September 2012
1 post
I've moved.
You may have noticed it’s been a little quiet around here for a while. That’s because I’ve been moving everything over to a new website. It’s got a dot-com after my name, a pretty good-looking logo by Jess Craig of IROCKSOWHAT and a new tagline I explain in great detail here.
The only thing that’s missing is you.
Won’t you come join me at...
February 2012
28 posts
From the Storyteller (Sun-Times Media) →
Is there such a thing as “Superman” when it comes to turning around public education? Here’s what I learned in writing about what makes an A+ teacher.
Storyteller: A+ educators show and tell what it... →
Late last month, Dorothy Rouse sat around the small table with three second-grade students, workbooks open in front of them.
Rouse held up a fourth book, her fingers following the letters in the words on the page.
“We’re going to sound it out and then say it fast,” she said. “Sound it out: Mmm. Aaa. Ddd. Say it fast: Mad.”
And then, “Camila, what is it?”
Camila Guardado, 8, brightened and...
VIDEO: Why do they call Elgin Community College...
Why do they call Elgin Community College President David Sam “the dancing president?” Watch, starting at 37:58.
David Sam marks five years at ECC (Sun-Times... →
ELGIN — Community College District 509 Board of Trustees Chairman Robert McBride tried to find the perfect song to describe Elgin Community College’s “dancing president,” he said.
He settled on: “How do you think he does it? / I don’t know! / What makes him so good? / (He) ain’t got no distractions, / Can’t hear no buzzers and bells, / Don’t see no lights a flashin’ / …Sure plays a mean...
U46 puts chief human resource officer on paid... →
U46 plans to team up more coaches with teachers... →
ELGIN — The New York Giants couldn’t have won the Super Bowl without Tom Coughlin. That’s the team’s coach, who has led the Giants to two Super Bowl wins in four years.
Now School District U46 is hoping coaches also can help struggling teachers within the second-largest school district in Illinois.
U46 and Elgin Teachers Association officials presented the first stage of a Peer Assistance and...
D300 approves new energy contract, looks to... →
Valentines for Journalists (Part IV) →
10,000 Words
I love Valentine’s Day, and that has a lot to do with the cards. I look forward to these from 10,000 Words every year.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Journalists Job Meme →
StuffJournalistsLike.com
YESSS. I’ve been waiting for journalists to jump on this meme! (Although I’m pretty sure what society thinks I do involves shaking hands with both Satan and Barack Obama. And what my mom thinks I do involves living in a cardboard box.)
Ignore the barrage of old stuff from me earlier tonight. My technologies just up and went all “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
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Food for thought (Sun-Times Media) →
CARPENTERSVILLE — Missy Graf of Carpentersville started out reading articles online and in newspapers and magazines about healthy eating more than three years ago.
That turned into adding more fruits and vegetables into her family’s diet, Graf said. Her family of five switched to grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and raw milk.
“We go straight to the cows. We wave to the cows as we drive past and...
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Larsen school students inspired by ‘monster’ truck... →
ELGIN — When Ken Hudgens was a student at Larsen Middle School, he had two goals: to play basketball in Division 1 and to play basketball for the NBA.
Hudgens got as far as a basketball scholarship to Eastern Washington University before, he said, he realized he probably wasn’t good enough to play professionally.
On Thursday, he came back to Larsen to tell students about “a lot of weird stuff you...
Class sizes set to remain the same in U46 next... →
U46 bond issue: Residents protest, district... →
Districts proactive in meeting new school lunch... →
LAKE IN THE HILLS — Ten-year-old Denise Bush said the chicken patty sandwich is “mostly my favorite” school lunch.
“My mom cooks it, and it’s really good,” she said.
Luckily for the pigtailed fourth-grader, that was one of the items on the menu Thursday in the Cool Caf at Lake in the Hills Elementary School, 519 Willow St.
And while a chicken patty sandwich might sound unhealthy, the chicken is...
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ECC enrollment dips for 3rd semester (Sun-Times... →
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Third abduction try reported in Dist. 300... →
That’s the third WITHIN A MONTH. Parents, this might be a good time to talk about stranger interaction with your kids.
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Bartlett High reveals plans for its own stadium... →
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ECC trustees OK purchase of Burlington site for... →
You may remember this as the site Elgin City Manager Sean Stegall said it “remained to be seen” whether Elgin emergency responders actually will use.
January 2012
40 posts
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ECC Alliance seen as ‘common core standards’ model... →
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School districts say proposed state aid hikes not... →
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A new thing
I went to a women’s thing at church Saturday. A women’s thing about creative journaling called The Compass.
If you’ve been around The Tumblr long enough to catch The Occasional Personal Commentary, you know “women’s thing” and “creative journaling” are two phrases you would not normally associate with Things I Like To Do.
But if there’s...
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U46 issues alert about recalled eggs (Sun-Times... →
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School celebrates new library as a success of 2009... →
ELGIN — Three years ago to the day, “it was hanging in the balance,” Elgin Community College President David Sam said.
The ECC District 509 Board of Trustees was considering whether to go for a $178 million bond referendum at its Jan. 27, 2009, meeting.
The economy had begun to sour, and the community college already had lost a referendum in 2006, Sam said. But its campus at 1700 Spartan...
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Hampshire students get role in film on veterans... →
HAMPSHIRE — There were no desks in the classroom. Just a teacher, about 30 students, a blue star flag and a question written on the chalkboard:
“What have you done to earn to earn the right to sit at your desk?”
When the students answered that question, their teacher told them, they could have their desks.
It wasn’t their grades or their behavior. It wasn’t even their good looks, Colorado-based...
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VIDEO: When Brides Meet - Part 3
Here’s a sneak peek of Elgin native Shannon Wapole meeting the other brides featured on tonight’s Chicago-area episode of “Four Weddings” on TLC. Guess whose wedding dress looks “like a cupcake!”
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VIDEO: Four Weddings - How They Met Part 3
Wondering how Elgin-area bride Shannon Wapole and her husband Andy Stoker, featured tonight on TLC’s “Four Weddings,” met? Wonder no more!
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Area bride's one of 'Four Weddings' on TLC show... →
One in four people will appear on a TV show in their lifetime, according to a statistic Shannon Wapole of DeKalb read.
So when she was stuck inside on a rainy day this May at her parents’ home in Elgin, watching a “Four Weddings” marathon on TLC, the then-bride-to-be said, “I was just thinking, ‘What a once-in-a-lifetime experience to say I’d been on reality TV!’ ”
And now she can: Wapole and her...
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Found bullets put Burlington, Elgin schools on... →
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U46 eyes college, work readiness (Sun-Times Media) →
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Designing equity (Sun-Times Media) →
ELGIN — Ushma Shah invoked universal design in her debut before the School District U46 Board of Education at Monday’s regular school board meeting.
That’s the architectural idea that designing a building to be accessible for people with disabilities — “with the widest and most inclusive vision” — really makes it better for everyone who uses it, Shah said. Curb cuts aren’t just used by people in...
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D300 makes Quantum leap in priorities this school... →
LAKE IN THE HILLS — The fifth-graders in Jamie Soprych’s classroom at Lincoln Prairie Elementary School already have learned about fairy tales, folk tales and tall tales.
Last week, the students learned about mythology, writing stories and drawing pictures of their own gods and goddesses. Sitting back-to-back on the floor, they read their stories to their partners, trying to guess the...
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Technology upgrade in U-46 (Sun-Times Media) →
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Lt. Gov. Simon to colleges: Focus on the finish →
Where’d your school rank? Here’s a link to Illinois Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s full report, remarks on community colleges.
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Lt. governor encourages community colleges to... →
ELGIN — Illinois Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon has released a report on the state of the state’s community colleges, and has proposed a number of reforms summing up her fact-finding tour of every community college in the state over the past year.
That report found that four out of five recent high school graduates who enter such colleges do not complete a certificate or degree within three years,...
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Second child abduction attempt reported in D300... →
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Customer love for this local businesss wins grant... →
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D300 delays middle school schedule change... →
