Kentucky Teacher

Barbra Ledford

Barbra Ledford, a teacher at Harlan Elementary School (Harlan Independent), has been named president of the Friends of KET Board of Directors, a statewide network of volunteers who work to advance KET’s mission in their communities.

Members of the Friends of KET promote programs and services in their own communities, plan and host special events, and meet several times a year to share ideas for new initiatives.

Ledford, who just completed her 23rd year of teaching, is a member and former board member of the Kentucky Science Teachers Association (KSTA) and is a member of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Kentucky Education Association (KEA). She is a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), and for the past eight years, she has served as an NBCT mentor. She also is serving on Kentucky’s Lead State Committee for Next Generation Science Standards.

She has served on the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) Math Task Force Committee; the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Core Content Advisory Committee; the Kentucky Teacher Forum; and several Kentucky science book committees. She also has served as a Kentucky Teacher Internship Program (KTIP) resource teacher and a KDE Elementary Writing Cluster Leader.

Ledford is a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an honors organization of more than 150,000 women educators in 14 countries. This year she will be serving as vice president of the Lambda Chapter.

Ledford’s awards include, among others: Campbellsville University Excellence in Teaching Award; USA Today All USA Teacher Third Team; Harlan County Chamber of Commerce Career Achievement Award; Ashland Teacher Achievement Award; and finalist for the Ashland Kentucky Teacher of the Year.

Ledford currently serves as president of the Harlan County 4-H Council and in 2009 was elected to the 4-H Centennial Hall of Fame. Ledford is a former board member for the Harlan County Boys and Girls Club and the Harlan County Cooperative Extension.

More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.

The Kentucky Department of Education’s Division of Next-Generation Professionals has reopened the application period for the Minority Superintendent Internship Program (MSIP).

The MSIP consists of two initiatives — the Minority Superintendent Internship and the Minority Emerging Education Leader Internship.

The deadline for the re-opened application process is 4:30 p.m. ET on Monday, August 13. The MSIP application portfolio packet is available online here.

The successful MSIP candidates will begin the program on September 3.

MSIP is designed to identify and train a pool of highly-qualified and highly-effective minority superintendent candidates for Kentucky’s public school districts. The program provides qualified candidates with the opportunity for hands-on, mentored experiences with Kentucky superintendents and education leaders. For the purposes of this program, “minority” is defined to include underrepresented members of ethnic minority groups. Continue Reading

The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is sponsoring its environmental education (EE) video contest for high school and college undergraduate students.

The focus of the contest is to showcase environmental education heroes – people who can inspire students to chart a career path in environmental education and harness their own power to improve the world.

Four winners (two from the high school level and two from the college undergraduate level) will receive an iPad3, and their video will be featured on NAAEE’s website and at the NAAEE annual conference in October.

Entries will be in the form of video profiles of educators discussing what they do and how they found their path to help educate and empower others to value and protect our planet.

Winning profiles will reflect people from diverse backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, communities and in a wide variety of EE related career fields. The deadline to submit material is July 31.

For more information, go to www.naaee.net/careervideocontest.

Kentucky tied for fifth place nationwide in the improvement of its students’ performance in assessments of reading, mathematics and science since 1992,  according to a report from Harvard University,

The report, Achievement Growth: International and U.S. State Trends in Student Performance, was produced by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and presented in Education Next, the program’s journal. It was designed to determine the extent of the United States’ progress toward closure of the international education gap and offers estimates of gains from 1995 to 2009 for the U.S. and 48 other countries. The report also looked at changes in student performance in 41 states between 1992 and 2011 and compares states’ rates of improvement, among other items.

Based on results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 4th- and 8th-grade reading, mathematics and science, Kentucky was noted as having a 2.7 percent gain (as an average of the standard deviation) from 1992 to 2011. This ranked the state fifth among 41 states that participated in NAEP during the same time period. Continue Reading

The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington is offering two camps, both July 23-27.

Urban Agriculture: Farmer for a Week will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day and participants will learn about sowing seeds; compost and soil health; good bugs vs. bad bugs; and proper watering.

Handmade Jewelry: Art You Can Wear lasts from 1 to 5 p.m. Participants will explore the possibilities of jewelry design, meet local jewelers, and learn how to use jewelry-making tools before making bracelets, necklaces and other jewelry pieces.

For more information, contact Jessica Faye Mohler at (859) 254-4175 or go to http://carnegiecenterlex.org/.

By Amy Wallot
amy.wallot@education.ky.gov

The Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA) celebrated 25 years this summer. The three-week residential experience is intended to mimic an intense college conservatory atmosphere. It is held on the campus of Transylvania University in Lexington. Incoming juniors and seniors are study one of nine art disciplines including architecture, creative writing, dance, drama, instrumental music, musical theatre, new media, visual art and vocal music. According to GSA Executive Director Carrie Nath, 1800 students applied this year for the 225 available positions. Forty-three counties were represented in this year’s class.

This was my first time photographing GSA. I was blown away by the talent and enthusiasm of the students. My visit was on the second to last day, when students were preparing for their final presentations and performances. I can’t wait to go back next year, mid-program, when the students are creating their pieces.

Henry Clay High School (Fayette County) junior Helen Lee performs "Rondo" by Ludwig van Beethoven during the Governor's School for the Arts. Lee said the experience was "awesome" and said it gave her new experiences, like working with an ensemble, and improved her time management. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

North Hardin High School (Hardin County) senior Marvin Anderson plays the trumpet during the Governor's School for the Arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Shelby County High School senior Casey Hill, center, points out a print by a fellow student that she likes during the Governor's School for the Arts. Hill and the rest of the group focused their studies and activities around visual arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

SCAPA (Fayette County) junior Marrgie Wiemann stretches before taking the stage during the Governor's School for the Arts. Wiemann said she would like to study dance or musical theater in college. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Dancers perform during the Governor's School for the Arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Students watch and critique a student-produced short film during the Governor's School for the Arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Henry Clay High School (Fayette County) senior Emma Friedman, Boone County High School senior Trevor Arsenault and Brown School (Jefferson County) senior William Kolb watch a student produced short film during the Governor's School for the Arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Youth Performing Arts School (Jefferson County) seniors Hunter Schanz and Alex Kapp practice "Sound the Trumpet" by Henry Purcell during the Governor's School for the Arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Elizabethtown High School (Elizabethtown Independent) junior Hassan Haider reads his poetry to other creative writing students during the Governor's School for the Arts. Haider was encouraged to write about what he knows and many of his poems reflected Desi culture. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

Lafayette High School (Fayette County) junior Smruti Patil works on her poetry during the Governor's School for the Arts. Photo by Amy Wallot, July 6, 2012

StageLab’s Elements of Drama professional development will be July 24 in Louisville.

This PD session focuses on the Elements of Drama and how they connect to the English and language arts Common Core. This session will be centered on the literary elements and ways in which these can be studied in context with the Common Core. Performance elements will be addressed in terms of the speaking and reading criteria. Technical elements and connections to social studies also will be covered.

StageLab’s Professional Development sessions offer both novice teachers of drama and experienced teachers new skills, techniques and activities to enhance students’ study of and connection to drama.

StageLab’s hands-on, participatory approach to teaching drama complements the school level review of arts programming implemented this school year, and aims to provide teachers with the skills to attain distinguished level in the rubric for their school review.

For more information, contact (502) 741-8392 or stagelab@insightbb.com.