Week of 2/14-18

Week in Preview/Weekend in Review

First Tunisia, then Egypt runs out their all-too-familiar strong men to replace those regimes by, who-knows-what? Arab history pulling itself out of the Middle Ages as we watch. This is Revolutionary! And cool history in the making!

This weekend I have been engrossed in first, athletics, then domestic responsibilities (read, "chores"), and have enjoyed every minute! With this wonderful weather, who doesn’t find a breath of spring wonderful?

After my track practice on Friday, I drove directly to our high school girls' basketball game held at Bradshaw Mountain High School (BMHS) in Prescott Valley. Our girls played a very good game against a great school (gilbert Christian), and in the process, our girls make NPA history!

I spent Friday night in Prescott, at the Hotel St. Michael, built in 1910. Prescott is a great town, and the site of Arizona’s first capitol, back when our looney state of Arizona was a territory.

For a “dump” of a hotel room, I was able to get an amazingly good night’s sleep, and woke at 6AM to watch old westerns on AMC (I do not get TV at my house, as you all know), then headed out in search of good coffee at 7 AM. That wasn’t a difficult task in “downtown” Prescott, and then at 9 AM went for a 3 mile run on the “Granite Creek Trail.” After the run, I appreciated the "dump" of a hotel including the price of a great breakfast in the Hotel St. Michael “Bistro.” After breakfast, I was off for a 11 AM Athletic Director’s meeting back at BMHS.

Three hours later I was on the road to Flagstaff taking the 89A North through Jerome (and if you haven’t been there, then you are missing some good history). In Jerome I stopped (as should all) to walk around and look for lunch at the “Haunted Hamburger,” recommended by ex-local, Dr. Meilander. However, the town of Jerome was packed with tourists, and the line into the “HH” was way too long. So I was back on the road in short order.

I reached Flag just before sunset and although I really wanted to spend Saturday night grading papers, I just couldn’t....

Sunday... another fabulous day for weather in northern AZ, so after finishing reading the paper, I took my dog Olive for a bike ride around Doney Park, washed my wife’s car and mine (inside and out), did my laundry, and here I sit. 

Had hoped that I would’ve graded the tests you took this past week, but I’m afraid that’s not going to happen tonight. That fact, I apologize for.

I also would like to address the Supreme Court presentations we did on Thursday and Friday (okay, just Friday in 5th hour). Tomorrow (Monday) I’m going to hand out a “survey” asking your opinion on the benefit of this assignment. Questions, such as:

• What did you learn?
• What you liked/disliked about the assingment?
• How to design this assignment next year to make it more relevant and rigorous?

I think overall, the project was just, “Okay,” but could be improved upon (as anything tried for the first time... as it was for me too). I’ll admit that I was disappointed that no presentation included technology (although it was part of the project design).

I was hoping that some of you might have put together a Powerpoint that would put mine to shame. However, since that wasn’t the case, then for the present, I’ll take that as a positive statement (but I may be operating under “false pretense”).

Here’s the big plan:

Essay:

Due Wednesday for Peer Review:

Essay: “The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.”

Explain the meaning of this famous 1832 statement of President Andrew Jackson and evaluate Jackson’s position with regard to “the bank.”

More to follow...