Grant Hill's Response to Jalen Rose - NYTimes.com

Grant Hill's response to Jalen Rose is a great example of sport and education acting as a unique catalyst in our society to bring people together to compete, debate, learn and grow.

Grant Hill's Response to Jalen Rose - NYTimes.com

Questioning the value of standardized testing

Instructional designer and entrepreneur Koreen Olberish (thanks for the twitter feed - @KoreenOlbrish) has a solid post in her blog questioning the rising importance of standardized tests. Her thinking is complemented by DePaul University's move to make ACT and SAT tests an optional part of their admissions process next year. Today's Chronicle article reports that DePaul has found high school GPA to be as effective at predicting student success as the standardized tests.

Census details for Illinois

The US Census Department released details of the 2010 census for Illinois yesterday (February 15th). The release has helpful map and excel tables detailing how the land of Lincoln has changed during the last decade.

The Chicago Tribune via the Huffington Post has a article on the population drop in Chicago. Columnist Lee Bey of WBEZ 91.5 has an interesting blog post wondering what the ideal population of Chicago should be.

Doug Moore of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports on population changes in the Metro East area of the region.

Centers for Teaching Excellence

In the pass few days, Centers for Teaching Excellence (CTE) at the University of Illinois and Texas A&M have been getting my attention.

Last weekend, while at the Armory at the University of Illinois to watch our oldest daughter Lindsey (sophomore sprinter for DePaul University) compete in an indoor track meet, I noted the Armory is not only the winter home of Illini Track and Field but also the home for the university's Center for Teaching Excellence .

Today, Texas A& M University via twitter (@TAMUtalk) linked to a informative release on their Center for Teaching Excellence. Valuable points are made regarding the need to promote SoTL - the scholarship of teaching and learning and the necessity of matching faculty development with the learning outcomes of the students.

While universities have huge needs to constantly develop graduate assistants and new faculty, small colleges like Greenville College can also benefit from a structure promoting SoTL. Maybe we can make something like these CTEs a part of what we do.

Pac-10 video with my Uncle Clark Holden

Great fun to watch this PAC-10 commercial and watch my Uncle Clark Holden running down the field during his fullback days at USC ('57-'59). He was a great athlete at 'SC, playing both offense and defense and punting.

21st Century Skills, Literacies & Fluency

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

21st Century Skills, Literacies & Fluency

View more presentations from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano.

Health Care Reform - Moving beyond hyperbole to some facts

Last week, Robert Pear, of the New York Times, in an article titled "Health Care Overhaul Depends on States’ Insurance Exchanges"offered important information on one of the core components of health care reform - the state run insurance exchange. It was refreshing to move away from the "sky is falling"-like rhetoric and actually read substantive details about the reform.