Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 2-5-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2





Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE




Standard & Poor's -- No standards but a lot of folks made poor

by Mike Klonsky
Forget for a brief moment that the current Illinois teacher-pension crisis is a manufactured one, caused primarily by the state's inability or unwillingness to raise enough revenue to make it's necessary contribution to the pension fund. Forget also for a brief moment, that the state legislature grabbed millions from that fund, into which retirees had been paying out of their take-home pay for decades and used that money to pay off other debts.

Let's look for a moment instead at how the threat by Gov. Quinn, and other Dems,of a reduced state credit rating by Standard & Poor's, was used to try and steamroll the legislature into passing SB1. That bill 

Week 19 2013: Public Speaking

by alicemercer
19signs
For reasons I’m not going to go into, many of my plans for the classroom did not come to fruition. The one lesson I did manage to teach my students though, was just FABULOUS!
First, I must thank Andrew Dlugan at the Six Minutes site. This site is a great resource on public speaking and presentations for adults, but much of the material is accessible enough to use with older children (10+ years) with some modification. I wanted to prepare students to create and deliver persuasive speeches. To do this, I looked for resources on the three elements of persuasion; ethos, pathos, and logos. The article at Six Minutesseemed the best for my purposes. I asked some questions , and Mr. Dlugan contacted me via email when he heard about what I was planning to do. I found him to be quite helpful, and generous in his materials. I did end up re-writing a bit to make the language more accessible to my students, and to give them time for a response so I 










Video: “The Chinese New Year: From Fear to Festivity”

by Larry Ferlazzo
The Chinese New Year: From Fear to Festivity is the title of this video from English Central that I’m adding to The Best Resources For Chinese New Year.
More importantly, though, it’s the first English Central video that I’m embedding in my blog. It’s easy to do, and I just learned it was possible through David Deubelbeiss’ blog — check out his post with screenshots.




Heart Matters When You Speak

by Jose Vilson



Excerpt from my latest at The Future of Teaching:
Instead, what the audience got that night was me speaking from the heart. Sure, I prepared, but I hoped to convey the passion and love I have for teaching as I do in conversations with you, or in my own writing. Sometimes, while striving for perfection, we forget the delicate balance between divinity and humanity. What makes any “talk” we give isn’t knocking out the “umms” and “errs” from our speech, standing up straight, or speaking in a slow ans steady tone. It’s the connection we make with people who listen to us. We have an opportunity every day to speak to people and make an impact one way or the other about them. These young people will have an idea they’d like heard, and you might be their first audience member.
To read more, click here. Read. Share. Comment. Thanks!
Jose, who wants you to listen more than speak this week, please …


Profiles in Courageousness The PDF

by Representative Kimble




I have been pushing the Amazon.com Kindle version of Profiles in Courageousness for awhile now and I think some people may have mistakenly believed they needed a Kindle to revel in my inspirational story.  I noticed this because when I compared my sales to J.K. Rowling, I am definitely trailing the Harry Potter books.  If you go tohttps://www.ebookit.com/books/0000002060/Profiles-In-Courageousness.html you can download the book in PDF format.

I'm starting to get a bit arrogant about the quality of this book because two great authors have recently read my eBook and gave it rave reviews.


@SrWHOfficial called the book "Profiles is pretty damn funny."   You can find out about his great book here



District to Hear Update on Possible School Closures Thursday
Patch.com
The Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education on Thursday will hear an update on the district's plans to close 11 under-enrolled elementary schools. James W. Marshall is one of the schools on that list, and a meeting was set to be held ...

Parents File Lawsuit Against Gov. Cuomo For Ed Funding

by admin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 5, 2013 Contact: Mona Davids, NYC Parents Union, (646) 481-5760 Sam Pirozzolo, Community Education Council 31, (917) 533-3437 New York City Public School Parents File Lawsuit Against Governor Cuomo and Education Commissioner King For Punishing Public School Students  Today, New York City parents, represented by attorney Michael Rebell, filed a lawsuit against Governor [...]



WASHINGTON — In what was described as a major impetus to redesign higher education, a new Gallup poll released Tuesday found that most Americans — 71 percent — view higher education as important to a person’s financial security in the future, but that 74 percent also thought higher education was unaffordable for everyone


“Boston Leader Connects Parents to Learning”

by Larry Ferlazzo
Boston Leader Connects Parents to Learning is a pretty interesting article about the person in charge of the Boston school district’s parent involvement program.
Here’s an excerpt:
This laser focus on broader districtwide goals means Boston has avoided the pitfalls of similar family-related offices in many other districts, where schools become caught up in what experts call “random acts of family engagement,” says Karen L. Mapp, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the director of its education policy and management program. “In Boston public schools, we really see that family engagement is a strategy 
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