Commish Pays a Visit - 203 Rocks

Well boys and girls, it's been a very busy week - and that has made it hard to blog.

One of the gifts one receives when achieving a tenure-track position is a bunch of advisees. Whatever time scholarship fails to consume gets sucked up very effectively by the advising process.

But it's been a good week nonetheless.

First there was the Dean's Night of Excellence, pulled together by my teammate June Hyndman. She ran a hundred or so students through mock interviews and sessions on various topics.

I did a session on "Teachers Behaving Badly: What not to do." We looked at the Nicole Howell case as a cautionary tale, highlighting selected aspects of the teacher's contract, ethics, and how some teachers run afoul of the law. The workshop provided tips for avoiding trouble - mostly, living a balanced life and being in control of oneself.

Other topics:

Roger Cleveland on cultural discontinuity -"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
Samuel Hinton on Perceptions of the new China
Ginni Fair on life in the middle schools - "Meet Me in the Middle"
Sherwood Thompson on education in India - "Two Democracies, Two World Views"
Peggy Petrilli on what principals are looking for - "One Principal's Perspective"
Diana Porter on the secrets of honor students - "Don't Survive, Thrive"
Kristina Krampe on the Student Council for Exceptional Children - "What SCEC can do for You"

Then, there was "Rose at 20," a wonderful evening. As soon as I can figure out how to convert .msv files to mp3 I will post the speeches from that event. Until then, check out Justin's stuff and Susan's posting of Debra Dawahare's comment on Bert Combs.

On Wednesday, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday was our guest here at EKU. We had a great day full of tours, meetings, a luncheon, and the commish spoke to my EDF 203 students. State BOE member, and our department chair, Dorie Combs, played hostess throughout the day navigating Holliday to confabs with President Doug Whitlock, Interim Provost, and former state BOE member, Janna Vice, Ed Dean Bill Phillips. Did I forget to mention Rep Harry Moberly?

Special thanks to my 203 students for their excellent questions of the Commissioner. The students got the attention of President Whitlock, Drs Combs and Phillips, and even drew a congratulatory tweet from Commissioner Holliday:

"Great visit today with staff at EKU. Very impressed with students in Richard Day's class and questions they asked in session on tchr effctns"

Thanks 203. Y'all rock.