Hurricane Ike and the Teacher of the Year
Hurricane Ike’s waves are still rippling.
Toyota representatives who came to Oklahoma City to present a hybrid Prius to the 2009 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year today weren’t present at the ceremony.
They were with Gulf States Toyota — based in Houston — and had to return home to clean up from Ike, said Tim O’Toole, president and general manager of the Oklahoma State Fair.
O’Toole extended some words of thanks and hope to the representatives and others in the hurricane’s path before stepping aside for the teacher recognition program to continue.
Check out NewsOK.com and tomorrow’s Oklahoman for more about the state’s new Teacher of the Year, math teacher Heather Sparks of Taft Middle School in Oklahoma City.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
’09 National Merit semifinalists announced
I just wrapped up writing about the 2008 National Merit Scholarship winners in July.
But already, the list of nearly 200 Oklahoma students who are semifinalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program is out.
The 195 students are among 1,600 nationwide who will go on to compete for $35 million in college scholarships. About half will win, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
I did a few breakdowns of the list of Oklahoma semifinalists:
143 attend public schools.
42 attend private schools.
9 are homeschooled.
1 goes to a charter school.
Three schools yielded more than 10 semifinalists:
The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, with 22.
Jenks High School, with 14.
Holland Hall School in Tulsa, with 13.
The students qualified by earning the highest scores among state test-takers on the 2007 Preliminary SAT exam.
The list of seniors will be narrowed down to a list of finalists before the scholarship winners are announced in the coming months.
Click here for a list of all the Sooner semifinalists.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College honors first graduates
Congratulations to the first graduating class of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College!
Last week, 13 students graduated from the college that shares the Weatherford campus of Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
Above are a couple photos from the event. The first photo shows College President Henrietta Mann and 2008 Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College Princess Cristina “Cricket” Yellowman. In the next one, John Haumpo receives a stole, Pendleton blanket,
Good luck to them all!
Education hurdles stave off Olympics withdrawal
Michael Phelps did his job, collecting eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics that ended yesterday. But back in Maryland, his mom’s job is just beginning. The Flypaper blog by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute reports that Debbie Phelps is the principal of Windsor Mill Middle School there.
Flypaper also mentions the 2008 Education Olympics, where the U.S won a single medal, compared to a 35-medal showing by the top contender: Finland. You can check out http://edolympics.net for a recap, whether you’re tired of Phelps reruns or whether they’re not playing often enough to satisfy your Olympic spirit.
Wendy Kleinman, Education Reporter
Who’s the Best?
The U.S. News and World Report annual ranking of colleges is out today, and nods are made to several Oklahoma campuses. The ranking formula takes account of factors such as SAT scores, peer reputation, selectivity and alumni giving. Predictably, the Ivy Leagues schools dominate the top spots nationally.
Here’s a story from The Associated Press about the Oklahoma rankings:
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — The best college in the state is the University of Tulsa, according to rankings released Friday by U.S. News and World Report magazine.
TU ranks 83rd on the list of the nation’s top universities, up eight spots from 2007, while the University of Oklahoma in Norman is tied for 108th, the same as last year.
Oklahoma State University in Stillwater remained in the third tier of the magazine’s ratings, while Oral Roberts University in Tulsa remained in the fourth, and last, tier. The magazine does not numerically rank schools in those two tiers.
Nationally, Harvard University topped the magazine’s rankings, followed by Princeton University and Yale University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University tied for fourth.
TU said that a 25 percent decrease in its acceptance rate — which notes a more selective university — was the biggest change made by the school in the last year.
TU officials said the school has a 10-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio and an average class size of 19 students.
“Our deliberate actions during the past decade have allowed TU to select a student body from among the nation’s top students while creating a vibrant, residential campus experience for these students once they arrive in Tulsa,” TU President Steadman Upham said in a statement.
Among Oklahoma colleges that focus primarily on bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, Oklahoma City University was tops in the state, ranking 25th in the West region, two spots lower than last year.
Oklahoma Christian University of Oklahoma City and Southern Nazarene University of Bethany both improved their ranking, finishing in a six-way tie for 53rd in the region.
Among baccalaureate universities, Oklahoma Baptist University of Shawnee tied for second in the West region, up one spot from 2007, while Oklahoma Wesleyan University of Bartlesvile and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha ranked 11th and 15th, respectively.
Elevating Our Economy
The annual meeting of CareerTech educators and administrators started today in a new location — downtown Oklahoma City. (Previously, meetings have been held in Tulsa.) But CareerTech state director Phil Berkinbile had another locale in mind in his opening address — DisneyWorld.
He said Walt Disney’s dream started with a drawing of a mouse and a vision of greatness. CareerTech doesn’t have Mickey Mouse but it does aim “to help make dreams and success a reality for Oklahomans,” he said.
The CareerTech system of vocational technical schools across the state helps tens of thousands of high school students and adults each year gain job readiness skills, and for many, a start on a college education.
But the system also struggles with higher operating costs amid stagnant state funding, loss of many Baby Boomer instructors to retirement, and a significant high school drop out rate.
Still, CareerTech graduates add $2 billion annually to the state’s economy, Berkinbile said.
Now that’s a mouse that roars.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
A teacher’s plea for help
Seven Oklahoma schools are in a national running for a $10,000 grant from Big Lots. A teacher at one of those seven schools — third-grade teacher Dawn Dilley at Putnam City’s Apollo Elementary — sent me an e-mail about it.
She hopes the school will get the money so they can build a fitness track, and wrote an essay and put together a 90-second video with some of the school’s students as part of the application.
Twenty-five runners-up will get smaller amounts of money; there are 100 schools nationwide all trying to win.
The thing is, online voters choose the winner, and she wants some help. Here’s what she told me in an e-mail.
Apollo’s is very important because we are considered a 100% Title 1 school. All our kids qualify and get free lunch & breakfast through a federal program. Now, due the economic issues facing our students, we don’t have a lot of PTA funds or giant fundraiser budgets to draw money from. We are also aware that kids in poverty have a higher rate of obesity and a lower rate of overall health. Knowing this, we applied for this grant to get our school a walking track. This grant would allow us to easily motivate our kids to get in shape and help the regular classroom teachers at our school comply with the OK Legislature’s new longer PE times, since we will be taking on this burden.
What I need from you is your vote and possibly the vote of all the people who read your education blog, or anyone else you know who might vote. I would also like to get the word out to support all OK educators. This competition costs nothing but 5 minutes of time from now through July 22nd.
It would be great if we could win, but it would be even greater if all 7 Oklahoma schools won some money.
Here’s how to vote: Go to www.lots2give.com. Use the drop-down menu to select Oklahoma, and Apollo Elementary’s video as well as the others will appear. Vote by clicking the “Vote for this school” button. People can vote up to three times a day through July 22, and you don’t have to watch the video each time.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Do you know an outstanding young educator?
Student contest information often comes my way. But this week, I came across an advertisement in Education Week that gives teachers and administrators a chance to shine.
A middle school social studies teacher in New Jersey was named as the 2008 Outstanding Young Educator. Now, the organization that bestows the title – the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development – is taking nominations for 2009.
The organization will, for the first time, honor not only one teacher but also one administrator. Nominations are due Aug. 1; the nominees must be age 40 or younger.
To nominate someone you know, visit www.ascd.org/oyea. And if you’d like, share your stories here about a great educator — young or young at heart – that has crossed your path.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Summer science
Ten students recently started an intense, eight-week program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
The nine Fleming Scholars and one Presidential Scholar are getting hands-on experience with scientific research, conducting experiments and learning from those whose shoes they one day hope to fill.
2008 OMRF FLEMING & PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS
Seated, left to right: Sishir Mannava of Edmond; Meaghan Wierzbic of Harrah; Anne Alger of Shawnee; Stephanie Wilburn of Fitzhugh; Sara Moore of Norman; and Leah Henry of Oklahoma City. Standing, left to right: Johnnie West of Lawton; Jack Laurent of Oklahoma City; James Harding of Lancaster, Texas (Presidential Scholar and Langston University student); and Alia Ramirez of Oklahoma City.
Have you participated in the OMRF program or something similar? What was your experience like?
Share your thoughts here on NewsOK’s Education Station.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Lights, camera, science
Science is not my strong suit, despite having hands-on science kits packed with a microscope, test tubes and powdery chemicals like borax when I was a kid.
Discovery Education, which is affiliated with the Discovery Channel, wants Oklahomans who do have a knack for science to submit video entries for a contest.
A spokeswoman for the Discovery Education/3M Young Scientist Challenge, Pat McMurray, said there are too few entries from Oklahoma right now.
The competition is open to students in grades 5 through 8. The video entries must demonstrate how well students understand and explain scientific concepts.
A winner will be selected from each state, and 10 finalists will get an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, where a national winner will be crowned and handed a $50,000 savings bond.
More information about the contest is available at www.DiscoveryEducation.com/YoungScientist.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
