Daily Kos: Iced Venti Unsweetened Black Tea Lemonade with extra lemonade

Daily Kos: Iced Venti Unsweetened Black Tea Lemonade with extra lemonade:

Iced Venti Unsweetened Black Tea Lemonade with extra lemonade

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That was the request my beloved wife, Leaves on the Current, made to me over the phone as I was driving home from school.  She had returned from the clinic monitoring her for her autologous stem cell transplant to further combat her blood cancer.

Some context perhaps will explain the importance of that request.

She entered the hospital Sunday morning October 11.   Since then, first in the hospital, and then since she returned home on Sunday October 11, she has not been allowed fresh food or drink prepared anywhere except the hospital while there and our kitchen since her return home.  No restaurant food.  Not even a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

We have had to maintain close control of all she ingests as we have waited for her immune system to regenerate.

We thought this might last through time she has to have a care-giver, a time we hope will end one week from today, when she next visits the clinic.

This was a somewhat difficult week, with a fair amount of nausea.  

The news from her blood work check today was good enough that she is now allowed restaurant food. She had already been given permission to drive.  She can now go into a public place without a mask on - when she voted Tuesday we went when there were no lines and she wore a mask.

But it gets even better.  She has been eating mainly bland food.  Tonight she sent me out to Falls Church, to Famous Dave's.  Yes, it is a Friday, and normally as a serious Orthodox Christian she would not have meet. But this was a special occasion.  I got her a pulled pork sandwich, which I can assure all reading this she devoured!

The journey of recovery continues.  

Thank you for your continued support, good wishes, prayers, and holding us both in the light.

Peace.

11-8-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman:

Mythbusting Chris Cerf at @NJEA: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Chris Cerf, NJ Education Commissioner, at the New Jersey Educators Association convention, Atlantic City, 11/8/13*: I always look forward to this event and I'm really delighted. And I want to extend my appreciation particularly to the leadership of the NJEA, with whom I feel that we've had a sometimes spirited discussion, but always a positive and a respectful one. NJ Governor Chris Christie, 11/

100+ by Duke / 27min 

Mythbusting Chris Cerf at @NJEA: Prelude

Chris Cerf, New Jersey's Commissioner of Education, gave a remarkable speech today at the NJEA convention in Atlantic City. I'll get to the content soon enough, including some busting of the "myths" Cerf tried to sell us today. But before we get to that: let's deal with the elephant in the room, shall we? CHRIS CERF (11/8/13): Look, I think it's important to have a spirited, public deb

66 by Duke / 1h 

11-7-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman: What Happened Tuesday?I've listened to a fair bit of punditry and read a fair bit of opinion about Tuesday's election results. And it still doesn't make sense to me. I'll leave Virginia out of this because I really didn't follow the race. But here in Metro NYC, we had two big, contiguous races. Both ended in landslides - but for candidates who couldn't be more different: Bill de Bl

by mike simpson / 6h 

These 11 Leaders Are Running Education But Have Never Taught:

These 11 Leaders Are Running Education But Have Never Taught

The Huffington Post  |  By Rebecca Klein Posted: 11/08/2013 12:17 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/08/2013 4:52 pm EST

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They design teacher evaluation systems, teacher training guidelines and the types of standards that need to be taught. Yet, they have never been teachers themselves.

These days, being a teacher is clearly not a prerequisite for becoming a leader in education. In fact, some of the leaders with the most daily influence on classrooms come from entirely unrelated fields.

Below we have compiled a list of some of the most influential leaders in education who have never been teachers.

• Arne Duncan
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  While our nation's foremost leader in education policy has extensive experience in education administration, he was never actually a teacher. In the early '90s, Duncan headed the Ariel Education Initiative, a program that helped fund college for inner-city kids in Chicago. He became the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system in 2001, before assuming his post as U.S. Secretary of Education. 
  
  Education was an important part of Duncan's early life. His mother runs an after-school tutoring center, while his late father taught at the University of Chicago.
• Bill Gates
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  Microsoft mogul Bill Gates has risen as an education influential in recent years through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation's education initiatives have pumped billions of dollars into advocacy groups and research organizations that support pro-education reform causes like charter schools and teacher evaluation systems. 
  
  In addition, Gates himself has reportedly taken a strong personal interest in improving student outcomes across the country. His foundation is also helping to fund the implementation and promotion of the groundbreaking Common Core State Standards, a set of national education benchmarks that have been adopted in most states. 
  
  However, some teachers resent his unduly influence in the field. Several months ago, a website called "Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates" emerged. The site publishes letters from educators who feel the philanthropist has impacted their classrooms in negative ways. 
  
  “We are teachers with questions. We are teachers who no longer want to live behind the Gates. We are teachers who are not funded by the Gates Foundation," the website's "About" section reads.
• David Coleman
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  David Coleman, a figure The Huffington Post has dubbed "the most influential education figure you've never heard of," is the president of the College Board, a national educational organization that is currently redesigning the SAT. Prior to his post at College Board, he helped design the Common Core Standards. 
  
  While nearly every teacher and student in the U.S. will be impacted by Coleman's ideas, the education influential was never a teacher. During his early years, he was exposed to the world of education through his mother, who was a university president.
• Michael Bloomberg
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  Changing education in New York City was a centerpiece of Michael Bloomberg's agenda during his three terms as mayor. A 2002 law, which was renewed in 2009,granted the mayor direct control over the city's public schools. During the rest of his time in office, Bloomberg worked to expand charter schools in the city, make teachers more accountable through evaluations tied to student test scores and close what he deemed to be failing schools. 
  
  However, it does not seem his legacy will end as he vacates his mayoral post. As HuffPost's Joy Resmovits wrote, "his legacy in remaking the city's schools was at the center of local and state elections nationwide, sometimes explicitly" this November. 
  
  Successful businessman? Yes. Teacher? No.
• Tom Harkin
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  Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, is attempting to secure a lasting legacy in the field of education through his rewrite of the highly controversial No Child Left Behind Act. While his version of the bill passed the education committee this past summer, it has yet to come to a full vote. If passed, Harkin's bill would overhaul the act that transformed American education. 
  
  While education is an important part of Harkin's narrative -- he often recounts the hardships his brother faced as a special needs student -- Harkin himself was never a teacher.
• Janet Napolitano
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  Janet Napolitano's resume is long and impressive: attorney, governor of Arizona, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. However, her resume does lack the title of educator, something one might consider to be an essential qualification forthe head of the University of California system.
• Kevin Johnson
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  Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, Calif., has made splashes in the education world through his founding of a charter school network and involvement in a major Sacramento education reform initiative. In 2010, he was appointed the chair of a Mayors Task Force on Public Schools at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He is also married to education reform powerhouse Michelle Rhee. 
  
  Prior to Johnson's foray into politics, he was a renowned NBA basketball player.
• Wendy Kopp
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  Wendy Kopp is the founder and chair of the Board of Teach For America, an organization that puts thousands of recent college graduates and professionals in classrooms with disadvantaged youth. Yet, she was never actually a teacher herself. 
  
  Kopp had the idea for Teach For America as an undergraduate at Princeton University. Its model recently went global with an organization she founded called Teach for All.
• Rupert Murdoch
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  Rupert Murdoch, the founder and CEO of News Corporation, inherited his father's string of newspapers at the age of 21, which didn't leave much time for teaching. 
  
  Yet, in recent years, Murdoch has extended his influence into the education world, starting an education division of News Corp called Amplify. The division's main product is the Amplify tablet, which the group hopes will transform classrooms through technology. This year, the group was awarded a grant to develop a digital library of Common Core teaching tools for educators.
• Cory Booker
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  The former mayor of Newark, N.J., and newly elected Sen. Cory Booker is an outspoken proponent of education reform. While Booker had little formal control over the city's state-run schools during his term as Newark mayor, he oversaw a $100 million donation from Mark Zuckerberg to the city's schools and is a board member of the group Democrats For Education Reform. 
  
  Cory Booker's positions are generally at odds with those of teachers unions.
• Mark Zuckerberg
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  Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, made a big splash in the education world in 2010 when he agreed to donate $100 million to public schools in Newark, N.J. In 2013, Zuckerberg and other technology influentials launched a political group that pushes for issues including school accountability and STEM education. 
  
  The Silicon Valley boy king was never a teacher.

Do you have anyone to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section.

Statement by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT on the selection of Paul Vallas as Governor Quinn’s running mate

Speaking of Zombies, Heaven  Help Us!

Quinn-Vallas: This just got digusting - chicagotribune.com

Quinn-Vallas: This just got interesting - chicagotribune.com:

Quinn-Vallas ticket: This just got interesting

Vallas brings depth and sense of urgency

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November 9, 2013

Type "Paul Vallas" into the Tribune's story archive, and one of the first stories begins this way:

"A longtime state government fiscal expert was named Tuesday as the City of Chicago's new revenue director, and he was immediately warned by his predecessor that, in spite of a year of reforms, there is still a lot of work left to do to get the city's financial house in order."

Welcome to 1990, Mr. Vallas. Or 2013. Either one.

The news that Gov. Pat Quinn picked Vallas as his running mate for the 2014 gubernatorial election brought smiles to many fiscal-minded Illinois voters. From his days overseeing the legislature's budget forecasting arm, during which he caused a dust-up by challenging then-Gov. Jim Thompson's revenue projections, to his time at City Hall and Chicago Public Schools, Vallas has managed to fuse fiscal discipline with revolution.

At Chicago Public Schools, he reversed years of budget deficits without begging the General 

11-8-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Finding Similar Images To Use For Compare/Contrast Prompts

I wrote a fairly popular post yesterday titled The Best Ways To Modify The Picture Word Inductive Model For ELLs. One of the ways I mentioned was: teachers can find a comparable photo to the main one, have students label those words, and then create Venn Diagram and ultimately a compare/contrast essay. I also linked to an example. However, today, I realized I had neglected to mention the easiest w

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 10min 

Resources For American Indian Heritage Month

November is designated American Indian Heritage Month in the United States. You can find lots of related resources at The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min 

Ways To Support Students Setting Goals

I’ve written a lot about student goal-setting in this blog (see The Best Posts On Students Setting Goals) and have included lesson plans in my books. Last month, I wrote about how our school has decided to explicitly emphasize Social Emotional Learning, and how our Small Learning Community had chosen to focus initially on student goal-setting (see Supporting School-Wide Social Emotional Learning)

19 by Larry Ferlazzo / 28min mark as read  //  save

Infographic: “End Genocide”

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Resources For Learning About Genocide: Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

11 by Larry Ferlazzo / 55min 

The Best Resources For Learning About Typhoon Haiyan

Typhoon Haiyan is being called by the media as the biggest cyclone in history as it hits the Philippines. We can keep victims in our thoughts and prayers and donate to relief efforts. We’re studying natural disasters now in ninth-grade English, so we’ll be using some of these resources in class on Tuesday: Videos show Typhoon Haiyan’s charge across Philippines is an interactive from The Washingto

9 by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

11*7*13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: The Best Ways To Use Mistakes When Teaching WritingThis is sort of an odd “The Best…” list. I’ve written a lot in this blog and in my books about using student mistakes as an opportunity and not as a problem, and have an extremely long The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures list. T

by mike simpson / 8h