Save Unity College

Educators in Pennsylvania’s Chester Upland School District were forced to make that very difficult decision recently, when the district announced that without an infusion of new cash from the state, it would not be able to make payroll starting January 18.

But members of the Chester Upland Education Association and the Chester Upland Education Support Personnel Association are doing all they can to keep schools running as long as possible. These educators and education support personnel have passed a resolution vowing to stay on the job for as long as they are individually able, even if the district fails to pay them in the near future.

Why? Commitment to students. As elementary school teacher Sara Feguson said in The Philadelphia Inquirer,

“It’s alarming. It’s disturbing. But we are adults; we will make a way. The students don’t have any contingency plan. T

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Great world-level maps. That’s what you’ll find in the package of maps on ArcGIS Online which feature World Bank data. Each map has hidden layers of content, and each map has time-series data that is great for supporting deep investigations.

If you want to add the data into your own map, though, it takes a little work to find the map services and engage them properly. A new ArcLesson video (silent, six minutes long) walks you through the process.

The procedure shown is also useful for accessing other jewels of data that you want to incorporate in your own maps. Look for opportunities to use in your own maps some of the great layers you in maps featured on ArcGIS Online. Check it out!

Last week we ended 2011 with the celebration of music and dance in Winter Dance Week. Participants learned a variety of dances like Scandinavian, English Country, Morris, Rapper Sword, contra and square dances- with breaks for group singing and jamming. The week culminated in the annual New Years Eve bash, where some of the classes got to perform what theyve learned in just a week.

We look forward to students returning this weekend for the first classes of 2012! Students will jump right in for a weekend immersion in painting, felting, dyeing, blacksmithing, fiddle playing, woodcarving, and more. Our new catalog, which covers all of 2012, will be mailing mid-January. Registration for these additional classes will  be open January 17.

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Somehow, I’ve never taken clothes to the dry cleaners before.

I am 30 years old. I realize this is not a good thing to admit to.

Now, my clothes have visited the dry cleaners before, specifically my suit, but I’ve never been the one to take them. I’d see my wife with a bundle of clothes in her arm head out of the apartment and would ask her, ever so nicely, if she would mind taking my suit, as well.

I know a few people who have their clothes professional cleaned all the time. My wife is one of these. I, however, am not. I’ve always figured that if the washer and dryer were good enough for my ancestors, they’re good enough for me.

But then, a few weeks ago, I shrunk my new sweater. My new sweater that just happens to be made out of 100 percent wool. My new sweater made out of 100 percent wool that was never meant to be placed in a washer and then a dryer.

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