Finally...more Kingston Pictures.

Sorry folks - I never found my Kodak USB cable, so had to wait to receive a new one from eBay before I could post my pictures. As an aside - the loss of the cable is just one of many instances of late in which I have misplaced something very important and either looked for weeks before finding it (recent example - mini-DV tape of my teaching in Germany), or am still looking (copies of research interview tapes, my camera cable). I guess that when you're juggling a million balls, something has to slip...

Anyway, to the shots from Jamaica.


Man sitting beneath a tree in the Botanical Gardens.


Peggy and Derek, my hosts for the weekend.
Kingston Bay from the Blue Mountains.
'Cannonball' tree with flowers.
Peggy and Derek's iron-encased patio (locked at all times).


Delicious vegetarian lunch at Rastafarian restaurant - before.

After!

The Other Jamaica.

Through a connection I made while we were living in Berlin, I'm now working with a private international school in Jamaica. This means that last weekend, I took the first of what will hopefully be a series of trips to Kingston to meet with teachers at this school to talk to them about their formative assessment and lesson planning practices. More pictures will follow as soon as I can find the cord to my camera...

When I let it be known that I would be taking an expenses-paid trip to Jamaica, I was usually met with a lot of groans and jealousy; however, I want to set the record straight by saying that the Jamaica I visited was not that of the sandy beaches an turquoise seas, which I saw only from the plane. My experience was with a grittier, dirtier Caribbean island.

When I arrived last Thursday, Derek and Peggy, my hosts for the weekend, picked me up at Kingston airport. Peggy is the director of the school, an American from Minnesota, and Derek is her British husband who is a counselor and history teacher at the school. We drove on the left side of the road - Jamaica is a former British colony - past people living in tin-roofed shacks and skeletal stray dogs into their gated townhouse community. Every house that has been around since the unrest of the 1970's has cast-iron bars covering all its windows and porches, Derek and Peggy's included.

Friday morning I awoke early for the ride to the school, which is located in the hills that ring Kingston. I gave two workshops to the mathematics and science teachers, almost all of them native Jamaicans. Mid-afternoon a wildfire broke out in the hills, dropping enough ash and smoke on the school that the students were sent home early; apparently, this is common enough that no one seemed particularly alarmed that the school might burn down.

That evening we went for a swim in the neighbor's pool before going out to dinner with friends of Peggy's and Derek's, one of whom was a 'Sir,' one who worked for a famous Rum company, and another who is the orthopedic surgeon for the Jamaican cricket team. I ordered parrot fish and laughed to myself when the waiter brought around the dishes and wanted to know, "Who ordered the parrot?" On the way home we stopped at a light beside a Jeep occupied by three army guys in full fatigues carrying automatic weapons; apparently this show of force by the government is quite commonplace in Kingston to maintain social order.

Saturday I got a lesson from Derek in cricket on TV, and then we drove around the city for several hours. We ate lunch at a Rastafarian restaurant and I had mind-blowing curry and bean curd for lunch with a starfruit juice and a coconut 'Busta' candy for dessert. That evening we had dinner at the home of benefactors of the school, who cooked jerk chicken, sauteed okra, curried shrimp, and ackee fruit, which looks like and has the consistency of scrambled eggs. It was delicious.

The plan is to go back in May and bring Dave with me this time for a vacation after my next visit to the school. Everything seemed to go well so I hope it will work out...

Judging a book by its cover.

Update from Dave:
And the votes have been tallied. Erin can update you on the actual choice later.

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After months and months of writing, revising, editing, proofreading, revising, editing, etc. etc., my editor at Corwin Press told me Friday that we've finally reached the 'fun' part: designing a cover for my book.

When I spoke to the production assistant in December, we decided that the cover might be based on the opening metaphor from the book. In the metaphor, the need for ongoing assessment of student learning (i.e., formative assessment), is equated with taking a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Formative assessment in science teaching is like planning a trip and making sure that as you're driving, you're making the progress you expected, and staying on course to reach your final goal.

Based on that metaphor, we talked about cover designs that involved a map or some kind of driving signs. The graphic designer then came up with five different possible covers - three based on the map idea, and two other more generic ones. I definitely have some preferences, but I'm interested to know what you think!

My loving and infinitely tech-savvy husband Dave has created a web poll on the right sidebar - let me know which cover you prefer!

Getting to Know a House

So you know how it is whenever you move into a new house and have to figure everything out. The groans all seem surprising and cause you to jump. There's that little spot in the hallway that always creaks. And if at out flat, you keep walking out the door and forgetting that it automatically locks behind you. (Tell me you've never experienced that "oh, shit, shit, shit!!!" moment.)

Anyway, as we've long since settled into our place on Clarkson St, I'm not really talking about our house, rather the Colorado House of Representatives. It's now been about a month since I sought refuge from the daily ho-hum of being unemployed by interning (yes, that means no cash) for one of the Representatives. To say the least, it's been really eye popping to see how the state legislator works from the inside out and to get to know the groans, creaks, shudders and general sing song of the capitol.

Oh and the hissing. Ya, I am totally serious – hissing, and not from water pipes or old hearing ventilators but from the members!!! I start with this one because I was telling Erin about it this morning and it's really one of the most interesting noises to come from the building.

First, a little background. So I was listening in on the third reading of bills in the chamber last week when this rare phenomenon occurred. Third reading is really important and is the one time when I am really not allowed to be bothering Rep. Schafer on the floor. That's because third reading is the final reading for a bill in the House and the members must vote on passage – "The question before the House is the passage of House Bill bla-bla-bla" – so no one is supposed to be bugging the members. Ultimately, by the time a bill has made it to this "reengrossed" state, it has been heard in at least one committee (possibly two) and been debated before the committee of the whole, which is a fancy way of saying debated on the second reading before the whole House. Along the way, if there were any amendments to be made – I saw a bill with over 50 amendments the other day – they should have been presented prior to third reading.

Well, because this journey to third reading is so laborious, members hate to hear the phrase, "Mr. Speaker I have an amendment to propose," when it is in the third reading. In fact, before the second syllable of "amendment" is spoken the whole chamber erupts with sanguine S's while the members hiss and stare at the recognized representative with loathing. "Hissssssssssss, (you evil bitch!)" OK, so I added the last phrase as part of my poetic license, but I swear that if you listen closely enough and speak parsel-tongue, you'll hear it. Anyway, because this is so late in the game, the House then roll-call-votes to determine if the amendment will even be entertained. And, if it passes and they then move to read the amendment in its entirety, that's when you hear the groans as members push themselves back into their creaky green chairs.

So far, it's one of my favorite quirks about the House.

Because this has been so much fun for me, I've decided to start doing a little podcasting where I can bring you some of the flavors of Denver. They wont be all that fancy – if you're expecting something like This American Life, give it up – but I'll try to make them short, interesting, and semi-regular. (That phrase should be just enough to get me out of it if they suck or take too much time..."plausible deniability", best phrase I ever learned in international politics.)



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As You May Already Know...

So, as you may already know, my wife kicks some serious ass. I just thought that I would point out that she and another colleague at CU just had a little article published this last week. Granted, it was only a small article in on a small site, but still damn cool.

So all of you reveling in the year of Darwin, take in their thoughts as it pertains to teaching science today:

How the Incoherent State of Science and Mathematics Education Undermines Biological (and Scientific) Literacy.