Beauty and the Beast at BHS

Beauty and the Beast at BHS: Superb voices (leads and chorus), production numbers ("Be My Guest"), comedic acting, backed by a great pit!

Bonus photos after the jump.

Mary Poppins at LHHS

Mary Poppins at LHHS: The stage play, not the childhood movie. With RISD, not Hollywood, talent. Great singing and dancing. And flying!

POTD: Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec

From 2016 09 09 Quebec City

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, a one-day professional bicycle road race held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Bonus photos after the jump.

Rethinking a Falling STAAR

I get a little thrill whenever something I read leads me to change a long-held belief, or even just forces me to question it. Spoiler alert: thrill coming.

I've long believed in the need for standardized testing in our schools. As I put it in "Falling STAAR":

We should constantly examine both our teaching methods and our methods of assessing the effectiveness of our teaching. We can try cutting back on standardized testing (the direction we seem to be going). But we still need some form of standardized testing to see if that results in anything good. So, let's ease up, watch the results closely, and take care that we don't over correct.

Source: The Wheel.

I haven't changed my mind about any of that. It's what's done with the results of those standardized tests that I am now forced to rethink. After the jump, what leads me to that.

Hidden Figures (2016)

IMDB

Hidden Figures (2016): Racism, sexism at NASA in '60s. Uplifting, patriotic. Hits all the bases. Laugh, cry, cheer. A little too pretty. A-

Peter Pan at PHS

Peter Pan at PHS: Singing, dancing, music, special effects (flying!), huge cast (Lost Boys, Pirates, Indians) make this show a spectacular.

Hello, Dolly! at RHS

Hello, Dolly! at RHS: Classic musical made fresh by the energy of these young singers and dancers. The next best thing to going to Broadway.