An interview with H. Mark American Horse, ACTE Teacher of the Year.

An interview with H. Mark American Horse, ACTE Teacher of the Year. ACTE: So how does it feel being ACTE Teacher of the Year? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MAH: It's pretty exciting, actually. It was a little surrealat first. I wasn't sure who was more excited about it, me or mystudents. Whenever they announced it, I heard there was mass pandemoniumat the school. So that was a lot of fun. ACTE: Give a brief bio of your background. MAH: I joined the Marine Corps when 1 was 17, and I went into ForceRecoil [United Stales Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance], which is a.special forces unit. When I got off of active duty in the Marine Corps,I started working my way through college as a police officer. I gotrecalled to active duty for Desert Storm, and after going over to theMiddle East, when I came back I was recruited by a company that doesbodyguard work for diplomats and royalty around the world. I decided Iwould give that a try. I had a career-ending injury and I came back toOklahoma to convalesce. I thought I would get stitched up and go rightback to work, but I wound up not making a full recovery. It turned outthat I had a permanent injury, and the doctor said I needed to dosomething else for a living. I opened up a newspaper and there was anopening for a teacher. I became a teacher, I fell in love with teaching,and I've been a teacher ever since. I'm in my 10th year ofteaching right now. ACTE: What was the nomination and application process that led youto the Teacher of the Year award? MAH: I was nominated by one of my administrators for New Teacher ofthe Year, in my fourth year of teaching. I got as far as Region IV. Igot the New Teacher of the Year for Trade and Industry, but I did notget it at the national level. I went back to the classroom and continuedworking and it really didn't occur to me that I would be nominatedagain. Another administrator nominated me for Teacher of the Year forTrade and Industry, and from Oklahoma it went to Region IV, and thenfrom there on up to National. Going through the process is veryself-reflective, so you get a chance to look at what you're doing,the processes that you use in your classroom. 1 think the process itselfmakes you a better teacher because you become more conscious of whatyou're doing in the classroom. ACTE: Do you know what kind of activities you'll participatein as Teacher of the Year? MAH: So far I've already gone on a couple of speakingengagements. I just got back from Florida, at the national Tech CentersThat Work conference, where I was keynote speaker there. And I havequite a few requests to speak, so I always direct those to my assistantsuperintendent so that they can decide what they would like for me to doand where they would like for me to go. I told them that I'mwilling to speak anywhere, go to help with any worthy cause that careertech has, that ACTE has. But I let my supervisors pick and choose whichones they want me to go to because it does take some time out of myclassroom, and my classroom is obviously still my priority. ACTE: We assume you'll be at the National Policy Seminarcoming in up in March? MAH: Yes, I will. ACTE: It's a little early in your tenure to ask this, but whatdo you think you might end up gaining from being Teacher of the Year? MAH: The thing that is most beneficial for me is that it gives me aplatform to really help recruit and maintain new teachers. For mepersonally, I think that's one of the most serious problems thatwe're facing. We're always going to have funding issues andthings like that, but if you have good teachers, good teachers willrecruit good students. And it's so easy for a new teacher to getoverwhelmed by that first-year process because they're coming froman environment where, generally, they're experts in their field.That's the reason they were hired. And all of a sudden they'recast into this role as a teacher, and many people don't realizethere's a huge difference between knowing something and teachingit. It's a very overwhelming feeling for a lot of them, soit's very easy for them to go back to industry. ACTE: Has ACTE helped you progress in your career? And if so, how? MAH: Oh yes, ACTE has been a great benefit because it provides alot of training for teachers. Once again, I was like everybody else, Icame from industry and knew very little about the teaching field itself.I was an expert in my field but had never been in a classroom. And justthe professional development that they create for us, the summerconference, and the different things like that, all of those things havebeen very beneficial and instrumental in how I have progressed as ateacher myself. And that was one of the things I always tell peoplewhenever I do the in-service training and I go to the conferences thatare put on by ACTE. I don't just attend, I actually go there andtry to soak in as much as I can and then I actually try those things inmy classroom. ACTE: What would you recommend to a less experienced CTE educatorto help them be their best? MAH: I think the first thing that they have to do is just bewilling to experiment in their classroom. Especially coming fromindustry, no one likes the idea of failing, but the classroom is apretty safe environment you can experiment in. Some things are going towork well. Some things are not going to work well. And you can't beafraid of failure. You have to be able to go out there every day andthink, "What can I do that's going to make this a goodlearning experience for the students?" And for me that's beenthe key, just being willing to teach outside the box, to take theresources that I have and be innovative with them. Always be willing tolisten to teachers who have a new idea, or a new type of technologythat's coming out. It's that willingness to always challengeyourself to think outside the box, because that makes a difference. To listen to the podcast of the full interview with H. MarkAmerican Horse, ACTE Teacher of the Year, visitwww.acteonline.org/podcasts.aspx. H Mark American Horse was honored with ACTE's Teacher of theYear award at the 2009 Annual Convention. The award recognizes teacherswho are providing outstanding CTE programming for youth and/or adults.