Bishop's Blog

Ron Brandly This week we celebrated the life of Ron Brandly and mourn his death from this earth, but we rest assured that he is teaching and talking and loving people in heaven. Ron was one of the most joyful and kind men I have ever met. He truly loved working at Missouri Baptist University and working with doctoral students. At his funeral there were several references made about Missouri Baptist University and his love of working with the people at MBU. At the luncheon that followed the funeral, Shelton Smith had the opportunity to share of Ron's service to teaching and serving on dissertation committees. A couple of our doctoral graduates, Elaine Henderson and Todd Culbertson, were there to attest to his caring attitude. We are grateful for his service and will miss him dearly! HLC Thanks to those of you who played a part in this week's visit with the HLC team. We appreciate your willingness to participate in interviews and validate the contents of our assurance ...

School Leadership My oldest son, Roman, is a freshman at Fort Zumwalt North High School. I have the pleasure of taking him to marching band practice four mornings a week at 6:15am. But on Thursday mornings, he doesn't have to be at school early so I get to experience the typical carline dropoff. Yesterday morning as I was dropping him off, I took a picture of his principal, Joe Sutton, as he was waving and greeting all of the students and parents as they were coming into the school parking lot. Mr. Sutton starts each day this way - greeting students and families with a smile and a wave! He has demonstrated outstanding leadership as a school leader in a variety of ways. He "gets" how to build a culture of excellence. I am not sure where Mr. Sutton got his Administration degree, but I was reminded that we have the opportunity to prepare educators to be outstanding leaders. The results to the first year teacher and principal surveys came out this week. We are analyzing th...

Education Division Meet & Greet The SMSTA/SASCD main campus student organizations sponsored the Meet & Greet last Friday at the Perk. We had a wonderful turnout and it was a great opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to get to know one another. Ellen John made some delicious cookies and SMSTA/SASCD provided food and drinks for those in attendance, and a few lucky students won door prizes. Shout out to Nichole Dales and Ricki Roth for all of their efforts to make this event a huge success! I can't wait to see how the students participate in these professional organizations this year. Spartan Football My husband, Brian, and I were able to enjoy the MBU football team last Saturday. I would like to encourage you to attend some sporting events. It was so much fun to see so many of our education students cheering, dancing, and playing football. The only thing missing was a marching band - maybe someday soon! New Doctoral Cohort R...

Another Doctorate Degree Awarded Congratulations to Dr. Butler! Thanks to her committee for supporting Dr. Butler on her journey. When our doctoral students complete their dissertation defense I am reminded what an important role we play in our students' lives, from the beginning of undergraduates' pursuit of initial certification all the way to the culminating professional experience for many seasoned educational professionals.  DESE Business Meeting Angela McGowan, Jan Speck, Sandra Hendricks, Susan Hladky, Shelton Smith, and I represented Missouri Baptist's Education Division at the DESE business meeting held in Columbia on Wednesday. Topics presented included Grow Your Own Programs, APR updates, Performance Assessments, GPA calculations, and Clinical/Field Experience Partnerships. Chapel Blessed again by attending chapel. We have some incredibly talented students who shared their artistic gifts through music and art. And the speaker, Kempton Tur...

Yearlong Experience for Spartan Seniors (YESS) Update Our first group of students participating  in the YESS program is off to a great start! Below are some pictures from their first day of school. At  Tillman Elementary in the Kirkwood School District, Andrea Hassler and Christina Davis were helping in kindergarten classrooms.   Kaitlin Little, Abbie Thornton and Megan Taylor are three of our MBU YESS students that are doing their senior field experience by assisting in kindergarten classrooms at Valley Park Elementary in Valley Park School District. We are super excited for them and this great opportunity! Click  here  to read a remarkable personal blog post by one of the participants, Kaitlin Little, titled 6 Things I learned from The First Grade as a College Senior. President's Party I always enjoy the annual president's party. Dr. Lacey and his wife do a fantastic job reminding us that we are part of something special here a...