Shannon Roberts has been named the 2019 Kentucky Association of Career and Technical Education CTE Teacher of the Year.
Roberts said she was nominated for the award in April by peers from all over Kentucky and recently found out she had won.
“I’m so very excited,” she said. “It was a nomination by my peers — from all over the state — and I was shocked when I found out. I received the nomination in April and had to send in information about myself, my classes and the Future Community and Career Leaders of America. My students had to write statements and send them in.”
According to Roberts, she is now in the running for the 2020 national CTE Teacher of the Year award.
“I will go for the national award in 2020,” she said. “That will be held in Nashville.”
Roberts said she has always been a part of the Mason County community.
“I graduated from Mason County High School,” she said. “I did my student teaching at Mason County and began my career as a teacher at Mason County Middle School. I’ve never been anywhere else.”
During her time in the middle school, Roberts established the FCCLA chapter there.
“A lot of students got there start with FCCLA there,” she said. “At the high school, we developed the culinary pathway and enrollment has risen by 556 percent since the inception. The kids love to cook. It’s the fun, exciting class they look forward to and it also teaches them soft skills that are necessary.”
Roberts said the students in her Culinary classes are required to complete 60 hours of work outside of the classroom.
“We partner with the MCTC culinary program and each student must complete an apprenticeship while in the pathway,” she said. “We have about 55-60 kids and each one has to complete 60 hours of volunteer cooking related work. It can’t be their job or something they get paid for — it has to be voluntary.”
Roberts said she loves what she does and hopes to continue for many more years.
“I’m not a chef by any means — I’m a home cook trained by my grandmother and grandfather,” she said. “I’m just trying to pass what I learned down to my students.”
