As you all probably know I am a teacher at Fort Osage High School. I work with the Student Council there as well. The local newspaper that covers Fort and the surrounding schools is called the Examiner. The Examiner has been running a series of stories about teens and their decision making and the consequences that surround the decisions they make. The series is called Just say Know. It talks about addiction, teen pregnancy, crime and violence and the consequences to the futures of these students and their athletics. There were also pieces about people making positive impacts and good decisions and I was very proud that a great young man from Fort was featured in this positive light. He is a student athlete at Fort, and one of the many great young students I get to work with in student council. If you'd like.... check it out here.

With all the legislative and political issues surrounding education these days it is very easy to lose focus on what is important and what will always be important..... serving students. Articles like this make it a little easier to focus on doing what I do without worrying about everything else.

MASC is the Missouri Association of Student Councils and has bee a part of my life since i was in high school. As a student i attended their summer leadership workshop (located in Fulton, MO on the William Woods University campus and often just called MASC) a few times, attended State and District conventions and stayed in touch with the people i met along the way.

I have since then become a teacher, started working with student councils as an advisor, and gone back to attend MASC as an adult. It is wild to be a peer with people i looked up to in high school but it is great to be able to give back and make this experience happen for others. Below are some photos from the past week that i spent at MASC (my 7th summer there total).

These are the people, like me, who have come thru this program and have returned to work as an adult. Some of the best folks around.

This is a photo of the group i was with this summer. council k.

some enthusiasm during down time.

our version of the show 'wild and crazy kids'. the MASC olympics. great team-building.

council k in their warpaint.... ready for the olympics

high school students from around missouri

the duck.... mascot for MASC. This photo is at the end of the 'duck race.' 'buy a duck for a buck' to help support Special Olympics.

It sounds cliche but MASC really is a place like no other. If you have attended then you probably get what i am saying a bit. If you have never been I will try to explain. Take 500 kids and send them somewhere where they can have fun, learn about leadership and hopefully better themselves. This is a good start. Then you divide them up into groups where they will likely know no one and make them meet some new friends. Then put these groups through a series of activities that will slowly build them into a team. Do all these things on a college campus and put a big emphasis on personal leadership and respect. Encourage males to be gentlemen and treat ladies as they should be treated and encourage the ladies to earn and deserve this respect. I am not sure exactly how it works out so well but it does. It becomes a little week long utopia where people are kind to each other and it makes people wish that the 'real world' could be this way. Maybe it can.... but we have a lot of work to do. "Start small but start now"

for bunches of photos try my flickr feed or facebook album

Good PR

MASC 2010