I just found out about this today.  This is going to be a transitional year; the new standards are supposed to be fully implemented next year.  The standards in use last year covered all four grades, even though the test over the standards was in 10th grade.  The new standards are split out into 9-10 and 11-12.

I’ve only glanced over them a little bit, so this is pretty much pure knee-jerk.  Take it for whatever it’s worth.

Splitting the standards into pre- and post-AIMS is, as far as I know, the smartest thing that’s happened to the curriculum in a long time.  The downside seems to be that the 9-10 curriculum narrows slightly as some of the harder stuff is bumped to after AIMS.  However, the 11-12 curriculum is expanded to include more precalculus type stuff.  So, we no longer have to justify everything higher-level than Algebra 1 and Sophomore Geometry as being related to those standards.  I can use this…

As of now, I for one welcome our new Standards overlords.

International flights: terminal 5.

Everything else: rest of the airport.

The two are not connected except by a train that’s outside security.  First of all, this is really, really stupid, on account of the airport would be severely fracked if not actually shut down if anything happened to that train.  Second, it makes me have to go through security an extra time to get to my connecting flight, whenever I connect through O’Hare on an international itinerary.

The problem with this is, when I go through security, I want to get smart.  I restrained myself from saying these things, but that was quite the effort to repeat.

TSA: Take your shoes off.
Avrila: That might be a WMD violation.

TSA: Any sharp objects?
Avrila: Do butcher knives count?

TSA: Has anyone else had access to your baggage?
Avrila: (option 1) My shrinks, but they haven’t been able to do much about it.
Avrila: (option 2) Well, there was a friendly darker-skinned fellow with a towel on his head…

TSA: Has anyone given you anything to carry?
Avrila: Just a clock with some extra wires.

Avrila: (general comment) Defend us, oh thou great defenders of freedom, from four ounce packages of exploding toothpaste!  And thank God you’re here to stop all those terrorists who can’t open Ziploc bags!

Again, I don’t say these things.  Because I know that would be dumb.  But must they really require me to restrain myself twice?

As I was walking from the station into Machynlleth (approximate pronunciation muck-un-leth), my foot found an uneven spot in the sidewalk.  My hands were irritated for a while from catching me when I fell and my knee took a slight scrape right through my jeans (my jeans were unscathed; I’ll never understand how that works), not so bad on those counts, but my ankle still hurts.  Most of it walked off but it’s obviously still swollen and doesn’t like its full range of motion.  I’m flying home tomorrow (…and the day after) and wondering if it’ll swell up some more at 30,000 feet.

Typical that I would mess up my ankle while on vacation.  At least it held off until after I climbed around the castle ruins yesterday, since I would have had to skip the castle in that case.  Ruins-climbing protocol clearly states that you must go in with two good ankles in order to increase the odds of leaving with at least one.

Out at Aberystwyth Castle today, I met a pest control professional hard at work:

This particular pest control professional seemed to be just barely out of kittenhood, as well as accustomed to crazy tourists (probably they usually come bearing gifts of fish and chips, but an ear rub was also accepted).

I’ve been running around more or less like crazy.  A week in Colorado with friends, a couple weeks of hitting the books hard to keep on track, and now I’m about halfway through a week and a half in Wales.  This post is coming to you from the top floor of the Borth youth hostel, which does not offer wi-fi but the RV park next door does and from this side of the room I can hit it from here, where I’m taking it really easy today because all the walking around in the last few days is making my legs hurt.  Not just ankle stuff, I’m used to that, but my legs feel slightly like they did for a while back in freshman year, which a friend said sounded like shin splints.  Since I have to go back to teaching about a week after this trip, I’d rather not have my legs actually get to the stage where I wish they would fall off and get it over with.

Overall, it’s a good but busy summer.  I’ll try to post a bit more about what’s been going on, maybe today since it seems I’ll have a bit of time.