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Friday, November 8, 2013

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

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

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/


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




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

These 11 Leaders Are Running Education But Have Never Taught

These 11 Leaders Are Running Education But Have Never Taught:

These 11 Leaders Are Running Education But Have Never Taught

The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted:   |  Updated: 11/08/2013 4:52 pm EST
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.
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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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


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.


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)
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.
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
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