Weekend Shout Outs

It was a busy weekend at EKU and I wanted to give a shout out to a few folks.

First, congratulations to Stephanie Bell on the near-completion and presentation of her Honor's Thesis, Education Reform: Charter Schools in Kentucky? As her thesis adviser, it was great to meet her parents at the Honor's Banquet Friday night along with about 100 other honor's students. Famous Kentucky author and former "merry prankster" Ed McClanahan was on hand to read to the group from his latest, O the Clear Moment. It was a hoot.

I met with Bill Ellis to begin planning a September symposium on the History of Education in Kentucky to coincide with the release of Ellis's book of the same title. The book was slated to be released in the fall, but I hear it has been pushed forward and is already at the printers. We may see it as early as May. EKU's PR guy Marc Whit led the meeting. Also involved are historian Lindsey Apple, KET's Bill Goodman and folks from EKU Media, WEKU radio, and former Cassidy kid Camron Ludwick, now all grown up and working as a marketing assistant for the University Press of Kentucky, Ellis's publisher. Gary and Carol should be very proud of their daughter.

Then on Saturday, I put on my principal hat again and made a couple of anti-bullying presentations to future teachers from colleges and universities across Kentucky. The Kentucky Education Association-Student Program held it's Student Assembly here Friday and Saturday. The students had asked for professional development sessions on bullying and EKU-SP President Dominic McCamish asked me to provide it. Thus, I did two sessions titled, "Teachers Standing Against Bullying." The interactive sessions, using "clickers," reviewed a few recent cases where bullying had tragic consequences, outlined federal and state law and considered local board policy using Fayette County policies on bullying and harassment as a model. It provided tips for teachers and a strong recommendation that anti-bullying needed to be a faculty-wide effort. It is very hard for an individual teacher to be successful in reducing bullying if the overall school culture permits it.

For those students who requested my notes, you can find them here.

Then, there was yard work on Sunday.

Sorry for the light blogging lately. Advising season is just now coming to a close and I expect to catch up on a handful of topics that have been gathering dust for the past month.

I can confirm two more cases pending in Fayette County, but I haven't been able to read the files yet. Patton v Silberman and Jones v Silberman both carry 08 case numbers; 08CI02053 and 08CI03343 respectively. A KSN&C reader says there is also a case pending that names Fayette County Board Chair John Price, but I haven't been able to get to the court house to confirm that yet either.

Stay tuned.