Posted by: preaprez on: 30 Jun, 2008
Presumptive NEA President, Dennis Van Roekel.
The NEA Representative Assembly convenes this week in Washington. I’m not a delegate this year. No, you wise guys. It’s not that I ran for delegate and lost. I didn’t run.
I actually enjoy the national meetings. Oh, they’re way too long and after some of the debates, your eyes start [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 30 Jun, 2008
Paul Vallas.
Back when Paul Vallas was brought from Philly to New Orleans to run the privatization of NOLA schools, I asked the question, “How many schools can Vallas screw up?”
The results are still coming in from his tenure in Philly.
The WaPo reports:
Six years ago, the Philadelphia School District embarked on what was considered the country’s [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 30 Jun, 2008
A Park Ridge friend writes:
If she wants to beat Rosemary she probably ought to actually start running. She has been totally MIA since I first heard about her. Look at her website. No activities listed since May and most of what she has done has been downtown, not in the burbs. I don’t know who [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 30 Jun, 2008
Aurora Austriaco.
Back in 1990 the town of Park Ridge where I teach was represented in the Illinois House by a rabid opponent of reproductive rights named Penny Pullen.
In those days Park Ridge was the flip side of Chicago. Democrats didn’t win. It was a Republican town. So any opposition to the crazy Penny Pullen [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 30 Jun, 2008
The NY Times travel section features a piece on Pilsen, a Mexican neighborhood in my town. And it favorably describes the huge growth in Chicago’s Spanish speaking population, both immigrant and native born, which now numbers 800,000.
Along with the required quote or two from celebrity chef Rick Bayless, the writer mentions two of my favorite [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 30 Jun, 2008
School accountability is a two way street and should be.
From the NY Times:
A school year that began with a choreographed show of harmony between New York City’s schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, and the president of its teachers’ union, Randi Weingarten, ended on Thursday in discord, with the release of a survey in which thousands [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 29 Jun, 2008
I’ve been to concerts at Grant Park before, but none like this.
First of all, it was a huge crowd. It filled every square inch of grass. I couldn’t tell you the number, but I’ve never been to a concert in Chicago where there were more people.
It is a cliche to say it was young and [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 29 Jun, 2008
I’ve said it before and… well, you know. I’m just not into soccer.
But since my Dad was given honorary Spanish citizenship for being part of the International Brigades that fought Franco during the civil war, I’m partial to Spain today when they go against Germany in the Euro ‘08 Championship game.
Plus, the games are being [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 29 Jun, 2008
From today’s NY Times:
Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father.
“Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads.
With her decision, she joined a growing [...]
Posted by: preaprez on: 29 Jun, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg is expected to use this development as evidence that mayoral control should be continued. It’s deliciously ironic, in an environment so reliant on math scores, that logic plays no part whatsoever in the mayor’s calculations. NYC Educator
The stage has been set for another long, hot summer in Springfield. Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday announced [...]
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