We took the boat out this afternoon. It started right up and ran well. Just like my sister we are experiencing very heavy haze due to the forest fires up in Canada. Time to relax, maybe take a nap, then take the baby out for a walk.

The coffeehouse went well. We played "take me to the river" and "summertime blues". Pretty much no practice. I chose not to AMP up so my multiple mistakes couldn't be heard for the most part. We had fun though. The pic is a bit blurry. This was later in the night. As you can see we did this coffeehouse outside. The lights reflected some cool shadows as the night went on. (The pic is not of us playing, it is some of the seniors)

One of my colleagues said she got a video of us playing, so if she sends it my way I'll put it up.

So the plan is to play at the last Coffeehouse of the year. It is outside and should be interesting. We are playing Summertime Blues the Who version. I just found out today the chord progression. It would seem easy as it is only 3 chords. The problem is it's E, A, followed by B. The B of course is a barred chord, and the people I'll play with are going fast. Remember... I just found out today. Oh well. The good news is I'll probably be drowned out and can get away with skipping the B. It will be a little boring for me, but easy.
The group is playing another song but I won't find out that one until tomorrow, but I believe it has 4-5 chords, but no bar chords. ((although a few are 7th's so the sound should be good. I don't think I'll play the 12 string.
No plans right now to videotape this one unless the student from last year is bringing his camera.

Lost

I have to be honest, I haven't watched a single episode of lost, however I have some predictions for the ending.

1. They all go to sleep and wake up in a small inn located in Vt. with three guys named Larry, Daryll, and Daryll hanging out.

2. They have a normal show but then the last scene has all of them on a beach and it pans out to show a young autistic boy looking into a snowglobe.

3. Another plane crashes and Jeff Probst steps out with the cast from Jersey Shore. Yikes!

bummin

Glad that friday was fun, because I started feeling crummy first thing Sat. Morning. Beth has been a trooper putting up with me the last two days. Grumpy, sluggish and all around feeling like I wasted two gorgeous weather days. Sorry Hon.
Hopefully the weather will keep up this week to make up for it. On a good note I did get a nice wide leather guitar strap for the new 12 string and I picked up a brand new hardshell for 10 bucks as the music store was clearing out a warehouse.

Great Day

Beth and I headed down to Quechee today. It was loads of fun. WWe caught the wild Raptor show at the VINS center. We got to see different hawks, falcons and owls up close. Simon Pierce Crystal was enjoyable but alas too expensive. Someday we'll get some real nice wine glasses there but no rush considering the amt of wine we don't consume. The antique store was really fun. It amazes me the things we used to have and what the prices on those things are now. One of the cool things they had (not for sale though) was an interesting set of Lone Ranger and Tonto dolls. They were part of an exhibit showing toys from the 70's. Didn't need Denali to show me these though.
On an interesting note, as we headed south on 89 just past Barre, I looked off to the right and through the woods, yes I saw a MOOSE. I guess I don't have to go to New Hampshire on my B-day weeekend to see one.

Birthday

My goodness, when did 41 sneak up. Here's a pic of the new guitar. Thanks Mom, Dad, and especially Beth. It's great!!!. Thank you to everyone else for the cards/ birthday wishes and gifts. Schlaxes, I love the books. I know my AP students will like the element book.

I will play around this weekend with getting another video up. Ihave a song that may bring back some memories for someone in my family. We'll see.

Beth and I have plans to take Friday off. Usually we take our yearly trip to New Hampshire for a Moose watching tour and shopping in Conway, but I think we are canning that this year. Right now we are thinking of heading south to Queechee Vt. We've been there before. It's a real pretty town with one of the largest and coolest antique shops I've ever seen. (Think Wall Drug of antiques) It also has an Audubon Bird of Prey locale with many raptors. They also have the Simon Pierce crystal factory. Overall a neat place and only about an hour and a half to two hour drive. Should be fun.

school news

Well tomorrow is NECAP testing day in science. This is the statewide test. We have been spending a few of the last classes prepping students. This test is crazy. It tests 4 years of science content in three years. They deliberately set up multiple choice to confuse students for instance a sample question might be: Which of the following would not be the least effective way of successfully increasing the force of gravity on an object?: with choices including either lowering it closer to the ground or raising it higher. While our students understand the concept of gravity, they have a good chance of choosing wrong simply because of the confusing way the question was asked. Needless to say the State doesn't understand why the average scores in VT, NH and RI. show that only 30% meet the minimum standard. Hmm I wonder. This is neglecting the idea that giving a mandatory statewide test to juniors during the week before prom and two weeks before the end of school may not be the best way to motivate students. Oh well enough on that rant.

On a better note with school, we had our second budget vote today and it passed. (The bad news was we got hit pretty hard at the high school.) Two FTE science teachers were cut although a teacher from the middle school will transfer over. Big time drama around this that I'll post later.

The good news is that my b-day guitar arrived yesterday and all looks good. I tuned it and gave it the once over just to make sure there were no problems then put it away for my actual birthday. Can't wait.

Ordered

Well,

The order is in to amazon for the Seagull S12 w/Q1 electronics. This is my B-day present from my wife along with contributions from me and my folks. Thank you and hopefully it will come undamaged. It should arrive Tues.

This should help me feel better after a complete meltdown by the B's. (Honestly I did see it coming after Sturm and Kreczji went down but it was dissappointing to not only see them blow a 3-0 lead in games but a 3-0 lead in game 7. The good news is they still have that overall #2 pick in the draft. Thank you Toronto . Now I guess I cheer for San Jose with Jumbo Joe and oh yeah, a couple of UVM'ers.

One Word

Ouch

AP Test

Well the free response questions have been released. The initial glance tells me that they were significantly easier as a whole than in previous years. This could be good news or bad. Good in that the students came out feeling really confident (which they should) but bad because the scores are always standardized with = numbers of 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's so even little nitpicky things might have a large impact on whether a student gets a 2, 3 or 4. This isn't really fair in indicating how well they know chemistry. Oh well. I should find out how my students towards the end of the summer. I don't get to see what the multiple choice questions are but I will see how they were broken down content wise and what scores my students got on them so that I can adjust my teaching for next year.
Last year my students did worse on the free response section so my focus was on improving here but I'm worried I may not have prepared them for the MC as much as I wanted.

AP Test

Well most of my students indicated that they felt pretty good about the AP test. I guess the Multiple choice section was pretty hard but they felt great about the free response. Hopefully their scores will reflect this.
After teaching for I few years now, I have come to the determination that Multiple Choice questions are inherently difficult for students. One would think this isn't the case since the answer has to be oe of the choices, however AP level questions cover so much material it is hard to shift mental focus from one topic to another.

Test

Big Day Tomorrow!!!! AP Chem Test. Hope the students are ready. It's out of my hands now. I believe the students as a whole will do well. It amazes me just how much content they expect you to get through each year.

Here is a copy of the class notes I gave last year. I had a student transcribe another students notes as his final project.

http://akiscode.com/apchem/APChemNotes.pdf

Good luck to all my students this year.

wet day

Today was a sort of blah day. Instead of going to the gym like we should have we kicked around. Did a little window shopping on Church Street. The guitar store had a nice Seagull s12. It didn't have the Q1 electronics and it was more than the price I found on amazon. Right now the plan looks like I will be saving for this. They have a used Norman 12 string at a store nearby, but I think I like the Seagull from Amazon better.

We did pick up the new James Taylor and Carole King Live at the Troubador CD/DVD mix. The music is great.

On Church street there is a free art gallery. From April 26 until May 23 they have an exhibit by Helga Weissova Hoskava. As a child she was deported in 1941 to the Terezin Ghetto. She made drawings of her experience while she was there. When she was supposed to be deported with her mom to Auschwitz in Sept. 1944 she hid them with an uncle. Both she and her mom survived unlike the vast majority of the residents of Terezin. If you get a chance look her up. The drawings were exceptionally poignant especially given their history.

Star Wars

Here's a fun video for Star Wars Day Thanks to Steve Kelly for finding this.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgizmodo.com%2F5530988%2Fstop%2Bmotion-lego-star-wars-trilogy-in-just-two-minutes&h=76cd9