Kentucky Teacher

“Young Women Lead” is a free all-day conference focusing on Leadership, Education and Development.  The purpose of the conference is to empower high school girls to embrace their strengths and reach their full potential.

The conference will be held on March 12, 2013, at the University of Kentucky.

For more information about this conference, please visit the website at http://www.youngwomenlead.com/lexington/

Registration is open now at http://www.youngwomenlead.com/lexington/registration/

“Young Women Lead” is a free all-day conference focusing on Leadership, Education and Development.  The purpose of the conference is to empower high school girls to embrace their strengths and reach their full potential.

 The conference will be held on March 12, 2013, at the University of Kentucky.

 For more information about this conference, please visit the website.

 Registration is open at http://www.youngwomenlead.com/lexington/registration/

As first appeared in Education Week, Feb.6, 2013. Reprinted with permission from Editorial Projects in Education.

Education Week has introduced the first of what will be an annual Leaders To Learn From report – a way to recognize forward-thinking education leaders and share their ideas.

Leaders To Learn From strives to draw attention to the importance of good leadership and spread the word on strategies and tactics from leaders in some of the nation’s 14,000-plus districts that others may want to adopt or adapt.

This 2013 report profiles 16 district-level leaders – superintendents, assistant superintendents and others, including a union president – who seized on creative but practical approaches and put them to work in their school districts. Read the full story

Shervita West

Shervita West-Jordan feels it’s imperative that leadership in Kentucky reflect the diversity of its students.

“In our state’s history there have been two African American superintendents,” said West-Jordan, referring to Elaine Farris and Donald Smith, superintendents in Clark County and Marion County school districts, respectively.

The Minority Superintendent Intern Program (MSIP) strives to create a more diverse pool of qualified superintendent candidates. West-Jordan, along with Georgia Hampton and Alvin Garrison, was recently chosen to participate in this program.

Kentucky Teacher will profile these three educators as the next Leaders of the Month, starting with West-Jordan for January.

West-Jordan attended school in the Jefferson County school district, as do her children. She taught in the district and served in administrative positions before becoming the principal at Brandeis Elementary School.

While she appreciates everything she’s learned while attending school and working in her district, she is excited to see the “broader perspective” she can learn outside of it through the MSIP. Read the full story

Paula Stafford

Paula Stafford is doing double duty in the Rowan County school district.

The 21-year educator is Rowan County Middle School assistant principal and administrator for the Morehead Youth Development Center (MYDC) and Sunrise Children’s Services, a residential treatment facility for juvenile girls in grades 7-12.

Donna Stanley, lead teacher for the Morehead Youth Development Center, said Stafford’s leadership is evident in both positions.

“She holds high standards for all students and finds ways to make sure they have all the opportunities we can possibly offer,” Stanley said of Stafford, Kentucky Teacher’s December Leader of the Month.

Stanley added that Stafford is driven to give high-quality technology opportunities to MYDC students, and she advocates making sure all state agency students receive the same electronic footprint as other Kentucky students.

“Her knowledge and understanding of our special population makes her an exceptionally strong advocate for these youth,” Stanley said. “She’s a master facilitator for making good things happen, is always there to help and always there to lead.” Read the full story

Road Maps to Common Core Success, an Education Week Leadership Forum, will be held in Indianapolis on March 11, 2013, and in White Plains, N.Y. on March 21, 2013.

At this day-long event, participants will hear from state and district leaders, education experts and other colleagues on their Common Core implementations, and discover and share new ideas on curricula, teacher training and assessment.

See the full agendas for Indianapolis and White Plains.

Save $150 by registering before Jan. 9.

Click here to register.

Gregory Ross and Kern Alexander received the Dr. Samuel Robinson Award during the Kentucky Board of Education meeting. Photo by Susan Riddell, Oct. 9, 2012

At its meeting in Frankfort Monday, the Kentucky Board of Education presented the annual Dr. Samuel Robinson Award to Gregory Ross, Ed.D., principal of McNabb Elementary in the Paducah Independent school district, and Kern Alexander, Ed.D., excellence professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and former president of Murray State University and Western Kentucky University.

Since 2004, the Dr. Samuel Robinson Award has been conferred on an individual or groups in Kentucky for outstanding leadership, commitment and service in promoting equity and opportunity to learn at high levels for all Kentucky students. Robinson was a member of the Kentucky Board of Education for many years in the 1990s and 2000s.

Ross was nominated by Julie Gargus, a teacher at McNabb Elementary, who said he embodied the best qualities of teaching.

“He is a teacher in every aspect of the word,” Gargus said. “Although he has done many things, ranging from international athletics to directing group homes, the portion of his career he has found most rewarding is being an educator.” Read the full story

Every morning in the Kathryn Winn Elementary School (Carroll County) gymnasium, Principal Gerda Wise leads to students in a college chant before they leave for their classrooms.

“Hey, first grade. When are you going to college?” Winn asks.

“We are going to college to get some knowledge in 2024,” students reply.

Wise repeats the college chant for remaining grades, and each answers with the year of their high school graduating class.

“I was a first person in my family to go to college,” said Wise, who has been Winn Elementary’s principal for three years and is Kentucky Teacher’s October Leader of the Month. “My parents told me from the time I was little on that I could go to college. It was that belief in me that made me who I am.”

Wise, who is a product of Carroll County schools and has more than 30 years of experience, understands the importance of a community and a school believing in their students, too. Read the full story

Kimberly Shearer

Recently I was asked to be a part of a discussion panel on teacher leadership, and in an attempt to prepare for the panel, I’ve spent this past week reflecting on the idea of leadership itself.  

I used to think of leadership as a solitary act – that some stand-out individual must somehow transcend the crowd in order to lead the masses. Unfortunately, I think this individualized view of leadership has all too often prevented me from trying to be a leader. Few of us want to step forward and take the reins – such an act requires courage and places a great deal of responsibility on the initiator. But in examining my own classroom and my own school building, I’m starting to realize that the Common Core Standards have helped redefine the parameters in which teachers can operate as leaders. We no longer have to fear the lonesome journey that so often characterizes leadership.  Instead, we now have the opportunity to lead side-by-side. Together.

Collaboration is an important 21st-century skill at which our students will be required to be successful, both in school and in the workplace. In fact, it is one skill I’ve frequently discussed in this very column. After implementing the Common Core Read the full story

Kentucky Teacher is looking to profile outstanding leaders in Kentucky’s public school districts for the 2012-13 school year.

If you know of an excellent district teacher or administrator who has innovative ideas, strong leadership qualities and a passion for helping students become college and career ready, e-mail the following information to Susan Riddell:

• nominee’s name, position, school and district
• contact information for nominee
• examples of how nominee has served in a leadership capacity
• what makes the nominee a strong leader
• headshot of the nominee

One leader will be profiled monthly in the Leadership Letter section of the Kentucky Teacher website. For more information, contact Riddell at (502) 564-2000, ext. 4621. Read the full story