Nebraska Career and Technical Education Conference 2026

Building Career Conversations into All Classrooms focuses on creating a career-centric culture that serves every student while leveraging Nebraska Career Connections, provided by the Nebraska Dept. of Education. This session focuses on equipping educators in all disciplines with practical strategies to embed career development into daily instruction, ensuring academic content consistently connects to real-world applications, workforce demands, and students’ long-term goals.
Participants will explore actionable, cross-disciplinary examples, including:

• Applying cost-of-living and salary analysis to math instruction
• Investigating STEM career pathways within science curricula
• Integrating résumé writing, professional communication, and career research into English language arts

The session also provides guidance on helping students explore related education and workforce opportunities, enabling students to make informed decisions about their academic and career trajectories.

The continuum from classroom to paycheck requires more than just technical instruction; it requires a deliberate, scaffolded journey. This session introduces a three-phase continuum designed to move learners—including those with disabilities—from foundational learning to competitive integrated employment.
Participants will explore how to transform Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) into a foundation for professional stamina. We will move beyond the traditional competition model to show how CTE advisors and Transition Professionals can apply co-coaching strategies with students, using high-stakes environments to meet IEP goals and executive functioning needs in conjunction with CTSO competitive events.  Finally, we will discuss the result phase by assessing workplace readiness through the use of multiple data sources to indicate a workplace ready student.
Key Learning Outcomes: 

• Reimagine the CTSO (Foundation): Connect CTE performance data and CTSO competitive events to work place ready skills in preparation for a high skills work place environment emphasizing soft-skill development, professional stamina and transition experiences.
• Execute Co-Coaching Models (Apply): Define specific roles for CTE instructors and Transition Teams to provide scaffolded support during CTE classes, CTSOs and Transition based learning experiences.
• Measure Career Readiness (Result): Use CTSO rubrics, IEP data and WBL evaluations to track progress toward competitive integrated employment

Healthy snacking for youth isn’t just about filling hungry bellies—it’s a key component of balanced nutrition with potential lifelong benefits. Evidence suggests that serving nutrient-rich snacks like fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy can support better diet quality and help maintain energy levels throughout the day. This presentation offers a practical framework for promoting affordable, nutritious snack options for youth. We’ll discuss how snack choices relate to overall health and academic performance and provide hands-on instruction for implementing healthy snacking in schools and communities.

What if your textbook could do more than deliver content—what if it could spark curiosity, deepen understanding, and drive student ownership of learning? In this interactive session, participants will explore how to transform textbooks and instructional resources into powerful tools for engagement and learning. Grounded in John Hattie’s Visible Learning research, Jon Almarode’s work on cognitive science and engagement, and the five dimensions of student engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional, social, and agentic), this session offers practical strategies to activate learning in every classroom. Educators will leave with a toolkit of techniques to make learning visible, meaningful, and memorable. (This session will be relevant to any subject area.)