How one family won the battle to ban homework

Shelli and Tom Milley were exhausted by the weepy weeknight struggles over math problems and writing assignments with their three school-aged children. They were fed up with rushing home from soccer practice or speed skating only to stand over their kids tossing out answers so they could finish and get to bed.

Faced with frenzied nights and kids overloaded with work, the Milleys decided to take matters into their own hands.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/how-one-family-won-the-battle-to-ban-homework/article1367357/

Amazing!

Alfie Kohn was amazing! Lots to blog about...hope we can get to it all.

Repost: Education scholar, author Alfie Kohn to speak Nov. 18 at Concordia-Chicago on 'deadly effects of tougher standards'

Alfie Kohn is coming to the Chicago area!

http://www.cuchicago.edu/news/story/?sid=798

Oct. 14, 2009 – Internationally recognized education scholar, speaker and author Alfie Kohn will visitConcordia University Chicago Nov. 18 to discuss “The Deadly Effects of ‘Tougher Standards’: Challenging High-Stakes Testing and Other Impediments to Learning.”

Kohn will examine authentic challenges for students as opposed to what he describes as “mindless ‘harder is better’” mentality, and difference between standards as guidelines and standards as lists of facts students should know. Admission is free and the event is open to the public. Audience members are welcome to bring a copy of their book for Kohn to sign.

A nationally known speaker and scholar on human behavior, education and parenting, Kohn has appeared in hundreds of TV and radio interviews including on the Today show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Time magazine has called Kohn "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores."

The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have profiled him, while his work is discussed and debated by critics, education experts, parents and teachers across the globe. As a frequent keynote speaker, Kohn lectures regularly at universities, for parent groups and for corporations, and conducts workshops and seminars for teachers and administrators.

Author of 11 books including The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing and No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Kohn has also contributed to publications including the Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today.

The presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel of Our Lord at Concordia University Chicago, 7400 Augusta St. in River Forest. Free handicapped-accessible parking is available in the University’s parking structure on Bonnie Brae Street.

Kohn’s talk is co-sponsored by the Concordia University Chicago College of Education, the Northeastern Illinois University College of Education and the Chicagoland Lutheran Education Foundation.

The College of Education at Concordia University Chicago prepares teachers, school leaders, school counselors and directors of Christian education (DCE) at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The University’s doctoral programs offer specialization in early childhood education, public school leadership and nonpublic school leadership.

Recognized as a leader in teacher education, Concordia graduates the state’s largest number of public school teachers among private Illinois colleges. More than 3,000 Chicagoland teachers and administrators seeking their graduate education degrees enroll at Concordia each year.

CONTACT:
Sarah Hickman, Communications Coordinator
708-209-3235 or sarah.hickman@cuchicago.edu

November Pleasant Dale Park Board Meeting Summary

First off, congratulations to the park district on a successful weekend volleyball tournament. They earned approx. $3k on concessions but had to forfeit their door proceeds to rent chairs for the tournament. Concerns about having spectator seating was brought up at a previous board meeting back in September and dismissed by Nancy McKenna who stated there were bleachers from the old ice rink that would be used. Hopefully they can dig out those old bleachers for future use to save money.

Once again, the park district board meeting began late, starting at 6:48 p.m. Seriously, this just shows a lack of respect for the community members that attend these meetings. Nearly every meeting for the last several months has started late. Board President and fearless leader, Brad Martin, was absent again, this time due to illness. Martin has been on the park board for seven months. He has missed the last three regular board meetings in a row, and at meetings when he does show up, he often arrives late.

Also absent was commissioner Ernie Moon and note-taker Nancy McKenna. Moon called in at 7 p.m. to participate in the meeting by phone but since there wasn't a phone in the board room, as there sometimes is when board members can't make it, he was unable to participate.

Agendas were present at the meeting, but they were different than the agendas that were handed out at the park district on Monday and were not posted on line at the park district web site. According to the June 9th meeting minutes, when Commissioner Carol McMurray asked that items be added to the agenda, Attorney Cainkar explained that the agenda could not be changed without providing 48 hours notice. So it was a little confusing as to why the agenda changed from Monday to Tuesday. In addition, the park board tends to go off on tangents about things that aren't even on the agenda adding to the confusion.

Former state senator Bob Molaro, who earns $2,500 per month contract with the park district as a lobbyist,  attended the meeting and did a presentation on the state of capital funding grants totaling $389,000 that Katherine Parker secured back in May. He reported that the park district will not see that money for approximately 16-18 months. Bummer. Wasn't this the money that was going to pay for the Chalet renovation?

During the consent agenda it was learned that the roofers, who said that they could repair the Chalet roof for $10,000, submitted a bill for $17,000 due to unforeseen problems. Colleen Pettrone asked for the roofer to come to the next board meeting to explain this change. At that point, Carol McMurray inquired that, "We need to know where we are with a total for the Chalet."  That certainly would be nice.

During open forum, Dale Deatsch, the business director from Velocity Sports Performance (VSP) made a pitch to the board on how his company would like to partner with the park district to drive additional business to the Chalet. VSP currently partners with 1st Alliance and Lyons Juniors Volleyball Clubs which are run by Martin's sister in law, Sue Keck. Deatsch stated that he has already met with the Chalet staff as well as Parker and mentioned that the Chalet will be upgrading the weight training equipment. Hmm...wonder where that money will come from?

Also at the meeting to make a pitch to the board was Frank Nunez of Unicus Fitness. Nunez stated they would like to run their fitness programs at the Chalet and won't ask for a dime. They want to provide value to the Chalet and share in a percentage of the revenue/profits. Unicus already partners with the Chalet on various programs. A special meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 17 with both companies making 45 minute presentations to the park board beginning at 7:15.

Also speaking during open forum was school board member Patty Essig, who said it best when she told the park district board that they needed to get their act together.

In other Chalet news, the park district owes Sue Keck $11,000 for the volleyball nets that she supplied and they will either pay it off over time or possibly deduct that debt from her rent. Carol McMurray inquired why there weren't any track lines and the response was that they were too expensive even though at a previous meeting it was stated that there would be lines for the track because it is utilized by the current members.

Since tax bills went out late, the park district won't see the one million dollars they have coming from property taxes until mid to late December. With bond payments due December 1st and no money to pay those, they now have to issue warrants at 2-3% interest which should be paid off within 6 months. The warrants will be issued in $100,000 increments.

The park district is expected to have a summary of all expenses paid out at the Chalet very soon. Let's hope so because we would be very interested in seeing how much money has been put into the Chalet so far.

Finally, during open forum, resident Ken Kuehn, who has attended the last several months of meetings, predicted the park district would be bankrupt by July. That could very well be true with their current financial state, lack of money coming in and the expenses they are incurring. It will be interesting to see how this prediction pans out.

The next park board meeting will be on Tuesday, December 8th at 6:30 p.m. at Walker Park.

Communication

Friday packet, oh Friday packet, where are you? 

Hmmm, maybe communication isn't a top priority after all.

Meet Me at the Corner

FYI: While there is nothing like going on an actual field trip, MEET ME AT THE CORNER, Virtual Field Trips for Kids can take you to meet fascinating people from all over the world.
www.meetmeatthecorner.org

MEET ME AT THE CORNER, Virtual Field Trips for Kids, is a dynamic, interactive site, which encourages individual expression and participation through video submissions from children worldwide. Through these video pod casts we hope to create a community of children, who learn the art of self-expression and storytelling through video.


New educational, kid-friendly episodes are uploaded every two weeks. Included are links to fun websites, contests and the Learning Corner with follow-up questions. Check out The Big Apple Book Club filled with video book reviews for kids by kids.

TED - Ideas Worth Spreading

A must see! Click on the link below or copy and paste the link into a new browser window.


Are schools killing creativity?
Sir Ken Robinson makes a case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/11/02/ted.sir.ken.robinson.ted


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sir Ken Robinson: We're born with great natural talents
• He says schools systematically suppress many of those innate talents
• Schools use testing and other systems to narrowly assess students, he says
• He says they devalue forms of creativity that don't fit in academic contexts