A few links:

• Amidst all the talk about Obama’s lack of action regarding Chicago’s daily murders, First Lady Obama attends Hadiya Pendleton’s funeral. [The Root]
• ITeach4Change ruminates on the situation at Garfield High School in Seattle. We still need serious reform. [Cooperative Catalyst]
• The NAACP asks you to nominate a local hero for their unsung hero awards. [NAACP]
• Dion Rabouin goes in on Black History Month, dropping more than a few names you may not have heard during this month. [Huffington Post]
• This week, my timeline was flooded with nonsense about Jon Stewart as turncoat, but Jersey Jazzman has a different take. I approve this message. [Jersey Jazzman]

A short note:

Normally, I don’t do this. I usually find acknowledgments longer than a line too long, too glorified, too … kiss-ass. Normally, a simple acknowledgment of Chris Lehmann’s birthday should be enough. This year, it’s not. I could tell you that he’s the reason why I might take faith in becoming an administrator … someday. I could tell you about my silent sighs as I read about his father passing away, or the time he and a bunch of other cool kids played basketball with each other at the first TEDxNYED conference like we just found each other in the back of a school yard all of a sudden.

Instead, I’ll say that I’ve never known Chris to shy away from any conversation. The first real memory that sticks out to me was when, in the middle of an EduCon session with an audience of 60-some-odd ed-techers, Chris shattered the ice-thin forcefield surrounding the room by questioning how well we serve under-served children. In that moment and in conversations since, I’ve seen Chris jump in the fray on plenty of conversations, ranging from teacher activism to race in schools. As often as a I rag on critique the White edublogger elite (Will Richardson, Michael Petrilli, Vicki Davis, Annie Murphy Paul the latest), I rarely get the chance to thank Chris Lehmann not for being an exception, but for leading the charge for educators who will gladly offer their opinions and do the right thing. He doesn’t always have to be right, but he tries his hardest.

I also wanted to thank him for being an awesome principal, friend, father, colleague, etc., but this already went on for too long.

Jose