Every year the Flat Rock Speedway does a race series that includes figure eight bus races. This year's schedule includes:
June 14: Marco's Pizza School Bus Figure 8, legends cars, factory stock, 4-cylinder.
Sept. 13: Pepsi Cola School Bus Figure 8, street stock.
This year there's also school bus figure 8s at the Toledo Speedway:
May 23: Night of Destruction, school bus figure 8, figure 8 train, factory stock, 4-cylinder, backup race, rollover contest.
Sept. 5: Burge Wrecking Night of Destruction, school bus figure 8, boat and train figure 8, factory stock, rollover contest, race car bowling.
"Approximately 2 million metric tons of fun" - George Hotelling
"needless to say, once you smell the smoke and feel the roar of the engines, you're eitehr hooked or your not. i, it should be obvious, am hooked." - Jose Nazario
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.
But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed,
the All Aboard Children's School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with -- some will be delighted to hear --
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School,
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and -- clap your hands -- the Peanuts Play School.
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
Right now I'm looking out my office window, perched above the large, grassy, Frisbee-playing, picnicking, and sunbathing area that stretches through Berkeley's campus. I'm looking straight out at the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a view that I marvel at every dayI wonder why the chancellor hasn't confiscated such offices and rented them out to hedge funds to improve the university's finances. I walk out my door and look around: at the offices of professors who know more about topics like the history of the international monetary system or the evolution of income distribution than any other human beings alive, and at graduate students hanging out in the lounge. It's a brilliant intellectual community, this little slice of the world that is our visible college. You run into people in the hall and the lounge, and you learn interesting things. Paradise. For an academic, at least.
But I am greedy. I want more. I would like a larger college, an invisible college, of more people to talk to, pointing me to more interesting things. People whose views and opinions I can react to, and who will react to my reasoned and well-thought-out opinions, and to my unreasoned and off-the-cuff ones as well. It would be really nice to have Paul Krugman three doors down, so I could bump into him occasionally and ask, "Hey, Paul, what do you think of .. ." Aggressive younger people interested in public policy and public finance would be excellent. Berkeley is deficient in not having enough right-wingers; a healthy college has a well-diversified intellectual portfolio. The political scientists are too far away to run into by accident — somebody like Dan Drezner would be nice to have around (even if he does get incidence wrong sometimes).
Since the storm is coming, I'd remind you of this page I'm collecting snow poetry on. ORD was showing 5 hour delays a few minutes ago and there are expectations of 6-10 inches.
UPDATE: Wednesday, March 5 2008. Ann Arbor Public Schools closed. Check the Arborwiki sledding page for your favorite place to slide.
Ann Arbor City snow desk 734-994-2359
Ann Arbor Public Schools closing info 734-994-8684
For Ann Arbor school closings information, consult your second grader, who is planning a play date. If you don't know about that you can check the Ann Arbor school closing information page which says in part:
Inclement weather may require closing schools or changing school schedules and bus routes. The decision is made after an early inspection of road conditions and school facilities, as well as current or forecasted weather conditions. When schools are closed or schedules and/or bus routes are changed, information is sent immediately to the major radio and television stations-by 6:00 a.m. if at all possible.
If you know of good Paczki in Ann Arbor, Arborwiki would like to know abou them. On my block downtown they are being sold at Amadeus.
If you have a kindergartener starting in the fall, it's time for the Ann Arbor Public Schools Kindergarten Roundup schedule. The Burns Park dates are 2/11/08 and 2/19/08, and if you have any questions as a new parent to the school I'd be happy to help find someone to answer. The 2/11 date is National African American Parent Involvement Day, which was founded by Joseph Dulin:
"Every parent wants their child to have a better quality of life than they themselves had. It is the American dream, and for many African Americans, this dream has not been realized as a result of their child's failure in school. Education is the key to success and parents are educators' greatest allies." Joseph Dulin
Posting in its entirety a letter from Kathy Morhous, principal of Burns Park Elementary School.
Dear Burns Park Families and Staff,
We were informed late this afternoon by the Washtenaw County Department of Public Health that students who are excluded from attending classes at Burns Park and Wines elementary schools may return to school effective Monday, October 22. According to the Public Health Department the decision affects five students—one here at Burns Park and four at Wines—who were told to stay home until the threat of measles infection had passed at the two elementary schools. Two students are still excluded at Angell Elementary, where a confirmed case of measles was reported on October 11. The CDC is currently retesting serum samples that a local, commercial lab said tested positive for measles.
Below are portions of the press release sent to the media today, Friday, October 19, by the Department of Public Health.
“The preponderance of evidence suggests that the threat of measles has passed at Burns Park and Wines elementary schools,” said Dr. Stan Reedy, Medical Director at the Washtenaw County Department of Public Health. “While the CDC has not completed testing all of its samples from Burns Park and Wines, our analysis indicates that the evidence for excluding students from these two schools is no longer present. Unless the CDC testing indicates otherwise, there is very little chance we could see another measles case at either of these two schools anytime soon,” he said. “We’ve discussed our decision with our counterparts at the Michigan Department of Community Health, and they support our conclusion.”
Laura Bauman, Epidemiologist for the Washtenaw County Health Department, released the following rationale for lifting the exclusion order:
* Samples from the former index case of measles at Burns Park have retested negative at the CDC.
* Since the index case retested negative, it could not have been the source of any transmission to additional suspect cases of measles at either Burns Park or Wines.
* Suspect measles cases at Burns Park and Wines have not been linked to any other known source of measles in southeast Michigan.
* Test results for suspect cases at Burns Park and Wines are still pending from the CDC. Based on clinical presentation and some preliminary results, it is less likely that these suspect cases will be confirmed as positive measles cases.
* There have been no reports from Burns Park or Wines of any additional suspect cases of measles.
* Children who have been excluded from Burns Park and Wines have exhibited no symptoms of a rash illness.
* The positive measles case at Angell cannot be associated with suspect cases at Burns Park or Wines because the incubation and transmission periods did not align.
“We have not been successful in constructing a plausible chain of transmission between any of the suspect cases,” Reedy said. “Most likely, because there isn’t one. Throughout this month we’ve concentrated on making decisions based on the best information available to us, while keeping the safety of our community’s children in mind. I am confident that excluding un- or under-vaccinated children from schools where suspect cases existed was the reasonable and prudent thing to do to protect and ensure the health of our community. Healthcare providers have done an excellent job of sorting out difficult diagnoses of rash illnesses. We’re pleased that additional transmission of the measles virus does not appear to have occurred.”
The Washtenaw County Public Health Department will continue to investigate the measles outbreak as additional testing information becomes available from the CDC late next week. Students excluded from attending Angell Elementary have been authorized to return on October 25, a timeframe in which the threat of measles transmission has passed. Angell is the last remaining school where children have been excluded from attending based on their immunization status. Suspect cases at Perry Child Development Center (Ypsilanti Public School District) and Bach have been investigated and cleared.
“By being vigilant and enforcing vaccination requirements for children attending its schools, the Ann Arbor Public School District has done an outstanding job of keeping its children protected from a disease that still sometimes appears, despite our best efforts to eradicate it,” Reedy concluded.
My thanks to the staff and families at Burns Park for your support during these past few weeks. Everyone has responded quickly and efficiently to the ever-changing situation surrounding this presumed outbreak.
If you have further questions about this decision please contact Department of Public Health at 544-6700.
ANN ARBOR -- What started as a scare over a suspected elementary school measles outbreak has become a mystery Thursday when officials discovered an error with the test that supposedly confirmed the virus in an Ann Arbor school girl.
"We now know this is not what we were told it was. It is not measles," said Michigan Department of Health spokesman T.J. Bucholz.. "But we still don't know what it is. It could be a rash or something else."
A mix-up at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta apparently resulted in officials in Michigan getting erroneous confirmation of measles. Bucholz said there was an apparent "transcription error" involving a real measles case in Texas.
The investigation into just what has afflicted nine elementary and preschool-age children will continue, said Bucholz, but authorities believe whatever it is, it's probably not life threatening.
Waiting for confirmation from the school system, county health department etc. about this.
I'm not going to try to give an authoritative report on the measles outbreak that has hit Ann Arbor, but rather to direct you to the places that have the current information as it changes. You'll see whatever news I've bookmarked in the daily posts here or on the delicious tag annarbor+measles
Google News aggregates news - there was an AP story that went out globally, and the most local reporting is from the Ann Arbor News. See a Google News search for Ann Arbor measles for current information. The Snooze has its own search engine, hidden away; search MLive for measles which covers blog news from that site too.
From Saskatchewan, here's a page of "mental math strategies" - reasoning to help make elementary mathematics seem sensible to the student.
It is important that most students have mastery of basic facts. It is equally important that they make sense of number combinations as they are learning these facts. Here are some strategies to help with this understanding.
There are rules for add 0, 1, 2; the commutative property, aka "turn-around facts"; adding 10, 9, 8; doubling numbers, and "near doubles" (e.g 4+5). With all of those techniques firmly in hand, the addition grid that I had to memorize has only a handful of holes in it that you can't figure out.
What I remember being awesome for learning math facts was competitive dice games - Yahtzee in particular.
Lloyd Carr is going to be lucky if he makes it through the season ... alive. I realize the Wolverines lost some key starters to the NFL, but a defense this bad is unacceptable. The amount of missed tackles is only eclipsed by the number of boos. Even worse, an offense that has no excuses for not being explosive could only muster 7 points? What is going in A-squared?
A week after Appalachian State's upset made Michigan the nation's laughingstock, the Wolverines didn't do anything to redeem themselves Saturday against Oregon.
Michigan has now lost four in a row dating back to last season, having lost each game since Bo Schembechler's death before the Ohio State game last year, and are completely lost, on every level.
Here’s some halftime analysis from our beat writers. But if you’re looking for a good laugh to cheer you up, go and read some our pre-game predictions (cough) Bromwich (cough).
Time for back to school! Here's a roundup of the best posts I've found.
Our school year has started well, and we're adjusting to new routines. I went to the first day of school with Saul at Burns Park, met a bunch of parents at the PTO coffee, and am eagerly awaiting the new school directory so we can know who our new neighbors and schoolmates are. Days have changed, wake up time has changed, pretty much everything says school and not summer.
I went through a bunch of back-to-school stuff on the net - mostly not the back-to-school shopping things, but the first week of school stuff - and pulled out a bunch of highlights relevant to this year.
When you’re putting together the perfect family schedule, you have to do more than just tack up a Puppy Of The Month calendar on the wall.
The Regular Schedule
Book clubs. Soccer practices. Or, if you’re like us, physical therapy appointments. Some appointments are regularly scheduled, and the times don’t change week-to-week, but rather month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter. Rather than write down the same information every week, have one whiteboard or poster board with everybody’s regular schedule Mon – Sun.
Deb and I maintain our calendars two different ways - hers is paper, mine is mostly electronic - and there are enough standing dates on the calendar that this sounds like a great idea.
Top 10 Back to School Tools, #9: Perfect your note-taking skills this semester—get a primer on how to take study-worthy lecture notes using the Cornell method, and customize and print Cornell templates to get started.
I've written about Cornell Notes before, but somehow missed Ryan Stewart's Cornell-Notes.com. The template is nifty. Another nifty thing I've found recently in the print-your-own-pages world is Page Packer for making pocket-sized books from PDF files.
3. Cool Mom Picks Back to School Guide 2007 is a shopping guide. Saul ended up with a new used bike (garage sale plus brake work rehab at Ann Arbor Cyclery) and new backpack from Land's End. Cool Mom Picks found this source for book plates to put in your books from One Good Bumblebee:
Library card bookplates are so so cool, and help insure that the books your kids brings to school come home with them too.
4. Parent Dish's Angie Felton notes that here in Michigan schools start after Labor Day (to make sure that tourist dollars flow freely) and unearths this fun MasterCard commercial on the backpack theme:
Lisa Wever Koski, a Miami-Dade teacher, is surprised that more people don't use this simple tool -- a monthly calendar. She prints hers from the computer, attaches a magnetic strip and hangs it on the refrigerator where everyone will look at it several times a day. She puts all family members' activities, meetings, appointments and birthdays on it. ``I see that kids do not consult their parents about their schedules. They will sign up for an activity, pay the fee, then back out because they didn't know it was their grandmother's birthday.''
Starting in 1st grade, schools with computer labs allow children to spend time creating pictures on computers. In second grade students start to do research for projects using the school computer lab. Before third grade they are allowed to store files on the school's hard drive related to the work they are doing in a computer lab. In 4th grade, the school tech office creates private (password protected) folders for students to store their work. I have heard some students using word processing or spreadsheet software for school projects as early as 3rd grade but defintely by 4th.
Saul, who is starting 2d grade, has been using a computer for a while now - some of his drawings of Ann Arbor Fairy Doors are up on Flickr.
It's that time of year again. Back to school. Some Moms are thrilled. Some Moms unsure. Some are just in a state of shock over the hit the wallet takes. One thing consistent about it all: there are moans from kids heard around the country that their summer is ending. But the Moms? Ahhhh, the Moms have other ideas.
Personally, I always get a bit freaked out as if it was my first day of school when they start up. But that probably has more to do with the fact that they have not yet instituted a "start at noon" school day with our public school system. Now that would rock my socks off! Alas, my cries to let my kids (and when I say my kids, I of course mean me) sleep in late and then go to school.
DO plan a get together with other families before school starts. Get a class contact list from the school and invite the parents and kids over for a play date. My friend, Laurie, invited new classmates to her daughter's birthday party (which happened to fall two weeks before the first day of school) -- it presented the perfect opportunity for the parents to get to know one another and for the kids to get to know each other before the big day.
The Burns Park PTO organized a picnic at the playground for each of the incoming classes, and we all had a great time talking to the other 2d grade parents. I'm organizing our Math / Science Night this year - and the PTO has an event calendar that it looks like you can subscribe to with iCal.
I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.
The winning bid was $142.51 (with 53 bids), which just goes to show you how much writing well can help you.
A2Brooklyn A neighborhood mailing list for people on my block and in Lower Burns Park in Ann Arbor, as noted in the New York Times "Circuits" section.
Ann Arbor District Library My local (and favorite) library. I'm on the library's technology advisory board.
Arborparents For parents and prospective parents in Ann Arbor, MI and the area, this is a great Yahoo group.
Assistive Media High quality audio recordings of short-subject fiction and non-fiction for the visually impaired and for anyone who loves reading, copyright approved. I'm on the board of directors.
Recent Comments