Ploghoft Lecture to feature discussion of beginning new classrooms with success

Michael Orr, an educator with 30 years of experience in the classroom and in administration, will discuss "Establishing a Foundation in a New Classroom" when he visits Northwest Missouri State University to present its spring Ploghoft Diversity Lecture.

The lecture begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in the J.W. Jones Student Union Boardroom. It is free and open to the public.

Orr serves as the principal of Longview Farm Elementary School in Lee's Summit, Missouri. He attained his bachelor's degree in elementary education from Kansas State University, where he also played football under legendary coach Bill Snyder.

"People are fascinated by Bill Snyder's story," Dr. David Kiene, a Northwest associate professor of professional education and the lecture coordinator, said. "Here's a guy who knows how to make a connection between establishing something from scratch. How do you take nothing and turn it into something? How do you establish a foundation for success?"

Overcoming a 40-game losing streak, Snyder turned Kansas State University's football team into a national championship contender.

"He's going to bring in some of the ideas of what he learned under Bill Snyder at Kansas State and what he's learned as an educator, then give advice to some of our preservice teachers," Kiene said. "Anyone who is going to set up a classroom is really walking into the same situation. They're walking in kind of blind, and they need to have some type of game plan in place to make it successful."

Previously, Orr taught and served as an administrator in Kansas. He taught fourth and fifth grades and middle school history in the Blue Valley School District, worked as a guidance counselor at Shawnee Mission North High School and served as the associate principal and building principal at Shawnee Mission Horizons High School.

About the Ploghoft Diversity Lecture series

Northwest's Ploghoft Diversity Lecture series is funded through the lasting generosity of the late Dr. Milton Ploghoft and his wife, Zella. The series features speakers and activities that broaden the educational perspectives of Northwest teacher candidates and inform all students about the issues facing the education of students from diverse environments.

Dr. Ploghoft, a 1949 Northwest alumnus, authored a number of textbooks in the social studies and lived abroad for many years, founding the College of Education in Kano, Nigeria, lecturing at Saigon University and leading its international programs in such places as Chile, Cameroon, Botswana, the Yucatan, Swaziland and in what was then South Vietnam. In 1992, he became the founding editor of the African Education Research Network. He was a professor emeritus at Ohio University at the time of his death in 2018.

Zella, who passed away in 2010, completed her elementary and secondary education at Horace Mann Laboratory School at Northwest.

For more information about the Ploghoft Diversity Lecture series, contact Kiene at 660.562.1774 or [email protected].