Educator Professional Development

This year's ATEC Annual Conference will kick off with a new feature: educator professional development, scheduled to take place over the two days leading up to the start of the main event.

ATEC Academy is a fresh initiative led by executive leadership, addresses the escalating difficulty in recruiting and retaining skilled instructors amidst the rising demand for technical workforce.

Conducted by a seasoned educator with years of experience teaching teachers, and supported by a group of expert A&P master teachers mentoring participants, the course is limited to just 30 seats.

Hotel

The deadline to secure a hotel room at the group rate of $179 per night is February 24. Book here.

About the Course

Part 147 schools cite the availability of qualified instructors as a top challenge to growing their programs. Difficulty finding and retaining instructors (in both education and industry settings) is becoming more acute as technical workforce demand increases. Schools are arguably hit the hardest when faced with industry competition (and associated salaries) for the same talent. A new initiative aims to tackle the shortage of aviation instructors by aiding professionals transitioning to the classroom and addressing challenges programs have to retain new educators with minimal teaching experience.

A significant number of new educators transition directly from industry, with minimal or no prior teaching experience. Training programs may not have the resources to adequately train these instructors or lack orientation programs that specifically address teaching methodologies and best practices. Consequently, new instructors often find themselves unprepared for the challenges of teaching and must learn on the job.

To assist recently appointed instructors to overcome challenges they’ll encounter in the classroom, ATEC has launched the ATEC Academy. The Academy’s inaugural professional development course will kick off the weekend prior to the ATEC Annual Conference in Tucson, Arizona, and then seamlessly transition to a virtual environment throughout the spring of 2024, culminating in a safe landing in June 2024.

This three-month course is designed to provide comprehensive training in active teaching strategies, student behavior management, assessment and evaluation methods, lesson planning, and current trends in higher education, with a specific focus on teaching technology. While the course was built with the new educator in mind, it can also be a resource for industry training personnel and seasoned instructors that want to learn new techniques or take information back to staff and colleagues.

Trainees will benefit from the face-to-face two-day session and subsequent virtual classes. In addition to class attendance, instructors will engage in assignments tailored to enhance their teaching skills and interactions with students. Recognizing the significant investments made by aviation maintenance programs in their instructor hiring practices, this immersive approach aims to improve student and instructor retention and persistence rates.

Leverage the ATEC Academy to provide your new instructors with a clear runway to success!

Register early, seats are limited.

About the Instructor

Sean J Glassberg, Lead Facilitator

Sean has over twenty-eight years of academic and professional experience, ranging from teaching English and serving as a Director of Faculty Development, New Faculty Institute Director and Instructional Designer at community and technical colleges and universities to training industry and technical professionals to become educators. Born into a family of educators - his father, grandfather, and grandmother are retired teachers, and his brother, sister, sister-in-law and wife are all teachers – Sean possesses a solid foundation of best teaching practices, and his Master's degree in Special Education and work with children with disabilities have enabled Sean to respond to the wide spectrum of learners in our classrooms.  His firm, Educator Training & Consulting, was established in 2003 and has been contracted to deliver faculty-training sessions at community and technical colleges across the United States.  He provides instructor training at aviation maintenance schools and works with major airlines in an effort to improve the training of aviation industry employees.

About the Facilitators 

ATEC has reached out to its community of master teachers and is proud to welcome several of our finest to act as course facilitators—these individuals bring more than 100 years of aviation maintenance technician school teaching experience to aid the learning experience.

Michael Sasso

Michael is a second-generation A&P mechanic who grew up in New York City where his father spent 20 years working as an A&P for Pan American Airways. His aviation journey started working with his dad at the age of 14, helping to clean aircraft at Pan Am while attending Aviation High School in New York. Michael went on graduate from Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK. Michael has spent over 35 years in aviation maintenance working in general aviation, commercial aviation, regional airlines and cargo operations. He started teaching in part 147 schools almost 10 years ago as a part-time instructor, working his way to full-time tenured Instructor and then as the Director of Education for AIM in Norfolk and then Charlotte. He now works as the AMT Program Director for the Aviation Maintenance Technology Program at Cape Cod Community College.

Sheryl Oxley

Sheryl joined the team at Tulsa Tech in 2004 as an aviation maintenance technology instructor and has taught airframe, powerplant, and generals to both high school and adult sections. She graduated from Oklahoma State University with a B.S. in Career and Technical Education in 2008 and became the Aviation Programs Coordinator in 2015. Sheryl’s background includes 27 years of service in the United States Air Force as an aircraft maintenance technician and Phase Dock chief on F-16 and A-10 aircraft and has been deployed to multiple combat regions. In addition to military maintenance experience, she has worked with Delta Airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Bombardier Aerospace in both hangar and line maintenance as well as in flight and tank combat simulation maintenance. She is also a Designated Mechanic Examiner.

Kelly Filgo

Kelly serves as director of operations for Choose Aerospace—ATEC’s sister organization. Among his primary responsibilities is overseeing the Choose Aerospace aviation maintenance curriculum, including updates and future expansions, and serving as the organization's primary liaison with schools that partner with Choose Aerospace. Filgo joins Choose Aerospace after more than a decade at Texas State Technical College, where he held a variety of roles, including department chair and statewide curriculum manager for their FAA Part 147 programs. A private pilot, certificated aircraft maintenance technician, and certificated drone pilot, Filgo has also served multiple terms on the ATEC board of directors. In addition, he played a key role in developing the Choose Aerospace content that partners adopt as part of the organization's fundamental workforce pathway development efforts.

David Jones

David has more than 35 years of experience in all aspects of aviation education/training including classroom and lab instruction, curriculum development, classroom material development, media production and textbook publishing. A graduate of the Aviation Engineering Technology program at Western Michigan University, he has demonstrated the value of that broad educational background in his professional life. In addition to his mechanic certificate, he left WMU with a Commercial Pilot Certificate, Instrument Rating, and Flight Instructor Certificate. David began teaching AMT courses at Lansing Community College, and then went on to also work with proprietary schools, including time as the Corporate Director of Education for AIM. He has been an active member of ATEC nearly as long as the organization has existed. Though his work as a Senior Writer/Editor at Avotek, and his activity with ATEC he has been able to stay current with what it is going to take to train the next generation of AMT’s.

Teresa Pinkston

Teresa Pinkston is the Director of the Riverside Camps of Tulsa Technology Center and has over 25 years of experience as a CTE Educator. Teresa’s passion for teaching and life-long learning is evident. She has shifted from working with students to working with educators locally and nationwide. Her daily activities include helping educators with curriculum needs, whether developing projects, assessments, or online components. She believes in modeling behavior and expectations no matter what the age of her audience. Teresa is involved in many organizations and community events and feels this is her way of giving back to those who have supported her personal and professional goals. She wants to provide others with the same opportunities she was afforded.

Mary E. Johnson

Mary E. Johnson earned her BS, MS and PhD in Industrial Engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington. After 5 years in aerospace manufacturing, Dr. Johnson joined the Automation & Robotics Research Institute in Fort Worth and was program manager for applied research programs. Fourteen years later, she was an Industrial Engineering assistant professor at Texas A&M - Commerce before joining the Aviation Technology department at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in 2007 as an Associate Professor. She is a Co-PI on the FAA Center of Excellence for general aviation research known as PEGASAS and leads engineering efforts in the Air Transport Institute for Environmental Sustainability. Her research interests are aviation sustainability, data driven process improvement, and engine emissions.