text:
| Home | Advertise with Us | Circulation | Contact Us | About Us | Send a Letter to the Editor |
4-H Program Coordinator
Winona County
Record Keeping - this is an integral part of 4-H Youth Development. Record keeping is one of the many life skills needed throughout life and one that is taught in the 4-H Program through the four-fold development of Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. Through the development of "Head" the life skills of Managing; which includes resiliency, keeping records, wise use of resources, planning and organizing, and goal settings; and Thinking which includes service learning, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and learning to learn are targeted.
The 4-H records have three functions: planning - what one wants to learn or do in a project; reporting - what one accomplished; and evaluating - how well one did. These records that our 4-H'ers keep are a teaching and learning tool to be used throughout the 4-H year by which a 4-H'er is not just doing an activity but also learning by doing it, sharing it, understanding it, relating it and using it. Record keeping also encourages reflection, the understanding and relating of the project so that the 4-H'er may apply their learning to other situations and to future planning. Through record keeping our youth have the ability to see to what degree they have participated and grown in 4-H activities and how they have improved in their project work. Also, they see how they have helped to improve their communities for others. Records most importantly help 4-H members establish goals, assume responsibility, collect data and evaluate their progress.
Winona County 4-H Program recently recognized our county 4-H'ers who submitted their records for evaluation at both the club and county level. Clubs were recognized for their overall commitment and accomplishment, state fair participants and judging teams were also recognized along with our 4-H'ers graduating from their career within the 4-H Program. Following are the results:
6 grade + record winners
Heidi Allen - Beef, Swine
Paige Allen - Beef, Horticulture/Gardening,Swine
Riley Anderson - Beef
Nathan Bergan - Fine Arts, Poultry
Chelsea Berndt - Veterinary Science, Goat, Exploring Animals, Safety, Photography,
Poultry, Consumer Ed, Global Connections,Food & Nutrition
Bo Beyer - Swine
Brooke Beyer - Swine
Lisa Brogan - Beef, Clothing
Mara Brogan - Clothing, Beef
Stacy Brogan - Beef, Clothing
Jordan Buckbee - Poultry
Jaymi Buege - Fine Arts
Indiana Burt - Rabbit, Horse, Food & Nutrition, Arts & Crafts
Kaitlyn Carothers - Arts & Crafts, Exploring the Environment, VeterinaryScience,Horticulture, Needlearts, Photography, Self-Determined, Gardening
Janan Christie - Dairy
Emily Clobes - Arts & Crafts, Exploring Animals
Kelly Conner - Home Environment, Sheep
Shane Coulter - Beef, Goat
Bethany Dahl - Demonstration
Jeff Dick - Sheep
Joe Dick - Sheep
Scott Dick - Sheep
Regina Dolan - Clothing
Christopher Dranckhahn - Self-Determined, Health, Wildlife, Food & Nutrition
Michael Duncanson - Dairy
Nick Duncanson - Dairy
Katie Dunlay - Dog
Lisa Ellinghuysen - Horse
Laurie Ellsworth - Dog, Poultry
John Gaspar - Arts & Crafts
Anna Gaspar - Quilting, Clothing, Fine Arts,Child Development, Llama
Danielle Haag - Beef
Cody Hager - Self-Determined
Shea Halvorson - Swine
Amanda Harguth - Beef
Wyatt Harguth - Beef
Kyle Honsey - Photography
Derek Ihrke - Dairy, Rabbit
Lance Ihrke - Dairy, Rabbit
Lyndsie Kaehler - Beef
Cortney Kieffer - Dairy
Alex Kjos - Goat, Creative Arts
Nick Kryzer - Swine
Alexandria Kvenvold - Dairy
Jenelle Laska - Dairy
Nathan Laska - Dairy
Joe Lorenz - Swine
Victoria Lorenz - Swine
Jordyn Lubinski - Beef
Maggie Lubinski - Beef
Alicia Metz - Pets, Fine Arts, Photography, Consumer Ed, Citizenship, Exploring Animals, Home Environment
Britany Metz - Consumer Education, Creative Arts, Fine Arts, Vet Science, Child Development, Forestry
Courtney Metz - Photography, Needlearts
Emily Moses - Horticulture/Gardening, Poultry, Pets
Allie Mueller - Sheep, Needlearts, Food & Nutrition
Barry Nelson - Arts & Crafts, Photography, Self Determined, Performing Arts, Citizenship, Rabbits, Poultry
Katie Olson - Dairy
Katelyn Orth - Dairy, Creative Arts
Gretchen Papenfuss - Poultry
Adam Pecinovsky - Swine
Jared Persons - Self-Determined
John Peterson - Fine Arts, Sheep
Tess Polachek - Performing Arts
Michelle Potter - Clothing
Samantha Quandahl - Photography
Mike Reps - Swine
Marty Reps - Swine
Nick Reps - Dairy
Samantha Reps - Clothing
Chantel Ressie - Beef
Katie Richards - Arts & Crafts, Photography,Self-Determined, Demonstration, Clothing, Poultry
Joshua Roberts - Rabbits
Claire Sackreiter - Beef, Swine, Self-Determined
Emily Sackreiter - Beef, Swine, Rabbit
Mary Sackreiter - Beef, Rabbit, Swine, Food & Nutrition, Fine Arts
Hailey Samples - Photography
Pete Schell - Dairy
Carl Schlitz - Self-Determined
Jared Seinola - Beef
Cedric Speltz - Clothing, Dairy
Hilman Speltz - Dairy
Samantha Steinfest - Rabbit, Photography, Food & Nutrition, Horse, Horse-Related
Dion Stephans - Pets
Stephanie Stephans - Fine Arts & Crafts, Pets, Photography
Aaron Thesing - Dairy
Brandon Thesing - Dairy
Tracy Traxler - Clothing
Adam Troendle - Aerospace
Jason Troendle - Horticulture/Gardening, Swine
Rachel Troendle - Clothing
Jackie Tveten - Dairy
Zach Vick - Goat
Tiffany Wait - Rabbit, Creative Arts, Health, Performing Arts, Pets, Photography, Citizenship, Home Environment, Horticulture/Gardening, Child Development
Brenda West - Exploring Animals
Jessica Woodard - Beef
Heather Zimmerman - Rabbit
3-5th grade winners
Ross Anderson - Wildlife
Ashley Beyer - Horse, Home Environment, Woodworking
Jessica Buckbee - Food & Nutrition
Cody Coulter - Horticulture, Swine
Daniel Dahl - Aerospace
Destiny Dux - Clothing, Pets, Performing Arts, Llama, Electric, Exploring Animals, Food Preservation, Fine Arts, Creative Arts, Home Environment, Fashion Revue, Entomology, Photography, Digital Photography
Laine Halvorson - Swine, Horticulture, Food & Nutrition
Clint Harguth - Beef
Abe Hauge - Beef
JorliI Hauge - Beef
Carmen Kryzer
Spencer Kurth - Poultry
Claire Mastenbrook - Creative Crafts, Fine Arts
Nathan Metz - Exploring Animals
Aaron Miller - Beef
Susan Miller - Clothing, Geology, Llama, Self-Determined, Horticulture, Arts & Crafts, Entomology, Woodworking, Forestry
Karli Moger - Fleece Blanket
Grace Nelson - Food & Nutrition, Clothing, Entomology, Child Development, Needlearts
Joshiah Nelson - Forestry, Self-Determined, Wildlife, Arts & Crafts, Woodworking
Michael Nunemacher - Woodworking, Wildlife/Biology, Food & Nutrition
Eryn Orth
Lydia Papenfuss - Fine Arts
Cody Pecinovsky - Food & Nutrition
Elizabeth Polachek - Llama, Exploring Animals, Wildlife
Abbey Quandahl - Performing Arts
Emily Quandahl - Performing Arts
Nathan Reps - Dairy
Trisha Reps - Clothing
Jackson Riebel - Beef, Photography
Megan Seeley - Entomology
Kelsie Snyder - Poultry, Arts & Crafts
Galyn Speltz - Creative Arts
Amanda Steinfest - Rabbit, Fine Arts
Melinda Steinfest - Arts & Crafts, Horse
Grant Vick - Goat, Horticulture
Taylor Wait - Arts & Crafts, Photography, Fine Arts, Horticulture/Gardening, Child Development, Pets, Clothing, Home Environment
Nicole Zettler - Clothing
Cloverbuds - K-2nd Grade
Andrew Bergan - SC, Jenny Beyer - UV, John Clobes - ERP, Colter Dabelstein - SC, Amy Pospichal-Heublein - ERP, Chelsey Honsey - HH, Steve Kurth - SHH, Thomas Luhmann - HH, Holly McElmury - LHHH, Alec Meinke - BCSE, Hayden Meinke - BCSE, Kenzie Mueller - SC, Paige Mundt - SC, Rachel Nunemacher - LVV, Pearl Papenfuss - PBB, Maddie Puetz - UV, Lauren Reps - SC, Sam Riebel - SHH, Avery Simmons - BCSE, Amelia Speltz - LHHH, Shawn Wegman - SC
Key Awards (Certificate & Pin)
Katie Olson - FGC, Tiffany Wait - WRC
Leadership (Certificate)
Lisa Brogan -SC, Mara Brogan - SC, Paul Brogan - SC, Stacy Brogan - SC, Eric Decker - SC, Shea Halverson - UV, Lance Ihrke - UV, Cortney Kieffer - UV, Nathan Laska - PBB, Tiffany Wait - WRC
4-H Achievement Award
Tiffany Wait - WRC
4-H Alumni
Janet Beyer - SHH, Gerard Brogan - SC, John Brogan - SC
Federation Officers '05-'06 (pins)
Hailey Samples - President
Andy Kryzer - Vice President
Tiffany Wait" Secretary
Cortney Kieffer - Treasurer
Maggie Lubinski - Reporter
Claire Sackreiter & Shane Coulter - Historians
Mara Brogan, Derek Ihrke - At Large
4-H Graduates
Lisa Brogan - SC, Stacy Brogan - SC, Lisa Ellinghuysen - WF, Margaret Groth - PBB, Taylor Halverson - UV, Amanda Harguth - LVV, Heather Kelly - SC, Holly Kelly - SC, Katie Olson - FGC, Michael Reps - HH, Matthew Speltz - MVB
4-H'ERS with 5+ Records
Chelsea Berndt - SHH, Kaitlyn Carothers - WRC, Destiny Dux - WRC, Anna Gaspar - WRC, Alicia Metz - HH, Brittany Metz - HH, Susan Miller - WRC, Barry Nelson - BCSE, Grace Nelson - HH, Josiah Nelson - HH, Katie Richards - SC, Mary Sackreiter - SC, Samantha Steinfest - ASR, Taylor Wait - WRC, Tiffany Wait - WRC
State Fair Demonstrations
Bethany Dahl - UV, Katie Richards - SC, Brenda West - ERP
State Fair Purple Ribbon Winners (Certificate)
Heidi Allen - Beef
Brady Beyer - Swine
Brian Beyer - Swine
Lisa Brogan - Beef
Kaitlyn Carothers - Needlearts
Shane Coulter - Goat
Regina Dolan - Fashion Revue
Dani Haag - Beef
Cody Hager- Self Determined
Wyatt Harguth - Beef Showmanship
Lance Ihrke - Dairy
Alex Kjos - Fine Arts
Andy Kryzer - Swine
Emily Moses - Poultry
John Peterson - Sheep
Michael Reps - Swine
State Fair Judging Teams:
Rabbit - Tiffany Wait, Indie Burt, Samantha Steinfest
Horse - Lisa Ellinghuysen, Lindsay Schwantz
Dairy -
Senior Team 1 - Cortney Kieffer, Nathan Laska, Brandon Thesing, Abbie Wirt
Individual - Katie Olson
Intermediate Team 1 - Jessica Woodard, Michael Duncanson, Aaron Thesing, Jacki Tveten
Intermediate Team 2 - Andrew Hornberg, Nick Reps, Pete Schell
Top Secretary Books:
Altura Sky Rockets
Echo Ridge Pioneers
Saratoga Challengers
Utica Victory
Club Achievement (Certificates)
Lewiston Helping Hands & Hearts
Little ValleyVictors
Mt. Vernon Beacons
Pleasant Busy Bees
Silo Happy Hustlers


text:
Tue, Jul 23, 13 at 7:10
â–¶ I recently planted a Pinto Bean & I have a 1 month old Navy bean . I heard it will take a while for beans to mature so do you think I would have time to cross pollinate? |
Follow-Up Postings:
These beans do not need to be cross pollinated, they are both of the type phaseolus vulgaris. They pollinate themselves, even before the blossoms open. You get beans from both varieties without any bees or other insects pollinating and you don't need two varieties for pollination. |
I get where you are going with this question: If you want to try a deliberate cross, all you need are two flowers at the same time. Beans do not flower all at once but over time, so there could well be enough overlap. Easier if you had more than one plant each of course. |
- Posted by QuisqueyaBeans none (My Page) on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 6:18
Thank you Galina. |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Beans, Peas & Other Legumes Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A cousin-in-law on Facebook (I know, I know) put up something that a friend of hers said about the tragedy happening because everyone does not put wonderful, loving 'god' first in their lives, blah, blah, blah. I, of course, couldn't keep my mouth shut and said it had nothing to do with religion, moral people are moral people, and this guy was obviously insane. Then the cousin-in-law said she believes 'god' has something to do with EVERYTHING.
WHAT THE FUCK do you say to that? REALLY? Her 'god' had something to do with that? And WHY would you worship something that had the power, but didn't do anything to save those babies?????
I know, we talk about this all the time. I really just want to be a hermit. I hate dumb people, and there are WAY too many of them.
Seems like god has a lack or power, because individual schools get to decide if they want to let him in.
Thanks Steph, too bad we had to have it! The world can be a horrible, cruel place.
Yes, booklover the news has been so horrible lately. My mom said she couldn't sleep and was so upset over those children losing their lives. It's been so horrible and sad.
© 2015 Atheist Nexus. All rights reserved. Admin: Richard Haynes.


text:
Looking for prescription drug prices?
Prescription co-pays vary by insurance coverage. As a result, we don't provide a drug price until we process your prescription and determine your co-pay.
For out-of-pocket prices:
- In-Store, call your local Walgreens pharmacy.
- Online at Walgreens.com, call 877-250-5823, toll-free anytime day or night.
Drug Information For:
Ingredient Name:
CROMOLYN (KROE-moe-lin)Drug Manufacturer:
MONARCHCommon Uses:
This medicine is a mast cell stabilizer used to prevent asthma attacks. It may also be used to treat other conditions as determined by your doctor.Before Using This Medicine:
INFORM YOUR DOCTOR OR PHARMACIST of all prescription and over-the-counter medicine that you are taking. Inform your doctor of any other medical conditions, allergies, pregnancy, or breast-feeding.How to Use This Medicine:
Follow the directions for using this medicine provided by your doctor. THIS MEDICINE MAY COME with an instruction leaflet. Ask your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist any questions that you may have before using this medicine. BEFORE USING THIS MEDICINE: be sure that the canister is properly inserted into the inhaler unit and SHAKE WELL. Exhale slowly. UNLESS YOUR DOCTOR HAS TOLD YOU OTHERWISE, position the mouthpiece between your lips and try to rest your tongue flat. Your doctor may have told you to hold the inhaler 1 or 2 inches (2 or 3 centimeters) away from the open mouth or may have instructed you to use a special spacing device. AS YOU START TO TAKE A SLOW, DEEP BREATH, PRESS THE CANISTER AND THE MOUTHPIECE TOGETHER at exactly the same time to administer a dose of this medicine. Continue inhaling slowly and deeply and hold your breath for as long as comfortable, then exhale slowly through pursed lips or through your nose. If more than 1 inhalation is to be used, wait a few minutes and repeat the above process. RINSE YOUR MOUTH OR GARGLE with water after using this medicine to prevent mouth sores or bad taste. KEEP THE SPRAY away from your eyes. KEEP TRACK OF THE NUMBER OF SPRAYS YOU USE and subtract this number from the number of doses in the container. This will help you know when the container is becoming empty. STORE THIS MEDICINE at room temperature, away from heat and light. IF YOU MISS A DOSE OF THIS MEDICINE, use it as soon as possible, then go back to your regular dosing schedule.Cautions:
THIS MEDICINE WILL NOT STOP AN ASTHMA ATTACK once one has started. IF YOU ARE ALSO USING A BRONCHODILATOR INHALER, be sure to always carry the bronchodilator inhaler with you to use during asthma attacks. AFTER YOU BEGIN USING THIS MEDICINE, a few weeks may pass before the full benefit is obtained. Continue to use it as directed during this time. DO NOT EXCEED THE RECOMMENDED DOSE without checking with your doctor. DO NOT STOP USING THIS MEDICINE without first checking with your doctor. BEFORE YOU HAVE ANY MEDICAL OR DENTAL TREATMENTS, EMERGENCY CARE, OR SURGERY, tell the doctor or dentist that you are using this medicine. IF YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY USING THIS MEDICINE or are having side effects like mouth sores or bad taste, ask your doctor or pharmacist about using a spacing device. BEFORE YOU BEGIN TAKING ANY NEW MEDICINE, either prescription or over-the-counter, check with your doctor or pharmacist. FOR WOMEN: IT IS UNKNOWN IF THIS MEDICINE IS EXCRETED in breast milk. IF YOU ARE OR WILL BE BREAST-FEEDING while you are using this medicine, check with your doctor or pharmacist to discuss the risks to your baby.Possible Side Effects:
SIDE EFFECTS, that may go away during treatment, include cough, hoarseness, throat irritation, bad taste, or nausea. If they continue or are bothersome, check with your doctor. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist. This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur. If you have questions about side effects, contact your healthcare provider. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.Overdose:
If overdose is suspected, contact your local poison control center or emergency room immediately.Additional Information:
Carry an identification card at all times that says you are taking this medicine. ALWAYS HAVE A SPARE INHALER available in case the unit malfunctions or is empty. DO NOT SHARE THIS MEDICINE with others for whom it was not prescribed. DO NOT USE THIS MEDICINE for other health conditions. KEEP THIS MEDICINE out of the reach of children. IF USING THIS MEDICINE FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME, obtain refills before your supply runs out.Copyright 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.


text:
Category: Health & Safety ×
Subcategory: EHS Consulting ×
Location: Asia & Middle East ×
Location: China ×
Enerflex Systems Ltd
based in Calgary, ALBERTA (CANADA)
Enerflex is a leading provider of: Natural gas compression, power generation and process equipment for either sale, rent or lease. Hydrocarbon production and processing facilities. Electrical, instrumentation and controls services. A comprehensive package of field maintenance and contracting capabilities.
Solar-Fabrik AG
based in Freiburg, GERMANY
Solar-Fabrik is one of Europe`s most experienced solar companies. The key element of our philosophy is to strive for Premium solar power solutions with permanently high yields. Our Premium modules are characterized by an extremely high level of efficiency and excellent durability. This allows us to guarantee our customers a safe investment and long-term profitability.Our ...
Clean Air Engineering, Inc.
based in Palatine, ILLINOIS (USA)
Clean Air Engineering's experience stretches across a variety of industries concerned with Air Quality Management. Air pollution control and engineering services, stack-testing, compliance audits and equipment rental-- this is standard environmental compliance fieldwork, and our field services are highly respected in the emissions monitoring business.
based in Braintree, UNITED KINGDOM
RDC starting life as a computer auction business, sourcing and selling second hand computer equipment to be sold at live auctions. Several years later product sales developed into an encompassed end of life ICT solution and RDC became a specialist end of life solution for used and obsolete IT assets, focusing on the secure deletion of data stored on used computer ...
ENGlobal Engineering, Inc.
based in Houston, TEXAS (USA)
ENGlobal founded in 1985, is a provider of engineering and related project services primarily to the energy sector throughout the United States and internationally. ENGlobal operates through two business segments: Automation and Engineering. ENGlobal's Automation segment provides services related to the design, fabrication and implementation of advanced automation, ...
Qatar Petroleum
based in Doha, QATAR
Qatar Petroleum (QP), a state-owned corporation established in 1974, is responsible for all phases of the oil and gas industry in Qatar. The principal activities of Qatar Petroleum and its subsidiaries and joint ventures cover exploration, drilling and production operations, transport, storage, marketing and sale of crude oil, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas, ...
Belzona Great Lakes Holdings Ltd.
based in Richmond Hill, ONTARIO (CANADA)
Belzona Great Lakes Repairs, Protects, and Improves. From power generation to pulp and paper, agricultural to marine, water processing to oil and gas, Belzona Great Lakes, a Belzona exclusive authorized Distributor for the province of Ontario, provides products and services to solve the maintenance issues that arise from the equipment and structures in these industries. ...
Dantec Dynamics
based in Skovlunde, DENMARK
Dantec Dynamics` main area of activity is development and sales of integrated measurement systems for diagnostics and research into fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, microfluidics, spray analysis and combustion technology. Our systems are used to obtain measurement data of physical properties in air, gases, liquids and solid materials. Quantitative measurement data ...
Complianz World
based in Phoenix, ARIZONA (USA)
Complianz World, a leading GRC training provider, brings a range of topics related to compliance, delivered through webinars by industry experts. Complianz World is established to impart high quality training on governance, regulations and compliance (GRC) through webinars and seminars. We are passionate about processes, procedures, safety and regulations across ...
based in Oklahoma City, OKLAHOMA (USA)
Online safety training for organizations of all shapes and sizes. We provide innovative e-learning solutions to meet your professional development, regulatory compliance, and risk management challenges. Our online safety training solution provides training for your organization 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


text:
I've finally decided my most persistant pest/disease problem is mites, but I don't know what kind. Those russet mites sound like a major problem. Which ones are these? you might be able to see a few more pictures by clicking on the "prev" and "next" buttons. I'll post a picute on another thread with the damage. |
Here is a link that might be useful: might these be mites?
Follow-Up Postings:
Hi Nanelle, that picture is not spitder mites. SM are very, very small--1/50 of an inch!!! You need a 10x hand lens to really see them when they first start developing , later you may observe webbing on the underside of leaf and the tiny spider mites in the webbing. Growers use potent miticides --the homeowner , insecticidal soaps and oil. Is there any chance you have an extension office near by?? Run a few leaves over there and they will look under a microscope and tell you for sure. Best of luck--I saw your beautiful plants in the gallery so hope you get these difficult pests under control. Farkee |
Here is a link that might be useful: Excellent link on spider mites
I always seem to forget something--I just saw your title of thread. Russet mites can be controlled with sulphur. I would ask specifically at the extension if they are russet mites or 2-spotted. Good luck! |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Tomato Pests & Diseases Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here


text:
Apparently not at Bryan College (yes, that Bryan) in Dayton, Tennessee (yes, that Dayton), according to an article in yesterdayâs Times. The college, founded in 1930, requires faculty to sign a statement agreeing to certain reactionary views on creation and evolution, including, âThe origin of man was by fiat of God,â according to the article by Alan Blinder.
Several months ago, the college added a âclarificationâ to the effect that Adam and Eve âare historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms,â according to Blinder. There is a ray of hope, however: âHundredsâ of students out of a student body of approximately 700 petitioned the trustees and opposed the clarification. Two faculty members filed a lawsuit, arguing that the college charter does not permit the trustees to change the statement of belief. A biology professor, Brian Eisenback, called the clarification âscientifically untenableâ and accepted a position at another Christian liberal arts college in Tennessee.
Others argue that a college is not a church and should not prescribe doctrine, but the trustees are determined to enforce their policy. The president, Stephen D. Livesay, noted
But this is Bryan College, and this is something thatâs important to us. Itâs in our DNA⦠[my italics].
I trust that I am not the only one who finds that allusion uproariously funny.


text:
Welcome aboard Pat!
Hi ya!
I am new to WDW Radio Forums. My name is Pat.
I am a retiree, but work part time at Target and have loved Disney, and been vacationing there, since my son was 2.
I am a DVC member, OKW my home resort, but love Boardwalk, have stayed also at BLT.
Disney is a special family thing for myself, son, and my mother, since passed.
Great to be a board here at WDW Radio.
Welcome aboard Pat!
"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."
Welcome !!!!
91= Grand Floridan 01= All Star Sports 11= Music
92= Grand Floridan 02= All Star Movies 12= Movies
93= Caribbean Beach 03= Old Key West 13= Sports
94= All Star Sports 04= Pop Century 14= Sports / Sports
95= French Quarter 05= Pop Century
96= Dixie Landing 06= Grand Floridan
97= All Star Music 07= All Star Sports
98= All Star Sports 08= Pop Century
99= All Star Movies 09= All Star Sports
00= All Star Music 10= All Star Music
Welcome Pat!
When you wish upon a star.....
Adults are only kids grown up, anyway. WD
...That's the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. WD
"For those who get it, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation will do."
"A dream is a wish your heart makes..."
Me (Jamie) - 34 DD (Kayla) - 7
TRIP REPORT AUGUST 2011 http://www.wdwradio.com/forums/showt...l=1#post972048
Hey everyone,
thanks for all the warm welcomes, looking forward to exploring WDW Radio forums, podcasts, etc.....
Glad to have ya!
You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
Walt Disney
Welcome to the boards!!!
Lord High Keeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, Counselor in Moments of Temptation, and Guide along the Straight and Narrow Path and Oldest Active DWT/WDW Radio Member
DL: 1955* (1); WDW: 1977* (2), 1980* (2), 1985* (3), 1989* (3), 1996 (ASMu-3), 1999 (ASMo-3), 2000 (ASMu-2/PO-2), 2001 (ASMu-5), 2002 (ASMu-5), 2003 (ASMo-5), 2004* (8), 2004 (ASMo-8), 2005 (PC-10), 2006* (15), 2007* (20), 2008* (22), 2009* (26), 2010* (27), 2011* (32), 2012* (39), 2013* (36), 2013* (15), 2013* (9), 2013* (13), 2014* (40) 2014 (20) Total Trips/Days = 27/376
*Off Property
Hello and welcome!!
"Most of my life I have done what I wanted to do. I have had fun on the job.I have never been able to confine that fun to office hours." ~ Walt Disney


text:
pairing the organic abstractions by Ikeda with the post-minimal expressionist paintings by Hodder. In the Theater Gallery is Lost and Found: A North Sea Collaboration,
featuring sculptures by Carl Reed and Thomas Claesson. These shows are not to be missed. Through April 1 at the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, 720-898-7200, www.arvadacenter.org.West of Center. Rambling over the three levels of MCA Denver, this exhibit is part of an informal national trend that aims to upwardly reappraise the place of the American West in the art world. The show, the full title of which is West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965-1977, was organized by director Adam Lerner and his wife and co-curator, Elissa Auther; they also co-edited a scholarly catalogue on the subject, the scope of which is far broader than that of this exhibit. The displays are not sequential, but rather a series of completely autonomous presentations, each devoted to a different part of the topic. The curators have cast a wide net, in the process deconstructing standard ideas about art in the West from that time, typically seen as being dominated by psychedelic posters — which aren't even included here. Instead they present the Cockettes drag-queen group, Black Panther broadsides and the utopian Ant Farm Collective. The show's crescendo centers on Colorado's own Drop City. Through February 19 at MCA Denver, 1485 Delgany Street, 303-298-7554, www.mcadenver.org. Reviewed December 22.


text:
Home → Center for Best Practice → Case Studies → Ready, Aim...
Ready, Aim...
RSU 18 Customized Learning Implementation Case Study
- Introduction
- Ready, Aim...
- Critical Ideas
- A Change Model
- Purpose, Vision and Ownership
- Purpose and Vision: Making the Case for Transformation
- Building Capacity: Partnership with Other Districts
- Professional Development
- Building Capacity: Pilot Programs
- Considerations
- Entering Phase Two
Regional School Unit 18 is a far-flung district straddling the Kennebec River Valley in central Maine. It was consolidated on July 1, 2009, and comprises Oakland, China, Sidney, Belgrade and Rome. It has a population of approximately 3,100 students, PreK-12.?The majority of RSU 18's high school students ? numbering 810 ? attend Messalonskee High School in Oakland.? High school-age students in China are given a choice of area schools to attend.?Since the spring of 2010, the district has been in what the administration calls phase one of a planned implementation of reforms centered on proficiency-based education and customized learning.?The purpose of this phase is to "establish strategic direction." At the time of this writing, spring of 2012, the district is on the verge of entering phase two, or "strategic implementation and organizational alignment."?The goal of phase two is to implement a customized-learning model throughout the district.?This case study explores how the district has navigated the implementation of this model up to this point.?For this case study, 17 teachers and administrators from a variety of buildings and grade levels were interviewed in January 2012.
Ready, Aim...
In May 2009, administrators, board members and teachers of the soon-to-be-created Regional School Unit 18 participated in a series of conferences held by the Reinventing Schools Coalition (RISC), a group of educators providing training in a particularly concise model of proficiency-based education that they had developed and successfully implemented in their home state of Alaska.? The idea, according to Assistant Superintendent Linda Laughlin, was that the district was just "collecting information."? This was an appropriate and prudent position for a district that had an awful lot going on, including ? along with the very creation of the district ? the hiring of new superintendent, Gary Smith.? Consolidation of the school systems of MSAD 47 (Oakland, Belgrade, Sidney and Rome) and those of China required a lot of what Smith refers to as "heavy lifting."? Policy, finance, contracts and governance all had to be wrestled with at the ground level.? At the same time, the economies of the world were threatening collapse, and "budget season" throughout Maine became an all-consuming adventure.? A lot was going on at RSU 18.
Critical Ideas
Over that year, though, every faculty member, every school board member, every administrator and most of the support staff, attended the introductory training, Understanding the Model, which makes the theoretical and moral case for a shift to a comprehensive system of proficiency-based education.? The system is based in mission and vision work, shared leadership, and an ethic of continuous improvement.? It presents a model in which learners are given voice and choice in how and when they meet a transparent set of achievement standards.? Learner advancement no longer happens according to a learner's age.? Rather, it is based on achievement.? For example, when a 10 year old, demonstrates that they've mastered level three of the geometry standard, they move on to level four, regardless of what other 10 year olds are doing.? Similarly, a 10 year old who has not demonstrated that they've mastered that level will continue to receive instruction and coaching and will continue working until they do demonstrate mastery. Every child learns at his or her own pace, therefore every child moves at his or her own pace.?
At the same time district employees were encountering these ideas, RSU 18, like many districts in the state, explored other similar approaches, folding them together and making something of its own. Inevitable, written by Bea McGarvey and Chuck Schwahn (2011), presents a model of education, called mass customized learning, which argues that, for the first time, technology makes it possible to provide and track the sort of individualized, learner-driven educational experience that sees student achievement as inevitable rather than variable.? It makes an argument that has been both persuasive and hopeful.? To quote Linda Laughlin, "Inevitable let me know it could be done." It has since become common around the district to refer to the whole set of reforms discussed here as "customized learning." Another important work floating around the district, and the subject of reading groups and professional development, was The Art and Science of Teaching, by Robert Marzano, which focuses on proficiency-based instruction and formative assessment.? For many teachers, administrators and parents in RSU 18, this confluence of ideas was thrilling.?Add Tony Wagner's The Global Achievement Gap ? which argues that the American school system has become dangerously outdated and ineffective at producing graduates who can function with facility in the 21st century ? and a genuine sense of urgency emerged.?
A Change Model
Superintendent Gary Smith had been involved in organizational change in his pre-superintendent's life in the private sector.? He knew that true systemic change involved not only a vision and a sense of urgency, but also a good amount of "heavy lifting."? He knew that systemic change does not occur by happenstance.? The model embraced by RSU 18 is that propounded in the 2010 book, Total Leader 2.0 (Schwahn & Spady, 2010).? The book argues that successful systemic change is possible only if the leadership succeeds in doing five things:? 1) articulating a compelling purpose for the change, 2) presenting a concrete vision of the change, 3) creating widespread constituent ownership of the change, 4) creating constituency/staff capacity for change and 5) providing tangible and sustained support for change.
Throughout the period of trainings in which the district was "collecting information," the district was beginning to enact these steps.? With the newly consolidated district settling into itself, RSU 18 pursued the customized learning model in a non-prescriptive, organic way.? Action occurred on five particular fronts:? 1) making the case for change, 2) establishing a mission and vision, 3) developing partnerships with other districts, 4) providing focused professional development and 5) piloting programs in the schools.? The first two of these mirror clearly the Total Leader 2.0 steps of establishing purpose and vision.? The visioning process and the ongoing professional development (described below) address the ownership and the capacity of all stakeholders to make systemic change.? The professional development and pilot programs demonstrate the beginnings of district and community support for this change.? All of this happened between the fall of 2010 and the spring of 2012.
Purpose, Vision and Ownership
When the district had been in the process of consolidation ? still exploring merger options with other towns that, in the end, opted out ? the candidate districts framed an educational mission and vision. Initially, the nascent RSU 18 decided to function under the makeshift mission and vision, but in March 2010, consultant Mary Jane McCalmon was hired to lead a proper Future Search ? a protocol by which the community discusses and comes to an agreement on what the values and outcomes of their school district should be.?Eighty students, teachers, administrators, board members, parents and community members participated.?The shared vision that was produced, formally adopted by the school board in October 2010, contained a number of key customized learning ideas.?For example:
RSU 18 is a community where?
- All students are prepared to succeed in society by demonstrating mastery of a common set of rigorous standards.
- All students engage in creative and innovative learning strategies.? They use technology and other tools to connect to the world outside the classroom.
- Students pursue multiple pathways inside and outside the classroom to achieve their learning goals.? Learning takes place without boundaries of time and space.
In an accompanying document produced at the same time, "RSU 18 Core Values and Beliefs," the ideals of customized learning are even more explicitly asserted.? Supporting a "learner-centered educational system," the document includes the following points:
- We believe that clear and measurable standards should exist for all students and that our curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development should align with these educational standards.
- We believe that a standards-based system should measure each student against this set of clear expectations.
- We believe that school schedules should be flexible, allowing students to learn without boundaries of time or space.
- We value a wide variety of personalized educational opportunities for all students.? These include using individualized learning plans, multiple pathways, flexible grouping and standards-based programming.
- We believe students should be grouped by proficiency levels rather than age/grade levels.
These foundational statements did not have the binding power of policy, but for teachers and administrators looking for direction and encouragement, these provided clear signposts.? The school board adopted these vision and belief statements unanimously, another powerful statement not only about the content of the vision, but also about the process that brought it about.
Purpose and Vision: Making the Case for Transformation
Since as early as 1997, when the Maine Learning Results standards were first adopted, educators in Maine have been making the case for proficiency-based education.? In RSU 18, specific professional development initiatives ? e.g., literacy work, or curriculum development aimed toward a Local Assessment System ? were very much in line with what has come to be called customized learning.? The districts that came together to make up RSU 18 had traditions of embracing reforms.? These programs, engaged in over time, "really fit together," according to one teacher, and presaged the ideas they encountered at the RISC trainings.? These ideas resonated with the educators of RSU 18.
The mission and vision developed in the Future Search laid out a case that addressed theory, outcomes and politics.? They also encompassed a moral imperative.? Theoretical concerns reflect understandings of how, according to research, learners learn; outcome concerns reflect a desire for greater achievement from learners; political concerns reflect a desire for the educational system to be accountable to the citizenry, and to support the goals of the citizenry, on a number of levels (e.g., meeting needs of kids, being fiscally responsible, equity, etc.).? Additionally, the argument for customized learning took on a moral dimension.? If we can do better by kids, says the moral argument, we must do better by kids.?
According to one teacher, "Students have always known that there was a fundamental unfairness in school, but everyone just assumed, 'That's how school is.'? But they thought change was impossible, or maybe that change could come for our children's children.? Now we see that change is happening now."
A number of educators pointed to their own experience of school during their childhoods, or direct experience with learners and classrooms.? In a very personal instance, a school board member related that her support for this reform ? indeed her impetus to join the school board ? came from her experience with a student ? a friend of her daughter's ? who became homeless in his last years in high school.? Because the boy was charming and worked genuinely hard throughout his school career, he was consistently passed along to the next grade.? But he had never mastered the skills necessary to succeed, especially in math, which can have disastrous consequences in high school and beyond.? A system with clearly articulated standards and learning targets ? and teachers with the resources and skills to take every kid to mastery ? would have addressed such a dilemma, she felt.
From the beginning, a number of teachers brought what they learned in their trainings into their classrooms.? Their experiences became an argument for continued progress.? Elizabeth Firnkes, a fifth grade teacher at the James Bean School in Sydney, may have begun this journey because the ideas "just made sense," but she continued because of what she saw in her class as she and the fifth grade team implemented a pilot.? "Kids are excited about school," she says.? "They come back from vacation or Christmas break, and they want to be at school.?The kids' excitement is the driving force. They're learning not just about the content, but about themselves as learners and human beings."? Shelly Moody and Valerie Glueck, who team-teach at Williams Elementary in Oakland, have similarly been thrilled by student appreciation for "voice and choice," for articulating their learning goals and for deciding how they will demonstrate meeting those goals.? Dave Boardman reported similar enthusiasm in his high school pilot ? including an ELA video project about customized learning created by a student.? Because of this kind of experience, Bobbi Farrell, conducting an eighth grade pilot at Messalonskee Middle School, said, unequivocally, "I would never go back to the old way of doing it."
This sentiment has become more common as the district has publicized these pilots and engaged in other promotional activities such as targeted discussions at parent nights, the continued mission and vision process, "fireside chats" with faculty, and passionate advocacy by administrators, parents and students.? Examples of this advocacy include the following:
- Parent John Dewitt wrote an editorial about customized learning for The Messalonskee Messenger, the district newspaper.
- In October 2011, at a community gathering to check the district's progress, parents and community members said, "We have to do this.? What's holding us up?"
- Messalonskee Middle School Principal Mark Hatch visited the James H. Bean School fifth grade class, site of one of the most vibrant pilots in the district.? There, according to teacher Elizabeth Firnkes, a young ("precocious") girl said words to this effect: "So, Mr. Hatch, how do you suppose you're going to meet our needs as learners when we've been fully immersed in this system, and we might get a teacher who is more traditional?how are you going to meet our needs?"
By the spring of 2012, the necessity for the implementation of customized learning was understood to a wide enough extent that one could say, as Superintendent Gary Smith did, "The district knows this has to happen."
Building Capacity: Partnership with Other Districts
RSU 18 joined a collective of districts that would become the Maine Cohort for Customized Learning in the summer of 2010.? At that time, there were six members.? Two years later, in the spring of 2012, 14 school districts comprised the MCCL, accounting for over 25,000 of Maine's students (13.6 percent).? Membership has added to RSU 18's capacity to implement this change by allowing the sharing of resources, expertise and collective wisdom.
The amount of professional development required thus far has been considerable.? Every staff member in the district has participated in the introductory Understanding the Model training.? The goal has been for all staff to participate in the next in the series, Classroom Design and Delivery (CDD, or Beacon), and for key staff to participate in Instructional Design and Delivery (IDD, or Beacon II).? Since other cohort members were attempting professional development of a similar magnitude, they were able to come together to take advantage of economies of scale.? It would be challenging for one district to train 100 teachers ? aside from the cost, there is the problem of finding substitute teachers and having 100 teachers out of their classrooms ? but the cohort could manage such numbers.? Over time, cohort members, including RSU 18, have enacted a train-the-trainer model and have begun to conduct trainings internally.? Another way in which the cohort used economies of scale is in pooling resources to bring expertise to the table.? Organizational challenges led the cohort to hire a project manager, Brett King, to coordinate the development of a technology framework for tracking and reporting learners' progress towards standards, as well as coordinating a communications platform for cohort members to share documents and engage in discussion.?
The most profound benefit of the cohort for RSU 18 has been that it allows access to the collective wisdom of many dedicated and insightful educators.? Most notably, teachers have been gathered from MCCL districts in the various content areas and have drawn up a curriculum that eschews age-based grade levels in favor of proficiency-based achievement levels.? They wrote documents that describe exactly what proficiency looks like in any particular standard and the sequence that will lead through mastering a standard.? The cohort, in this capacity, has been invaluable.? As Gary Smith said, "When this is done, the curriculum will have been reviewed by 12 districts. That's powerful."
Supporting other districts as they move toward customized learning is an explicit part of the mission of the MCCL.? Linda Laughlin ? as well as curriculum leaders from other cohort districts ? has taken on a leadership role in this capacity, conducting MCCL orientation sessions for districts that express interest.? Since the success of implementation is so heavily reliant on collaboration, the creation of a larger pool of supportive districts is in the interest of MCCL members.? "You need to increase capacity across the state," said Laughlin.? Other areas of heavy lifting (or heavy thinking) that the cohort intends to address include policy issues, such as report cards, graduation requirements, post-secondary transitions, etc.?
Professional Development
The teachers of RSU 18 have historically been receptive to professional development opportunities promoting reform.? Even after failure of the Local Assessment System movement, which the faculty had embraced, and other contentious initiatives, staff members were open to intense measures of professional development.? As explained above, beginning in 2009, every staff member in the district attended Understanding the Model training.? After this, teachers were offered Classroom Design and Delivery, Instructional Design and Delivery (IDD, or Beacon II) and Guide Training.? If they showed interest, the district took pains to arrange trainings.? "Educators value knowledge," said China Primary/Middle School Principal Carl Gartley, "and as a district, we've committed to providing that.? Any training that they've wanted, they've gotten."
RSU 18 brought in other professional development support for customized learning.? Bea McGarvey has worked with the district in a number of capacities since March of 2010.? Initially, she worked with the MCCL developing curriculum.? Later, RSU 18 brought her in specifically to do training on formative assessment and standards-based grading.? She's also been brought in as a coach for classrooms and teams running pilots.? Finally, she conducted an all-district workshop on the opening day of the 2011-12 school year.? In the midst of all this, the state adopted the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and math, which folded in nicely with the curriculum work being done by the cohort, but which required its own measure of attention.? Finally, the district worked to implement a grading software ? Educate ? which supports true standards-based reporting, requiring its own set of trainings.
The amount of professional development required has challenged the district in a number of ways.? "You can't just do it on workshop days. You have to release [teachers] from classes," says Laughlin, though this is difficult with a limited pool of substitute teachers to access.? It has been standard practice to train during the school day, but that means asking teachers to write sub plans ? and be absent from their rooms ? for two to four days at a time.? In addition to the logistical issues, there are the real costs.? Some of this has been ameliorated via cost sharing with the MCCL, but the district has directed the bulk of its professional development budget towards this effort, including some stimulus funds.
The sheer scope of professional development required, and the simple realities of trying to run a school district, has resulted in a transitional state in which different staff members are at different levels of training.? It's difficult for the administration to see how this could have been avoided.? It may simply be a condition of the transition.? There are teachers who have been trained and highly engaged since 2009, teaming up and piloting very ambitious classrooms.? At the same time, there are teachers who only went through Beacon training in spring of 2012.? If the ultimate goal of the implementation is systemic change, one question is how do you bring along "the late-comers" so that they can thrive within this new system?? The district has reaffirmed its commitment to addressing the capacity of all faculty members.? Between December 2011 and May 2012, over 40 days of professional development were scheduled in the district.
The pressure to move forward is great.? Teachers, parents and students who have embraced and thrived in this system are eager for the district to commit.? Messalonskee Middle School Principal Mark Hatch felt this pressure from the James Bean School's fifth grade students (and their parents), who have been immersed in the system for two years.? Are those fifth graders going to enter into a sixth grade in which they no longer have "voice and choice" or transparent standards with clear measures of how to demonstrate proficiency?? If the district decides that these learners will continue in a customized-learning environment, how will the district make that happen, with everyone trained to different levels?
Building Capacity: Pilot Programs
Shortly after the RISC trainings started, many teachers began small-scale pilots.? Often these involved implementing what are known as classroom tools? These are techniques used to shape the culture of the classroom to focus the task at hand.? Included in these tools are the "Parking Lot" ? a feedback device for kids to communicate concerns to teachers ? and the "Standard Operating Procedures" and "Code of Conduct," which are drawn up with the kids for each classroom and revisited and edited regularly.? This level of implementation has been almost universal in the elementary schools, though more sporadic in the middle schools and high school.
Systematic and in-depth pilots have been done throughout the district, concentrated in the elementary levels.? These pilots have provided a variety of "laboratories" in which ideas have been tried and worked out, or tried and discarded.? One tenet of the customized learning model is that mistakes are inherent in the learning process.? There have been some celebrated pilots in the district, but all of the pilots have provided essential information about customized learning.? This is especially true of those pilots that have proved more challenging.
For example, teachers Brynn Charest (grade two), Tammy Pullen (grade one) and Pam Corson (kindergarten) have been running a pilot at the Atwood Primary School in Oakland.? In this pilot, learners move freely between rooms for literacy.? One early challenge occurred when one classroom used workstations organized according to one particular model (Debbie Diller's), while the other used another model (Caf?).? The kids had difficulty moving from one system to the other and back.? The teachers stopped the pilot and now plan for all three of them to be using Caf? next year.? This underscored the value of pilots, where practice brings up issues not considered in a purely theoretical context.? The pilot brought it out: simple procedures that change from room to room can be a barrier to kids' learning.
Bobbi Farrell had a similar realization with the eighth grade ELA pilot at Messalonskee Middle School, which was focused on conventions of English.? Three eighth grade teachers participated.? One took on capitalization, another punctuation, and the third sentence structure, with units relying on web-based sources for its materials.? A problem emerged around grading procedures: only a learner's assigned teacher has the "permissions" in their grading software to enter grades for that learner.? With all three teachers sharing all eighth grade kids, each teacher would have to collect grades ? on paper ? from the other two, or they would have to share passwords to enter data into the grading software.? In the end, they passed paper grades around, but the administration and tech teams are looking to devise a more elegant solution for next year.? Theoretically, they knew in RSU 18 that grading software and management of student data would be a tricky and vital issue, but the pilot brought out some specific, urgent needs.
One problem that surfaced during all of the pilots was what Principal Mark Hatch characterized as the "system-in-a-system" problem.? For example, if a teacher is trying to run a proficiency-based classroom, reporting when a learner demonstrates proficiency, and allowing as much movement as possible, difficulty can arise at report card time, when they have to give a letter grade based on an average.? In some cases, teachers sent home a standards-based report card in addition to the regular report card, but this often caused confusion.? Also, after operating a customized-learning classroom, teachers began to question the practice of averaging grades in and of itself.? If mistakes, they argue, are a necessary part of learning, then averaging grades penalizes a learner for making mistakes while working toward proficiency.? Once proficiency was achieved, why would the mistakes they made along the way matter at all?
Another facet of the system-in-a-system dilemma has been that different classrooms have different procedures.? In the middle schools, for example, students traveling from a pilot classroom to a non-pilot classroom have to alter the way they do school for that particular hour.? For a special education student who travels frequently between rooms, according to Special Education Director Cheryl Mercier, this shift in expectations can be unnerving.? It can also be challenging for the special education support person who has work in as many as 20 different classrooms over the course of a week.
Pilots are undeniably valuable to the effort to build ownership and capacity for this change, but they are also very hard work and very emotional. A number of teachers and their principals report that they have been working harder than they have ever worked in their careers.? Yet, they also report that they are more fulfilled and more enthusiastic about education than they can remember.? To support them, the district brought in Bea McGarvey as a coach for pilot teams, and she has provided extraordinary support.? "I've had teachers who were considering retirement tell me they're going to stay in for a few more years, just to follow this through," said Gary Smith.
In conducting this study, a number of areas worthy of consideration surfaced.? These include policy, technology, collaboration, the high school and the pace of change.? Each of these will be dealt with in the following pages.
Absent so far in this phase of the implementation process has been discussion of policy, such as graduation requirements, reporting systems, hiring, evaluation, etc.? According to Gary Smith, this is intentional.? "We're just starting to get there," he said, "We know that's something we have to do over the next several years.? Thus far, it has not been a problem.? But this is the one area we have not done enough work.? We need to review our policies and edit them to structure our work."? It is, he notes, a primary element of the shift out of phase one and into phase two.? Linda Laughlin reports that she asked John Davis ? superintendent of RSU 57, who has had extensive experience implementing proficiency-based change ? what he would have done differently.? His response was that he would put off the most controversial policy changes (report cards, specifically) to the end of the process so that the system might have more time to securely develop.
Throughout the state, the relationship between special education and proficiency-based instruction has given rise to some uncertainty.? Many participants at RSU 18 used the analogy that customized learning is equivalent to an IEP for every student, and that, therefore, special education and proficiency-based learning are very compatible.? This may be true, philosophically, but federal laws surrounding special education are copious, labyrinthine, generally non-negotiable and often run counter to ideas around customized learning.? Special Education Director Cheryl Mercier, who is tasked with overseeing district compliance with those laws, described some areas of conflict that will need to be navigated.? "For example, one of the questions we ask in referrals is, 'Do they need specially designed instruction outside of the classroom?'? If that instruction is happening in the regular ed classroom because of customization, is the kid still getting special ed services?? What if every kid is getting specially designed instruction?? What if a class is broken into small groups, and the special ed tech is working with a group that has non-special ed kids?"
Gary Smith indicated that one reason the district is holding off on policy work is that, in the 2012-13 school year, the MCCL will begin focusing on policy as a group, alleviating the need for each district to tackle these issues alone.? Smith was also aware that other bodies, such as the New England Secondary Schools Consortium, were working on policy and said that RSU 18 would benefit from that work.
Chuck Schwahn and Bea McGarvey, in Inevitable, made the case that the reason the transformation to customized learning is possible now is because technology, for the first time, makes it possible.? Without the current levels of technology that Maine schools enjoy, customized learning would simply be a vision without action.? Without exception, every participant agreed that the technological capacity of the district is key to the success of this venture.? They offered two reasons.? First, technology allows for multiple pathways for students to learn and demonstrate achievement of a standard.? Second, technology allows teachers, administrators, students and parents to track and plan a learner's individual learning plan in a way that has not been possible with paper records.
The MCCL is explicit in its position that customized learning and online learning are not the same thing ? customized learning is not a matter of "just sitting the student in front of a computer with internet access" ? but they are equally explicit that online resources are a necessary option for customized learning, in order to meet the varied needs of learners and to allow for "anytime, anywhere learning."? In addition to unprecedented access to information via Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc., the Internet offers learners many options for content delivery and assessment.? Khan Academy, IXL Math, and Reading A to Z are just a few of the more well-known examples. Technological resources also allow students to gain rote knowledge on their own, while teachers work one-on-one with struggling learners.? Some concern has been expressed in the elementary levels at RSU 18 because elementary schools typically don't have the resources that the middle and high school teachers do through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative.
Many participants expressed the opinion that, without some kind of comprehensive, fluid, standards-based grading technology, the customized learning would "crumble under the weight of its own paper."? For recording and tracking student achievement of standards, RSU 18 has planned to adopt the Educate software in the 2012-13 school year.? The formative nature of the system makes it especially important that student achievement of standards be reported in real time.? In customized learning, students plans their time according to their ongoing efforts.? If teachers wait even a few days to "enter grades," students will be unable to quickly respond to feedback or take advantage of their best efforts.
One of the most significant cultural shifts embedded in customized learning is the level of collaboration required by a customized-learning approach.? Of the pilots examined for this study, only one was implemented by a single teacher; the rest were implemented by teams, either vertically (across grade levels) or horizontally (within a grade level).? One core feature of customized learning, the idea that kids should be free to move among achievement levels as they demonstrate proficiency, means that teachers have to be willing to open their classroom doors and share "their kids."? Resistance to this may stem from a desire to maintain autonomy within the classroom, or fear of losing the emotional strength of the relationships between teachers and students, especially in the primary grades.? As they should, many teachers feel a strong sense of responsibility toward "their" set of kids.
Collaboration ? sharing kids ? is non-negotiable in the customized-learning model.? After the initial RISC trainings, Shelly Moody said, "I was doing units in my class, trying to individualize, having kids monitor standards, and look at things through a standards lens, and last spring [2011], it felt like I had gone as far as I could go as an individual trying to implement this sort of work, so that's when Valerie [Glueck] and I started collaborating.? This work needs collaboration."? In the end, this collaboration, which had been a source of anxiety, became a source of satisfaction.? "With this large caseload, we feel like we've been able to have an impact on so many more kids than we've ever had before.? That's a positive, but for some people that may feel overwhelming."
Administrators report a rise in tension over the idea of vertical teaming ? i.e., collaborations between teachers of different grade levels.? At Atwood Primary, a vertical teaming pilot had to be set aside because scheduling issues.? At Messalonskee Middle School, the eighth grade pilot was initially going to be a vertical pilot, but the complications coordinating between eighth and seventh grade schedules made it undoable.? In the end, eighth grade teachers proceeded with their horizontally teamed pilot with the support of their building administrator.? This may be a "system-in-a-system" problem, though, with vertical teaming being a transition from "the old way" in which teachers share "their" kids, to the more holistic, fluid model in which all kids "belong" to all teachers.
High School
Pilots have been fewer in number at the high school.? Concern about the high school reflects a similar concern felt throughout the state.? Even at the James H. Bean School in Sidney, an elementary school, teachers have fielded questions from fifth grade parents about college acceptance and Carnegie units.? As Messalonskee High School Principal Jon Moody said, "High school will always be the place where we say a kid graduates or not.? It's more fraught."? Mary Jane McCalmon echoed this sentiment, "You will encounter anxiety about the high school everywhere.? I sympathize tremendously with those teachers at the end of the chain, because you get what you get?and you're supposed to get them to proficiency?? That's enormous pressure."? This pressure will lessen, she says, as kids come up to the high school having been through eight years of a customized-learning system.? For this reason, the administration at RSU 18 has been building capacity at elementary and middle levels, increasing the capacity of students and their parents before they enter the high school.? The district's plan is to begin implementing in the high school, in earnest, over the next two years.
When making a change of this magnitude at a high school, some concerns arise perennially, such as report cards, college acceptance, etc.? This has not yet happened on a large scale at RSU 18, though the administration expects it to.? The question about whether or not this model will impact a student's chance of getting into college has been raised, but it has not become a cause of huge concern.? That may be because the larger community conversation ? beyond the supportive visioning groups ? has been reserved for later.? School Board member Kerry Oliver said, "I'm not worried about kids getting into college.? There are pretty smart people that are in admissions, and I don't think they will be troubled by this.? The way a kid is packaged for college will change over time.? That's not a concern, but I'm concerned that other parents will see it as a concern."
The Pace of Change
On the one hand, said some of the participants, the district is "plowing ahead," moving far too fast.? On the other hand, some participants said the district is moving far too slowly.? Occasionally, a single person held both opinions, and held those opinions very strongly.? Any systems change at this level will engender moments of great anxiety.? In spring of 2012, that anxiety at RSU 18 revolved not around the idea of customized learning, but around the pace of the implementation.? How fast should implementation occur?? Linda Laughlin said, "We're trying to be very responsible.? We've been accused of moving too slowly.? But there are teachers who are telling us we're moving too fast."? Gary Smith has come to understand that different sites in the district have different requirements, "Just as we are trying to develop a customized education plan for each student, we will develop a customized implementation plan for each building."
One administrator pointed to the district's five-year plan, but asked, "Whose five years?"? If a teacher is just getting Beacon training this month, "Do they get five years?? Or did the five years start in 2009, with the first teachers to be trained?"? This administrator attributed some of the divergence of perspectives to the fact that the district looks different at different levels.? "If you are at the top level, you know that there are many people trained and ready to move on.? But as you get closer to my level, you realize there are people who are not ready.? How do you bring them along?? How does it happen?"? Many people have lagged in training for different reasons.? Some had family commitments.? Some were wary about leaving their classroom.? Some had other training obligations (especially special education teachers).? The dilemma is that you can't wait until everyone has been trained, according to another administrator, "but you need to make sure staff who are implementing this know how to do it well."
Just as some participants have called for the district to slow down ? or to "stop, check and adjust" ? others have expressed impatience.? One pilot teacher has been chomping at the bit: "Implement the foundational things!? Accountability.? Grading.? Vertical teaming.? Eliminate scheduling mandates, so kids can go where they need.? Do it, already.? Either you're going to do it or not.? Don't waste three or four years beating around the bush."? After this heated moment, though, the teacher acknowledged that administrators "have a larger picture.? But from my classroom, I would just do it.? Boom.? I know [administrators] have more concerns.? I know the reality.? I just don't like the reality."? Other participants, watching kids succeed in customized-learning pilots, are eager for the model to spread.? Principal of China Primary/Middle School Carl Gartley said, "When you walk into a classroom and see it starting to happen, you get impatient.? I walk into a room and see how well it can work, and then walk into another room that's not quite there?you get impatient."
This feeling of being torn between "Can we just do it?" and "Can we please slow down?" is perfectly captured by the aphorism, quoted by school board member Kerri Oliver, "You have to go slow to go fast."
Entering Phase Two
In January 2012, Superintendent Gary Smith put forth a proposed draft timeline for what the district has decided to call phase two ("implementation and organizational alignment") of the process. (Phase one was "establish strategic direction," Phase three is "continuous improvement and refinement").? They've abandoned the designation of "pilot" because that word implies that the transformation might not happen.? That decision has been made.? Gary Smith and the administrative team have drawn two timelines (figures 1 and 2 ? pages 15 and 16) mapping out the process for the next few years.?
Smith was careful to note that a change of this magnitude with such huge consequences for learners needs to be handled carefully.? These timelines and plans are the beginning of the phase two conversation, which will involve administration, parents, teachers, students and the community.
This Center for Best Practice is a collaboration between the Maine Department of Education and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, made possible by the contributions of the Maine schools that share their stories.


text:
- UNDP around the world
Many of UNDP's relationships with countries and territories on the ground exceed 60 years. Find details on our successes and ongoing work. Visit UNDP's global website.
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Angola
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Congo (Dem. Republic of)
- Congo (Republic of)
- Costa Rica
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- Denmark (Rep. Office)
- Djibouti
- Dominican Republic
- E.U. (Rep. Office)
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Finland (Rep. Office)
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Geneva (Rep. Office)
- Georgia
- Ghana
- Guatemala
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq (Republic of)
- Jamaica
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kosovo (as per UNSCR 1244)
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Lao PDR
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mauritius & Seychelles
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nepal
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Norway (Rep. Office)
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People
- Russian Federation
- Rwanda
- Samoa (Multi-country Office)
- São Tomé and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Swaziland
- Sweden (Rep. Office)
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tokyo (Rep. Office)
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
Regional Presence
Much of UNDP's work is administered through 5 regional bureaus. - Operations
- Research & Publications
- News Centre
Research & Publications
Asia Pacific Human Development Report 2006 - Trade on Human Terms
In Asia and the Pacific, trade has proved that it can provide jobs and higher incomes for millions. At the same time, many people have yet to benefit, including poor farmers marginalized by trade barriers and distorted agricultural prices; workers who lose jobs in domestic industries due to themore
Communication for Empowerment in Nepal
Indigenous peoples are among the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in the world. In Nepal, the excluded groups are comprised of women, Dalits (so called "untouchable"), indigenous peoples (IPs) and religious minorities. People in these groups have little or no voice and participation inmore
Community Based Disaster Management Practices, 2006-2008
Realizing the gravity of the situation reflected by alarming mortality and economic loss statistics generated by disasters, UNDP piloted the Community Based Disaster Management Project.This Project commenced operation at the community level from April 2006. It encouraged and supported the localmore
DFDP Final Evaluation Draft Report
The aim of DFDP according to its log frame is to Reduce Poverty in the Pilot Districts through provision of rural infrastructure and human resource opportunities. In the context the programme was seen as a combination of mechanisms including infrastructure delivery, income generation throughmore
DLGSP Mid Term Review 2006
The programme was launched in Nepal in 2004 and is due to end late 2007. It follows on UNDP supported predecessor projects PDDP and LGP, which started in 1995 and 1996. The overall goal is to enhance effective participation of people in the local governance process, ensuring improved access tomore
Decentralized Energy Access and the Millennium Development Goals
This study assesses the development benefits of investments in decentralized micro-hydropower systems in remote mountain areas of Nepal (in the districts of Baglung and Kavre) in terms of reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Evaluation of the impacts of energymore
Development Advocate Nepal April 2014 - September 2014
Today social protection has a central place in development agenda. It is no longer seen just as protection for the poor but also as a way to promote growth by transforming the poor into a productive force to boost national economies. Nepal adopted this idea earlier than many other countriesmore
Development Advocate Nepal October 2013 - March 2014
This first edition of Development Advocate Nepal looks at Nepal's achievements so far in meeting the MDGs and at the challenges it faces in bridging the gaps, while considering the agenda beyond 2015 and what it could mean for the country. This edition is packed with stories about efforts to reducemore
Energy To Move Rural Nepal Out Of Poverty : The Rural Energy Development Programme Model In Nepal
This report presents one of 17 case studies which, together with a report titled 'Towards an 'Energy Plus' approach for the poor: A review of good practices and lessons learned from Asia and the Pacific' and an Action Agenda Note, comprise a review of good practices and lessons learned in energymore
Enhancing Access to Financial Services Annual Review Report
Enhancing Access to Financial Services (EAFS) is run under the initiative of the Central Bank of Nepal. The project is supported by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The project aims to expand access to 330,000 poor people ofmore
- previous
- 1


text:
Who are the students, alumni, faculty and staff that make up the College of Business? Our students gain real business knowledge and experience; our alumni are successful business leaders; and many of our faculty and staff not only have academic preparation in their fields, but real-life experience applying their knowledge. Find out who we are by clicking on the headlines below.
More Faculty/Staff Profiles
More Student Profiles
More Alumni Profiles


text:
by cardrive on West Street and turn onto Vestry Street (2 blocks south of Canal Street). Proceed one block to Washington Street and turn left. We are on the immediate right hand side at 433 Washington Street.
by subwaytake the 1, C, E, or 9 to Canal Street and walk west to Washington Street. Turn left and walk South to 433 Washington Street.


text:
Select () or exclude () categories to narrow your recipe search.
As you select categories, the number of matching recipes will update.
Find exactly what you're looking for with the web's most powerful recipe filtering tool.
Sort by: Date | Rating | Most Helpful
"I have made this cake several times. It is the best and easiest Tres Leches cake I have found. This is as good or better than the piece I pay $6 for at the store. I tried many recipes before this one but have not looked at any others since finding this one"
"This is a great recipe. I just got done making it. I filled the wraps to full and the first one into the grease exploded. ouch. I learned a lesson. Will make these again and again"


text:
Mike Mayo: I think what I hear UBS saying in their presentation is, if I'm an affluent customer, I'll feel a lot better going to UBS if they have a 13 percent capital ratio than another big bank with a 10 percent ratio, do you agree with that or disagree? Jamie Dimon: So you would go to UBS and not JPMorgan? Mike Mayo: I didn't say that, that's their argument. Jamie Dimon: That's why I'm richer than you. [BloombergTV]
hit the bricks pal
[via AlecBaldwin, earlier, related]


text:
Lost Planet 2
Version and / or Patch Used: Benchmark Demo
Timedemo or Level Used: Built in Benchmark - Test A Scene 1
Developer Homepage: http://www.capcom.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.lostplanet2game.com/
Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. The last words imply possible DLC additions to the game, "There's nothing to be gained by wiping out snow pirates... unless you had some kind of grudge."
Lost Planet 2 is a really intensive game and we see all our cards struggle to break that 60 FPS mark at any resolution. Because of the heavy tessellation and the strong tessellation performance from the GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo, though, you can see we're extremely close to that 60 FPS average we need at the lowest resolution.


text:
When it comes to accolades for the most lauded prophetic dystopian satirical novels of the early twentieth century, there's no doubting which are the big two. The hyper-Stalinist all-surveillance paranoid nightmare of Orwell's 1984, and the distorted DNA-as-play-doh playground of Huxley's Brave New World. Occasionally Yevgeny Zamyatin's We gets a look-in as a curio, a minor precursor to both, appearing as it did in 1920, long before that of Huxley (1932) and Orwell (1949). There is one however which always gets passed over, despite being written before both the others, way back in 1908, and overlooked, despite being written by one of the most widely revered American authors of all time. That novel is Jack London's The Iron Heel. In and out of print for decades, The Iron Heel has finally been republished in the last couple of months by Penguin UK.
Orwell's warning about the grotesque parody of socialism offered by Stalin and his acolytes which plagued the twentieth century, and the grim auger from Huxley on the eugenic, anaesthetic aesthetic threatened by scientific consumerism which stalked both this century and the last have been analysed, critiqued and celebrated to death. There is, however, a third more straightforward great evil of the modern age. The rich crushing the poor, the propensity of the forces of capital – when vicious push comes to deadly shove – to react with the most monstrous and tyrannical violence against the organised labour which seeks to grab more of its fair share from them. The evil that led to the bloody regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and their tin-pot descendants. This was prophesised just as uncannily in Jack London's long-neglected novel.
The action of the book begins in the years immediately following when it was written. Labour relations in the USA are plunging as rapidly as the economy, while the thuggery of big-business against the unions increases in turn. Goons break limbs at picket-lines as families go hungry. No fiction there. Poverty spreads apace, and slower but just as surely does the Socialist movement of America (strange fantasy it may seem now, but as London wrote, the US Socialist Party, led by Eugene Debs, was growing rapidly, at one point gathering over a million votes even as its leaders were being jailed.)
The book is written as the memoir of Avis Everhard, wife of labour leader Ernest Everhard who comes to lead the workers' insurrection. Avis is the daughter of a prominent US academic, and begins her account as the pampered intellectual circles her family frequents find it a delightful parlour game to invite Ernest for debates, much as panel games will have the token revolutionary on our TV screens today.
Ernest, long-suffering, self-taught and assured union man has steely determination and razor intellect. He rips their arguments to pieces, and the smug smiles subside. In the final confrontation he manages to get one more forthright and honest plutocrat to admit the truth and discard the flannel. In the end their power over the worker has no moral basis and must be set in steel –
"In roar of shell and shrapnel and in whine of machine-guns will our answer be couched."
"It is the only answer that can be given" replies Ernest.
"Power. We know, and well we know by bitter experience, that no appeal for right, for justice, for humanity can ever touch you. Your hearts are as hard as your heels as they tread upon the faces of the poor."
Avis is entranced not only by the power of Ernest's magnetic charisma, but also by the unpleasant but unassailable truth of the frightful poverty which, as he points out, props up her own classes wealth. She begins to notice the wretched poverty, only streets from where she lives. The scenes of misery are jaggedly drawn, once again, without any need for exaggeration from what London saw daily with his own eyes.
We see both the Everhards and the wider union movement as a whle as they're wrenched to snapping point. As America's oligarchs realise the conflagration to come is a fight to the death, they stealthily cast off the flimsy pretences of democracy. They organise into the great Dictatorship of the Iron Heel. The bloodiest repression seen in humanity's history ensues.
The novel's narrative skilfully shifts focus from the small scale to the large and back again, the snapshots of poverty signifying the minutiae of the bigger vista. We see as the dictatorship takes hold it does so steadily, creepily. The insidious little signs -the silencing and ostracising of academics, the blackening of the names of campaigners, – are shown as Avis's father is hounded from his job, and a reformed priest the family know is hounded into a mental institution. The icy paranoia of the witch hunts is evoked chillingly. With the thug gangs bought from the criminal caste by the ruling-class to pummel dissent – the wonderfully named "Black Hundreds" – the paramilitary paratroops of future Fascism are equally well predicted. He even got the colour right.
The story continues to centre around the Everhards as the years go on and the Iron Heel kicks in. Congress is suspended, dissenters are machine-gunned. Scenes of conflict on a gargantuan scale ensue, interspersed with the individual intrigues within. The desperate hopes of the revolutionaries are evocatively told in between the details of their struggle. There is indeed no compromise up until an apocalyptic finale.
As prediction, satire and warning, The Iron Heel is in many ways more prophetic than either 1984 or Brave New World. Orwell merely exaggerated, exemplified and hypertrophied elements of a Stalinist dictatorship which had existed for decades, while the ruminations of Huxley set still further in the future remain something of an allegory. London was describing with exactitude a streamlined mechanised totalitarian dictatorship, backed by big business, specifically designed to crush the labour movement, when no-one dreamt of such a thing, and which would not actually be in place for decades.
Of course his vision was vastly off the mark in many ways. America managed to crush a far weaker socialist presence by far less draconian methods, and real fascism arrived on another continent. But then we're not currently living in a post-nuclear dictatorship with cameras in our living rooms, and no-one's being bred in tanks yet either. He got a lot more right than he got wrong.
In The Iron Heel London laid bare the whole machinery of a mechanised dictatorship, of the class-based mass murder to come, and did so during a pastoral, pre-First World War era when the worst nightmare most Western audiences could imagine was a cavalry-charge. The novel was ridiculed at the time in popular reviews because of its bloodthirsty "sensationalism". Even London himself may have intended the grotesque blood-bath he portrays in the novel's later chapters -the full-scale warfare between the haves and the nots – as more hyperbolic warning than prophecy. These scenes do indeed curdle the blood and wrench the gut, and may have seemed like fantastical pornography at the time. But they're no Somme, and they're no Auschwitz. The grim reality dwarfed even his savage imagination.
In other ways, it is not such a mystery why The Iron Heel has been passed over in favour of its rivals in dystopia. As a novel of ideas, as an imagining of intricacies into the minute grim possibility of the future it does not live up to them. There is no innovation to excite the troubled imagination as much as the telescreens, doublethink, Room 101 and Big Brother of Orwell, and the mandatory happiness, Soma and biological caste-system in Huxley. Being more narrowly political than either it does not lend itself to flights of speculative futuristic fancy. No-one is likely to base a reality TV show on one of its observations.
Orwell himself noted that there was a strong streak of the Social Darwinist in London, a sadistic revelling in the cult of violence and the survival of the fittest. Given that London was sadly prone to the most vulgar white supremacist racism too, his failings could well have turned him to Fascism were it not for the strength of his commitment to the working-class cause. Race itself is almost absent from the novel altogether, a good thing given London's proclivities, though an obvious and glaring blind-spot in a novel about an American class-war. A curious fear of "the mob" when pushed to its limits is in evidence too, the auto-snobbery against workers who don't follow your cause:- the perennial flaw of theoretical socialists.
Far more importantly though as a novel, by the test of plot, persona and prose it is not up with London's best either, and in that sense too falls well short of Orwell or Huxley. The cult of personality London indulges in sadly undermines the characterisation of the hero Ernest Everard, who is ever-so-slightly too much of the Nietchzhean superman to convince, even given his occasional endearing awkwardness. He veers too close to an icon in a Soviet mural. There is a slightly stilted characterisation in other main players too. In the grand epic of human destiny being described in book less than 300 pages long, people come can close to being ciphers, including the narrator Avis herself.
There is no doubt that as a convincing and holistic piece of writing, The Call of The Wild, that thrilling adventure story which also laid bare London's Nietzchean sadism, is a better read, more deserving of its ubiquitous place on the world's school curricula, and a better example of London's gift with the written word.
The Iron Heel is a great deal more than an insightful piece of propaganda however. London always writes with a stern poetic vividness. Both stark and lurid, passage after passage in the book grasp so hard it's impossible not to be drawn in. The narrative is charged with honest emotional energy, and it convinces as a blood-curdling thriller too. This is a short novel dealing with an enormous scope of ideas and events, essentially attempting to dramatise a Marxian analysis of US society. Yet there is never a dull moment. London has the gift of investing the forays into theory with the same excitement as exists in the scenes of bloody conflict.
The "footnotes from the future" device tagged at the end of each chapter (in which we discover Avis' memoirs have supposedly been discovered in a future socialist age) give the novel a lighter satirical edge too, off-setting the book's occasional slouch into portentousness.
And while individual characters may stray near caricature, in the bigger picture London possesses a rather more nuanced insight into the psychology of those at both ends of the class conflict. The workers are the heroes of course, but London does not shirk on the corrupting and brutalising effect revolution inevitably has on its agents. And, even more importantly, he recognises that the ruling-class are not just crooks and thugs. They'd be a lot easier to deal with if they were.
They, as a class, believed that they alone maintained civilization. It was their belief that if they weakened, the great beast would engulf them, and everything of beauty and wonder and joy and good in its cavernous and slime-dripping maw. Without them, anarchy would reign, and humanity would drop backward into the primitive night out of which it had so painfully emerged…….This was the beast to be stamped on, and the highest duty of the aristocrat was to stamp upon it. In short, they alone, by unremitting toil and sacrifice, stood between weak humanity and the all-devouring beast; and they believed it, firmly believed it.
Many is the Fascist and war criminal utterly convinced they have humanity's interest at heart but scarcely has it been so well put.
The Iron Heel then is a flawed but fascinating read, undeniably entertaining, and containing some of the most deadly insights of the last century. By one of America's best known writers too. This book is a landmark, and has been ignored for too long. Here's hoping its republication by Penguin will see it gain the wider readership it deserves.
Related posts:
Want to Get Published? Get The Unconventional Guide To Publishing. Vital Advice To Make It Happen
4 Responses to Jack London: The Iron Heel
I'm an italian reader. I got to know the Iron Hell reading the "the socialist challenge", chapter of H. Zinn's book "A People's History of USA". I knew London only for "white fang" and "the call of the wild" which i loved when i was on my teen age. Now I read this masterpiece, I'm astonished! It's strange to realise a couple of decades later how great was his political vision.
RE: The Iron Heel.
I love this book. It is brilliantly written and accessible.
Two points: the Black Hundreds were named after a Russian precedent; and, actual Fascist and Nazi developments of this sort drew on their socialist side, not on any inspiration from the wealthy classes. That is, the wealthy classes weren't actually developing these ideas in 1908, but the socialists were, as things to fear and take precautions against, then those like Mussolini who left the socialists applied them as lessons. So in this Jack London was also drawing on ideas around him rather than inventing them, albeit ideas that were not widespread. It's interesting to note that counter-measures to the 1926 General Strike included keeping the media running to get the message out; this may have been a response to News From Nowhere's foreshadowing of a General Strike that was aided by the revolutionaries' being able to choke off or distort news of events.
A film based at least loosely on The Iron Heel was made by then famed actor-director Romaine Fielding in the years before World War II. The film was titled The Golden God and it was largely shot in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where Fielding had settled and where he attempted to set up the headquarters of the American film industry.
Contemporary newspaper reports indicate that the movie as filmed included an extraordinary battle sequence involving tanks, aircraft and ranks of local extras as troops.
Apparently the movie was completed but was held from distribution and, subsequently, destroyed in a mysterious fire in a film warehouse in Philadelphia.
Fielding gave up on his New Mexico efforts and continued his career in California. Only in recent years has "Hollywood" returned in force to New Mexico.New Mexico based film maker David Lindblom has made an as-yet unfinished documentary about Fielding and The Golden God production, which is tentatively titled No Star for Romaine. Lindblom is seeking support to finish this film.
Oddly, no other film version of The Iron Heel seems to have been attempted.


text:
Mixcraft 6 Released!
The latest version of Mixcraft, Mixcraft 6 has now been launched.
Now with a huge library of additional loops and sound effects, an even easier to use interface, midi controller transport support, new virtual instruments and an expanded selection of effects. Download it now and see for yourself
Mixcraft Download
Mixcraft is simply the best and easiest to use music recording software on the windows platform. Those of you familiar with Garageband will immediately be familiar with the layout and workflow. But don't take our word for it, get your free Mixcraft Download now
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)