Camden Middle School -

Throughout the week leading up to the holiday break, fifth grade students at Camden Middle School have been rolling up their sleeves and participating in holiday-themed activities with a group of teachers they’ll have in the coming years. That was the goal behind the 2025 Career and Technical Education Holiday Festival.

From Monday, December 15th, to Wednesday, December 17th, students packed into one of three rooms for an after-school activity designed to introduce classroom settings and build rapport with faculty in three different disciplines. Monday’s session was held in the Agriculture room, where instructor Karly Evans guided the students in planting miniature gardens. On Tuesday, the focus shifted to Home and Careers, where teacher Carrie Bond offered a cookie decorating activity in her classroom kitchen. Wednesday’s finale was held in the technology room, where teacher Thomas Hickey led a wood ornament painting craft and gave a tour of his classroom facilities.

Across the three classes, teachers felt the goal was to start building relationships with their rising students now, while also drawing some interest in the subject matter they teach students.

"I chose to participate in CTE Holiday Fest because it’s a great opportunity to introduce 5th grade students to agriculture as a hands-on, creative, and relevant career pathway. Partnering with the Home and Careers/Technology teachers allows students to see how agriculture connects to food, materials, and everyday life, while also building early awareness and excitement for CTE opportunities they can explore as they move into middle school." - Mrs. Evans, Agriculture

"I brought up the idea to our current CTE Teachers from a past, similar event that I was involved with a few years ago. I felt this would be a great opportunity to bring it back and incorporate some Cross-Curricular Teaching and Interdisciplinary Learning skills for our students to see how each CTE career pathway is interconnected to make a more meaningful learning environment. We all agreed this would be a fun way for our 5th graders, who will eventually have classes with us, to introduce ourselves and take a tour of our classrooms while enjoying a fun, hands-on, holiday activity in which they would be able to bring home to share and enjoy with their families during this holiday season." - Ms. Bond, Home and Careers

“The CTE Holiday Fest is a great opportunity for the CTE teachers to get together and showcase a little sampling of their curriculum with the fifth graders in the school.  Students get to perform a meaningful activity and produce something to bring home while they learn a little bit about each course.” - Mr. Hickey, Technology