Sessions of 2026 Connection Conference: Alexis Hastert
Hastert, Alexis
Early Childhood Teacher and Preschool Director
Alexis Hastert is a CTE educator and leader specializing in Education Professions and Early Childhood Education. She teaches Early Childhood Education at Mesquite High School in Gilbert Public Schools, where she also serves as CTE department chair and Director of the on-site preschool lab. A fifth-generation teacher and former CTE student, she credits her own CTE experiences with inspiring her career in workforce-connected learning. Alexis has held leadership roles at the school, district, and state levels, including Arizona Educators Rising Executive Board President and ACTEAZ Fellow. She has developed successful Education and Training programs across multiple schools, with students earning national Educators Rising championships, and was named the 2020 ACTEAZ New CTE Teacher of the Year. She is passionate about program development, student leadership, early literacy, and mentoring future educators.
Sessions:
[5574] Embedding CTE Professional Skills Into Any CTE Classroom
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Loews Ventana Canyon
- Interdisciplinary
Engage, reflect, and apply! In this hands-on session, participants will experience interactive strategies for teaching CTE Professional Skills Standards. Let us help you explore practical ways to embed the standards and leave with ready-to-use ideas to make teaching professional skills more effective.
[5525] ECE and Education Professions Collaboration and Engagement Strategies
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Loews Ventana Canyon
- Education and Training
In this collaborative, hands-on session, Early Childhood and Education Professions educators will work together in a dynamic forum of peer-led mini resource presentations. Participants will explore and share classroom-ready curriculum resources aligned to state and program standards while exchanging proven best practices, hands-on learning ideas, and solutions to common program challenges. The session provides dedicated time for networking, aligning curriculum to standards, discussing professional development needs, and sharing practical tools and strategies that can be implemented immediately. Please come prepared with your favorite samples, lesson materials, or go-to resources to share with the group.
[5575] Challenges and Solutions within Early Childhood Education Programs
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Loews Ventana Canyon
- Education and Training
This session is designed to help early childhood educators reflect on real challenges they are facing, examine those challenges through different personality lenses, and leave with practical strategies they can immediately apply in their classrooms, programs, and teams.
