any way.  If you need help, feel free to contact any of us.  Our contact information is on our website and I also listed them below.                 In terms of CTEEA business, I would like to inform all of you about a couple of items regarding opportunities for all of us this year. First,  a reminder that our annual conference will be held on November 8, 2013 at Central Connecticut State University.  More information will be sent out sometime in September.  As always, we will have pertinent workshops throughout the day.  If you have any suggestions, would like to present on a practice or project that has benefited your students, feel free to contact me. Second, As part of our program to offer workshops throughout the year, we only have one thus far.  Greg Kane, our workshop coordinator, has put together a phenominal workshop at the sub base in Groton with an opportunity to view the sub training facilities.  This message was sent out early this week so contact Greg asap if you are interested.  Seats are limited.  The date is October 10, 2013.   Please forward any ideas or topics that you would  like to see CTEEA offer as a workshop to either Greg Kane or myself. Third, since we moved our annual conference to the fall, applications for Program of the Year and Teacher of the Year need to be submitted by October 1, 2013.  This is a great opportunity to showcase your program and provide some positive recognition to your program, school and yourself.  I would highly recommend that all of you take the time and apply.  Being a past recipient myself, it has benefited our program tremendously.  It has made our program more visible in both the school and community and has provided more opportunities for additional funding.  If you have any questions or need assistance with the application, feel free to ask our previous winners or myself.  Being part of a great organization, there are plenty of people willing to offer assistance.  Our previous winners are:                                •  (2013) HS Teacher of the Year = Matthew Kibbe (Rockville HS)                                                   HS Program of the Year = Darien High School                                                   MS Program of the Year = Middle School of Plainville •  (2012) HS Teacher of the Year = Dan Grenier (Daniel Hand HS)                                                    HS Program of the Year = Somers High School                                                    MS Program of the Year = Lyme Old Lyme MS •  (2011)  HS Program of the Year = Daniel Hand High School  Lastly, our association will be offering a joint membership with our parent organization, ITEEA.  This opportunity will allow you to join both associations at a discounted rate.   This opportunity will be an option for you and provide you with all of the benefits of being a member of both CTEEA and ITEEA.   ITEEA Individual Professional Members receive the following special benefits: ·         A complimentary annual (printed unless otherwise specified) subscription (8 issues) to Technology and Engineering Teacher (TET)*, ITEEA’s flagship publication [Electronic members receive electronic version] ·         An advocate on Capitol Hill that will support your voice and position in leading technology and engineering education in STEM education ·         Insurance Programs offered at discounted rates ·         Eligibility to receive grant and scholarship funds ·    Eligibility to receive awards and special recognition at ITEEA’s International Conference such as Program of the year and Teacher of the year awards. ·         ITEEA publications, product and Engineering byDesign™ course and unit discounts ·         “Members Only” access to the IdeaGarden listserv (a teacher-to-teacher discussion forum) and ITEEA’s extensive online library to include publications, standards documents, conference presentations, white papers, and much more. ·         Free resume posting on ITEEA’s website   ·         Savings on ITEEA Conference registration ·         Eligibility to present on a topic of interest or take part in ITEEA’s Teaching Technology and Engineering STEM Showcase – an exchange of best practices in the field.  Finally, as an organization, we need to actively recruit members.  We are the only Technology Education teacher organization in the state and if we want to become a voice in our local and state politics to help better our programs, we need numbers that unite behind a common cause and belief of where our profession should be heading.  If you have colleagues that are not members, please urge them to join.  If you have student teachers, please encourage them to join.  I, along with our board would greatly appreciate if you can help us in this endeavor.  It will only make us stronger in advocating for our students. Thank you, Dan Grenier CTEEA President Technology & Engineering Education Daniel Hand High School Madison, CT