Photo Hunters: I Caught the Train

This past summer Wingnut and I tried, but never succeeded, to get photos of the train as it went through Barton. Finally, on November 11, I was driving on Rt 5 South on the Barton-Orleans Road as the train traveled north to Orleans. These are poor shots, but I want to put them up for Wingnut.

This is the Vermont Railway. The trains haul freight and passengers and have charter and scheduled tourist trains. The Vermont Railway site says the "Vermont Rail System is an affiliation of four Vermont-based shortlines: the Vermont Railway, the Green Mountain Railroad, the Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad, and the Washington County Railroad."

The train runs through Barton at least once a day. Wingnut and I see it when we are at the Crystal Lake beach (either at the state park or at the town park). The conductor always waves at the people at the beach and at the crossings.

The Vermont Railway has a lot of excursion rides that I have always wanted to go on (there are also wedding and birthday excursion trains). This next year I'm going to take an excursion. No one except Wingnut will go with me, so it's time to go alone and create some good memories and photographs even when he is not here. I love excursion train rides (but I do not like Amtrak rides at all).

Click on the map to see it full size in a new window.

The excursion trains:

Green Mountain Flyer

White River Flyer

Champlain Valley Flyer

The online store is here.
The photo gallery is here.

Thank you for visiting.

Click Photohunt for more participants.

Technorati tags: Vermont+Railway Green+Mountain+Flyer Champlain+Valley+Flyer White+River+Flyer PhotoHunt

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Cats That Look Like Hitler and Other Links

1. Cats That Look Like Hitler!
2. Stage6: The Last Stop: Videos (public domain videos for free download)
3. Block Posters - Create large wall posters from any image for free!
4. DailyLit: Read books by email and RSS.
5. Open Source: Blog Archive: No Artist Left Behind
6. Open Source: Blog Archive: Pharma: The New Drug Lord?
7. Open Source: Blog Archive: Bug Week (Part 2) with Bernd Heinrich UVM professor and the author of my raven books.
8. Open Source: Blog Archive: William James: Son, Brother, Hero Brother of Henry James.
9. The Story of Spider Web Farm - Williamstown, Vermont
10. Will Knight's Spider Web Farm, Williamstown, Vermont TODO
11. Vermont Scrap Wood: While we are talking beverages Vermont Vodka?
12. eBird || Vermont Institute of Natural Science A Database for Vermont Bird Records
13. Google Earth Hacks - File Downloads - Vermont

Calvin Coolidge and Plymouth Notch, Vermont

On September 23, I went to the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Coolidge was the 30th president. You can find visitor information here. There was a Cheese and Harvest Festival going on, so it was crowded but fun. I posted a slideshow of the photos here. If you wish to view the individual photos and read the detailed comments, go to my web album here or to my Flickr set here.

I must return as soon as I can to view the cemetary and the Coolidge gravesite.

Technorati tags: Plymouth+Notch Vermont Calvin+Coolidge

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Hummie's World: Photography Challenges

Hummie has photography challenges also. I keep meaning to do another one but I haven't because since school started I have not been able to get my life organized. My school life is organized, though!

In order to organize my life, I decided to organize Hummie's challenges here so that they will be at the tip of my fingers:

July  6    Depth of Field Challenge
July 16    Night Shot Challenge
July 21    Blurring Background Challenge
July 26    Shutter Speed Challenge
July 30    Camera Filters Challenge
Aug   5    Light Metering Challenge
Aug   8    ISO Challenge
Aug  15    Light Challenge
Aug  19    Frames Challenge
Aug  27    Lines Challenge
Aug  28    Texture Challenge
Sept  6    Rule of Thirds Challenge

Technorati tags: Hummie's+World Hummie's+Photography+Challenge

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Filter Friday Challenge at Rachel Clark Designs

Rachel Clark Designs for Digital Scrapbooking and more!: Filter Friday Challenge

Not just for digital scrapbooking. I find these blogging challenges very educational because I try things I normally wouldn't try. The first Filter Friday Challenge at Rachel's site was to use the colored pencil filter on Photoshop. Hopefully, GIMP has that. I never would have published a colored penciled photo before this challenge.

What's really neat is that there is no deadline for her challenge!

Rachel's other filter challenges:

Sept. 7: Colored pencil filter

Sept. 14: Diffuse glow

Sept. 21: Mezzotint

Sept. 28: Glowing edges

Technorati tags: Friday+Filter+Challenge
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Tree Climbing in New England

Virtual Soft: New England Tree Climbing Association LLC

The "fastest growing outdoor sport today"?
I admire people who can do stuff like this. I never will but Wingnut wants to after he rode the zipper this summer.

What does LLC mean anyhow?

Technorati tags: tree+climbing New+England
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Eight More Random Facts About Me

Sarala at Blogaway and Teacher Julie have both tagged me with the Eight Random Facts About Me meme. This is my second time round with this meme and I am ready to write more about myself. This is the perfect time for me to do this. For a teacher, the New Year begins on the Tuesday after Labor Day. That is true even if classes begin in August. So here are my eight New Year's resolutions (with a couple more things about me tossed in):

1. I am actually getting psyched for the new school year. I can't believe it but it's true. I need to write goals for the upcoming school year but I am going to wait and see what the principal's and new superintendant's goals are. The state has mathematics goals and I have goals for my professional development plan. I can merge all of these into no more than four focus areas.
   
2. I am going to read more this year. I will include a bit of fiction, but it will mostly be professional journals and mathematics books (which I love to read the most). I want to also remember to read Marcus Borg and Karen Armstrong.
   
3. I used to be able to do that gross stuff in life: baby diapers, litter boxes. I never blinked an eye. Now I am gagging when I do litter boxes. I cannot for the life of me deal with children's loose teeth (and I teach a bunch of those fifth graders who are always losing them, bleeding from their mouths, blood dripping everywhere . . . ). My resolve for this upcoming year: do those damn litter boxes every damn week and then they won't be so damn awful!
   
4. I am not the most social person. That is why blogging is so attractive to me. I can interact with people without interacting. I am going to become more social in real life this year. Not much, just a bit. A tiny bit.
5. I get way too distracted and am easily led down non-productive but fascinating paths that teach me a lot. I need to harness this so that I can still follow these trails but not do so all day (or night) long. Any ideas, Sarala?
6. I used to have a terror of thunderstorms. It is gone now! I guess living in the mountains with very violent storms makes one overcome the fear. Storms are so bad here that your telephone begins to ring all by itself. That's pretty weird. I am now typing this in the dark on battery power because of a bad storm overhead. If I think and type faster, I can finish this before I lose power and won't be able to post. The foundation of the house is actually vibrating.
   
7. I had two days of complete misery when Wingnut went home. My overly strong reaction has its roots from when my husband died. Sometimes my body becomes confused about the difference between leaving and dying. I gotta work on discerning the difference for these good-bye-but-not-forever-times.
   
8. I have found that photography is a method of getting me off of my property (where I would, if possible, never leave, even to go buy milk), and is mood elevating.
9. I love to keep lists. Right now my table is littered with yellow pad-size sticky notes with lists. Wingnut wanted to throw some away because the wind keeps blowing them around the room. I can't throw them away unless I re-write them onto a new list!
10. I'm in GIMPS again (I hope because I don't think mprime is doing so well). You will be seeing a whole bunch more mathematics here. I want to teach everybody and help everyone overcome math phobia.
11. Oops. Math teacher can't count.
    

I tag all of my new friends:

1. Peppylady
2. Annalee Blysse
3. scan man
4. JMB
5. alisonwonderland
6. ailurophile
7. Drew
8. Opal
9. Stephen the Dog (so sue me)
   

I hope I have never tagged any of them with this meme before. If any of these eight nine do not wish to participate there isn't a problem. I waited over a month before I was ready to respond to Sarala's invitation.

OH YEAH
One more thing: be sure to click these links (Marcus Borgand Karen Armstrongand Branford Marsalis), and buy a lot of books and CDs on amazon so that I can get my Canon Rebel XTi. kthx

Technorati tags: Branford+Marsali Karen+Armstrong GIMPS Marcus+Borg thunderphobia grief

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Counting On Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop

Summer Read-Alouds

Wingnut and I read one or more books outloud at bedtime every summer. This year we read Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop. I chose this book because it was the Vermont Reads 2007 selection of the Vermont Humanities Council. The Barton Public Library handed out copies of this book to anyone that cared to read it. I picked up our copy months ago when I attended the library movie night in May. Vermont Public Radio broadcast readings of the entire book earlier in the year, which I missed (there is an audio CD available). However, on September 29 there will be a VPR Vermont Reads Day focused on this book.

Counting On Grace is the story of a 12 year old French Canadian girl who lives with her poverty striken family in Vermont in the early twentieth century. The entire family works at a fabric mill and as each child reaches the age of 14 they are expected to work in the mill to help support the family. However, corrupt enforcement of the weak child labor laws enabled children much younger to work in dangerous, life-threatening conditions. Winthrop (click on this link to read her blog) uses this family to detail not only the conditions in which these children lived but also the remedy. Winthrop introduces us to the photographer Lewis Hine, whose photography helped reform the child labor laws in the United States.

This is an excellent book. I was concerned that the story would not keep the interest of an 11 year old boy but there was enough action, injustice and gore to keep him asking for more. The gore in the book is entirely appropriate and is needed to document the conditions under which these people worked and lived. As you know, Wingnut has become an excellent photographer, so the descriptions of ancient photography methods fascinated him.

I expected Counting On Grace to be another bland look at life one hundred years ago. I'm glad I was wrong. There are dozens of topics a teacher can integrate throughout this book in language arts, science, history, technology and mathematics. I am always very careful and skeptical of integrating mathematics with literature because the mathematics curriculum topics in literature usually are not rigorous enough or are below grade level standards and expectations. I think this is probably because of most authors' fear and/or lack of knowledge of mathematics. But Elizabeth Winthrop doesn't flinch. Careful planning and integration with the mathematics curriculum can enhance and expand the understanding of the conditions described in Counting On Grace.

Now if only I could get Wingnut back for the VPR Vermont Reads Day.

Remember: if you buy this book now by clicking on the book image or on the title, I will get paid. Then I can buy my Canon Rebel XTi (and give my little Kodak Z710 point-and-shoot to Wingnut).

Technorati tags: Counting+On+Grace, Elizabeth+Winthrop, book+reviews, Vermont, Lewis+Hine

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Wired: Math Book Helps Girls Embrace Their Inner Mathematician

Math Book Helps Girls Embrace Their Inner Mathematician

The actress who played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, Danica McKellar, is a self-proclaimed math advocate for girls who might otherwise shy away from a subject that Barbie once famously described as "hard."

McKellar's math book for junior high girls, called Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, will be at bookstores Thursday. It has the look and feel of a teen magazine, but puts heavy emphasis on fractions and pre-algebra.

Graduating summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics, McKellar is also co-author of a published proof. She has testified before Congress on math education and served as a substitute teacher.

You can download the proof that Ms. McKellar wrote here. And of course, if you buy this book now by clicking on the book image or on the title, I will get paid. Then I can buy my Canon Rebel XTi.

Technorati tags: Danica+McKellar mathematics

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Annalee Blysse: Google Earth Challenge

Annalee Blysse: Google Earth Challenge

Annalee's Google Earth maps show a wonderful contrast of Nevada and my area in Vermont.

Grab the button now and try it yourself!

Technorati tags: Google+Earth meme Google+Earth+Challenge Annalee+Blysse Nevada Vermont

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The Degree Confluence Project

In her post about the Google Earth Challenge, Annalee Blysse linked to the Degree Confluence Project. I like the idea of taking photos at all the points, worldwide, where latitude and longitude intersect. Unfortunately, Vermont is done. All of New England is done. But I can still go to the spots and take my own photos of the four Vermont confluences.

Technorati tags: Google+Earth Google+Earth+Challenge Degree+Confluence+Project Vermont photography

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Bats At The Library

Little Brown Bat

Jerry Schneider came to the children's last summer library program today to teach us about bats. I attended because of my own bat experience. The library basement was jammed with over twenty children and approximately ten adults. Jerry showed us slides of photos taken by Merlin Tuttle founder of the Bat Conservation International. After the presentation, the children made their own bat t-shirts with bat stencils and fabric paint.

Skeleton of a little brown bat

• You can visit bat caves in Dorset, Vermont.
• There are nine species of bats in Vermont but the little brown bat, Northern long-eared bat, and the big brown bat are most common.
• Bats pollinate night blooming flowers (none are in Vermont) and they disperse seeds.
• Vermont bats eat millions of bugs every night.
• Bat boxes will help keep bats out of your attic.
• Hawks, owls, skunks and domestic pets prey on bats.
• Bat babies are called pups.

Examples of what bats eat in New England

• Bats can live about 34 years but the average life span is 15-25 years.
• Bats can fly at 35 miles per hour (56.3 kilometers per hour).
• Bats can see as well as humans so they need to use echo location to prevent flying into things at night and to locate bugs in the air.
• Best bat book: Stokes Beginner's Guide to Bats
• A bat's echo location call frequency is from 38-63 kH
• Bats evolved from rodents. They grew fingers that evolved into wings. They have thumbs to hang off of trees.
• Only 5% of the reports of rabid bats are true.

Wingnut makes his own bat shirt.

• Female bats congregate in bat houses, caves and attics to nurse their young. Males are usually alone in trees.
• If you have a bat in the house, turn off the lights and open the windows so it can escape.
• You can also use a net or blanket to carefully capture it and free it.
• Bats have gaps in their teeth so that their echo location call is not blocked.
• Some bats make echo location calls in their noses.
• About 50 bats can fit inside a bat house.
• Put your bat house about ten feet high on the south side of your house.

The design is finished.

• The bumble bee bat is the smallest bat.
• Bats are social creatures and need their colonies in order to thrive.
• Bats are the only flying mammal.
• Bats are born alive.
• Bats are attracted to areas with lots of bugs, like fields and marshlands.
• The pallid bat can hear beetles walking on the forest floor.
• If slowed down to frequencies that humans can hear, bat calls sound like bird calls.

Painting the design on the shirt.

I talked to Jerry privately after his presentation to ask him if it were true to get the series of rabies shots if you awaken to a bat in your room. He said yes. But he emphasized that the reports of rabid bats are greatly exaggerated.

The finished shirt.

For more information:
Vermont State Parks Bat Information page
Chiroptera Cabin Company bat houses

Technorati tags: bats, Merlin+Tuttle, Jerry+Schneider, Bat+Conservation+International, Vermont, Barton+Public+Library, bat+caves, Dorset+caves

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Holy Moley!

I'm just stunned and worried: a few minutes ago a coyote walked by the house. I hollered at him because my first instinct was to holler at him so he would disappear forever. But he ignored me. The blackbirds went nuts attacking him and calling each other. The coyote turned into the woods at the exact same spot where the deer and moose cross the road and go into the woods.

Deer were here this morning at 4 AM eating from the apple tree in the driveway. There can't be any apples yet so they are probably eating the baby apples. Now there is a coyote around to worry them and me.

Things to remember: always keep camera out of case. Always recharge batteries while you sleep. Always be prepared for these coyote photographs.

Buddy just came in so I know he won't get eaten by the coyote. Today.

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BurlingtonFreePress.com : Vermont's Seven Wonders

BurlingtonFreePress.com : Vermont's Seven Wonders

I have places to go on this list. Tonight is the night (I think) that they reveal the 7 Wonders of Vermont. The Free Press is compiling a list of possible seven wonders for Vermont and we can all vote on what we think should make the list. This process will continue all summer.

I think they should have qualified the wonders: natural wonders? human-made? even geological wonders. 

This state is the number one wonder of this country.

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How To Draw A Bunny

The Estate of Ray Johnson: "How to Draw a Bunny, a 90 minute feature film on the artist Ray Johnson, is now available on DVD and VHS."

The movie at the Barton Library Movie Night was How To Draw A Bunny. It was about the life of Ray Johnson, a mailartist. I had never heard of him and now I want to learn more. He was a complicated man with wonderful ideas. He also had more than one reference in his works to mathematics, which intrigues me. Be sure to click the link above to view his work and learn about him.

Elka and Peter Schumann, from Bread and Puppet, were at the movies. Some of their summer guests also came. The brownies were such a success that Wingnut and I had none leftover to bring home. Elka and I chatted after the movie about events in church.

It was another great night at the movies (Wingnut was bored by the movie but he was exposed to new ideas).

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Kids Domain Crafts - Ice Cream in a Bag

Kids Domain Crafts - Ice Cream in a Bag
This is perfect for Wingnut and me to do!

Saturday and the Green Mountain Shuffle

What a wonderful weekend! After school Friday I made brownies for the movies at the library. D had told me it would be Harold and Maude and it was. Fifteen people attended. I didn't cut the brownies until after the movie because I had made them so badly this time. At home later, I bought Tea for the Tillerman from the iTunes store: I just can't get enough of that music.

On the way home, there was a female moose diagonally across the road from the house! I braked but she was just standing there watching the world.

Saturday was cold, drizzly and damp. I wanted to get the cats' annual flea treatment but bought the wrong one and I drove me back and forth from Amy and the vet getting the right one. I meandered over to the North Troy crossing to the Owl's Head Bakery for lunch in Mansonville, Que. Customs were no problem this time. In fact, the Canadian customs officer gave me directions to the bakery. On the American side when I returned, I saw the Guantanamo-type holding cages that the Americans have built at the new customs building. Four large chain link cages with barbed wire at the top. They are obviously built to hold people. It is a scar on our nation.

I had promised A's mom that I would be at the premiere of her son's film Green Mountain Shuffle at the Barton Memorial Building, so I drove back home just in time for that:

Award-winning author Michael T. Hahn's first movie is an offbeat love story set in the gorgeous mountains of Vermont. Starring Heather Fitch, Adam Desautels and Derek Campbell, and featuring music by Michael Hahn Band, Green Mountain Shuffle is an unforgettable tale of passion deceit and redemption.

A's mother, father and grandfather sat in front of us. M and her husband D sat behind me. Roger was the host and Michael Hahn introduced the film. A's mom had assured me there would be no risque scenes in the movie but there were! I don't know how she (or A's grandmother!) sat through that but they were very composed. I had a wonderful time with welcoming friends and great conversations.

Then on to the Glover store for food for supper and to Evansville for gas and a movie (A Prairie Home Companion). The day was unplanned and so pleasant! Unfortunately I didn't take my camera but I am sure I will return to the bakery and restaurants in the Eastern Townships. Jim has given me permission to photograph the Glover store. I must do that as soon as possible.

The three common mergansers that appeared Thursday are still here: 2 males and 1 female.

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The Connecticut River

Wells River, VT

Wells River, VT

Barnet, VT

Barnet, VT

Nearly my entire life I have had a thing for the Connecticut River. Until I moved to Vermont I have always lived near it. I have watched it flood as I rode my bike through the fields and meadows on its banks. I have learned the historic signifigance of it in Connecticut.

But in Vermont I know practically nothing about it. I need to return to learning more. A dream of mine is to spend time exploring the origins of this river as it rises out of the Three Connecticut Lakes in New Hampshire. I also have a dream to canoe down the entire length.

So here and there in the future in this blog I will add posts about what I learn about the river. And I will make plans to fulfill those dreams.

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My New Favorite Chocolate

BARRY CALLEBAUT JACQUES
Helene subs quite a bit in school and one day the topic came to chocolate. Her son lives in Belgium and sends chocolate home to her. The next time she subbed, she brought in a bar of this dark chocolate. It is great! Creamy and truly dark. Very rich, though, so my stomach hurt because I had too much.

Both of these pictures of the labels link to the manuafacturer's web site. For my gifts, you can google for an online retailer. Price is no object!

From the Jacques site:

In 1982, Jacques Chocolaterie was acquired by Stollwerck. To keep pace with the growing success of its products, the factory was repeatedly expanded, the last time in 2004.

At the end of the 19th century, when Belgium was in industrial and commercial euphoria, Antoine Jacques founded Jacques Chocolaterie in 1896.

In 2005, Jacques – whose key visual is a knight – and Callebaut – Barry Callebaut’s traditional brand for consumer products in Belgium – were merged to combine the best of two worlds: the name awareness of Jacques with the recognized quality of Callebaut inside. The result is a strong brand for anyone with a sweet tooth, distinguished by authenticity, a pioneering spirit and conviviality.

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Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades

From National Public Radio - Morning Edition, Thursday, February 15, 2007. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7406521 . Our thanks to Greg Gierhart for bringing this piece to our attention.

Your Health: Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades
By Michelle Trudeau

A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University.

"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone," Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'"

Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.

"Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things."

She calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.

Dweck wondered whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years.

"We saw among those with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two years," she says. But that wasn't the case for those with the so-called "fixed mindset." They showed a decrease in their math grades.

This led Dweck and her colleague, Lisa Blackwell, from Columbia University to ask another question.

"If we gave students a growth mindset, if we taught them how to think about their intelligence, would that benefit their grades?" Dweck wondered.

So, about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.

The students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."

Basically, the students were given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.

"When they studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections," Dweck says. "When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brain was growing."

Dweck says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and their willingness to put forth effort. Duke University psychologist, Steven Asher, agrees. Teaching children that they're in charge of their own intellectual growth motivates a child to work hard, he says.


"If you think about a child who's coping with an especially challenging task, I don't think there's anything better in the world than that child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, 'You'll get there.' And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about."

Dweck's latest book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, gives parents and teachers specific ways to teach the growth mindset of intelligence to children.

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