For a few silent moments, I sit quietly at my desk. Arms in a relaxed, open position. Eyes closed. I breathe in deeply. Then exhale. My shoulders drop. In my mind's eye, I reach for my emotions. How do I feel right now? Nothing—I'm drawing a blank. Not high or low, just meh. Or maybe not even meh.
I'm in my focused, busy, productive mode. Thinking about what needs to be done. Setting my priorities. Doing what needs to be done. There's not a lot of room for emotions in this space. To be honest, holding space for and attending to my emotions takes effort. I'm good at being the stable, responsible, and reliable one. I can create a holding space for other people's emotions all day long. But creating one for myself can be challenging.
And so each day, I stop from time to time. Check-in with myself. Some days are easier than others. Sometimes, like today, I draw a blank. But then, I begin by focusing on my bodily sensations, drawing on my environment—the gentle breeze from my open window, the cooling weather of fall, the ease I feel in my body. And I begin to feel a surge of pleasure, the joy of being alive in this moment. With no judgment or consideration about what is going right or wrong. A spontaneous smile of happiness moves across my lips. I guess I'm feeling happy right now.


text:
Speaking of that farewell...
Yeah, look what I found...thank god for YouTube
...but what I did haunted me for awhile. I had bought a card for Francine to give her after the cosplay show. But throughout that day, I had plans to say that my card also included a flight to Japan. It would serve as a joke since me and Francine are really close as friends/partners. But when I said it, I got such a negative vibe that I felt really bad until the March show. By then, I had decided that I would have to get her something. So I dug through the archives, got two photos from Sac-Anime in the winter of 2006 (when she was cosplaying as Robin from Witch Hunter Robin, and we had all stormed the stage to get a hold of the mic), printed those, signed them, framed them, and gave them to Francine. After I had gave her that gift, I felt so relieved. I do see her around though, but instead of cosplaying she's doing something for a website as part of her job (I remember her telling me that, but that was back in March).
This weekend...
As Sac-Anime inches closer...
OHSSS
Good photos from Sac-Con
Daily Life of the OHSSS Director
Creation of the OHSSS
Sac-Anime Wiki
Sac-Con, June 2007
Crispin mother**bleep**in' Freeman
Time to display that FanimeCon katana!
Ah, the memories...
The Beginning Of This Blog
And I thought the Gay Bar skit was off the hook...
Fanime aftermath, about a week later
Darkain.com photo-shoot up
Hey, I found myself in a Fanime YouTube video!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A dim swirl of tendrils… hmm?
This poem was written for Carpe Diem "Sparkling Stars" #10, Tea, another great prompt hosted by Chèvrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. All of the poems in the link-up can be read here.
Ew — icky! I prefer my tea without tendrils, thankyouverymuch. (You have to read that like Elvis btw.) Love the humor in this haiku-moment!
Though it wasn't humorous for either me or the spider, poor guy, at 7.30 am the other day!


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text:
Cotoneaster obscurus är en rosväxtart som beskrevs av Alfred Rehder och E.H. Wilson. Cotoneaster obscurus ingår i släktet oxbär, och familjen rosväxter. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The new investment will allow Recurly to further accelerate the considerable momentum it has achieved over the last several years in the areas of product innovation, top-notch talent acquisition and customer and revenue growth.


"Being a mutated form of alraune, its horns having acquired strength akin to that of metal through ceaselessly struggling for dominance within the pack.
The combat awakened those who survived, and as one they departed.
The first encounter you will have with the Alraune King will be for a boss battle in the Sochen Cave Palace. Check out the Sochen Cave Palace walkthrough page for more information.
* In order to make the Alraune King and the other Mandragoras appear in the Ice Field of Clearsight you must defeat all of the enemies in the Ice Field of Clearsight first, then travel to the Redolent Glade area, and finally, return back to the Ice Field of Clearsight. All five of the Mandragoras will spawn. Just exit back to the Redolent Glade and back into the Ice Field of Clearsight again to make them respawn subsequent times.


Tyler Graff is the incoming principal at the Claire Lilienthal alternative school in San Francisco Unified.
Previously, he was principal of Stevenson Elementary, a public school in Mountain View, where he kicked off a project-based learning initiative in 2012.
In project-based learning, students work on a complex problem or topic that often incorporates working as a team and involves a student presentation of work. At Graff's school, the program started as a pilot and expanded each year.
Graff earned his bachelor's degree and multiple subjects teaching credential from California State University, Chico. He earned his master's degree in school leadership at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
In late June, EdSource asked Graff about what he learned working with teachers and students using this approach.
Why do you use project-based learning at your public elementary school?
Not only do student attitudes about learning improve as they engage in project-based learning, students retain the information they're taught on a deeper level. When done well, it helps students with the soft skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking that many colleges and employers are looking for. Students are able to comprehend, apply, and retain the content knowledge taught while developing the 21st Century Skills that the Common Core Standards ask of teachers and students.
Give an example of a project that worked well at your school. What made it succeed? How did you know?
Our second- and third-grade combination class took a deep look into local school board elections. During the project, students interviewed the candidates, researched the topics the board would be voting on, wrote letters, created pamphlets, and registered voters. It was clear that the project was successful from talking with the students. They were able to articulate their views on the issues and which candidates they would vote for and why. Students learned a lot about interviewing and writing in addition to social studies components linked to our local community. The writing and knowledge that was produced through the course of this project certainly met the curriculum standards, and our students became meaningfully engaged in their community.
How does project-based learning fit in with the priorities of Common Core?
Project-based learning and the Common Core are a natural fit. At our school, this was one of the core ways we started to address the new standards. What comes to mind first for me are close reading, application of knowledge, and critical thinking. In project-based learning, students need to research, read, take notes, and synthesize information, exactly what the Common Core asks students to do. In both cases, students need to think critically about and apply knowledge from their learning. This happens in both language arts and mathematics.
What do schools and districts need to know before they start a project-based learning initiative and what's a good entry point for projects and training?
Done well, project-based learning requires an extensive amount of professional development, time, and reflection. This is not an initiative that you can purchase to turn a school around; it's really a shift in the way content is presented. That takes time. In my experience, teachers tend to thrive with professional learning experiences that give the big picture first, then drill down in the details of how each element of the project works. For instance, a group of teachers interested in implementing project-based learning might do a multi-day training looking at the entire scope and sequence of a project by experiencing one themselves. From there, they'd spend time learning about how to create a culture of critique in the classroom, how to successfully facilitate group work, student presentations, and more. Using a cycle of learning, implementing, and refining with each of these elements will lead to high-quality project-based learning.
What advice do you have for schools just starting out?
As we all know, the number one indicator of student success at the school site is the quality of the teacher. With that said, it's important that you find the funding and time to allow teachers to learn, experiment, struggle, and refine their practice.
I would caution any administrator not to move too quickly through this process. Deeper learning takes time! This is true for students in the classroom and adult learners. At our elementary school, we decided to do a school-wide roll out (14 classrooms) of one project per year for the first three years. It wasn't until our third year that we started doing Exhibition Nights. Depending on the staff culture, it might be smart to have a grade level or group of teachers pilot project-based learning for a year or two before moving to a whole scale approach. Ultimately, each school and district is different. Taking the needs of your staff into account before creating a strategic plan will ensure project-based learning initiatives will take root and thrive.
If you have any questions about how to implement project-based learning in your school or district, please reach out to me at tyler.graff@gmail.com.
Concerned Parent raises a good question. How to tell when projects are done well? Tyler Graff responds to such a question in this article saying it is obvious from demonstrations of students' understanding. My follow up question is do California schools have enough teachers per student to judge project work effectively? My general impression is that language arts teachers would like to assign more writing but don't because grading it in a meaningful way takes more time than is available. Is my impression matched by reality?
Will there be math benchmarks on the reportcard?
Will there be a firm curriculum map on math mandated and checked as the year goes forward.
a lack of covering all mandated California Common Core Standards.
I earnestly hope that Mr. Graff does this, and I am just a parent and not associated with the company.
Get IXL math for all children and ensure all children do this at home each night for homework.
This is not a publicity thing, if not IXL some other math on line thing, but IXL has 10% of the world market I believe and is growing.
our California is letting down all the children in math by welcoming in some new program in the younger years such as project based math.
It is a real mess. Not good at all.
To know if I am right, look at the SmarterBalance/CAASPP tests (not going to be used this year in terms of measuring school performance) or ask yourself, why is testing a sort of bad word with many who teach?
Can you imagine if you went to college and got group grades and took no quizzes or had no individual work finals?
why is it that the madness exists to award grades with project based learning for elementary schools if.
IF A SCHOOL REGRESSES IN THE BELIEF OF USE OF QUIZZES AND TESTS …say once a week or once every two weeks.
IT IS MADNESS and will result in regressing of learning for most of all of California children, in my opinion.
Can an Ed Source columnist please do an article on if project based learning (the way it is taught in most schools) is actually regressing the learning of math. I believe testing is being pulled (benchmarks at many or all schools) on report cards, and I believe that the Common Core math mandated standards are not being taught well or covered well at most schools and especially at the low income low preforming schools.
Project based learning may be a "feel good" thing, but wasn't it suppose to be used in alternative high schools? You see, in the elementary setting, aren't the children suppose to cover the concepts well and in great depth. This might be done in say 5% of project based learning at wealthy schools, but what about he middle of the road school.
I say, math has been regressed and it is in a real bad way right now.
To combat this terrible state of affairs, I suggest Ed Source look at IXL math on line program. I had to buy it for my child and it uses simple tests to grow the knowledge in my opinion.
I think if the Ed Source reporters were to go undercover and interview teachers who are assured their identies will remain private that the information spoken would be alarming.
Can an Ed Source reporter do this please….
My child was involved in PBL classrooms last year. He found the experience, as he related to me, very frustrating. The 2 core teachers integrated the project to include both science and social studies so that only one group for both cohort classes was needed. One teacher did an excellent job of directing the groups and the other did a terrible job. That teacher just left the kids to their own devices. As such, it was a daily struggle for my son to work with one member of the group who failed to meaningfully participate. This required that the other members take up the slack. As the weeks went by the situation grew worse and became more and more frustrating. He ended up angry with his group, the one teacher and the experience in general. Whether it was a positive learning experience for him is questionable. My impression is that PBL can be an opportunity for kids to learn in a group setting or an opportunity for a teacher to slack off and leave kids to do the teacher's job. I would not recommend this approach unless it is supervised by an effective practitioner like the gentleman in this article. But then again, a poor teacher is more likely to do poorly with any pedagogical approach.
As a parent, I believe project based learning must include individual testing to check for understanding on an individual student basis, otherwise parents will move their children to private or public charter schools that do not embrace project based learning.
I am very upset that children in elementary schools are being experimented on with a flawed project based methodology of pedagogy in that the group grading is going on and vast teacher subjectivity in grade inflation grades.
California, especially for low income, low performing children, need to bring back individual state testing such as the star test so that schools and teachers can be checking children for their individual understanding of subject matter and not blending grades I not a four or five student hodge Podgorica of a group grade on this or that.
California is currently ranked forty second in learning outw of fifty states. California is regressing in teaching practices that are effective, and, floundering by avoidance of mandated testing to check the efficacy of learning in elementary schools.
solution?.. Mandate no more than fifty percent of any project based teaching in any classroom, and do not trust the educational establishment at all.
If you ever deice to check any actual research to try and back up some of your opinions (a painful process I expect) you will find that teachers' grades are more accurate assessments of student progress, as they actually reflect what students are doing in the classroom, than any test. Yes, CA is in the bottom decile in NAEP performance (what you were referring to), but so it also in the bottom decile (bottom ten) in funding per child (though Prop 30 may have raised that a bit), class sizes, number of nurse, librarians and counselors. You cannot expect to be in the bottom ten in a number of significant indicators of investment in education and also expect the system to be high in performance.
One other key area where CA is #1 is in the number of children living in poverty. That doesn't help.
I remember way back when I was doing my student teaching in Oakland. Three kids, members of varsity teams, were failing my classes. I was paid a visit by an administrator who told me in no uncertain terms that my student teaching relied upon succeeding in passing these kids, implying that whether they passed or not was a matter for me to ensure and that their effort wasn't of consequence. In the end I gave them the grade they deserved and called his bluff. My understanding was that admin changed the grade after the fact.
Large data-based conclusions on grades will reflect an averaging effect. But any fool can see that teachers arrive at grades for many different reasons from curves to whims, even political and social prejudices. It may be something as simple and understandable as elevating the grade of a lessor student for effort and downgrading a better student for lack thereof – the grade being part of the lesson to take home. My son recently started with a math tutor who told me that he was shocked to earn my son missed an A by only 1 point when he was assessed at one to two years behind. I don't know who you are trying to fool, Gary. Maybe yourself.
Gary seems, in my opinion to have opinions that are slanted to embrace the common teacher union propaganda.
I say Gary is often wrong and Don, you bring up a valuable point…that of assessment.
can parents band together to bring back assessments for math in all,schools?
PBL practices do not assess well for elementary and middle schools and..
You write "Yo" back to me and try to assume that I do not know that tests are valuable.
I say, you are not accurate in your thoughts.
We, as a state, are, in my opinion, doing an experiment on teaching children with a new roll out of common core and a new thinking of how teachers need to change all things to teach it.
I say, our entire state of California is suffering from not doing enough checking on if students have mastered key concepts of math. To check for understanding, it is my opinion, we as a state must use simple tests.
We cannot rely on group grades in esoteric ways to have teachers subjectively award or rather, give, inflated grades.
That's right, "Yo Ravani," the grades are inflated in year 2013-2014 and even more in year 2014-2015, because the teachers are having, "Yo," trouble in knowing how to check for understanding with the fuzzy math approaches in many math publishers materials.
Good Fighter, but maybe not so swell at math.
So next time you try to pick a fight with words with a parent, why not you do some research and ask around.
And, in all seriousness, it is my opinion, California has a severe issue with grade inflation due to group grading with project based learning, and a shying away from the use of the old tride and true tests and quizzes.
So CA has "grade inflation?" Inflated from what to what? And "evidence" for your opinion is what?
And teachers are giving grades "subjectively?" Teachers don't use states tests for grades. The grades are always subjective. They are based on what the teachers, in their credentialed and professional judgment, think they ought to be based on.
As a matter of fact tests are also subjective. Read some of the posts on this site about setting "cut scores" for SBAC. People do that. It's subjective with an overlay of attempted objectivity. The questions and answers are written, triaged, and finally selected by people. Did you think that came from on high carved on stone tablets?
You may well be a parent, but you are not a teacher.
BTW: The "Yo" (the first time anyway) was just an accident. Somehow I dropped the "u." Chill out, it's healthier.
Parents are their child's most important teacher, not school teachers.
I am for the STAR TEST or some kind of test for schools so we parents can know if a school is teaching well.
instead of the old fashioned quizzes and weekly tests in subjects such as math.
I focus on math because it is an area of true regression of learning in California, statewide.
Teacher know this is occurring.
Let us tie teacher reviews to SmarterBalance/CAASPP or to some other test.
Teacher do not wish to be held accountable for growth in learning.
IT is true madness to argue against the use of tests, old fashion tests.
but, California is a radical place.
over 3 billion pushed and poured into Common Core when other states are making changes to alter the methods of common core math teaching.
pull away from subjective grades.
If studies were done, those students deemed with the cutest smile might well receive a higher grade as they move through the grade levels in California.
Ah, I understand now. "If studies were done," they would confirm your views. But the studies are not done. How inconvenient.
You say teachers are not using "old fashioned quizzes and weekly tests." Who says they're not? More studies not done? And as for the subjective nature of it all, who do you think made up the weekly quizzes and tests? Space aliens?
Most teachers I am aware of made up (just like quizzes and tests) a scoring rubric with criteria expected for project based learning. These criteria were explained to students as they began the project and reminded of them frequently. Then, at the end, the teacher could use the rubric to create a grade (as all classroom grades are created) based on the criteria. This way it made sense to the students and no one is caught by surprise. The rubric and criteria process can be quite formal and involved or more casual and simple. The latter is likely more appropriate for lower grades.
Again, you make unfounded claims about "grade inflation" and yet make no effort to explain what that means or what evidence is available to back up the claim. So, one more time, inflated from what to what? And based on what evidence?
And "parents are a student's most important teacher." I won't argue with that.
BTW, have you considered home schooling?
PBL learning is OK if used for say 25% of the school year.
science projects are a form of project based learning, been done for years.
What is going on now ,in my opinion, is criminal in that some project based schools do not use textbooks,or workbooks and the teacher flounders and precious learning for the childmismlostmovermamyear.
Thus, to combat lost in space teachers, parent must demand accountability testing.
Tests must be a part of learning , individual,tests free of cheating.
Pbl is bad when in elementary schools if done with group work and rubrics over 25% of the year.
The schools belong to the parents so listen to us and stop being so closed minded.
Testing , individual testing is data.
So PBL should not be used more than "25% of the time." This is getting tiresome. What do you base that on? Same with your assertions about group learning.
PBLs can often be considered authentic or holistic assessments in themselves. They are likely to give a more accurate and nuanced picture of student learning. Right along with teacher made quizzes and teacher made tests. They are much more aligned with content students are getting in class as opposed to a test conceived by a publishing house a thousand miles away.
Actually the schools are "owned" by the citizens of the community, who are duly and democratically represented by the local Board. They have a place on every agenda for parents and members of the community to present their views. They, by law, have various committees where parents have a seat at the table. Get active! School boards, operating under statute, give direction to management who give direction to employees. Parents are not directly in that "chain of command." If you want to be convince enough of your neighbors to vote for you for the Board or get an administrative credential (along with a recommend 7 to 8 years in the classroom first). I'd start planning immediately.
And, it might be added, that parents are no more citizens and taxpayers than are local school employees.
BTW: You likely have public hospital nearby. Are you tempted to march down there and tell the surgeons that they should use surgical staples only 25% of the time and old fashioned stitches the remainder? Or, as I might guess, do you leave it up to the professionals? Of course, we do now have the Vaxxer crowd who do question the professionals and put the entire community at risk, so maybe that's not a timely metaphor. Or maybe it is?
I know of no schools that are "PBL schools," and to the extent they don't use textbooks it may be that the last set of texts in CA were often not very good (particularly in reading) and had far too many workbooks and worksheets. Another thing is CA has for years been too underfunded for districts to frequently upgrade texts and then there's the fact that publishing companies have not yet caught up with Common Core.
This is true, ask teachers privately….
I ask lots,of teachers to post on my views.
Math is regressing in skills for the majority of California.
To readers of the comments below: I just took the time to read the comments from the critics of PBL–that it's a 'fad', a 'failure', and is unfair to hardworking students. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, as Tyler points out, PBL has to be done well. If not, it can fail, and badly. So if you're interested in PBL, do it right and enjoy the breakthrough results you can get in student performance and engagement.
Project based learning is a fad if it is used more than say 30% in a year.
It is bad for teachers to use group grades in elementary schools and in middle schools for more than 30% of the time.
Alternative high schools can do what they wish.
I am sick of the push for people to like project based learning.
We in California need desperately to get the State Board of Education to mandate some kind of testing so parents and children will not be left in the dark with regard to knowing how well they do in all subjects.
Do project based things but individually test all children.
Who can be against this, I ask?
PBL is wonderful if done well.
Also, let us be very specific. PBL is fine for high school, usually alternative high schools.
sweet smiles are not given plus marks.
One of the best comments I've seen on PBL. PBL is not a 'quick fix' but a process that unfolds as students and teachers go deeper.
SFUSD is getting a good, young school administrator.
The new UC admissions policy at present is 9% statewide path and 9% ELC path, not 4% ELC. That is expected to change sooner as UC cannot accommodate that many students.
Basically, the Flack study on the UC system merely confirms what we know about success in college: teacher given grades and the resulting class standing count much more that either SAT or ACT results.
Here is a study that is more recent. Rather than focus on the 4% group it looks as HS GPA as a predictor of college success. As such, it recommends against a reliance on the traditional ACT and SAT. It actually concludes that the test scores have a "slight but statically significant" advantage in predicting freshman grades, but that 70% of college success is due to factors that are "unknown." So, for this study, the tests are fractionally better for the 30% that is known and predictable. For the freshman year! But, not for much else. It is from 2007, a bit more recent. It's been a while since I poked around in this area, but I do not have any indications the assertions of the two studies, the 2004 or 2007, have changed in any significant way. UC admittance is becoming more and more chancy for any but the wealthy and completion is even more at risk. For financial reasons and not academic one. As of late, CA students have less and less of an "instate" advantage. It appears that the UC leadership is often saying "look over here" at the number of kids who have to take a one semester remedial course, don't look over there at our tuition policies, our out of state preference policies, our exorbitantly paid executives policy, and our even more exorbitantly paid football coaches.
Copyright 2007 Saul Geiser and Maria Veronica Santelices, all rights reserved.
Because freshman grades provide only a short-term indicator of college performance, the present study tracked four-year college outcomes, including cumulative college grades and graduation, for the same sample in order to examine the relative contribution of high-school record and standardized tests in predicting longer- term college performance. Key findings are: (1) HSGPA is consistently the strongest predictor of four-year college outcomes for all academic disciplines, campuses and freshman cohorts in the UC sample; (2) surprisingly, the predictive weight associated with HSGPA increases after the freshman year, accounting for a greater proportion of variance in cumulative fourth-year than first-year college grades; and (3) as an admissions criterion, HSGPA has less adverse impact than standardized tests on disadvantaged and underrepresented minority students.
Gary, what would you say in a unique case such as Lowell High School in San Francisco. Let's say the average GPA in public middle school is 3.00. To get into Lowell, you need 3.8-3.9 academically, depending on test scores. With a 4.00, you can fall to the 86-89 percentile range and with a B in 7th Grade, 90-93, with 2 or 1 B in the first half of 8th Grade, 94-96, similar to the chart for SAT/GPA for the UC System. This represents the top 15% or so of middle school students as many go from private schools to Lowell, 29% at last count. Let's say the average who don't go to Lowell is 2.8, as the top students nearly all go to Lowell. In high school, their average GPA is 3.00. Lowell students also have an average of 3.00. A student at Lowell with a 3.00 would probably have close to a 4.00 at another high school, and most believe the GPA at Lowell runs up to a point lower, meaning a 2.5 would be a 3.5, a 2.9 would be a 3.9, and 3.5 GPAs probably a 4.00. You're taking grades of poeple who failed to make it into the top school vs. those who did.
It is similar to the CBA vs. NBA, a dominant CBA player will be at the bottom of the NBA.
DO you think an exception should be made for Lowell? My argument is colleges should track the average GPA at their school, so Cal should find out if their average GPA is 3.00 and the average admitted from Lowell High School gets a 3.6 at Cal, and the average from Mission High School a 2.6 at Cal, then they should adjust it until it is an accurate predictor and make it easier for Lowell kids to get in. If this isn't the case, they should not.
This would make it fair between high schools. Obviously SAT Scores and extracurriculars are also factors, but if the average is above average from a certain school, more should be accepted from that school, and if the average is below average, they should demand more from applicants from said school. This would make it completely fair.
Doesn't seem like there's a clear win for any politician to push that focused of a change. I wonder if our statewide information system for California education is working well enough and is sophisticated enough to even do that type of analysis. I'd rather see California expand access for all as we attract all colors of dreamers.
Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC) isn't intended to be fair in the context of what you consider fair, Floyd – that is, whom so ever has the highest grades and test scores combined. It is a program designed to increase access to the UC system for students from lower performing schools and that has to happen at the expense of higher performing students such as those from Lowell or any other high performing school. This system was developed as an alternative to outlawed race-based admissions, quotas under Affirmative Action. The idea is to look at applicants for ELC admission in terms of their performance relative to the opportunities they are afforded at any given school. Each eligible ELC school has a benchmarked GPA to determine the top 12% who are eligible to apply, (as opposed to the 9% who are guaranteed admission at a UC campus). But every rising senior mut maintain a 3.0 or above, even if that 3.0 might only be a 2.0 elsewhere. Students should not be held responsible for the quality, financing or the climate of their schools. There are structural impediments to learning and achieving which do not make the college competition a level playing field.
One among several problems with Gary's contention about the supremacy of GPAs is the fact that, while some students do poorly on tests and better on grades for whatever reasons, e.g.test phobia, poor preparation, etc, other students do better on tests than on grades because some they are totally bored by the crappy teachers they are stuck with.
Also, grades alone judging kids gives teachers dictator-like power. I have had teachers have a problem with my kids or me personally and seen that bias them. Also, there is a contingent who dislike Lowell, and if you mention it, they try to convince you Lowell is no better than another school, and then that if you don't agree they dislike you. You can ask what does it take to get an A, tutoring, hard work, I'll help my kid do anything, and they'll say in my opinion, they're a B student, even if they are in the top 3% statewide on English and Math. They won't merely tell you they think that but your child can work hard or find a solution. They will tell you you're wrong for trying to find a solution and should just accept it. Not all teachers are like this, but some are. I think tests are far more accurate. I love AP Tests. They should have a test in each subject at the end of high school and levels published, and you can't get the top jobs not requiring a degree without a decent score on this like an 85, not just the passing 70. This will put pressure on kids not just to pass a test to please a teacher short term but to learn in a way they actually remember the material, long-term. We need tests which serve as morally neutral barometers of human goodness/ability/diligence. These are more accurate.
Floyd, you seem to be saying the opposite of what you believe when you say Affirmative Action should be legal. If you support Affirmative Action than you support a double standard college admissions process that admits some students of color at a lower standard than others. Try to say what you mean and mean what you say.
To claim only students from one particular school have character is, an expression of disrespect and derision to all hard-working involved students everywhere. The values and character displayed in your comment are what you should reconsider. I'm not for quotas, but I am for giving students at every high school an opportunity to go to UC.
Don, I am not saying only kids at Lowell work hard. I am saying on average, they work far harder, which is why they got in. The goal should be to judge how hard kids work and reward those who work the hardest, know the most, and have the most skills. Some of that is genetic but most is based on how hard you work. If you treat a 3.5 GPA from Lowell the same as a 3.5 GPA at Washington the same, you are not going to be equally rewarding kids based on effort. A 2.5 at Lowell is about as hard as a 3.5 at Washington. Ideally affirmative action would exist but be only a tiebreaker or slight difference and be based on income rather than race.
Why do they say "irrespective of college grades"? I think that is the most important test to see if they appreciate the opportunity, work hard and prove they are worthy of bumping someone else. You have to have a tangible measure to see if it is accurate. The idea is they are disadvantaged but will do better in college once they get an opportunity, but it needs to be proven with facts. I have doubts.
One of the best things you can do for PBL is to draw upon the expertise of a teacher librarian to coteach alongside the classroom teacher. This is particular important when the children are engaging in inquiry and are reaching out into the world of information and technology. In a recent piece of research I did, the combination of these two persons raises the percentage of learners who meet or exceed adult exceptions substantially. There are a number of teacher librarians in the San Francisco school district who know how to coteach. I hope you are fortunate enough to have one of these experts on your staff. It will make a huge difference.
Project Based education is neither new nor a fad; rather a pedagogical vehicle to enable students to succeed with rigorous academics which are correlated to real-world applications. It is learning via doing and best accomplished across academic disciplines. In the non-academic world a job requires the application of ELA and Math skills at higher levels of application and communication. Project based learning in its best application incorporates these modalities of learning, performance, with measurable outcomes. It is the essence of how our academic subjects where designed and discovered. There was a need, typically business or merchant related although it includes philosophical and analytical questions from observed phenomenon, and people of the time, as is true for today, came up with model such as geometry, algebra and codified language to solve the problem or explain the situation. PBL guides students to creatively solve problems and learn the academic essentials in the process. Multiple State academic standards are covered at the same time over several weeks with repetition and deeper learning throughout the year rather than one chapter at a time.
Project based learning is a fad, and a failure at that.
And upon what, exactly, do you base that conclusion?
In Project Based Learning you take a diligent, moral kid who studies 3-5 hours a night and cares about their education and a total irresponsible goofball who watches TV, doesn't open a book, and makes sarcastic comments during class, and you put them in the same group on the same project and they get the same grade. And teachers are instructed to try to create as mixed groups as possible. Your grade can be based on luck. My kids have had a hard time with this. We need to credit kids who work hard and not credit those who don't. We need to differentiate, not combine. The achievement gap is based largely on what kids do outside of school time. This forgives the kids who don't study hard and punishes those who do. It's a terrible fad. Kids don't feel pressure to work harder but that they can be bailed out. This is why standardized testing is a better judge of human character than grades.
Not all projects have to be done in groups. See the experience of the student profiled in the other article today. I think you are pointing out the potential weaknesses of group learning. But some might argue that is an opportunity to learn about real life challenges. Will teachers guide students through the challenges of working in groups? I do have first hand experience with teachers who don't give all project members the same grade.
Students in low-income schools are more likely to be given an "A" for work that would receive a "C" in a more affluent school, according to "Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps Between Groups: Lessons from Schools and Districts on the Performance Frontier," an Education Trust study released last November.
Unconscious bias" by teachers and administrators.
These factors, experts say, produce an opportunity gap for students of color.
I agree with the structural issues discussed above. However, there's no discussion of effort, culture or respect for education. It ignores the fact that some cultures do better DESPITE poverty. Will better teachers and higher expectations alone increase academic output of poor blacks without lifestyle change? Will better doctors and higher expectations improve one's health without lifestyle change?
This is why letting in the top 4% to UC is unfair. You have to look at the individual and how hard their high school was. You need a drastic change in fundamental attitudes towards studying, a change towards the groups who are thriving. Tests are more accurate than grades. There are a lot of kids who get As and then do terrible in college. There was a valedictorian from DC who flunked out of Harvard. Test scores are far more accurate judges of ability, effort and human character than are grades.
Or one could look at the UC admissions policy as incentive to attend more ecomically diverse schools.
In San Francisco, we have Lowell, which is 44% free and reduced lunch yet has very rich children there, 29% from private schools. Lowell is way harder. The point is to have a magnet school with the best. Do we want to discourage top students from going to Lowell? Is this really fair?
There are a lot of corner cases like that in education policy. Districts delay math acceleration because the writers of Common Core say earlier math acceleration is bad for students. Definitely not true for all students. LCFF concentration funding is parceled out by district even though schools in some districts far exceed the concentration threshold. These types of policies can make public education come across as an uncaring machine. Perhaps an appropriate description given the level of funding and structure of public education, at least in California.
There is an easy was to differentiate peer work value in upper grades. Poll the group members in secret. They will gladly report who did the most work/contributed most to value. B project? Some A contributors / C and D? Kids will do pretty well, self reporting. A D contributor will be just fine getting a C or D.
Today's other article on PBL explains how it can be failure. One example mentioned was the California mission project as completed by many California 4th graders. But it seems hard to refute the best principles of learning. I mean if you want to learn to write then it's a very good idea to write. Or whatever else it is students need to master.
I'm not sure that the 4% rule is unfair, Floyd. While it represents an effort on the part of UC to get around Prop 209, having been enshrined by several failed challenges, consider it from a student perspective. Many students don't have any choice as to which schools they attend and it is clear that going to a particular school could reduce the chance of competing successfully against students from higher performing schools and districts. Some students may not have access to tutoring or other means to make up the difference. At least this way, while not perfect, students from any school can attain to be in the top 4% and get into a UC. And remember, not all UCs are created equal either. Berkeley and LA will still be getting the cream of the crop. In the end students who can't cut it at a UC will be replaced by those that can.
4% is fair but 9% is not. In SF, however, if they don't go to Lowell they aren't in the top 4% of SF or in the rare cases in which they are, they shy away from challenge, something colleges claim to oppose. In Texas it's 10%, way too high. They should make exceptions for cities with magnet schools with selective admissions.
The other pathway, "statewide", also chooses from the top 9%. Most students from the school you are talking about probably part of that 9%, though I'm only guessing. They can't make exceptions for particular schools.


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Man, look at all the butthurt fedoramancers in the comments!


text:
Bundestagswahlkreis 171 steht für folgende Wahlkreise in Deutschland:

 Bundestagswahlkreis Marburg (seit 2013)
 Bundestagswahlkreis Schwalm-Eder (2009)
 Bundestagswahlkreis Werra-Meißner – Hersfeld-Rotenburg (2005)
 Bundestagswahlkreis Werra-Meißner – Hersfeld (2002)
 Bundestagswahlkreis Heilbronn (1980 bis 1998)
 Bundestagswahlkreis Esslingen (1965 bis 1976)
 Bundestagswahlkreis Aalen (1949 bis 1961)


text:
The Little Ache – a German notebook
The Little Ache – a German notebook was written in 2013–14, while Ian Wedde was researching his acclaimed novel The Reed Warbler. In Berlin and the north of Germany around Kiel, nineteenth-century ancestors whisper to him amid the clamour of history and the pleasures of daily life.
'Reading Ian Wedde's sinewy, emblematic new collection reaffirmed for me the problem of using the linear, continuous medium of prose to discuss the oblique, spatially-and temporally-liberated language of poetry. It also reafirmed how good the guy is.'
—David Hill, Kete Books
'This is surreal, honest and moving. These are nervy, impassioned poems that search for happiness.' —Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times
Ian Wedde is the author of eight novels, fifteen collections of poetry, two collections of essays, and a number of anthologies and art monographs. His memoir, The Grass Catcher: A Digression About Home, was published in 2014, his Selected Poems in 2017, and his novel The Reed Warbler in 2020. Wedde is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships and grants. Among the most recent are the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship at Menton in France (2005), a Fulbright New Zealand Travel Award to the USA (2006), an Arts Foundation Laureate Award (2006), a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland (2007), an ONZM (2010), and the Landfall Essay Prize (2010). In 2011–13 Wedde was New Zealand's poet laureate. He was awarded the Creative New Zealand Writers' Residency in Berlin 2013–14, and in 2014 the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement (poetry). He lives and works in Auckland.
Cover photograph courtesy of the author
Paperback, 210x138mm, 144 pages
Brigitte Boenisch-Brednich
Keeping a Low Profile: An Oral History of German Immigration to New Zealand
Damien Wilkins
Little Masters
News of the Swimmer Reaches Shore


text:
Q: Symfony site on Azure with ClearDB connection I have an Azure Web App with a Symfony site installed and a separate Azure MySQL ClearDB. I can connect from my local computer to ClearDB using a MySql client but I can't manage to make connection from Symfony even though the connection details are identical. Anyone had this issue and knows how to get there?

A: I can't reproduce this.
Maybe you could clear cache after editing parameters.yml file by running the following command:
php bin/console cache:clear --env={dev|prod}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Have you joined our VIP Sunshine Club? You'll get a chance to grab a treat each week in your inbox just for club members. This week we are giving you 20% off any of our drink coaster's or DIY Gift Kits in our Paradise Gifts Club Etsy shop.
You must be a VIP Sunshine Club member to get your exclusive savings of 20% off! Offer ends on December 13, 2015. Spend $60 or more and get free shipping in the USA.
Sign up for our Club by clicking here!
Find gifts for every budget in our Etsy treasury collection below. Compliments of Markets of Sunshine JW Promotion Team on Etsy!
Click the image to be taken to our shops!
Lots of fantastic #giftideas from the Markets of Sunshine Team! There's something for everyone so check it out!
Marsha has come up with some really neat ideas, and her Team, JW Promotions, needs more members. Those of you who are Jehovah's Witnesses and are Etsy sellers in need of more sales are encouraged to join.
We sold 2 DIY kits! Thank you!!


text:
<?php

namespace RegneHostil\AdminBundle\Controller;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RedirectResponse;

use RegneHostil\ClubBundle\Entity\Quote;

class QuoteController extends Controller
{
    public function listQuotesAction() {
		$quotes = $this->getDoctrine()
			->getRepository('RegneHostilClubBundle:Quote')
			->findAll();

		return $this->render(
			'RegneHostilAdminBundle:Quote:list_quotes.html.twig',
			array(
				'quotes' => $quotes
				)
			);
	}

	public function editQuoteAction(Request $request, $id) {
		$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
    	$quote = $em->getRepository('RegneHostilClubBundle:Quote')->find($id);

		$form = $this->createFormBuilder($quote)
			->add('quote','textarea')
			->add('valid','integer')
			->getForm();

		if ($request->isMethod('POST')) {
			$form->bind($request);

			if($form->isValid()) {
				$em->flush();

				return $this->render(
					'RegneHostilAdminBundle:Quote:edit_quote.html.twig',
					array(
						'form' => $form->createView(),
						'updated' => true,
						'id' => $id
					)
				);
			}
		}

		return $this->render(
			'RegneHostilAdminBundle:Quote:edit_quote.html.twig',
			array(
					'form' => $form->createView(),
					'updated' => false,
					'id' => $id
			)
		);
	}

	public function deleteQuoteAction(Request $request, $id)
	{
		$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
    	$quote = $em->getRepository('RegneHostilClubBundle:Quote')->find($id);

    	$em->remove($quote);
    	$em->flush();

    	return new RedirectResponse($this->generateUrl('regne_hostil_admin_quotes'));
	}

	public function createQuoteAction(Request $request)
	{
		$quote = new Quote();

		$form = $this->createFormBuilder($quote)
			->add('quote','textarea')
			->add('valid','integer')
			->getForm();

		if ($request->isMethod('POST')) {
			$form->bind($request);

			if($form->isValid()) {
				$em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
				$em->persist($quote);
				$em->flush();

				return new RedirectResponse($this->generateUrl('regne_hostil_admin_quotes'));
			}
		}
		return $this->render(
			'RegneHostilAdminBundle:Quote:create_quote.html.twig',
			array(
					'form' => $form->createView(),
					'created' => false
			)
		);
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Recently dining at a Dupont Circle establishment, Christopher Hitchens noticed there weren't ashtrays at the bar. When he asked for a smoking area, he learned the restaurant is a "non-smoking facility." Hitchens has seen the cold, inhospitable future of dining in smoke-free D.C. bars and restaurants and he won't accept it. "I don't go to dinner at facilities," he says.
Hitchens, the accomplished British writer, told the D.C. Council last week that its proposed smoking ban is "un-American." The Washington Post reported this characterization without explanation. Yet one of Washington's most colorful and prolific journalists, who is applying for American citizenship, troubled himself with the tedium of a D.C. Council hearing to object to a smoking ban in the capital city's bars and restaurants. What would Hitchens find un-American about such a ban? Its denial of tobacco's role in our nation's founding and general ignorance of history? Its destruction of the third place? Its affront to liberty?
Yet smoking's historical role isn't the lynchpin of Hitchen's opposition to the bans. He grants claims that second-hand smoke is hazardous to others' health, even though "the academiology of it as a problem isn't all that stellar." Airplanes and railcars aren't polite places for smoking either — people who don't like smoke "shouldn't have to breathe my air," he says.
This former man of the left is a bit puzzled to find himself opposing left-wing prohibitionists. Reasoning by the standard of "diversity," "which I think you could be sure would be a celebrated word on the D.C. Council," the smoking ban ought not to pass.


text:
Q: Need help in my VueJS + VueX + Firebase project I am trying to show the current userName and title which was already created by signin and now stored in Firebase Cloud Firestore database.
But I don't know how to handle this, I can't find an error in the code by my self.
Here is the code:
<template>

{{ userProfile.name }}

{{ userProfile.title }}

create a post

                    <form @submit.prevent>
                        <textarea v-model.trim="post.content"></textarea>
                        <button @click="createPost"
         class="button">post</button>
                    </form>

There are currently no posts

 </template>

Store.js
  import Vue from 'vue'
  import Vuex from 'vuex'
  const fb = require('./firebaseConfig.js')

  Vue.use(Vuex)

  // handle page reload
  fb.auth.onAuthStateChanged(user => {
  if (user) {
    store.commit('setCurrentUser', user)
    store.dispatch('fetchUserProfile')
   }
  })

  export const store = new Vuex.Store({
   state: {
     currentUser: null,
     userProfile: {}
   },
   actions: {
    clearData ({ commit }) {
      commit('setCurrentUser', null)
      commit('setUserProfile', {})
    },
    fetchUserProfile ({
      commit,
      state
    }) {
    fb.usersCollection.doc(state.currentUser.uid).get().then(res => {
      commit('setUserProfile', state.res.data())
    }).catch(err => {
      console.log(err)
    })
      console.log(state)
    }
   },
   mutations: {
     setCurrentUser (state, val) {
       state.currentUser = val
    },
    setUserProfile (state, val) {
      state.userProfile = val
    }
   }
})

Error output:

userProfile output as Object:


text:
Home / Media
Select...Palmetto CastleNews StoriesNews ReleasesImagesVideosSocial MediaRequest a Speaker
Corporate Communications Office
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District's Corporate Communications Office serves as the initial contact for members of the public and media for all information about the District's programs, projects, policies, operations and activities. The Corporate Communications Office manages the District's public information, command information and community relations programs. Our team serves in direct support of each departmental branch within the District in various ways. This includes writing press releases and news stories, taking photos and videos of various projects, event planning for major milestones, preparing speeches and presentations, and much more.
The Corporate Communications Office is responsible for the publication of the District's quarterly magazine, the Palmetto Castle. This publication features articles and photos on the status of various projects throughout the District and recently won first place in the Herbert R. Kassner Public Affairs Awards in the Publications category.
The Corporate Communications Office is also responsible for managing the online presence for the Charleston District. This includes the public website as well as all social media channels. The District currently has a presence on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for the public to connect. Join us on these pages to get accurate, current information along with more pictures and videos than you can find in our other resources. Our social media sites allow you to interact with the Charleston District and get to know us more personally. Please engage with us on these sites and tell us how we can better serve you. The Charleston District's social media presence has won first or second place in each of the last three years in the USACE Herbert A. Kassner Public Affairs Awards in the Outstanding Digital Presence category.
In 2016, the Corporate Communications Office one the U.S. Army's prestigious Kathy Canham-Ross Award of Distinction, which recognizes extraordinary community relations contributions. The Charleston District is the first Corps district to ever win this award. The award was given for the "Pulling for Unity: Harvesting Sweetgrass in Memory of Mother Emanuel Victims" event, where local sweetgrass basket makers came to the District's Cooper River Rediversion Project and pulled sweetgrass and wove a cross in honor of the victims of the Mother Emanuel church shooting.
Corporate Communications Images
Ribbon Cutting for Water Tower
Bill McCall, Santee Cooper; Johnnie Wright, Lake Marion Regional Water Agency; Rep. James Clyburn; SC Sen. John Matthews; and Lt. Col. Ed Chamberlayne, Charleston District, cut the ribbon for the new water tower.
Interview for Roadwise
A member of the Charleston District regulatory division discusses the regulatory program on a television program called "Roadwise."
A member of the corporate communications team takes a ride in a helicopter to get photos and video to use in various projects.
Interview on Lowcountry Live
Two regulatory project managers discuss the Charleston District regulatory program on the morning show "Lowcountry Live."
Interview with Fox News
Lt. Col. Ed Chamberlayne discusses the Post 45 harbor deepening project in an interview with John Roberts of Fox News.


text:
Q: Predicting a semi-deterministic process Say I have a process that gives me 3 outputs: $O^1$, $O^2$ and $O^3$.
The outputs are generated from a semi-deterministic process, i.e. there is a deterministic component in the outputs, along with a random component.
In particular, having $n$ measurements over time, the outputs $O_j \quad j=1,2,...,n$ are -at least in part- dependent on the previous outputs. So $O_j = f(O_{j-1}, O_{j-2}, O_{j-3}) + \epsilon$ (I'm not interested in going farther away than 2 or 3 measurements, $\epsilon$ is the random component).
So now I have a set of ~150 consecutive measurements, how can I predict what are the likely outputs in the future?
I can easily calculate the distribution of values following a certain output, for instance I could say that if $O^1_j$ is between 50 and 60 I have a certain probability of $O^1_{j+1}$ of being between 30 and 40, by looking at the measurements that I took in the past. I did construct some pdf for the distribution of these probabilities, but now I'm a bit stuck, especially because there is probably an interaction between the three outputs (so for instance, updating my previous statement $O^1_j = f(O^1_{j-l}, O^2_{j-l}, O^3_{j-l}) + \epsilon \quad\quad l=1,2,3$)
I've been reading about Bayesian predictors and I tought they could be applied here, but I don't know enough about the topic to determine if this is a good choice or if there is something easier/more appropriate. I will appreciate any suggestion!

A: If you want to forecast time-series data, first you need to check whether it is stationary. Basically this means checking whether data has trends. If for example some time trend is present, you can concern yourself only with its forecast, because time-trends usually dominate everything else. For stationary time series it is good to use Box-Jenkins approach. This in the end will give you some kind of  ARMA model (autoregressive model suggested by @whuber is a subset of this model). Since you have three time series you may look into VAR models.
If you use R, then first step can be performed by function stl, it is function from standard R. Autoregressive models can be fit automatically  by auto.arima in package forecast. This function can either fit your desired model, or find the best specification for certain definition of best. You might look into that package more, since it is specially designed for forecasting time series. For VAR model use VAR function from vars package. This package has a nice vignette describing its capabilities.


The police had to move out after fireworks were fired inside the canteen at Bjørnholt upper secondary school in Oslo.
No one was injured in the incident, and no one was arrested, police told NTB news.
The police received notice of the incident at 13.50 on Monday and sent several patrols to the site.
"For a long time, it was a difficult and demanding situation because of many students who disturbed the police" said operations manager, Marita Aune, in Oslo police district to NTB.
It was not necessary to summon the fire service she said.
Bjørnholt High School, located in Søndre Nordstrand district south of Oslo, was one of the first schools in the country to introduce access control for all pupils and employees.
Be the first to comment on "Fireworks lit at school in Oslo"


text:
Home Building Finance Ireland approves €100m for 500 new homes
Updated / Wednesday, 6 Nov 2019 09:57
Home Building Finance Ireland was established in January of this year with a fund of €750m from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.
By Brian Finn
Business Journalist
The state backed lender for small and medium sized builders and developers says it approved just over €100m in funding for the construction of over 500 homes throughout Ireland in its first nine months in business.
The funding is intended to facilitate the construction of up to 7,500 homes over the next five years.
The 15 individual developments approved for funding range in size from 10 units to 76.
€9 in every €10 approved so far has been for developments outside of Dublin, although the majority of approved developments are in the commuter counties surrounding the capital.
Two quite sizeable developments of over 50 units each have been approved in counties Cork and Kerry.
"We've seen activity commence in four of the 15 projects. That means there are diggers on site, foundations are being laid, homes are being built and the first homes will come to market before Christmas," Dara Deering, CEO of HBFI said.
Almost half of the units approved under HBFI funding are for three bedroom homes aimed at first time buyers and families.
"It's important to focus on increasing the housing supply, but we need to get a mix of homes and apartments.
"The homes are typically three bedroom homes. We're looking at it on a national basis and importantly we're seeing increasing supply in the private sector," Ms Deering explained.
"In the case of about 25% of the houses being supported by HBFI, they're being built by companies and they will then be sold onto an approved housing body and they will increase the supply of social housing," she added.
In addition to the €102m funding approved to date, HBFI has established a pipeline of applications for future development potential.
Business Watch and Listen
Ireland Strategic Investment Fund
Home Building Finance Ireland
Dara Deering
More by Brian Finn
Buying a car in 2020
Business | 18 Jan
Businesses warned to deal with cashflow implications of Brexit
New Revenue regime could simplify rebate process


The annual general meeting (AGM) of the Pemberton Arts and Culture Council will be spiced up with a celebration of the group's 10th anniversary.
It takes place on Monday, April 18, at 7 p.m., in the Prospect Pub in Pemberton.
Art History: An Artsy Fartsy Meeting and Party begins with the AGM — a regaling of tales of 2015's organizational activities and spending, a sneak peak at the plans for 2016, an opportunity to join, and members' vote for new directors.
Festivities begin at 8 p.m. with a 10th anniversary cake topped with edible fondant artwork by Vanessa Stark; Jazz, a dance performance by the Gruff Goat Dance Theatre; Funk musician Papa Josh; artwork and event memorabilia from the last 10 years donning the walls, a digital show and stories by three long-time PACC members, and an afterparty with DJ Deadly Soundz.
Artists may apply for a seat on the board by contacting Marnie Simon at marnie_s@shaw.ca. For information on memberships, visit www.pembertonartscouncil.com.
The Whistler Arts Council (WAC) has received $17,701 from the BC Arts Council in the current round of grant adjudication.
The funds are part of almost $900,000 given out to 70 community arts councils around the province.
The grant was the only BC Arts Council grant given in the Sea to Sky region.
WAC did not respond before press time to questions about plans for the grant.
American poet Beatrix Gates, currently an artist-in-residence at Quest University Canada in Squamish, is giving a free public reading on Thursday, April 14, at the MPR at 7 p.m.
A 2015 Poetry Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Gates' collections include In the Open, a Lambda Literary Award finalist.
Gates was editor of The Wild Good: Lesbian Photographs & Writing on Love, and founded Granite Press where she published "IXOK AMAR.GO: Central American Women Poets for Peace".
She is a member of Vermont's Goddard College's MFA faculty, and has taught writing and literature at Colby College, NYU, and Maine Maritime Academy.
She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA from Antioch College. She lives in Brooksville, Maine, where she recently published in the local 'zine, "Afterthought."
The class of 2016 at Whistler Secondary School is holding the second annual fashion show fundraiser, with the theme Hot and Cold, in the MPR of the school on Wednesday, April 20.
There will also be a silent auction with some great local activities and goods on offer and a bake sale. The grads are still looking for auction items. To donate email jswentzel@telus.net.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, available from grads or at the school, and $20 at the door.


Let's face it, there are some pretty compelling reasons why vintage gets a bad rap. But vintage isn't all smelly nylon shirts with enormous collars and pit stains that only make themselves known upon purchase. Sometimes that sad shirt is a forgotten gem that just needs a little TLC and a good cleaning. That's where Cotton Love comes in. Creative director Ruth Nixon says the London-based e-store's particular brand of hand-picked vintage has "all the integrity and quality of craftsmanship vintage offers, but in keeping with contemporary tastes." Secondhand never looked so new and relevant, especially when placed on an elegantly designed website with an abundance of white space and very affordable prices.
Showing the timelessness of the impeccably curated pieces, Cotton Love has also added several lesser-known jewelry labels of the witty variety. Think ANVE, Antiatoms, and Otaat, which is designed by Albert Chu, who has worked with Maison Martin Margiela in an architectural capacity. It's all so po-mo it hurts.


Nick heads up Will and Probate Services and is a nationally known Will Writer and Fellow of the Institute of Paralegals who is passionate about his role in the Company.
Kate has over 30 years experience in a range of businesses from Blue Chip organisations to small charities, her roles have included management, projects, training and sales. Kates qualifications include Master Practitioner in NLP, Life and NLP Coaching, extreme empowerment coach and a mentor for the IOEE (Institute for Enterprise and Entrepreneurs).
Kloë heads up the paralegal team at the Peterborough Head Office.
Mariam joined Will and Probate Services in February 2018 and heads up our Islamic Wills team.
Elisabeth organises the diary of Nick and performs a multitude of tasks which result in the smooth running of our day to day business. Elisabeth is also a qualified Counsellor.
Sasha joined Will and Probate Services in September 2018 as an apprentice, working towards the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives qualification whilst continuing to build her experience in the Will and Probate field of the legal services.
Megan joined Will and Probate Services in 2017 as an apprentice and continues to work towards her education in the legal services.
Des has more than 20 years experience in senior management in the brewing and pharmaceutical industries. Married with two children, Des believes he is in a strong position to understand the need for careful and precise future planning for the security of families and working with Will and Probate Services has realised the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences in this important area.
Joining the family company was a natural choice for Thomas after he qualified from Sheffield Hallam. He prides himself on his empathy and ability to discuss difficult subjects.
Neil worked in the banking and financial services industry for over 20 years, during that time he personally advised clients on investment, pension and protection matters.


Members of Georgia Tech's RoboJackets are headed to Brazil to prepare for the RoboCup 2014 competition, where they will join 26 other teams in the northeastern coastal town of João Pessoa to compete in the Soccer Small Size League tournament.
The RoboCup "players" range in design from life-size humanoids to wheeled robots roughly the size of soccer balls. They will compete in five divisions on miniature indoor fields. The tournament runs from July 21-24, with the preceding weekend allotted for setup, testing, and an opening ceremony on Sunday. The event concludes on July 25 with an all-day symposium for adult participants and a workshop on educational robotics for RoboCup junior leagues.
Georgia Tech plans to compete in the Soccer Small Size League tournament using small, boxy robots with omnidirectional wheels. RoboJackets Vice President Lindsey Langstaff, an undergraduate student majoring in mechanical engineering, says she looks forward to working with other teams to help further research.
"You want to be able to bring something to the table that nobody's come up with yet," she says.
Organizers make the game tougher each year by changing parameters like field size or number of players. Next year, RoboCup co-chairman Alexandre da Silva Simoes, says, the robots might play outside.
RoboJackets is a diverse group of students, faculty, and alumni that aims to enhance the understanding of the field of robotics and its applications and increase the number of students exposed to robotics. They compete annually in five different robotics tournaments, serve as tour guides during the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines' annual National Robotics Week open house, and coordinate the regional FIRST Robotics Competition annual kickoff event.


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Housing Crash 2.0: Mortgage Delinquencies Have Never Risen This Fast In US History
Written by: Michael Snyder
If our economic numbers were going to improve substantially, now would be the time for it to happen. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have hit a plateau for the moment, the civil unrest in our major cities has been reduced to a dull roar, and millions of Americans that originally lost their jobs have now gone back to work. If we are going to get some glimmers of hope for the economy, this is when we should see them, because the environment does not look promising once the summer ends. Unfortunately, the numbers that we keep getting just continue to directly contradict the narrative that any sort of a "recovery" is taking place. In fact, the Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting that the delinquency rate on residential mortgages shot up a whopping 386 basis points last quarter…
The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.22 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.
The delinquency rate increased 386 basis points from the first quarter of 2020 and was up 369 basis points from one year ago.
When I first saw that number, I could hardly believe it.
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386 basis points in a single quarter?
I had never heard of such carnage before, and the Mortgage Bankers Association is telling us that this was "the biggest quarterly rise" in the history of their survey…
"The COVID-19 pandemic's effects on some homeowners' ability to make their mortgage payments could not be more apparent. The nearly 4 percentage point jump in the delinquency rate was the biggest quarterly rise in the history of MBA's survey," said Marina Walsh, MBA's Vice President of Industry Analysis.
The delinquency rate on FHA loans is particularly troubling.
During the first quarter, the delinquency rate on FHA loans was 9.7 percent, but by the end of the second quarter that number had shot up to 15.7 percent…
Fast forward to today, when the dam of pent up mortgage delinquencies cracked some more, with the Federal Housing Administration reporting that its mortgages which represent the affordable path to homeownership for many first-time buyers, minorities and low-income Americans, now have the highest delinquency rate in at least four decades.
The share of delinquent FHA loans rose to 15.7% in the second quarter, up a whopping 60% from about 9.7% in the previous three months and the highest level in records dating back to 1979, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Monday. The delinquency rate for conventional loans, by comparison, was 6.7%.
We have never seen anything like this before, and these numbers seem to indicate that we are heading for a crisis that will be even worse than the subprime mortgage meltdown that we witnessed during the last recession.
Of course, the reason why there are so many delinquencies is that tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs in 2020.
According to the MBA, mortgage delinquency rates are shooting up the fastest in the states where the job losses have been the most severe…
Mortgage delinquencies track closely with the availability of jobs. The five states with the largest quarterly increases in delinquency rates were New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Florida, and Hawaii – all with a prevalence of leisure and hospitality jobs that were especially hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fastest way to fix this emerging crisis would be to get millions of newly unemployed Americans back to work as quickly as possible, and recently there has been some modest improvement in the employment numbers.
However, it is becoming very clear that millions upon millions of the jobs that have been lost during this pandemic are never coming back. In fact, one recent survey found that almost half of all workers that have been laid off during this pandemic now consider their jobs losses to be permanent…
In April, roughly 2 in 10 households experiencing job loss considered their layoff permanent, while the remaining majority believed they would return to their former jobs within a few months. Now, as states have stalled or reversed reopening plans and the coronavirus outbreak worsens, nearly half of unemployed workers believe their jobs are not coming back, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
What this means is that millions upon millions of Americans will continue to miss mortgage payments, and a massive wave of foreclosures looms in the months ahead.
Needless to say, it won't be a happy time for our nation.
Meanwhile, more businesses are going belly up with each passing day.
For example, we just learned that as many as 300 Pizza Hut locations are going "to permanently close"…
Up to 300 Pizza Hut restaurants are slated to permanently close following the bankruptcy of one the chain's largest franchisees.
NPC International, which filed for Chapter 11 in July, announced an agreement Monday with Pizza Hut's owner Yum! Brands (YUM)to close roughly a quarter of its restaurants and sell the remaining locations. Specific restaurants and timing have not yet been determined, but NPC said a "substantial majority" of affected locations have dining rooms.
This is a great tragedy for those of us that love pizza because out of all of the major pizza chains in the entire country nobody makes better pizza than Pizza Hut does.
And yes, I am being quite serious.
As soon as I could walk my parents began taking me to Pizza Hut, and I have been enjoying their pizza ever since.
Unfortunately, I don't live anywhere near a Pizza Hut today, and so I don't get to enjoy their pizza very often anymore.
In any event, a lot more companies are going to be waving the white flag in the months ahead. Economic turmoil is one of the core pillars of "the perfect storm" that is now upon us, and after this current lull our economic problems are going to start accelerating once again.
Sadly, most Americans simply do not understand what is happening.
Most Americans still seem to think that everything is going to turn out just fine somehow.
What they don't realize is that the whole system is starting to steadily unwind, and things are going to get really ugly as we continue down this road.
Article posted with permission from Michael Snyder
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About the Author: Michael Snyder
Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years. Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael and his wife, Meranda, believe that a great awakening is coming and are working hard to help bring renewal to America. Michael is also the author of the book The Beginning Of The End
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