You want to hear something funny?

There is snow on the ground in September here in Fairbanks, Alaska!!!







You may notice that there are a lot of pictures of ground squirrels. They are all over my back yard and very photogenic.



I kinda like them =) I have named them all Gomer (kind of like George Foreman naming all of his kids George.) They come and visit me all the time. I think they are use to getting food, because they seem not to fear me. I had one yesterday come right up next to me.

So about this snow. Last night I went out at about midnight to take out my trash when I saw the snow. I wish I had my tripod because it was beautiful (it was in my car and I felt too lazy to go out there and set it up.) I have never seen snow fall with absolutely no wind. The flakes fell straight down. It was mesmerizing. It looked like a transparent speckled sheet of white dots being lowered down very slowly. I tried to take a video of it with my new laptop, issued by the school district, but there was not enough light to capture the image. Hopefully it will snow again like that in the day time so I can tape it for you all to see. Also, since the air was so still, the snow had a chance to accumulate on every branch on every tree with out being pushed aside by the forceful gusts of wind.

Teaching in Alaska:
I realize I have not talked about the classroom as much, so here it is...things are going great! I am guessing the reason I have not been writing about teaching is that I have been having so few problems that I am able to focus on other topics. I have just been appointed a mentor to help me out. Most first year teachers in Alaska are issued a state mentor to show them the ropes; help out with classroom management, lesson plans, and other logistical things teachers have to deal with. I unfortunately slipped through the cracks and was not issued a mentor at the beginning of the school year (when it would have been SUPER helpful.) My principal worked very hard to get me someone, and she finally found a retired band teacher who was willing to come in and work with me. My mentor has told me (and apparently everyone else in my school) that I am doing great! She says very few first year teachers (and even some veteran teachers)are at the point I am at. She tells me that my classroom management is fantastic, my planning is great, my time management is right where it should be, and the only thing I really need help with is organization. I do feel very comfortable in front of a classroom, and I have my fantastic cooperating teachers and university advisers who helped me during student teaching to thank for it! I learned so much in those two 9 week sessions that I actually felt ready for the instructional portion of teaching. Of course it is all of the other things that teachers do outside of the classroom that I still need help with, but the important part, the actual teaching, is going very well. I still have a very long way to go, but I am off to a great start.

So yeah...that's how things are here. How are you doing? =)

I have joined the Fairbanks Community band and I'm having a blast playing. I have been away from my euphonium for far too long and it is great to be back playing challenging literature again. Also, I have solved the American obesity problem. All we need to do is make the health food more affordable and raise the price of snacks. Now that I can actually afford to eat healthy food, I am losing weight and feeling great! I am confident that moving to Alaska was one of the best decisions I have ever made with my life. I still miss everyone like MAD, but things are great up here. The only thing that could make Alaska any better, is if all of my friends and family were up here with me. Last night, I made a "Hello from Alaska" video for The Larsons (some very close friends of mine), and it really made me realize how much I do miss everyone. December cannot come fast enough! The video was actually pretty cool. The one I made last night was specifically for the Larsons, but I think next weekend I am going to make a general one and post it here for everyone to see.

Have a great week!!! Remember to mark your calenders for Dec 22nd - Jan 3rd!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Fairbanks...My New Home.

Hello all =)

I thought I would finally post a few pictures of Fairbanks so everyone in the "Lower 48" can get an idea of what it is like here. When I went out shooting, it was another rainy overcast day, so the colors are not the greatest...but you should be able to get an idea of what the city is like.

Well, here it is - Fairbanks, AK:



Ok, maybe the intersection of University and Airport Way is not the best representation of the town...but it is a start. There are pretty much four main roads in Fairbanks that surround the town...giving it the nickname "Squarebanks." Airport Way cuts Fairbanks in half horizontally (the road pretty much runs east-west). If you go one direction, you leave town via Steese Hwy (actually it is Steese if you go North and the Richardson Hwy if you go south) the other direction on Airport way take you to, yup, you guessed it - the airport.

The Chena River also runs through the town. The Chena provides tourist attractions like river boat tours, float plane rides, and it also lends its name to about 47 small roads around town:


The picture of The Chena River was taken about 200yds from Downtown Fairbanks...which looks looks kinda this:





(Apparently, you need to be very careful in Alaska. They do not impound cars...they impound people!)

Here is a picture taken from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks parking lot. It is pretty high ground overlooking the whole city:


Speaking of UAF, there is a cool museum there where John Luther Adams has an instalation. For UWRF readers, Mr, Adams was the commissioned composer in 2006. He lives here in Fairbanks. I wrote him an e-mail and he remembers me =) We are planning on going out for coffee in a few months, after his schedule dies down a little bit. Here is the museum:


And finally, the hotels! Stephen stayed in the nice one. I believe it is called the Regency Hotel:


I stayed in the loverly College Inn:


And now I am in the Wedgewood Resort:



There is a lot more to see here in Fairbanks, but this is a start. Like I have said many times before...the people here are VERY nice. For example, last night a fellow teacher invited me over for fried Halibut. YUMMY! It was a great night full of fish and Nintendo Wii with the kids. As I was leaving, they made sure I had some moose, caribou, halibut, and Alaskan cod to take home with me. Who hands out halibut, moose, caribou, and cod to their house guests? Fairbankians do...that's who! So today I went to Fred Meyer's to buy some beens and tomatoes so I could make myself a moose chili. I get home, start defrosting the moose, cutting up onions, and I realize I do not have a can opener. I guess the moose will have to wait until tomorrow night.



OH ONE MORE THING!!
I almost forgot. I bought my plane ticket today to Minneapolis! I will officially be in MN December 22nd through January 3rd. Mark your calenders everyone because I plan on visiting a LOT of people for hugs!

Have a great week!
~Mr. Lockwood.

Another Weekend Adventure

So once again I hopped in the "Swamp Donkey" and took a drive. This weekend I went South on the Richardson Hwy to Paxon. Unfortunately, The weather was not in my favor this weekend. The drive was BEAUTIFUL...probably my favorite so far. The road is in fantastic condition and it takes you through some gorgeous snowcapped mountains and glaciers! The rain, on the other hand, not so beautiful. My pictures did not turn out as well as I hoped. The sky was very over exposed and the ground was extremely underexposed (in other words...the sky is too bright and the ground is too dark.) If I would have had the patience I could have set up the tripod, put on my GND filter, and bracketed all of my shoots...but the drive was over 300 miles round trip and all of my shooting was done on the side of the road. I did get a few shots that I am not too disappointed with...I hope you enjoy them:

The drive started out with excitement...I saw my first moose on the highway!

I ended up seeing three moose on this drive, but this is the only picture I had time to snap. They are surprisingly sneaky for being such a huge animal. The second moose I saw I actually had time to get my camera out and slow the car down, but by the time I got to the place where she was...she was gone. How does a 7 foot, several hundred pound, dopey looking walking venison steak hide in 2 feet of brush? Crazy.


Ok..here are some mountains =)







(the sun came out for a little bit. If you look closely, there is a faint rainbow in this shot)

And here is my favorite from the drive:



OK...about my week teaching:

This week went pretty well. Monday and Tuesday were a little frustrating, but the week ended well. I have a loud voice that carries very well. If the student's were chatty, I have been able to get their attention by just talking loudly. That sounds like a great plan...but kids are smart. They realize that if I am able to get their attention because of my loud voice, they are able to keep on talking and they will not really miss anything because I can still be heard. I fixed that. I now refuse to compete with 33 other voices. I can, but I won't. I told my classes that if I keep trying to talk over them, I'll be mute by the end of the semester. Now all I need to do is start giving directions in my soft voice and go on with class. If they didn't hear the directions, it is not my fault they were not listening. They have responded very well to this new strategy =)

That's pretty much all that is exciting that happened at school. Today, I need to go back into class and work on a new seating chart for orchestra...fun!! I cooked the moose I had in the freezer today. It is awesome. I made a moose, rice, and mushroom dish...Moose-a-roni, the Athabaskan treat - DING DING!!!

I hope you all have a great week!
~Mr. Lockwood

#13 0f 27,952 Things You Must Do in Alaska:Experience the Aurora Borealis

So after my first photographing excursion, I went to the Pump House for an elk burger...I am a big fan of elk burgers. The people in Fairbanks who have read my blog keep telling me there are better places to eat them the Pump House, but until I get names and addresses, the Pump House's Bar menu is still my favorite food in town (I actually have not eaten in the restaurant section yet.) The reason I am mention my dinning experience is as I was eating my sweet potato french fries, I over heard someone say something about watching the Aurora that evening. In case you are wondering, the Aurora Borealis is better known as The Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis is simply solar winds passing by close enough for us to see them with the naked eye. Also to let you know, I have been calling it the Aurora not to sound snooty and pretentious...it is just that Aurora happens to be the "Lingua Franca" here in Fairbanks. Anyways - Fairbanks Alaska, due to its geographical location, just so happens to be one of the best places in North America to view the celestial wonder that is "The Aurora." I did a little research online and found a cool site that has aurora forecasts (here is a link: CLICK ME.) On this site, it listed the solar wind activity as moderate, so I decided that was good enough for me and made Saturday the night to go.

At around 8:30, I hopped in "The Swamp Donkey and hit the road. I remembered from one of my previous outings a nice place to park with a good open view of the Northern sky. This place is about 30 miles out of town, which is a good thing since light pollution makes viewing the aurora difficult. I am usually in bed by 8, so this is one of the first times I have seen an Alaskan Sunset...and it was very nice:


I arrived at my viewing location at about 9:30 ( it took a little longer to get there since I stopped to take some pictures of the sunset.) I then waited...and waited...and waited. I read that the best times to view the aurora is between 10 and 2 (also the best places to put your hands while driving!) so I knew I was in for a long, boring, and potentially very cold evening. I waited in my car, wrapped in random suit coats I have yet to bring into my apartment, for FOUR HOURS!!! At about 1:30 I went outside to use "the facilities" when I noticed a band of light starting to stretch across the northern sky. Was this it? It just looked like a low cloud illuminated by the stars (which, by the way, are very plentiful in Alaska!!) As I watched this "cloud", I saw that it was starting to get brighter, and fade in and out in certain areas...THIS WAS IT!!! I quickly grabbed my camera and tripod and sat out for an hour in 30 degree weather shooting:




Just so you know, the pictures make it look a lot more brilliant than in real life, but it was still an amazing thing to see. The photographs pick up more of the color of the winds. The human eye looks at the light and our brains turn it white, but the camera does not have that issue, so the greens are very visible. According to the website mentioned above, this was just a moderate display...I would LOVE to see one more active!

At about 2:30, my camera battery died so I decided to hit the road. Let me tell you, the drive home was the scariest 30 miles I have ever driven. It is almost 3:00 am at this point and there are moose, elk, caribou, and theoretically bears all over the place. Hitting any of these very large creatures equates to an extremely long walk home in the cold...there is no cell phone reception this far out of town. All along this stretch of road you can see skid marks from, I am guessing, avoiding very large animals. Fortunately, the only "walking obstacle" I saw on the drive back was a VERY lucky porcupine, who I was able to save by positioning my car in a way for him to slide underneath between the wheels.

I will be going on more late night photography trips to try to capture more images of the aurora. This was my first time attempting it, and I learned a few things that might make my next trip more successful. I have bookmarked the aurora forecast website and plan on checking it quite frequently.

Alright readers, that is it for today. Have a fantastic week and I will post more soon. Today (Sunday) I went out and took a lot of pictures of the town, so I will have a photo-tour of Fairbanks, AK in a week or so for you, so check back =)

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Week 3 of Teaching in Alaska =)

What a week. I took TONS of pictures this weekend. Before I get to them, I'll talk a little bit about my week:

This week of teaching went very well. I had a few moments of frustration, but I looked back at what went wrong and asked myself, why? Once I figured out the why, I came up with some new strategies and I found success! My main problem is I like to have fun when I teach. I know that does not sound like a problem, in fact, that sounds like a GREAT thing...and it is, when the students can handle it. I am all about combining fun with learning, but when the fun becomes a distraction, it is time to eliminate it from the equation and just focus on learning; since that is the reason we are all at school in the first place. I LOVE using learning as a reward...so I always keep a few fun and easy pieces of music in the students' folders so at the end of the day, if the students were well behaved, we get to play the fun stuff! The students LOVE to play this music and I can still find teachable moments during this section of rehearsal. Attention to details, such as correct rhythms, intonation, and dynamics, are just as important in the fun & easy pieces as they are in the challenging concert literature.

The school week ended with the first "Social." A social is kind of like a dance...well, it is a dance. There was a DJ in one room, open gym for basketball and other sports in another, and in the commons area (basically the cafeteria) there were stands that sold many items full of nutritious high fructose corn syrup. It was about 2 hours of 7th and 8th graders consuming as much sugar as they could afford and running around like wild chipmunks...it was fun =)

Now for the pictures:
On Saturday, I went for a drive to photograph some of the changing colors. There are trees EVERYWHERE in Alaksa...unlike Southern Saskatchewan:






After my drive, I went back to my apartment and sat on the steps. I was waiting for one the many ground squirrels to come by and pose for a few pictures, but they were a little shy. However, I did take some cool close up shots of random things next to me. I have been enjoying sitting in one place and looking for photograph-able things. You can find beauty everywhere if you just stop and take the time to look for it =)



(this one would have been much better if the A.B.C. gum was not in the picture..oh well)




(I love this one. It is simple, but for some reason I think it is very cool. It is currently the background on my computer)

Well, there are some pictures...I am actually going to put up another post right away with another story and more even pictures from another "Saturday Adventure." I was going to put it all in one big post, but I didn't really think they flowed together well. I hope everyone scrolls down far enough to read this one =)