News from SUNY Cortland

For more information contact: Jennifer Wilson, 607-753-2232

The 19th Annual Celebration Of Teaching Planned For May 7 At SUNY Cortland

CORTLAND, NY (04/10/2008; 1513)(readMedia)-- Area teachers, teaching assistants, school administrators and College faculty will entertain their colleagues and celebrate teaching with a variety show featuring music, humor and reflections on Wednesday, May 7, at SUNY Cortland.

The 19th annual “Celebration of Teaching: A Cabaret Evening of Entertainment” will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a dessert buffet and social gathering in Corey Union Function Room.

The variety show follows at 7 p.m. and features area educators as entertainers celebrating the joys of teaching and learning.

Educators may attend the celebration for free but must pre-register by Friday, May 2. Interested persons should contact SUNY Cortland’s Center for Educational Exchange at (607) 753-4214 or cee@cortland.edu.

The event, coinciding with National Teacher Appreciation Week, is hosted by the Center for Educational Exchange with support from the President’s Office at SUNY Cortland. Co-sponsors include the teacher centers serving Cayuga-Onondaga, Central New York, Cincinnatus, Cortland-Homer-McGraw, Dryden, Lansing-Groton and Syracuse.

Approximately 150 past, present and future educators throughout the Central New York region are expected to attend, as well as SUNY Cortland faculty and students, according to Virginia Marty, the Center for Educational Exchange director.

“Celebration of Teaching is one way for SUNY Cortland to thank the many talented and committed teachers and administrators who support the College's teacher education programs,” Marty said. “The evening is a fun-filled party when students, teachers and faculty have a unique opportunity to honor the art of teaching.”

Former deejay Tom Turck, the principal at Homer Middle School and a longtime teacher and school administrator, will, for a third year, emcee the ceremonies. Gerald Porter, SUNY Cortland dean of the School of Education, for the first time, will offer the welcome at this event, along with Marty.

The entertainment lineup includes:

• Janet Griffin, a second grade teacher at Randall Elementary School in Cortland who plans to retire in June. Griffin’s humorous talk about teaching will be her first Celebration of Teaching performance;

• Colleen Kattau, an assistant professor of Spanish in SUNY Cortland’s International Communications and Culture Department, will perform education-related music. A bi-lingual singer, songwriter and guitarist with four recordings to her name, Kattau performs original alternative acoustic music in a mix of poetry and rhythm;

• Jim Overhiser ’80, an educator for 28 years who currently teaches physics at Cortland High School, will sing and play the guitar. Jim, who admits he originally went to school to become a music teacher, is a member of the SUNY Cortland Choral Union, the Old Timers Band and the Dixieland group “Jazz Happens Band.” He has performed at the Center for the Arts in Homer, N.Y., and in community theatre productions in Ithaca, N.Y., and Marathon, N.Y.;

• Dorothy Thomas ’77, a teacher assistant at Cortland High School, will once again share some of her favorite songs as piano background music when guests arrive. A member of SUNY Cortland’s Gospel Choir, she also performs at Christ Presbyterian Church; and,

• Tony Trunfio, an assistant professor of health at SUNY Cortland, will offer a comedian’s glimpse at teaching, students and education titled “Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backwards.” “It will be a humorous look at why laughter is the best medicine when it comes to making our troubles disappear,” Trunfio said. An instructor for three years who has recently begun performing his comedy in public, he developed the very popular health course Humor Education for Teachers. He is the education bureau chief for the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, a member of the American Humor Association and a Certified Laughter Leader for the World Laughter Tour.

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