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| Black History Month February 2013 |
How Are You Going to Spend Your Half-Week Off?
As if that's not enough, the DOE, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that June 24th and 25th will be student attendance days. This is because there's nothing better than bringing kids in after they've finished the course and taken the exams. There's no one more motivated than
Lehigh University student loses lawsuit over grade
The graduate student sued to have a grade of C-plus changed to a B and sought $1.3 million in damages.
“SHOW ME A HERO AND I WILL WRITE YOU A TRAGEDY” – F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Parents, please don’t allow your children to look up to sport figures as heroes, they will only end up being extremely disappointed.
The biggest hero of the most recent Olympic Games is now an accused murderer. Oscar Pistorius apparently has gone from a world wide inspiration to just another flawed human being.
Who in the sports world should young people look up to ? Baseball players ? Sorry, way too many drug scandals. Lance Armstrong and the drugged up world of cycling ? Not a chance. N.B.A. players ? Yikes, ask any sportswriter about their behavior on road trips and their number of illegitimate children. Football players ? Check the number of arrests and DUI’s. World soccer players ? I just finished reading about the biggest betting
The biggest hero of the most recent Olympic Games is now an accused murderer. Oscar Pistorius apparently has gone from a world wide inspiration to just another flawed human being.
Who in the sports world should young people look up to ? Baseball players ? Sorry, way too many drug scandals. Lance Armstrong and the drugged up world of cycling ? Not a chance. N.B.A. players ? Yikes, ask any sportswriter about their behavior on road trips and their number of illegitimate children. Football players ? Check the number of arrests and DUI’s. World soccer players ? I just finished reading about the biggest betting
Do You Like Bloomberg’s Education Policies?
Here is a chance to make your voice heard.
Crain’s New York is running an opinion poll, asking which of Bloomberg’s policies the next mayor should get rid of. Bloomberg has promoted high-stakes testing, charter schools, school closings, co-locations of charters, and evaluation of teachers by test scores. Class sizes are at their highest in fourteen years.
Express your views here.
Crain’s New York is running an opinion poll, asking which of Bloomberg’s policies the next mayor should get rid of. Bloomberg has promoted high-stakes testing, charter schools, school closings, co-locations of charters, and evaluation of teachers by test scores. Class sizes are at their highest in fourteen years.
Express your views here.
New Music: "Valentine" (Paul Dateh Remix) by Kina Grannis
Today seems like an appropriate day to share this supercool chilled-out version of Kina Grannis' signature tune "Valentine," remixed by Paul Dateh. First, refresh your memory and watch the music video for the original track, directed by Ross Ching. Whoa -- has it really been three years since this came out? And here's Paul's remix: Like it? You can get a free download of the track from 
THE LIST: 12 Top Technologies in Education
Breakthroughs, Disruptions and Spin
Continue Reading at The Daily Riff
Continue Reading at The Daily Riff
Angela Davis Electrifies Gallaudet University
Angela Davis addressed a crowd at Gallaudet University Thursday.Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita of History and Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Clara, told a standing-room-only crowd at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., that democracy cannot work if it’s confined only to a small segment of the population.
Throughout her more than hour-long lecture on February 14, Davis linked the social, racial and political environments in the United States in the 1860s, the 1960s and the present day, showing the continuous thread
UT System Pushing 4-Year Tuition Option
AUSTIN Texas — University of Texas System regents on Thursday ordered their campuses to offer students a four-year, fixed-rate tuition option by fall of 2014 to encourage them to graduate on time.
After a decade of rising tuition costs, Gov. Rick Perry has been pushing universities to offer fixed-rate tuition to help students and their families budget for college. The Legislature also is considering writing the four-year tuition option into state law.
The University of Texas System has nine campuses with about 216,000 students. The UT-Dallas campus
After a decade of rising tuition costs, Gov. Rick Perry has been pushing universities to offer fixed-rate tuition to help students and their families budget for college. The Legislature also is considering writing the four-year tuition option into state law.
The University of Texas System has nine campuses with about 216,000 students. The UT-Dallas campus
Plan Expands College Classes For High Schoolers
MONTPELIER Vt. — Gov. Peter Shumlin has unveiled a plan to get more Vermont students into college and better prepared for jobs by expanding a program that allows them to take college-level courses in high school.
The proposal would expand the dual enrollment program to allow more high school juniors and seniors to attend college classes, for free. Students would be able to attend up to two classes at the Vermont State Colleges, the University of Vermont, and participating private institutions.
“We think this is a great opportunity to be able to take students who currently aren’t getting beyond high school or who are having trouble affording college which is our biggest challenge right now facing Vermont’s college-
The proposal would expand the dual enrollment program to allow more high school juniors and seniors to attend college classes, for free. Students would be able to attend up to two classes at the Vermont State Colleges, the University of Vermont, and participating private institutions.
“We think this is a great opportunity to be able to take students who currently aren’t getting beyond high school or who are having trouble affording college which is our biggest challenge right now facing Vermont’s college-
Bill Gates Discusses Difficulties of Education Investment in Spain
Spain “is a good country” that is “going through tough times” amid economic stagnation and a 26.1 percent unemployment rate, philanthropist Bill Gates said in an interview with Efe in Mexico.“There is a very direct correlation” between regulation and business creation, Gates said in response to a question about what Spain could do to spur business and job growth.
“It’s hard, investment in education and deregulation are hard to do when you have a tight budget. But Spain will have to make these investments in the
Ald. Danny Solis, ex-chief of UNO, calls insider charter-school deals ‘improper’
Ald. Danny Solis (25th) — a co-founder and former head of the United Neighborhood Organization — said Wednesday he thinks it was “improper, at the very least,” for the politically influential organization to use a $98 million state school grant to hire contractors with close ties to the leadership of UNO’s charter-school network. The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that UNO’s insider deals included giving contracts paid for by the state grant to companies owned by two brothers of Miguel d’Escoto, who resigned Tuesday from his $200,000-a-year post with UNO.UNO hires ex-judge to review its charter-school spending after Sun-Times report
United Neighborhood Organization officials said Thursday they have hired former U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen to conduct a review of how their charter-school network selected companies to build new schools with state grant money.
ACE Charter High School, which promised to prepare poor students for college, got off to a rough start. The school opened without textbooks, student Internet access or lunch tables — and not much order in classes.
Elsewhere, Fremont students produce 'iRobbers,' a short heist movie with a math lesson, and more than 200 students get ready to take the stage for the Hayward Band and Orchestra Festival next week
Update: White House Shares Details of Early Learning Plans
Here's some of the fine print (courtesy of Politics K-12) on President Obama's proposal to significantly expand the nation's preschool opportunities. Also, Eduwonk Andrew Rotherham explains why the proposal faces "an uphill climb," and gives a well-deserved shout-out to Education Week's Sara Mead.
You should also check out Salon editor-at-large Joan Walsh's take. She argues that universal preschool should be a "no-brainer," given that when it's done right the benefits to individual children, families, and the wider community can be substantial. From Walsh's well-balanced piece:
The very fact that preschool proposals seem like the answer to so many social problems has led
Kids React to Valentine's Day (Humor)
Video Below Favorite moment: Video: "Where do you parents go on a date?" Answer: Costco
Continue Reading at The Daily Riff
Continue Reading at The Daily Riff
Developing Academic English Skills
I’ve recently updated The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary.
Additional suggestions are welcome…
Additional suggestions are welcome…
February’s Best Tweets — Part Two
Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it a bit easier for me, I may try to break it up into mid-month and end-of-month lists (and sometimes I’m a bit late).
This month, though, I’m making an exception and publishing a “Part Three,” too.
I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those
This month, though, I’m making an exception and publishing a “Part Three,” too.
I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those
Teacher, Heal Thyself!
And if you can’t heal thyself, at least take care of yourself. I pulled a muscle while I was lifting on one of the machines at the gym the other day. I knew when I pulled up, things were not going to be good. My sister said, “You know you’re not as young as you [...]
The FDA Just Approved a Bionic Eye that Lets Blind People See
Imagine telling your grandma in 2003 that within a decade we'd invent a wearable video camera that wirelessly transmits images to your eyeball, effectively allowing the blind to see. She would've laughed you out the door! And then she would've asked you to read the TV Guide listings with your young eyes.
Grandma's not laughing now. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a device that does indeed use a video camera attached to a pair of Oakley-esque glasses that communicate with electrodes implanted in the retina. Very clumsily named the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System — we would've called them Jesus Glasses — these spectacles are specifically designed for people with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare,
Calling All Teachers to Attend Closing School Hearings.
Grandma's not laughing now. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a device that does indeed use a video camera attached to a pair of Oakley-esque glasses that communicate with electrodes implanted in the retina. Very clumsily named the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System — we would've called them Jesus Glasses — these spectacles are specifically designed for people with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare,
Calling All Teachers to Attend Closing School Hearings.
Guess: UFT or CTU?
Teachers must join our parents, students and community members. Pledge to attend a community meeting by clicking the button below.
Here is the difference between the two unions. In Chicago they consider an attack on one school an attack on all. Here, the UFT takes court action but does not organize the masses of UFT members to act.Not every CTU member’s school is on the Hit List—but the entire system of public schools in which every one of us works is targeted. In order to save it, we must insist that
EVERY TARGETED SCHOOL MUST REMAIN OPEN.
Here is the memo the CTU sent out:
Today, February 13th, 2013, Barbara Byrd-Bennett released another revision of the mayor’s Hit List, targeting 129 schools for closure next year. This unprecedented attack targets only schools in Black and Latino neighborhoods—especially the ones in which resources are few. Over the years, charter schools have blanketed these same neighborhoods with marketing materials full of false promises to lure families. In an unsurprising move, every single politically-connected charter school once called “underutilized” has been cleared from the Hit List. All this amidst the growingscandal over UNO charter school patronage.
Not every CTU member’s school is on the Hit List—but the entire system of public schools in which every one of us works is targeted. In order to save it, we must insist that
EVERY TARGETED SCHOOL MUST REMAIN OPEN.
CPS is currently holding “community hearings” underwritten by the Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart) to sell these school closings to the public. The public is not buying what the saboteurs and privatizers are selling. Thousands of parents, teachers and community members have attended these meetings to save our schools from closing. Click here to see a video. These parents aren't letting themselves be pitted against one another. They aren't begging for just their own schools to be spared, but are banding together to save ALL neighborhood public schools.Teachers must join our parents, students and community members. Pledge to attend a community meeting by clicking the button below.
Click to RSVP for a Meeting
In an effort to justify their assault on our schools, the mayor and his schools CEO have tried to mislead the public with irrelevant and misdirectional statistics about school enrollment. They have continued the CPS habit of presenting doomsday budget PowerPoints that later prove absolutely false. They have expanded privatized charter schools while claiming to have “too many seats” to serve all students well.
According to Byrd-Bennett’s own hand-picked closings commission, CPS does not have the capacity to close so many schools without exponentially increasing the chaos that ten years of privatization have already unleashed on the system. Our researchers, using CPS’s own data havedemonstrated the racist effect of closings and privatization on our district. Community activists have even testified in Washington over the related civil rights issues.
View this short video for CTU member Tara Stamps’ call for unity.Click the image above or this link to view the video.CTU members, parents, clergy, and community-based, grassroots organizations have organized summits, knocked on doors, visited El stops and phoned elected officials in an attempt to stop school closings and ensure neighborhood schools get the resources they need.
In addition, several aldermen have called on the City Council for a moratorium on charter expansion. This resolution needs your help.Contact City Council Rules Committee to insist this resolution be heard.
Click here to take action Parents, students and community are standing up for our schools. We need YOU to stand with them.
