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Testing the Test Hypothesis

by spinoza | Education

Here’s a link to a that challenges the benefits and virtues of testing.

“I happen to believe that efforts to raise test scores dramatically and in mass, such as is called for by NCLB, is a fool’s errand that can only end in failure or (more likely) fraud.” 

As a parent who has sent two kids through the system, and former educator myself, I submit this article as one who no longer has ‘skin in the game’. However, I believe all of us have a flesh and blood investment in this issue, because the corporate mindset and methods that now so heavily dominate education, inform almost every aspect of our lives.

150 Years Ago (1864 1/18)

by BusyMom | History

Probably to Portus Baxter, M.C., Derby Line, Vt.

East Charleston Jan. 18, 1864.

Dear Friend –

I had intended to have gone to Washington, but the detachment did not go Friday, and learned that one of my children was very sick and came this way instead of the other. I got home Saturday, found my youngest child very sick. He appears to be better today. Think he will get along. It was a bad time to come, as I had just been relieved from duty, in order to study. Major Bartlett made an application to Major Austin to get me into the 9th Regt. But the Major could not send me there and thought it not necessary. My furlough is out next Monday. I shall then fit for an examination as quick as possible. All speak encouragingly. I am sometimes fearful. I do not know what I have got to go through. I wish that I could see you before I go on for an examination. I may have a chance to go out as a general.

Weekend Concert Series: Donald Fagen Masterclass

by cgrotke | Entertainment

This one is for keyboard players, musicians in general, and Steely Dan fans.

I like to hear musicians talk about their craft. This week I’ve decided to feature a video in which Warren Bernhardt sits with Donald Fagen in Woodstock, NY to talk about songwriting techniques such as harmony and melody, and the blues.

It is a master class in piano playing, but it is also a look at Steely Dan’s songs Chain Lightning, Peg, and Josie, and shows how they were constructed. It’s an up close and personal demonstration of each song followed by a performance.

On Exhibit at the Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Arts

ON EXHIBIT January/February Lita Judge Children’s Illustrators’ Book Cases, 2nd Floor Hallway Across Children’s Room. 

Lita Judge grew up immersed in all aspects of nature as she lived in remote areas of Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Since her grandparents were both wildlife biologists, the summers spent with them included banding hawks and rehabilitating falcons. Read more about Lita’s work HERE. 

ON EXHIBIT January Mia Scheffey’s work in oil paint. Main Room. .

Brooks Library Closed Monday January 20, 2014

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

Brooks Memorial Library will be closed Monday, January 20, in observance of  the national Martin Luther King holiday. Make a virtual visit to the library that day as all databases and the online catalog will be available at www.brookslibraryvt.org. 

You may also check out and download eBooks, eAudio, and stream independent movies, with your library card. Click on the “Digital Media” button and follow the link. Book and non-print drops will be open for returns during the hours the library is closed. Contact the library at 802.254.5290, info@brookslibraryvt.org.

Living History: Alexander Turner

by Brooks Memorial Library | History

Alexander Turner Life Story A Slave (1845- 1923)

Naima Wade will present a living history presentation on Thursday, January 16, 7:00 PM, in the library’s main room, which retells the Life Story of Alexander Turner (1845- 1923). Turner was enslaved on a Virginia plantation, and a fugitive who fought in the Civil War and eventually ended up in Vermont establishing a homestead. Wade’s goal is make sure that the Underground Railroad sites in southern Vermont are documented and preserved for posterity.

More .

Free Intro Spanish Class

by Not Signed In | Education

Free Demo Spanish Class with Escuelita Spanish School. Wednesday, January 22nd 5:30-6:15 pm. Experience a new approach to language acquisition that is easy, fun, and truly effective. Winter schedule available online www.EscuelitaSpanishSchool.org.

Beginner class begins Jan 30th. Weekend classes Feb 1-2 (intermediate) and 8th-9th- Family class.

To register, please email elissa@escuelitaspanishschool.org or call 802-275-2694

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: A Reading and Discussion Series: Matryona’s Home

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

Join Vermont Humanities scholar Richard Wizansky for this reading and discussion series which features the shorter works by the great Russian writer, dissident, and former Cavendish, Vermont resident and includes his most read and highly regarded novella as well as several of his famous speeches.

The readings and dates are: 1/9– One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; 1/16–Matryona’s Home;; 2/13 the 1970 Nobel Lecture; and the 1978 Harvard Class Day Address. 

Upcoming Events and Space Announcement: Brattleboro Group The Future Collective’s Future Winter – February 2014

by wildgoose | Arts

Brattleboro Art Collective, The Future Collective, is announcing its acquisition of a community arts space at 17 Elliot Street in Brattleboro. The collective will use the two-room studio as a not-for-profit art gallery and performance space, as well as for community workshops and other community events and meetings. The Future Collective has been organizing events and fundraising without a space since January of 2012, and is excited by the additional opportunities that having a consistent space will provide. The space will be referred to as “The Future” from here forward.

Lisa McCormick Awarded Escape-to-Create Residency in Seaside, FL

by Ruthie | Music

Singer/songwriter Lisa McCormick, of Brattleboro, VT, is one of five artists selected to attend a four-week artist residency in Florida, for the month of February. 

McCormick will be dedicating the residency time to composing new original songs for her upcoming CD and concerts.

The Escape-to-Create artists are selected from an international pool of applicants, following a peer review selection process. Since 1993, Escape to Create’s multi-disciplinary residency offers artists the gift of time and space from a community engaged in furthering artistic expression. 

Caravan of Thieves w/ Emma Walsh at Next Stage on Friday, January 17

by Not Signed In | Music

Twilight Music presents acoustic swing and alt gypsy jazz quartet Caravan of Thieves, plus fiddler Emma Walsh, at Next Stage on Friday, January 17 at 7:30 pm.

For the past five years, Caravan of Thieves has roamed the North American continent recruiting a family of avid thrill seekers at their high energy shows. Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass and violin lay the foundation for mesmerizing vocal harmonies and fantastic stories. It’s theatrical and humorous. It’s musical and intense. It entertains, dazzles and defies classification while welcoming the spectator to join the band throughout the performance in momentary fits of claps, snaps and sing-alongs.

Delectable Mountain Owner Featured & Name Your Price Tickets!

by Pam Lierle | Music

Windham Orchestra

BRUCKNER & SIBELIUS in Brattleboro & Saxtons River 

On Friday, January 17 in Saxtons River, and Sunday, January 19 in Brattleboro, the Windham Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Hugh Keelan, presents a dynamic program ranging from Bruckner’s popular 19th century “Romantic” Fourth Symphony; to local composer Jan Norris’ new work “Melting Spring.”

Film Noir at Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Entertainment

Beat the winter blues with Film Noir! What is film noir? Literally it means “black film” and it is a Hollywood genre of crime movie of the 1940’s and 50’s that developed mostly out of the Great Depression crime fiction.

Please join your neighbors at Brooks Memorial Library for a series of matinee classic noir on Wednesday afternoons beginning, January 15, at 2:00 PM, in the Library’s meeting room, with a classic 1951 Hitchcock film.

Averting Disaster: Fiction Saves The Day!

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

How do heroes and heroines cope with calamity in the very different worlds of the thriller, steampunk, and science fiction? Join a lively discussion with a panel of three authors in the Brooks Memorial Library meeting room on Wednesday, January 15, at 7 PM, and find out.

Travis Hiltz began writing in college, where he had an one act play produced and accumulated a small collection of rejection letters. He has since gone on to have over a dozen short stories published and become a regular contributor to both Blackcoat Press and Pulp Empire.

BCTV Channel 8 & 10 Schedules for the Week of 1/13/14

by BCTVProg | Media

BCTV Ch.8 Schedule for the week of 1-13-14

                    Monday January 13               

12:00 am      Cuban Bridge Ep.14 – A Truck Full of Pianists

1:45 am       TED Talks: Ramesh Raskar: A camera that takes one trillion frames per second

2:00 am       FSTV Overnight

4:00 am       Salaam/Shalom – Two Historians on Palestine

5:00 am       Tom Ashbrook – A Life in the News

First School Board Public Forum

by Lise | Education

The Brattleboro Town School Board, which governs the town’s three elementary schools, has announced the agenda for their first outreach session with the public on the topic of education.  This meeting, which is scheduled for January 22, 2014 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at the Academy School, will focus on what people like about Brattleboro’s public schools.  Details from the flyer are below.

Topic:  Learning In the 21st Century – the first in a series of community conversations with the Brattleboro Town School Board

January 22, 2014
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Academy School

Vermont Jazz Center Presents Freddie Bryant Kaleidoscope Quartet on Saturday, January 18th at 8 pm

by Not Signed In | Music

Guitarist Freddie Bryant’s Kaleidoscope Quartet to feature the sounds of jazz from around the world at the VJC in a tribute to VJC founder, Attila Zoller

The Vermont Jazz Center kicks off 2014 with a concert featuring guitarist Freddie Bryant’s Kaleidoscope Quartet a band that features disparate grooves from around the world unified by Bryant’s simple truth that he is indeed an authentic global citizen. This show will be a tribute to VJC founder, the great guitarist, Attila Zoller.

5:45 Live: 1/10/14

by BrattleboroTV | Media

Get the latest on this week’s tragic fire in Dummerston, new economic development dollars from the VY VT deal, a hold up at the I-91 bridge construction site, the coming town meeting election season, and much more.

Author Betsy Woodman Discusses Her Novels About India

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

Betsy Woodman draws upon her vivid memories of growing up in India—playing hide–and-seek in the Mughal tomb behind her house in New Delhi, studying the dance styles of Bharat Natyam, and attending boarding school at the foot of the Himalayas—to write her gleefully charming Jana Bibi Adventure series. Love Potion Number 10 (Henry Holt; on sale August 13, 2013) is the second installment of this series, and Woodman’s hardcover debut, following the success of the beloved Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes.

In her recent book, Jana, her loyal parrot, and the gang at the Jolly Grant House are back as their small town in India is rocked by an espionage scandal and a homemade remedy that has love on everyone’s mind. Jana’s fortune-telling has brought a lot of attention to the small town of Hamara Nagar, and now that the dust has settled and the town is safe from the threat of being flooded by a government dam, all eyes are on the Scottish-born card-reader Jana and her feisty, loose-beaked parrot, Mr. Ganguly. Some people, though, are not to be trusted, and Mr. Ganguly finds himself the target of a potential kidnapping that puts Jana and her household on edge.

Weekend Concert Series: John Philip Sousa (from OU)

by cgrotke | Entertainment

Oklahoma University hosted a tribute to John Philip Sousa in 1987 and recorded it for posterity. What makes this show interesting is that the symphonic band didn’t just play his marches, they attemtped to recreate a perfomance by having authentic costumes and a conductor to impersonate Mr. Sousa.

John Philip Sousa III acted as host for the evening and provided a living link to the composer.