One day more! To be clear, that’s one day more of in-person scoring. I still have a travel day after that. Thursday (Juneteenth) is a rest day. Then online scoring will resume on Friday. As I was just saying with my roommate, I believe that the online scoring might only be a day or two. I would be surprised if it lasted into Sunday, and even if it did, it would likely be done by the time I would be able to score on Sunday considering the four hour time difference (a difference that makes it so my window of scoring availability is from 2AM to 6PM ASDT). For a variety of reasons, I do plan on scoring while at home.

Today’s Reading went fine. I feel that I was more productive the first half of the day as compared to the second half. I really think that the Spanish are on to something regarding siestas. That time that starts about half an hour to an hour after lunch seems perfectly suited for a good nap. Granted, some of that tiredness is due to the reduced quality of sleep that I get while away from home. 

After the Reading, a couple of friends and I stopped by a popular t-shirt shop named Raygun that had quite a few shirts with phrases that I liked. My friends were encouraging me to get a “Greatest teacher in the universe shirt.” However, my favorite was one that said, “Help! I’m talking and I can’t shut up!”

I’ve enjoyed my time at this Reading, and I’ve certainly learned a great deal. Still, I’m quite ready to be home. One day more!

I was back in the groove again today. I stopped keeping count of the number of essays that I score in a day a couple of years ago as I realized that, while it gave me something to shoot for, it was distracting me from the actual scoring a little too much—not enough that it affected my accuracy, but that it was increasing some of my anxiety and was keeping me from taking needed breaks. That said, I could tell that I was coasting today—at least, until the last half hour where I found myself getting more and more distracted by the slightest noise around me. 

I met a teacher from my own district today. He’s a relatively new teacher from Homer who also teaches AP World History: Modern. Apparently, he already knew who I was due to a DDF event at Homer during his first year as a teacher (and my first year as a DDF coach). With the governor’s recent veto, he’s currently concerned that he won’t have a job next year. Considering his enthusiasm (and new experience as a Reader), that would be a tremendous loss for our district.

On a different note, we know that the Reading won’t be in Kansas City next year due to the city hosting the World Cup. There is some confusion about whether we will be coming back the following year or not. If not, this was my final time going to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (KCGoldDome). As normal, it was an excellent mass, even if it was a little hard to follow along with the music. The sermon dealt with the history of the Nicene Creed, which is celebrating its 1700th birthday this year in its original form—the form that our English translation is currently based on was completed at a second council ten years later according to today’s homily. The Creed was integrated into the catholic mass in the 1100s so that Catholics are able to express every week the basic tenets of what they believe.

Before I close, I want to wish a late happy Fathers’ Day to all of the fathers out there (in whatever way that they serve as fathers)! I also want to express my support for all of those who are missing their fathers and are reminded of that on this day. I am regularly reminded of how blessed I have been to have such a great father in my own life. I look forward to being able to wish him a happy Fathers’ Day many more times into the future.

We’ve crossed the halfway point. Interestingly, we seem to have crossed the halfway point in regard to the total number of essays that need to be read. They are expecting a drop tomorrow due to Fathers’ Day (as well as Sunday) and the number of people at home who might not log in as many hours. Generally, those of us who are onsite tend to speed up as the days go on.

That was not the case for me today. A couple of low calibration and validity ratings shook my confidence a bit (those are ratings based on how closely we score essays that have been already scored by table leaders). In each case, I felt that the scores that I gave were justified, and I was able to get multiple table leaders to agree on a couple of the points that I gave, but it was enough of a rattle to my concentration that I found myself rereading too often and second guessing myself for the first half of the day and then fighting a “wall” for the second half of the day out of sheer mental exhaustion. 

My friends and I went to B.R.G.R. Kitchen and Bar for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, but I’ve had a little bit of a mental tick when eating burgers lately: I keep comparing them to the burgers that we could get at Senor Panchos (which has been closed down due to immigration garbage). This burger was no exception. Without a doubt, it was good … just not as good as a Senor Panchos burger. 

Also, the temperature when we were walking was in the upper eighties. I was drenched with sweat by the time I got back to the hotel. It’s worse since I know that I’m missing some of the nice temperatures up in Soldotna right now. 

I’m hoping that I’m able to “lock in” tomorrow. They’ve made it clear that we will not finish our question, let alone the Reading before we have to leave Kansas City, but there’s a part of me that would like to help prove them wrong. Personally, I prefer it when I get retrained on a new question (especially a different form of question) so that I have a greater insight about the questions, but also so that I gain a better historical understanding about that particular historical event or time period. We will see.

Well, I hit the “wall” today. The wall is more than just getting tired or bored while reading through the essays—which can usually be alleviated by standing up, munching on something, or getting more caffeine. It’s a point where your eyes refuse to focus or your brain starts to think that words have lost all sense of meaning. It’s like rereading the same paragraph multiple times and never remembering what you read, but heightened to a degree that your brain will try to fabricate meaning where none exists. Even that description does not do the sensation justice. The only real solution is to take a bit of a break (trying not to disturb any of the table mates—of which I am not always successful—before getting back into the rhythm. 

For there is a rhythm that I find as I go through these readings. After reading hundreds of essays on the same topic, certain patterns emerge based on how students start the essay. While some essays will take their own unique pathways (and those are the true delights during the read), most will become like familiar friends that follow familiar trends. It’s almost possible to recognize which students (or their teachers) used which resources to learn the content and skills for the class. This helps me as it becomes clear which sort of studying (or teaching) methods clearly are not quite getting the information across as well as what sort of methods seem to be successful. These Readings truly are some of the best professional development that I have ever attended.

I am, however, quite tired this evening. For our professional night, the College Board paid for the WWI museum to stay open longer than normal so that we could visit it for free. I had planned on going even though I had been there before, but I decided to settle in instead. I’m really glad that the College Board provided this activity, and I hope that enough people attend so that they will plan similar such activities in future years—such as next year’s Reading which will be in Louisville, Kentucky (Kansas City is kicking us out so that they can host the World Cup next year). 

Speaking of activities, we’ve already been warned that a mass demonstration will likely take place in the downtown area as a part of the No Kings movement protesting President Trump’s fascist-like policies (such as a military parade for his birthday, not to mention his use of Gestapo-like tactics regarding ICE as well as military responses to peaceful protests). For obvious reasons, we are to continue working on scoring the exams so that students will get their scores when we’ve promised, but the College Board is concerned about our safety, so they’ve provided a few other precautionary measures to get us to and from our hotels and while we are in the Convention Center. I am, however, a little concerned that tomorrow is also supposed to be our dine out night. Considering that Missouri has activated the National Guard, I don’t know if the event(s) will be over by then.

It does make me wish that we had been part of the first week of the Reading. I hope that people joining at the Soldotna Creek Park tomorrow have a good turnout and a peaceful experience. I would have liked to be there.

Today we started up the main task of getting through the essays. As the entire exam was digital this year, the scoring has (from my perspective) been going faster than previous years. Not having to decode student handwriting has been a real game-changer for this Reading. Sure, there are still issues with students who type like a drunken monkey got ahold of their keyboard (and certainly doesn’t know the rules for capitalization or punctuation), but it is so much smoother to have every student’s essay presented in the same font and general format. In fact, I would go so far to say that it makes scoring a little more equitable as it can be difficult to set aside handwriting bias while grading.

I also didn’t hit the wall of fatigue that hit me last year on day 3 (which is earlier than normal). I think that part of it is that the questions are scoring better, but it also might be that they have consistently had French Vanilla creamer for the coffee—making me more likely to drink it. They also provided us a stand for our laptops that we can use as a type of standing desk. That’s significantly better than using a box or a chair as I have had to do in the past.

The evening activity was the open forum for the AP test which gave us the opportunity to learn more about why they made some of the changes that they made to the test this year (such as it going entirely digital). They also discussed some of the issues that happened during the test this year as well as some of their future plans for the coming years—including discussions about the role of AI. The end was open to questions, but no one asked the one that was on my mind (and, no, I didn’t line up at the mic): Can we move the exam back to the second week? (Losing that week was difficult to deal with this year).

We’re not even getting to the halfway point by the end of tomorrow. I’m interested to see how far the scoring gets, as I’m wondering if other people feel like it’s going faster this year too. Hopefully, I don’t hit the “wall.” I should probably go to bed soon to make that less likely.

Today was training day. We’ve spent most of the morning going through the standard system readiness prerecorded trainings that kept stalling out due to so many of watching videos at the same time. I was much happier once we got to the actual question that I’m grading—at least for the next several days. 

I say happier because I was already pretty happy with the team of people who are working at my table. This seems like it will be another great group with a really positive table leader. However, the icing on the cake is that one of the members on the team—sitting directly across from me—is the man who taught me how to teach AP World History during a summer institute back in 2012 (I think, maybe 2011). Much of how I set up my class (and has given me such success) is based directly on what he taught me and the materials he provided way back when (I’ve had to change it over time as the test and my teaching has changed).

I also just finished a great (and detailed) conversation with my new roommate. I miss my friend who had been my roommate for the years previous to this, but I will say that my current roommate and I are likely to get along well—even if we hang out with other groups. Basically, today’s experiences suggest that this year’s Reading will be a good one.

Technically, today was my travel day as we will be begin the actual grading tomorrow. I was up at 2AM so that Trevor could drive me to the Kenai airport, and travelled through most of the day. I’m writing this in a bit of a hurry as I joined a D&D game when I got here, and it’s going later than I expected. 

Aside from the D&D game, I’ve had several first time experiences on this trip. The first was that my plane from Kenai to Anchorage missed on its first attempt to land. I thought that it had made a smooth touch to start the landing, but then the plane started to swerve to the left, forcing the pilot to speed up and lift off again. We made it safely on the second attempt. 

At this point, we found that the gate between the A terminal and the rest of the airport was still locked. I had never seen it locked before. It took a little while for them to find the key and let us through. Due to a long line at security, I was really pushing for time and ended up getting to the gate just five minutes before they closed boarding. I made it to my window seat on the plane only to find that there was no window—I suppose that I had a bulkhead seat.

I think that I’m set for tomorrow. I don’t doubt that there will be more firsts. For that matter, at the point that I’m writing this, I still haven’t met my roommate.

I'm heading out for Kansas City starting at 3AM tomorrow morning. The AP World History Reading was relegated to the second session this year. Last week, Kansas City was in the 70s, by the time that I will get there, it's supposed to be from the mid 80s to the low 90s. The air conditioning within the Convention Center has already been reported to be set to arctic, and my hotel is just across the street this year, so we will see how well I survive.

My packing habits have changed through the years. I remember bringing a full-sized checked bag for my first couple of years. A couple of years ago, I quite ambitiously traveled with only a backpack and my seat cushion. I think that I've settled on a carry-on and a lightly packed backpack for this and any future trips. The only reason I would want to go larger is if I decided that I needed to bring my pillows. 

I have a few concerns going into this year. My two closest friends at these Readings won't be there this year. One of them has been my roommate for every in person Reading since the first. I hope that my new roommate (I'm still upset that they double us up) can tolerate me. I've contacted one of my other friends from previous Readings and have joined a group that was looking for D&D players (they're letting me play my halfling barbarian, Vohnkar), so I won't be just moping in my room, but it's going to be different.

We had our locally grown, freshly minted priest Father Ed Burke as our celebrant at mass today. It seemed fitting to celebrate the birth of the Catholic Church with this first (for us) sermon from him as a full priest (he's preached as a deacon before). The Holy Spirit was clearly with him, and us, today.

The fire of the Holy Spirit is the fire of inspiration, passion, and devotion that burns within our hearts. So many words in our language describe love using terms related to fire: blazing, enkindled, enflamed, fervid, torrid, ardent are a few examples. We are changed, purified, and forged by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

However, this is a fire that frees us rather than consumes us. As Paul says in today's second reading in his epistle to the Romans, "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, 'Abba, Father!'" God does not want us to serve Him as mindless drones, but to be a part of His family. This is why we are tasked with loving one another. The tongues of flame that rested upon the Apostles at Pentecost were given to spread the message of familial love to all people in the world.

The fire of the Holy Spirit, the waters of Baptism, the breath of God, and the clay from which we were formed show that God also incorporates the ancient elements into His message. 

In 2019 (seriously? It's been that long ago?!), I hosted summer watch parties of the MCU movies that were available at that time (most of Phases 1-3). I did so about once a week in groups of three movies per session. I've been wanting to do something similar for Marvel's Phase 4 and 5, as I have only seen some of those movies once. When I started putting together a schedule for it, I started to see part of the problem: Phase 4 was when they started including TV shows in the mix. Quite frankly, it's a massive mess. While it would be possible to watch all of the TV shows as well as all of the movies, I just don't want to take that kind of time this summer (although, I wouldn't mind watching many of those shows again). 

Instead, I'm sticking with just watching the movies in their release order. As a guide, I also organized when shows should be watched as part of their release order as well as their connections to some of the movies. At present, I'm tentatively setting these watch sessions on Tuesdays starting after I return from Kansas City. Please let me know if you're interested in attending and able to do so.

Marvel: Phase IV-V (2025)
Before June 24:
WandaVision - STRONG connections to Dr. Strange
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - STRONG connections to Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*
Loki - Season One - STRONG connections to Deadpool & Wolverine

June 24:
10:00 AM - 12:14 PM Black Widow (2h 14m) 
12:30 PM - 2:42 PM Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2h 12m)

Before July 1:
What if …? - Season One - STRONG connections to Dr. Strange
Hawkeye - mild connections to The Marvels
July 1:
10:00 AM - 12:36 PM Eternals (2h 36m)
12:50 PM - 3:18 PM Spider-Man: No Way Home (2h 28m)

Before July 8:
(Moon Knight - No connections yet)
Ms. Marvel - STRONG connections to The Marvels

July 8:
10:00 AM - 12:06 PM Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2h 6m)
12:20 PM - 2:18 PM Thor: Love and Thunder (1h 58m) 

Before July 15:
(I Am Groot: Season 1)
(She-Hulk: Attorney at Law - connects to Shang Chi and Dr. Strange)
(Werewolf by Night - No connections yet)
Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special - connects to GotG3

July 15:
10:00 AM - 12:41 PM Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2h 41m)
[end of Phase IV]
12:55 PM - 2:59 PM Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2h 4m)

Before July 22:
(Secret Invasion - hopefully, never connects to anything)
(I Am Groot: Season 2)
Loki - Season 2 - connects to Deadpool & Wolverine

July 22:
10:00 AM - 12:30 PM Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2h 30m)
12:45 PM - 2:30 PM The Marvels (1h 45m)

Before July 29:
(What if … ? - Season 2)
(Echo - connects to Daredevil)
X-Men ’97 - mild connections to Deadpool & Wolverine
(Agatha All Along - connects to WandaVision and Dr. Strange)
What if … ? - Season 3 - mild connections to Captain America 4 and Thunderbolts*

July 29:
10:00 AM - 12:08 PM Deadpool & Wolverine (2h 8m)
12:20 PM - 2:18 PM Captain America: Brave New World (1h 58m) 

Before August 5:
(Daredevil: Born Again - No connections yet)

August 5:
12:00 PM - 2:07 PM Thunderbolts* (2h 7m) 
(if it's out on DVD by then, which it might not be)

I said that it was complicated!

Our half-day training wrapped up some of the main ideas by having each team (there was one "team" of one, mine was a team of two) come up with a plan for their areas in regards to upcoming elections. Our area seemed to be the only one that has elections coming up this year--as I understand it, we are one of the only areas with 3-year terms, but I could be wrong. In our case, we have three positions on our school board facing an election--all three current incumbents are at least pro-public education, but we don't know if any (let alone all) are going to run for reelection. We also have four Borough Assembly positions that are up for election. Three of them will be open seats as the incumbents (who were all at least education-friendly) have reached their term limits (BTW - term limits are not good democratic practice, especially in local governance with a limited pool of people willing to take the position). The fourth (who is also generally education-friendly) is already facing an opponent who has started advertising despite the fact that the paperwork for running is not yet available.

In short, we have our work cut out for us. We're in a tough spot due to a barrage of negative attacks on education in our area and several years of chaos due to leadership issues within our union (including some unfortunate infighting). Even some of the new people in our leadership positions are already feeling burnout due to this past, highly-charged, year--especially considering the issues we're facing from the state level.

I'm going to say this again: my time at this training really increased my appreciation for our current school board. There are still issues that we do not agree on, but on the whole, we have people who are actively trying to improve our public schools rather than tear them apart. Most of the other districts who had representatives at the training are not so lucky.

Once the half-day training was over, I made a quick Costco run (with so many people in our household, we're definitely going through paper products faster) and headed home. The drive had portions of sun and rain (sometimes at the same time), but was absolutely gorgeous. That said, the best part was pulling into the driveway. It's good to be home, even if I'm going to head out again in just a few days.

Today’s conference also provided an large amount of interesting information that I had not fully considered before. The primary focus was on building teams that can work effectively at winning elections, but it included elements on fundraising and messaging. If nothing else, it explained the philosophies behind all of those phone calls and mailers that we receive in the run-up to an election. 

I was also given more reason to hate insurance companies today. One of my young friends discovered that even though he had full coverage on his vehicle, his insurance will not cover any damage or replacement because his wife, who was driving the car at the time of the accident, was not listed on his account. He’s had the car and the account since well before he was married several years ago and has kept up on his payments the entire time, but they’re using this loophole to deny him coverage for anything other than damage to the other person’s vehicle. It’s always something with insurance companies.

I did have a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my friends. On our way back from the meal, there was one curiosity worth mentioning. Anchorage’s stoplights can be a bit long. In the car in front of us at one of those long stops, the driver started playing a flute-like wind instrument while also holding a lit cigarette, stopping occasionally to holler over to some girls that were at a nearby bus stop, sing the chorus of the song he was playing, and dance in his seat. As I said, the light was a long one, so we were entertained (and disturbed) by his antics for a while.

Last night at the hotel was not as restful as the first one, so I plan on going to bed earlier today so that I’m fully awake for the drive back home tomorrow.

I’ve had an interesting day. The drive up to Anchorage last night was lonely and overcast, but lovely. I brought my own pillows and my portable fan with me, so I didn’t have any real problems sleeping. In fact, due to the start time of the conference, I was even able to sleep in later than my normal weekday schedule—and then it turned out that we didn’t start for another hour.

The conference itself has been enlightening. The basic purpose of it is to teach us how get candidates that support public education on the school board. It’s significantly more complicated than I had anticipated. Our training has also made me appreciate even more the current school board that we have—even if this training has pointed out how quickly that situation can (and has) switched in a single election.

I returned to my hotel before heading over to have dinner with friends, and it turns out that it was a good thing that I did. Someone started knocking on my door only a few minutes after I got to my room. It was a maid who seemed shocked that I was there. She said that my room was on her list of “dirty” rooms. I made jokingly said that I didn’t think that I had made that much of a mess. She laughed and said that she meant that my room was on the list of guests who had checked out. I let her know that I was there until Friday, and she said that she would let the management know.

I decided to talk with the front desk myself to see what was going on. There, I was informed that my room was only for the 3rd (last night). To be clear, I had made certain with the front desk that my room was for three nights; we had even had a bit of laugh because we both kept saying the 6th instead of the 5th as my last night. I let the current front desk clerk know this, but she was not in a laughing mood. I left a phone message and sent an email to the people who sent me the information regarding the conference, but I knew that it was after hours. Thankfully, the front desk clerk was grudgingly willing to extend my stay through Friday morning despite being frustrated that the hotel was overbooked. Hopefully, my union will clear that up tomorrow.

I loved getting to spend time with my friends and their adorable granddaughter (there are so many fantastic grandchildren in my life now). From there, I went to Best Buy to see if they had a portable keyboard that worked with my iPhone. My laptop is rather outdated at this point, and I would like to be able to use a keyboard to type up my blog posts rather than using my thumbs. When I arrived at Best Buy, I was shocked to see people lined up in multiple directions around the main doors. Apparently, Nintendo’s Switch 2 releases at midnight and people are eager to get it. I’m wondering if the store is going to have a special opening at midnight; otherwise, those people are in for a long, cold night.

Thankfully, they let me walk into the store; although, I was warned by more than one person that they were going to close and clear the store early. I was also fortunate to find an employee who knew where I could find a keyboard that met my needs. It was not with the keyboards, Apple products, or phones, but near where the Google tablets were kept. It’s a Logitech Keys-To-Go, and I have to say that it has made writing this post considerably easier than it would have been without it. I’m hoping that this will mean that I also be able to work on some of my summer writing projects while I’m down in Kansas City.

We will see.

As I'm heading up to Anchorage after dinner, I wanted to put out a post now since I likely won't have the time or energy later. I'm heading up for a conference that is run by our state teachers' union. The topic is getting pro-education people elected to local school boards. 

There has been a concerted attack on our public school system on a national level. National "grassroots movements" funded by dark money with innocuous names but nefarious purposes such as Mothers for Liberty or Americans for Prosperity have worked tirelessly to (among other things) dismantle our public education system. Their attacks on schools, educators, and books are widely unpopular for most Americans, but they have been some of the loudest voices and they have the money (since they receive billionaire support from people like the Koch brothers the Walton family) to put our more signs and ads than campaigns run by everyday people. 

Meanwhile, we have a number of open positions in the coming local election, particularly on our school board, but also in our borough. This means that we need to make certain that people who are looking to preserve public education rather than destroy it are willing to step up into these necessary (and often quite emotionally draining and thankless) roles. My goal with this conference is to have a better understanding of what we can do to help get the right people in the right places.

I've already learned a bit from some of the pre-homework that they've had us do, so I am hopeful that this conference will be worth the two and a half days that I'm committing to it.