Manhattan-Ogden Visit

I graduated (twice) from Kansas State University, so visiting the Manhattan-Ogden school district was like revisiting some of the best days of my life. Living in a college town is incredible and has so many opportunities for education, entertainment, and partnerships. Dr. Shannon shared with the Team about those great partnerships, the support of the community, and commitment to education everyone has in the area. The community just recently passed a bond issue for schools, a tax increase to support an education center at the Sunset Zoo, and just last week voted to support improvements on their public pools!!! Coming from a district that the community has failed to pass a bond issue, this really spoke volumes to me. Dr. Shannon said it all when he stated, "This community values education." At this reception, I got to visit with the 1987 KTOY, Chris Chalender. After being named KTOY, she decided teachers needed more recognition and raised the money to create the Hubbard Foundation. Thanks to her vision and perseverance (and quite a bit of charisma), the 2009 KTOY Team is able to have the opportunities serving as spokespeople for educators that she never had. So, thank you, Chris! (Chris and I pictured to the right)

Speaking of the Zoo, we spent an amazing morning there learning about the new center (model pictured below). The education and outreach programs the Zoo conducts are amazing. Last year, the staff reached 40,000 people in the community of 53,000. The summer programs, school programs, volunteer programs are teaching tolerance, conservation awareness, and how to protect our animals. We were fortunate enough to get to watch the chimpanzees. It was hard to leave the exhibit after watching the "baby" chimp with her mom. We will all be back I am sure.
KSU College of Education sponsored lunch for the Team and we got to hear more about the partnership between the college and the school district. KSU spends $400,000 placing faculty members full-time in the public schools supervising their student teachers and block students. This win-win partnership is preparing our future educators in "real" classrooms with "real" students. Dr. Holen, Dean of Education, and his committed faculty have led the Department with a vision of that is reaping its benefits with quality educators entering our profession (a little purple pride coming out there -sorry).

The Team with our gracious hosts, Dean Holen, Associate Dean Wissman, and Assistant Dean Burden

After lunch, the Team got to go observe those block students from KSU doing a lesson. WOW - talk about impressive!! I observed 3 students doing a probability lesson using the Price Is Right! games. They had technology, manipulatives, guided notes, a scripted lesson plan, and tied it to state indicators. It was humbling to take in how much time and energy went into this lesson and made me silently recommit to coming up with creative lessons. By the way, the students emailed me the entire presentation....they are already TEAM players and willing to share! (pictured at left are the KSU students in action)

Probably one of the most "moving" experiences we have had as a Team, came at Anthony Middle School. The advanced English students under the guidance of Leslie Pickler, created a Holocaust Museum. This has to be the best example of 21st Century Learning Skills I have seen. She gave her students the theme, "Remembering the Past, Protecting the Future" and let the groups decide their own topic related to that theme, decide how they would present it, and then create the display. They also have to write a research paper. If you have had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum in DC, it was a similar experience visiting the room they created. Few of us talked during our tour, if we did, we whispered. There were some stories I read that made me cry and as I read, I thought of all the students that would come through this exhibit, how they would feel, and what they would remember. POWERFUL!