YAHOO! SUMMER VACATION MEANS HITTING THE BOOKS!!??

Yep, I am "hitting the books" by sitting in a classroom daily at the Sarvis Center in Flint. I'm one of three "Fellows" from SW Academy; all of us are part of the federal grant brought to Flint by some enterprising grant-writers from the Administration Building.

It's called the "Teaching American History Grant" (TAHG), and it has been my professional pleasure to be involved/invited during the past year. Three local school districts are involved: Flint, Mt. Morris, and Bendle. There are approximately 35 teachers involved, most of whom are high school educators.

Last week involved learning about the Reconstruction Era in American History. The program administrators bring in university professors, experts in their field, to lecture and promote learning amongst our group. Toward the end of the week we were treated to a first-person account of the early Civil Rights Era, involving African Americans in Mississippi.

Friday, a bus picked us up at Central High School in Flint and escorted the group to Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit. I mistakingly thought it would be a boring day...in fact, it was fascinating to witness history "come alive" as one Chancey P. Miller took us by our collective hands and led us through Michigan's history via a long, extremely interesting walk through said cemetery. Part actor, part historian, and one-hundred percent enthusiast, Mr. Miller quite literally brought forth significant personages from American history--it was a sparkling performance not to be forgotten!

It was a week not to be forgotten for more reasons than learning at Sarvis and the Detroit cemetery. I "skipped" school Monday in order to stand in line at Kettering University to catch a glimpse of presidential contender, Senator Barack Obama.

Actually, my valued ticket was already in hand...the hand of Ms. Terry Love, that is. Ms. Love is now director of K.U.'s Wellness Center. She's a former student of mine...way back in her 9th grade Civics class, she'll gladly tell you. As a matter of fact, she is not bashful in telling folks that I was her teacher 35 years ago! I keep telling her (asking her), to keep that time frame quiet...because it makes her look old (she still looks quite young), and it makes me look like I have one foot in the grave (you can be the judge of that...).

Anyway, Ms. Love and I ended up seated in the "red ticket" section of the K.U. gymnasium. She managed to get both of us in the first row. Not bad, since Flint's mayor was in the third row; the president of the university sat behind us to the right! Our seats worked out to be perfect...Obama walked right over to us when he entered from behind the blue curtain drapped across the entire floor of the gym. He shook hands with me as Terry yelled out to him that that day was her birthday (he wished her a happy birtdhday!). Little did we realize that his handshake with me was captured on film by Associated Press photographer, Alex Brandon. And we certainly didn't realize that a Detroit Free Press photographer was squeezing off frame after frame of us as Obama made the rounds, shaking hands with everyone and anyone that reached out to him.

After Obama's stirring speech, he began shaking hands again...this time beginning at the opposite end of the semi-circle of seats--eventually making his way to us again. I got to shake hands with him AGAIN! This time he looked me directly in the eyes and said, "Thank you" to me. I think he remembered me as I led calls during his talk..."OBAMA...OBAMA...OBAMA!!!" Again, I did not realize it but another photographer (a friend of Lena Popova's), had taken photographs of Ms. Love and me.

Terry ended up on the front page of last Tuesday's Detroit Free Press; the edge of my face was there too. That's okay because Ms. Love deserved every bit of that front-page exposure! Today, Sunday, June 22, 2008, I discovered the photo taken by the Associated Press photographer on page A11 of The Flint Journal...in the "Talk Back" section. It was a wonderful, captivating photo of Barack Obama seemingly smiling from ear to ear as he looked at me reaching out to shake his outstretched hand! I quickly emailed The Journal to learn how to get in touch with Mr. Brandon...I want that photograph very, very much!

So that's it, a week of study that included one day of friviality with the future president of the United States, as I like to refer to Senator Barack Obama. One more week of study to go...gosh, can anything be more exciting than what occured last week? I doubt it very much...

Central Michigan University Public Radio Visits FSA!

It's been some time, but our Denounce the "N" Word Initiative has gone the MPR route once again...this time a reporter from CMU visited school and interviewed serveral students and myself about the "N" word project.

Actually, the reporter, John Ketchum, interviewed me previously--about a month ago. He told me his supervisors were so impressed with what we were doing at FSA that they insisted he personally visit our campus and interview some of our key students. They wanted their listening audience to learn more about our Denounce the "N" Word Initiative.

Mr. Ketchum visited about a week ago. We were very impressed with his professionality and even more so because of his youth--John's 18 years old and is a graduate of Saginaw Arthur Hill High School. One of my students had fun talking high school baseball with him, since they both played at that level and I believe might have competed against each other in the Saginaw Valley League.

John had fun interviewing our own Mark Ingram about the project. Somehow the conversation turned to Mark's signing a full scholarship at The University of Alabama. As an All-State Football selection at running back, Ingram is assured a chance to play a lot of football for the Crimson Tide and former MSU football coach, Nick Sabin. Sabin established himself at Miami University before jumping ship to bring Alabama football back to national contention. Signing our very own Mark Ingram is a good start for Coach Sabin, I believe.

Several other outstanding students were interviewed, including Maurice Hood...my graduating senior who is going to be sorely missed. Our t-shirt campaign will continue in the Fall and I'm gonna need senior leadership again. Locating someone with Moe's determination and drive is going to be difficult.

The CMU public radio stint was recorded and the young report, John Ketchum, will put it all together for his listening audience. I'll try to figure out how to adapt the recording to this format so as to "spice" it up a little bit. It should be interesting...