Le Roy elementary school gets high marks for character education

This photo was published with Tom Rivers' article, "Le Roy elementary honored for character education," in The Daily News on Monday.

Principal Casey Kosiorek (pictured) and Wolcott St. School (W.S.S.) in Le Roy were recently honored for the great work they'be been doing in the field of character education in the last 12 years. Earlier this month, the Academy for Character Education at the Sage Colleges in Troy recognized W.S.S. as one of five "Emerging Schools of Character." This was the second consecutive year the school received this honor.

Among the wonderful programs they have are an anti-bullying program, a "Catching Kids Being Good" policy and community service projects such as "Pennies for Peace," (see my March 30 article on The Batavian for more info on that).

Kosiorek and the W.S.S. staff work hard to provide a positive learning environment for their students. Schools such as this, in my estimation, form a very important part of our community's efforts to raise children who are more likely to steer clear of drugs, alcohol abuse, and other problem behaviors.

Please click here to read Rivers' full article.

Upcoming events of interest

Here are a couple of local events happening in the near future that might interest some of our staff and Coalition members:

Batavia Players: "Love Lines"
This is an original play written and directed by Pat Burk, a former DFC Coalition member and local theater veteran. It consists of a series of vignettes related to everyone's favorite February theme: love. Characters range from Burk's own parents to Nancy Reagan!

"Love Lines" is the first Batavia Players performance at their new Harvester 56 Theater (see Jan. 6 article on The Batavian). Performances are at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 11, and Saturday, Feb. 12. Tickets can be purchased at www.showtix4u.com or at the door.

Muckdogs: Hot Stove Dinner
Held annually, the dinner is hosted by the Genesee County Baseball Club. It's a great opportunity for fellowship among local sports fans, artists, businesses and friends. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children 12 and younger.

Please see today's Daily News announcement for further details.

Dec. 27th post, part 3: Kids in England have science experiment published in prestigious journal

I thought this article pertained to protective factors, as it demonstrates the remarkable achievements children are capable of if they apply themselves.

"Study by 8-year-olds published in prestigious science journal," written by Zachary Roth and published on Yahoo! News last Wednesday (Dec. 22) at 12:23 p.m. ET, covers the recent achievement of a group of 8- to 10-year-old boys in Devon, England, who did a study on the ability of bumblebees to "see [and learn from] colors and patterns."

Experts from the Royal Society -- which, according to Roth, "is more than 300 years old and includes some of the world's most eminent scientists" -- lauded the boys' discovery of bees' perceptual and intuitive ability as "a genuine advance" (qouted in Roth's article).

I took a look at the study -- which is called "Blackawton bees," was written by
P. S. Blackawton, S. Airzee, A. Allen, S. Baker, A. Berrow, C. Blair, M. Churchill, J. Coles, R. F.-J. Cumming, L. Fraquelli, C. Hackford, A. Hinton Mellor, M. Hutchcroft, B. Ireland, D. Jewsbury, A. Littlejohns, G. M. Littlejohns, M. Lotto, J. McKeown, A. O'Toole, H. Richards, L. Robbins-Davey, S. Roblyn, H. Rodwell-Lynn, D. Schenck, J. Springer, A. Wishy, T. Rodwell-Lynn, D. Strudwick and R.B. Lotto, and was published in Biology Letters on Dec 22, 2010 -- includes the commentary of professional scientists. I particularly like the fact that they drew attention to the creative and playful elements of true scientific exploration, and of education in general.

As for the boys, they did a great job with this very complex study. I drew back a bit from their statement that the intelligence of non-human animals can be the same as ours, as I think this is going too far. But still, their study is interesting for the purpose of exploring the particular intelligence of animals, as well as the similarities between human and animal intelligence.

Click here to read Roth's article.

Click here to go right to the study itself!

Dec. 27th post, part 2: Genesee County students' Christmas Concerts

My first morning post had to do with a story on marijuana -- I'd like to focus more on protective factors for our youth in the next couple posts.

As we know, a protective factor for dissuading youths from drug/alcohol use, bullying, and other risky behaviors is praise from adults. Likewise, another protective factor is involvement in healthy, creative activities. As a correspondent for The Batavian, I did a series of videos on school Christmas concerts in Genesee County. Even though some would argue that Christmas is over -- personally, I maintain that the Christmas Season extends officially through New Years' Eve -- I say it's still relevant. In the spirit of Prevention and education, let's take a moment to honor our kids for a job well done:


PART I



PART II



PART III