Presentation of Personal Timeline
by D.B. Blas.

[pictured here are candidates for a California teaching credential, discussing their personal timelines]

Starting next year, all candidates for a California teaching credential must pass a performance assessment, or PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers).

This assessment intends to measure a teacher candidate's ability to effectively teach students.

Article is here.

What To Do After The Fire
NBC San Diego created a to-do list on what to do after the ash stops falling; how to remove it, safely and with the environment in mind, from your home, yard, and car. Here are a few things:

# Determine if ash and debris can be contained and cleaned up without water
# Where it's practical to do so, wash ash and debris into landscaped areas
# Use a damp mop to clean ash and debris from small areas
# Dampen accumulated ash and debris and scrape or vacuum it up using a shop vacuum with adequate filtration
# Take vehicles to a or wash vehicles over a vegetated area, such as a lawn
# Redirect downspouts to landscaped areas when cleaning off roofs
# Use a highttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifh efficiency HEPA-type vacuum to clean indoor carpets
# Use a damp cloth to pick up dust from smaller surfaces, such as counters
# Use a damp mop for nonporous surfaces like tile or vinyl floors

Fire Tracking in East County
Ubie Fuzzman is pictured here at Alpine Beer Company, in Alpine, Calif. Fuzzman and I were fire tracking in eastern San Diego County on Wednesday and returned to SD with two growlers: 1 Alpine Ale (a pale ale) and 1 McIlhenney's Irish Red, which were immediately consumed upon our return.

Not Fire Related
Eric Asimov has a piece at NYTimes.com about cask conditioned ales. Asimov believes this style of beer is reminiscent of the beers of the past, in that it is lightly and naturally carbonated, unlike the more popular, corporate beers America drinks today.

At Hamilton's, we regularly serve cask conditioned ales. Come by on Fridays between 3 and 8 P.M., and I'll personally serve you some.

Family and Friends Update

San Diego Wildfires 2007
Originally uploaded by D.B. Blas.

My area of San Diego, South Park, isn't as adversely affected as northern and southeastern San Diego County. I'm seeing smoke in the skies, as the above picture suggests, and very little ash falling from the sky.

Probably the most affective aspect of the 2007 San Diego Wildfire for me is my inability to make a living as a substitute teacher because all city schools are closed for the rest of the week.

Classes have also been canceled, and that might hamper my academic progress. I'm looking forward to finishing during February 2008, but I will just have to wait and see. I'm not going to complain, either, because there are too many here who are experiencing more significant difficulties, and they're handling it like troopers.

You can follow me and receive real-time updates at Twitter.

My Neighborhood Right Now
This is an image of the sky over South Park. The Harris Fire in southeast San Diego County is getting closer to home.

Get more timely updates on the San Diego Wildfires 2007 via Twitter

Evacuees are taking refuge in a number of different evacuation centers throughout San Diego. Here is one at Steele Canyon High School in Rancho San Diego, a community southeast of downtown San Diego.

Photo: Sandy Huffaker/The New York Times

A snapshot of what's going on inside Qualcomm Stadium

What About Mobile Communications?

Text messaging is an invaluable communications tool during emergency situations, such as the one now. On the few occasions I tried placing voice calls, the "all circuits are busy" message played.

Debi Jones has a nice piece on mobile communications and emergencies.

Latest Satellite Image
Here's the latest picture from space.

A quarter of a million people have been evacuated from San Diego alone.

Qualcomm Stadium has 5600 people camped out there. At this time there is a need for nurses and EMT professionals to relieve the tired medical professionals already at the stadium.

In Rancho Santa Fe, one of the more expensive places to live in the U.S., multi-million dollar homes are burned or burning.

In the South Park neighborhood, air quality is relatively good. Most of the bad air seems to be north and south of here. It's almost as if the smoke and particulate matter is straddling here.

San Diego Gas & Electric, SDG&E the local utility company, has asked residents not to turn off their natural gas feed. Currently there are 30,000 homes without power.

I've heard dozens of reports of good Samaritans, and personal heroism.

I heard a report that some undocumented immigrants were burned today. They were reportedly taken to areas hospitals for treatment.

Emergency officials have asked citizens to refrain from making voice calls on cell phones. Texting is probably ok

Evacuate?

Most people believe folks in the central portion of San Diego (South Park, Downtown, North Park, etc.) will not need to evacuate.

Satellite Picture of San Diego
This is what the San Diego region looks like from space.

Where Are The SD Fires?
This graphic from San Diego CBS 8 pinpoints where the SD fires are currently located.

More fire maps here

Just in...
Schools in San Diego will not be in session tomorrow (Tuesday, 10/23).

Commissioner Roberts speaking on TV regarding the San Diego wildfires.

Air Quality
The high particulate matter in the air has caused the cancellation of practice for the resurgent San Diego Chargers.

San Diego County is tracking air quality here.

It's currently sunny in South Park (92104, where I live); however, when I look north and east the sky looks very gritty.

The local NPR affiliate, KPBS News, is streaming its newscast and it's continuing wildfire coverage.

Qualcomm Stadium is now an evacuation center.

San Diego Wildfires

Wildfire Map is a good map of the current wildfires in San Diego.

Traffic is congested all around the county because people are evacuating.

Wildfires Now More Dangerous
The San Diego wildfires, by all accounts, have become worse overnight.

According to several sources, a large swath of San Diego has been evacuated and more freeways are now closed, with more of both to come.

Power outages have been reported in north and east counties.

As of now, here are the evacuation locations:

-Escondido High School, 1535 North Broadway
-Santana High School, 9915 Magnolia Avenue, Santee
-Mira Mesa High School, 10510 Reagan Road (off Mira Mesa Boulevard).
-Steele Canyon High School, 12440 Campo Road, Spring Valley
-Campo Community Center, 976 Sheridan Road, Campo
-Poway High School shelter is CLOSED.

The I-5 and I-15 have been closed, both between State Route 56 and Lake Hodges

San Diego Fires (Part two)
This is "the worst fire (event) in county history," according to Bill Kolender, Sheriff, San Diego County.

The last time the county went through wildfires like these was in October 2003. Like in 2003, Santa Ana wind conditions are fueling these fires with high wind speeds, coupled with very dry conditions.

Here's a map of where the two San Diego wildfires are located.

The westerly winds are picking up, and who knows what's going to happen. When day breaks, we'll have a better handle as to the extent of the fires.

We have two big problems related to this fire. First, people are not evacuating when they are asked the first time by emergency services personnel. The second is the high wind speeds, keeping fire suppression aircraft grounded.

Chile Colorado from Santa Fe

Chris Zucconi is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he texted this fine picture of Chile Colorado.

The Politics of Bottled Water
Ira Flatow of Science Friday wrote about the negative environmental impact of consuming bottled water in mass quantities. This is what he reports:

. Worldwide, bottled water consumption nearly doubled between 1997 and 2005,with U.S. residents tipping back the largest share-nearly 26 gallons per person in 2005.

. Bottled water costs as much as $10 per gallon for bottled water compared to less than a penny per gallon for tap water.

. It takes three liters of water to produce a one-liter bottle of water.

. Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles, but in the U.S., less than 20 percent of these bottles are recycled.

. The total estimated energy needed to make, transport, and dispose of one bottle of water is equivalent to filling the same bottle one-quarter full of oil.

. An estimated 40 percent of bottled water sold in the U.S. is just filtered tap water

Undercover Cover Band Blues
Dryw Keltz, who played bass for The Fading Captains, wrote a piece for the San Diego Reader regarding his experience playing in a Guided by Voices cover band. Keltz wrote that people responded positively to the music:

"I really like your songs." We'd tell them, "Well, they're not our songs. They're songs by a band we really like called Guided By Voices. Didn't you hear us announce that during the set?" And then they'd say something like, "Divided By Choices?"

In a society that increasingly values swiftness, celebrity, and the lowest common denominator (i.e. MP3s versus records, propane versus charcoal, etc.), it's become fashionable to neglect those things that don't trigger our front-impact airbags.

Jonathan Kozol Lectures San Diego

Jonathan Kozol, a critic of social inequality in education and the No Child Left Behind education law (NCLB, which is up for reauthorization), lectured a teacher-packed St. Paul's Cathedral this week, on Monday. And lectured he did indeed.

Kozol covered three main topics: NCLB & testing, segregated urban schools, and pre-Kindergarten, which are covered in this latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher. As for NCLB and testing, he said there has been no real increase in student achievement, and that the law is a failure. If Congress reauthorizes the law, he would like to see some drastic changes written into the law.

One such change to NCLB Kozol would like to see is on the stick, or the sanctions side. Before any school or school district is penalized for failing to make AYP (Annual Yearly Progress, or lack of), the state must certify that all third graders in the school or district have had two years of pre-Kindergarten.

Kozol believes that pre-Kindergarten, which many kids of the middle and upper classes receive, determines student success in high stakes standardized tests.

Kozol spoke often about race and inequality of education. Download my lecture notes:
KOZOL_LECTURE.txt

The SD BREWING CO has tons of tantalizing ales on tap, and the food is very good, too. Pictured here is their pizza.

EDUCATION MEDITATION
When educators genuinely strive for the academic success of all students, they are working toward assisting groups to move out of poverty and away from other risk factors, and thus they actually transform, in the long term, existing social status relationships between groups.
(Carlos J. Ovando, 2006)

Fuzzman Unmasked! (Part 5)Here, in our continuing coverage of Fuzzman Unmasked!, we find our hero (unmasked) at his destination (finally), to return his overpriced "stunners." Fuzzman, looking nervous and out of his element, was having second thoughts, or post-buy remorse (as marketing people would describe), on his initial purchase of "stunners shades," also known as large-sized sunglasses.

An Impossible Dream

Diane Ravitch, contributed an op-ed piece today, stating Congressional mandates for school reform, Dubya's No Child Left Behind legislation, hasn't worked, won't work, and is poorly conceived and designed.

Ravitch maintains that the appropriate federal role in school reform is to continue to disseminate measurement data, which the states will use to help improve student achievement. The current role the feds take isn't working, Ravitch says, because each state has its own measurement system, which is different from state-to-state. Additionally, Ravitch addresses the elephant in the room: no society has ever achieved 100% proficiency in math and reading. Ever.

Ravitch is correct about NCLB's goal of universal proficiency; if you have an unrealistic goal, how does one go about achieving it? Through snow jobs, utilizing a lot of statistics. (Remember the idiom: there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.)

Ruben Navarrette, on the other hand, claims it is the adults (administrators, lawmakers, teachers unions, etc.) who are screwing-up school reform. Navarrette's opinions are just that, however. He rarely, if at all, produces any empirical, peer reviewed, data to suggest NCLB, of which he is a true believer, to be the silver bullet to the nation's education woes.

There is no doubt we need education reform in this country, one that includes accountability and measurement. Navarrette, however, opines that teachers, because of job security and personal interest, (and he doesn't use any modifications: all teachers) don't want school reform.

I, as a teacher, want school reform. I want accountability. I want measurement. I want realistic goals, too. Education, like everything on this earth, is not immune to the forces of society. NCLB (as is) states that all children will succeed in reading and math all the time. That is not realistic. However, no one is willing to discuss which student populations will not get the resources to become proficient.

How Do We Get Better?
"Teacher certification (programs) have very little to do with whatever it is that makes good teachers effective," that is according to Bob Herbert, op-ed columnist at The New York Times.

Herbert, with the input of a Harvard professor, believes identifying and retaining effective teachers impacts student achievement more than anything else.

Read more here.

There's Sorrow in Chargerville
What about the San Diego Chargers? With three losses in four game, the Chargers appear out of it. Why has it come to this? Just nine months ago they were the best team in the NFL.

Simply the Chargers waited too long to hire a new coach, after A.J. Smith (Chargers' G.M.) fired Marty Schottenheimer 30 days after they lost in the first around of the playoffs.

I like to say if you wait until December 24th to buy a Christmas gift--as the Chargers did--you're going to get screwed (Norv Turner).

Race, Positions, and the NFL

Donovan McNabb took a beating; six times by a single player, in a one-sided game in which I almost felt sorry for him.

The latest in the McNabb debates have been reactions towards his comment regarding how black NFL quarterbacks have to work harder than their white counterparts.

While watching an average Giants team totally manhandle a Westbrook-less Eagles last night, I was reminded of an overheard conversation on the dearth of white NFL cornerbacks. Foxsports.com actually wrote about it recently, and read it with amazement.