Are you a KBS County Coordinator (CC)? If you are not a CC, could you help the bluebirds and KBS by becoming a CC? If you are a CC, have you had a public meeting in your county? If not, can you? Are all the schools in your county participating in the KBS Outdoor Classroom Enrichment Program (OCEP)? As a CC can you help theAre you a KBS County Coordinator (CC)? If you are not a CC, could you help the bluebirds and KBS by becoming a CC? If schools become a part of KBS OCEP?
New Kentucky
Bluebird Society (KBS) CCs often have some of the same questions and needs
for information and assistance. The following suggestions are made in an
effort to help our KBS CCs. These suggestions are not set in stone and
there may be techniques that are not listed that could be. If you
have questions or comments on this topic, or need assistance, please contact
Ed Ray, KBS Education Director at: edrayosprey@yahoo.com or Bob Ivy, KBS
President at: bobivy@centurytel.net
General Public
Try conducting a public meeting. First determine meeting objectives, such as how to help county bluebirds involving the public, students, teachers and community leaders in the process. Next obtain a place and time for a public meeting and write a brief invitation story about the meeting for the local paper as a public announcement. If an organization is co-sponsoring the meeting, be sure to include the co-sponsor’s name in the article has a host. Most papers will publish the announcement as a community service for non-profit organizations such as KBS. Plan on having adequate seating for the anticipated number in attendance. Be sure to answer these five questions in your article: Who, What, Why, Where, When? There should be no fee for attending. KBS can provide membership brochures and other materials for the meeting. Plan an interesting presentation, not too long or too short. KBS has an excellent bluebird video available for use, which can be used as part of the program if projection equipment is available.
Choose
a good time and place for the meeting. Most communities have a location
that can be used for free for meetings in the public interest. This
may be at a public library or community center. If an organization
has a facility meeting room fee, you may want to ask the organization if
they would like to partner or co-sponsor with KBS to present the activity
for the public? Partners often provide meeting places without a meeting
fee to their partner organizations. If not, you may need to find
a different location. Determine when the meeting facility can be
available and coordinate meeting arrangements.
Schools
Keys to success: An enthusiastic teacher, a supportive administration (school principal and or superintendent) AND a positive KBS CC to help! We have demonstrated in many schools that students and bluebirds will be interested in your project and can greatly benefit from our KBS program. A list with school telephone numbers of all the schools in your county can be obtained from your local school board or from the Internet to help CCs make initial contacts.
If you do not already have a good school/teacher contact, you can telephone each school and ask the school operator/receptionist if there is a teacher that you can talk to that may be interested in an award winning educational project that is free to their school. Teachers have very limited telephone time so you may need to find out a best time to telephone the teacher that hopefully you have found. You may need to set up a meeting with the teacher to explain OCEP. All KY teachers have received an issue of “KY Teacher” containing an excellent article about OCEP. Once the teacher is interested you can provide the KBS web site for more information and/or written materials about the program and do what ever is needed to help the school get started. If possible and accurate, advise the teacher that you are available to assist the teacher in any way needed to help make the project be successful.
Many more KBS CCs are needed in Kentucky. A huge thank you goes to all our very dedicated KBS CCs, the heart of KBS, for making OCEP possible to an ever-increasing number of KY schools. KBS CCs are helping KBS, the public, schools and bluebirds in growing numbers of Kentucky counties. More CCs joining KBS’s effort is perhaps KBS’s greatest present need. We are often asked why bluebirds were selected as a part of a school project? Answer: Bluebirds can be effectively managed (helped) by most KY schools with student involvement on campus. Bluebirds provide an excellent introduction to wildlife and wildlife needs for students facilitating the development of student skills and knowledge. Working with bluebirds outside is very exciting for students. This hands-on up close to wildlife experience is highly motivational for students who often want to learn how to help bluebirds enriching learning experiences in the process. Teachers have stated that thanks to the KBS OCEP project, student’s attitudes about learning are changing much for the better. Better attitudes usually result in better grades and more success in life. Skilled teachers can directly link and incorporate many school subjects in the bluebird project. The bluebird project is aligned to Kentucky’s Core Content - required for teaching in our schools. See OCEP and Core Content at the KBS web site for more information.
Please consider writing articles about your projects for the KBS Newsletter and send to Bob Ivy, KBS President. Thanks to all CCs making important positive contributions to KBS and the bluebirds!
Ed Ray, KBS Education Director, edrayosprey@yahoo.com