Waking up in Alaksa

Holy Awesome Weekend Batman!!!

2010-04-18T16:51:00.002-08:00

Hello everyone!

I hope things are well out there in BloggingLand. I know I keep saying that I will update with more regularity, but unfortunately time is not allowing it. Life here in Fairbanks is still fantastic. School is going well (I cannot believe there is only 4 weeks left) and the weather has been fantastic. It had to be in the 60's today!! I went out and shot some disc golf at UAF and had a good time reading in the sun.

This weekend was the 22nd annual Jazz Fest at the University of Alaska Fairbanks(UAF) and it was awesome! There were moments of extreme frustration and I cannot remember longer work days...but it was worth it because it is really all about the kids - and the kids LOVED it! Jazz fest started Thursday. The kids showed up this first day and attended jazz workshops and listened to various performances. When not at workshops or concerts, several kids found places to hang out and just jam on their instruments. There was some frustration when the middle school kids showed up for an afternoon session and nothing was planned. There were 100 middle school kids (give or take) with no planned activity and no structure...this is a VERY bad situation waiting to happen. Luckily Dr. Vince Cee (the professor I work with at the Alaska Summer Research Academy)took a group of kids and created an improv workshop and I demanded a drum set, a keyboard, and an amp and helped set up a huge jam session. It was rough...but it worked. That evening, there was a concert were several guest artists from around the country (who helped give some of the workshops during the day) performed and it was AMAZING.
On Friday, Randy Smith MS had the opportunity to play in front of two of the guest artists for an adjudication/master class. They played VERY well. The adjudicators had very positive things to say about the kids...and about me. It was very nice to hear. The kids finished the day by going to workshops and or performances. Friday evening, there was a mass concert where all of the schools attending Jazz Fest played two or three pieces. Randy Smith NAILED their performance. They received the first standing ovation of the night and possibly the loudest applause all evening. After they played, I was stopped SO many times by people congratulating me on how amazing the kids sounded. People could not believe how in tune, balanced and FULL the band sounded. The kids earned every bit of praise they received because they truly were amazing. I am so proud of them all!! Another amazing thing that happened at Jazz Fest was the announcement of honor jazz band members. During the adjudications earlier in the day, the guest artists got together and selected students from all of the school to play in the honor group on Saturday. The students they selected were the best of the best on their instruments. There were a total of 17 students (out of about 150 middle school kids) chosen to perform...Randy Smith had SEVEN students make the band!!!!! Last year, I felt great that three of the RS kids made it...when I heard that RS had SEVEN kids in the band this year, I was blown away! WOW!

Saturday was the honor bands and they were great. I also performed in a last minute director's combo playing some jazz guitar. It was a lot of fun, but I need a lot of practice. It has been a while since I've played in any jazz ensemble and my jazz chops are very rusty. It is kind of sad how little a music teacher actually get to play!

Ok...I gatta get going to bed here pretty soon. Jazz Fest was amazing, but it was SOOOO long. I was at the university on Thursday from 7:30am - 10:00pm, on Friday from 7:00am - 12:00am (yes...that is 7 in the morning to midnight), and on Saturday for another 5 hours...so I am beat. I hope this blog post makes sense, I feel like my head is a little foggy from lack of sleep and to many dominant 7 chords.

Take care everyone!
~Mr. Lockwood

SPRING BREAK!!! =)

2010-03-10T15:06:00.003-09:00

Hello everyone out there in Blogging Land. It is a beautiful day here in Fairbanks, Alaska: 5 degrees above zero (20 degrees in the hills) and SUPER sunny. In about 9 hours I will be turning 30 years old...how crazy is that? I am actually looking forward to 30. There have been so many changes in my life during the last two years that the addition of a digit in the tens place of my age seems pretty minor in comparison. The first decade of my existence here on Earth was full of learning how to experience life. The second decade was all about finding my place in life and learning who I am while the third decade was taking who I am and trying to make something out if it. Now that I have reached the fourth decade of my life, I feel like I get to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labors. I have discovered who I am and I am making something of the life that I have been given.

Ok, enough of the sentimental ramblings...time to get to the good stuff - SPRING BREAK!! Jen is up here visiting again, like last year. So far we have been just hanging out and relaxing. It has been SO nice to sleep in and not have anywhere I need to be. We are house sitting during the break, so we have running water and the entertaining company of Molly and Su-Su. OH!!! I also have a new camera...so this blog post comes with pictures! Here is one of Su-Su (cat) and Molly (not cat)

Su-Su is a little sweetie. Shy and a little skittish, but adorable. Molly is a nut! She is so sweet and loving, but the whiniest/neediest dog I have ever seen. It's all good though. Like I said earlier, Jen is up here...

We have been having a good time taking it easy. Jen is not feeling the best and the change in daylight hours has been messing with my energy levels, so relaxing and uneventful days have been kinda nice. We have had some great dinners out and saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie. I LOVE Alice in Wonderland; the books, the 1951 animated version by Disney, the computer game "American McGee's Alice", and the Tom Waits album, Alice. I am not sure how I felt about the new movie. I will just leave it at that so I do not spend the next four hours writing about it. If you want to discus the new movie, send me an email at pooh31180@aol.com =)

Anyways...I get off track easily. My new Camera. I bought a new Canon 50d. This is a huge upgrade from my ancient Canon 300d (one of the first dSLR's on the market) So far, I love it. I have been having a blast taking pictures of my favorite model, Foot Foot! I am guessing that there will be LOTS of pictures of Foots to come. He is the person I see most and he is just so photogenic. Here are a few:

Well, I really should get going. It is a beautiful day and Jen and I will be going to Ice Alaska to look at the ice sculptures...if not today, we'll probably go tomorrow.

Take care everyone. I know I have not updated the blog much, but hopefully with the new camera and the slightly diminished work load at school, I'll post more. Until next time!

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

Hello All!

2010-01-31T11:47:00.003-09:00

Hello everyone. Long time no see. I have been finding very little motivation to post on my blog ever since my camera broke. The good news is that I am buying a new one!!! Hopefully (fingers crossed) I will have it the second week in March when Jen comes up to visit! I am buying a new Canon 50D! This is a HUGE upgrade from my old dSLR that I had. Also, Jen and my Dad bought be a new 50mm f/1.4 lens that I cannot wait to shoot on!

The second semester is off to a GREAT start at Randy Smith. I am still teaching that one class that was giving me a lot of troubles (World Drumming), but the student roster has changed and it has made ALL the difference. Last semester, I was very stressed out and completely drained at the by of the week. This semester, I am still pretty wiped out on Fridays, but my stress level has dropped significantly. I received my review from the principal the other day, and it was very positive. I feel like I know more of what I am doing than I did last year (which should be the case)but there is always room for improvement.

Something that is new and exciting is that I wrote a Randy Smith school song. It has been very well received so far. I am trying to find a way to post it here on the blog...but I am failing at the moment. Sometime this week I will put it in a video and post that (I can post video clips but not songs apparently.) The song is a little cheesy, but I like it. I wrote it originally for piano and choir...but then arranged a full band version that is very fun! My goal is to have the band play the song at assemblies while the school sings along. I wrote the lyrics based on a few things that Randy Smith is proud of. Our kids voted on 5 words that they feel represent our school. Pride, respect, integrity, citizenship, and excellence (P.R.I.C.E.) are the words they picked. Also, the Black Bear is our school mascot. Here are the lyrics I wrote:

With Pride, Respect, and Integrity, we show off our achievements.
We embrace our love of Citizenship and strive for Excellence.
And those who challenge the Black Bears den, are sure to pay the P.R.I.C.E.
For Randy Smith is always victorious in sports, in school, in life.

Ok...I'm off to have some lunch, hit then gym, and then get some work done at school. I hope to post a bit more often. If not before March, I should start finding my motivation after I get my new Camera!!!

December Update! I'm Sill Here

2009-12-05T10:36:00.004-09:00

Hello everyone! I hope all if well for you! I wish I could update this blog more, but the stresses of school have been too great. Things are going well...but free time is not a luxury I find myself with lately. Here is a little update for those of you who still check in from time to time.

Winter Concerts are next week!!! Jazz band, varsity band, and concert band is playing Tuesday, Dec 8th. This is going to be a little different from the other concerts we have done because it is going to take place at the high school. About two weeks ago, the high school that my students will eventually go to needed to change their concert date to avoid conflict with a large ski event. Due to a very tight schedule and limited options, they changed their concert to the same date and time as my concert. Since Randy Smith is their feeder school...I had multiple families with students at both schools and parents were having to choose which child to watch. That sucked. I decided to fix the situation by combining concerts. This is going to be a great experience for the middle school kids to play in a real auditorium!!! It is turning out to be a LOT of work to set this up...but I know it will be worth it.

The choir and orchestra concert is going to be on Wednesday, Dec 9th at Randy Smith (the same day as my dad's birthday.) All of the groups are sounding REALLY good. I am so proud of them all. I have four orchestra students who have decided to start a string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello) and the name they have given themselves may be the cutest thing I have ever heard. The are referencing the Harry Potter books by calling their quartet Lockwood's Army (a spoof on Dumbledor's Army from the books.) When they told me their name, I almost shed a tear...it is SO CUTE!!

That is about it. I wish I could post some photographs, but my camera broke. I am planning on upgrading this Christmas to a REALLY nice one =) I am pretty excited about that. I'll be in MN/WI for a little over a week of the holidays. I am looking forward to the time off and the chance to see friends and family.

Well, I gatta get going. Today is the Randy Smith Christmas party and a fellow teacher and I are making bacon wrapped pretzel sticks. They are AWESOME!!! Take care! I miss you guys down there!

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood.

Snow on the Ground 9/26!!

2009-09-26T11:48:00.005-08:00

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying your fall...I believe mine just ended. I woke up this morning to find a light dusting if snow on the ground. I have some pictures to post of that soon, but first I want to relive the short fall season that I did experience. Theses first few pictures are at the place I probably spent most of my outdoor time at this summer and fall...and that is the Birch Hill Disc Golf Course!!!

The approach on hole 18

The basket on hole 16

The basket on hole 15

The tee box on hole 13

One of the discs that I dyed myself!

Hopefully you can see why I decided to spend so much time frolfing this summer/fall...it is beautiful up there!! Disc golf is free, I get to hang out with friends, and it is something I really enjoy doing (and I'm getting pretty good...I shot a 4 under on 18 the other day.)

The disc golf pictures were taken a few weeks ago. This is what Fairbanks looks like now:

The view looking away from my driveway

My driveway

Chez Bobb

Foot Foot out enjoying the first snow fall of the year!

Ok...That's about all I have for today. I think I am going to go out and grab a quick bite then go to school and get some work done. Take care everyone!!!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Oh My Goodness Have I Been Busy!!!!!

2009-09-20T20:24:00.004-08:00

Hello out there in Bloggingland! I am sorry I have been absent lately, this school year is turning out to be harder than last year! That extra class I am teaching, World Drumming and Music, is turning out to be VERY difficult for me. I am trying very hard to come up with information and activities are that both educational and able to hold interest of 17 non-music students...and it is a challenge. The information given to me to teach the class is no where near enough to fill a whole semester so I am constantly looking elsewhere, usually with no luck. Don't get me wrong, I am still loving teaching here in Fairbanks...it is just a little stressful at the moment. All of my other classes are going VERY well...better than last year, it is just this World Music class.

On to the positive news. Rock-A-Thon is less than a month away. Fort those of you who may be newer to this blog, Rock-A-Thon is a fundraiser that the teacher before the teacher I replaced started and it is genius! Six hours of sitting in rocking chairs with music, food, and video games! Students raise money via pledges (like Read-A-Thons or a charity walk) and it is a GREAT way of raising money for our music department.

Other good news is that the Randy Smith jazz band is playing at our schools 10th year anniversary celebration and the choir is singing the National Anthem. This is a great community outreach opportunity for us. Music is largely appreciated here in Fairbanks and this is a great way for us to share our talents with the community. The jazz band is only one month into the year and is sounding great. The choir is also doing AMAZING!! Every rehearsal they blow me away. I started something new this year with choir, Music Theory Thursdays, and it is going wonderfully. I have a middle school choir accurately counting some pretty complicated rhythms. For those of you who have been in choirs, you may realize that this is a HUGE achievement. Rhythm reading is usually a huge struggle for choirs, not because they are unable to do it, but because I find that it is usually not a priority of choir teachers (this is a general observation and not meant to insult choir teachers....most of them do a wonderful job in teaching very important skills, but unfortunately rhythm reading is rarely in the foreground of the curriculum.) Middle school students in general blow my mind. The things they can learn if you take the time to teach them is unbelievable...like last years concert band creating the three minor scales from major scales...not just playing them, but truly understanding how they are constructed (lowering the third, sixth, and seventh scale degrees and manipulating then further to create the melodic and harmonic minor scales.) My jazz band last year also had a great head start on modal jazz. They knew what the dorian, mixolydian, and phrygian modes were and how they are created!! They lacked the knowledge of when to use them, but just knowing they exist and how to make them is a step in the right direction!!

Ok...I'm out. I have another long week ahead of me. I hope you all are enjoying the last bits of nice weather...I know I am. Even with my huge work load, I try to fit in a few hours a week of outside time while I can. I am sure I will find a routine that works for this year soon enough and I will hopefully be a little more regular with my posts.

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood.

I'm Still Here

2009-08-29T11:11:00.002-08:00

Holy cow have these last two weeks FLOWN by!?! Students showed up for classes two weeks ago (on the 17th) and it has been a not stop ride of craziness since that Monday. I feel great about what I am doing with my classes and my students seem to be very well behaved and engaged in the activities I have planned, but it has been a LOT of work. I am teaching a new class this year, World Drumming and Music. We focus on West African and Latin American drumming and culture. This is a topic that I have always found interesting, but never studied in great detail, so I am working my tail off trying to keep up with my students who are picking everything up VERY quickly. My other classes are also going very well, but again...lots of work behind it. I was in MN/WI last weekend taking pictures for a good friend's wedding and my sister is getting married next weekend (a week to the day actually...CRAZY) so I am neck deep in photo editing and sub plans since I know I will not be doing any work while I'm in the lower 48. I hope this blog post does not sound like complaining...I truly do LOVE what I am doing. I have been exhausted these last couple weeks, but I have almost ALWAYS had a smile on my face. Teaching music is the greatest experience one can have...not only do I get to spend an entire day engulfed in music, but I get to do so while sharing the love of music with others and hopefully passing my enthusiasm for the aural arts on to the next generation of performers, dancers, singers, and composers.

Ok...well, I am off to school to get some more work done. I just wanted to touch base with all y'all to let you know things are going great up here in the Land of the Midnight Sun (soon to be the Land of the 11:00am - 2:40pm Sun)

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

I LOVE ALASKA!!!!

2009-08-16T01:45:00.002-08:00

So, I have been up here in Alaska a little over a year and every now and then I still think to my self: I cannot believe that I live in Alaska. This place is amazing. Take tonight for example...I get to school around 11:00am and get a TON of work done. I wrote lesson plans for the first week of school, I organized my classroom materials, and I put posters up on my walls. After I worked at school, I headed up to Birch Hill and played about 13 holes of disc golf in the pouring rain (fun...but wet), then I went home and made some dinner. After dinner, I went out with some friend (oh yeah...I now have friend my own age up here - I love it) and shot several games of pool. I know I could have done all of this anywhere in the world..but for some reason it feels different being here in Alaska. I don't know if it is the smell in the air, the hills/mountains in the distances, or just knowing that I am in the most amazing state in the union...but something makes everything up here feel significant...like it is the right place to be. I remember going up to the Boundary Waters with my dad as a kid and thinking to my self: I would love to some day live in the middle of the woods, away from all of the city lights and pollution...and here I am...living in a small log cabin in the woods in the middle of Alaska. this is truly a dream come true.

Tomorrow, if the rain stops, I am planning to go up to the disc golf course with the guitar and have a BBQ with friends. It should be a blast. After tomorrow, it is back to teacher mode. Early bed times and 10 hour days await me...but I don't mind because teaching music in Alaska is one of the greatest things to have ever happened to me. The only thing that would make this better is if all my friends and family were up here with me....I know you would all LOVE it here as much as I do.

Ok...I am done with my slightly sentimental rant. I am off to bed. Foot Foot says "Hello" to you all.

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

Up In Smoke

2009-08-06T01:14:00.003-08:00

I don't know how much of this news is making it down to the lower 48...but 2.5 million acres of Alaskan forest has burned down so far this year. That is actually not that much when you think about the total amount of forest in this state and is nowhere near our record (6.5 million acres in 2004) but the smoke is getting ridiculous. Forest fires are part of the natural cycle of a forest's life...but the smoke is coming into town and causing some problems. I grabbed a camera and tried to shoot some pictures, but the lighting was pretty bad. The sun is actually setting now, but it is hard to tell how much of our darkness is due to the setting sun or due to the smoke. Here are a few pictures I managed to take:

Downtown Fairbanks:

Another from Downtown Fairbanks:

By Fred Myers:

These next two were taken from my friend's 5th floor apartment:

The smoke looked a lot worse about an hour and a half before I took these pictures, but I did not have my camera with me. If the smoke is as bad tomorrow as it was today, I'll try to take some more shots...the severity of the smoke is easier to see in the day time.

I cannot believe that this time last year I was in the Swamp Donkey with Stephen driving up to my new life in the Land of the Midnight Sun. This last year has flown by! I have learned so much and have experienced a lot of great things. In retrospect, I am still glad I moved up here; 365 days and no regrets. I miss family and friends at times...but modern technology helps keep in touch. I hope everyone out there in blogging land is having a great summer (I may have written that in my last post...but I still mean it.)

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

ASRA ROCKED!!!!

2009-08-02T23:28:00.006-08:00

OK, so I realize it has been a VERY long time since I have posted...summer has been crazy =) As most of you know, I went back to MN/WI for a little over two weeks at the beginning of the month and had a blast. I had the opportunity to see a lot of friends I missed on my first trip back last Christmas. As soon as I returned to Alaska, I started teaching at the Alaska Summer Research Academy (a.k.a. ASRA) It was AWESOME!! This camp was fantastic. Kids from all over the country came to spend 12 days in a highly academic but very entertaining summer camp. I am sure most of you remember me talking/blogging about circuit bending; well, that was one of the huge things I co-taught in the module called The Sounds of Science. We had a blast ripping apart old toys and seeing what kind of noises we could create. Here are a few pictures (I blurred out the faces of the students, so that is why some of the pictures may look a little funny.)

One of the students stuffed a speaker and an 1/8" input jack into the pikachu and turned it into the COOLEST ipod player ever!

This was one of my favorite finished toy. The students didn't only get into the technical aspect of circuit bending, but had fun exploring the aesthetic aspect of the hoppy.

Another thing we did in our module was build a PVC marimba (well, technically it was not a marimba since we did not have wooded bars resting over resonators. Instead we hit the actual resonators...much like the Blue Man Group) We used some pretty advanced physics and mathematics to figure out required tube lengths for each desired pitch, then we fine tuned the PVC by ear. Once we finished putting it all together, the kids glued a bunch of stuff to it so it ended up looking awesome! Check it out.

Finally, we took sounds samples of all of the circuit bend toys along with other cool sounds we found (like my arm muscles recorded through an EMG)and mixed them all together into a massive composition. We used some GREAT synthesizers and modulators such as the Korg KP3!! Again..all of the work was done by the students.

Not only was ASRA a place for students to learn through exploration, I had the opportunity to play around with some way cool things...like blowing dry ice through tubes lit by LEDs.
>

I also played with LED lit spinning string. This was a great way to check out nodes and anti-nodes (also, it looked cool.)

The only unfortunate things to have happened during the camp was the amount of forest fire smoke in the air. It was VERY thick at times. I guess this is pretty common for Fairbanks. I guess when you live in a state covered in Boreal Forest (a.k.a Taiga) and you have about 1,000,000 burning acres...some smoke is bound to creep into town. This picture was taken on a pretty bad day...on a scale of 1-10, this was about a 7.

So now that ASRA is over, I have about eight days until I start my second year teaching at Randy Smith. Where did this summer go? I hope everyone out there in Blogging Land is enjoying their summers. I will try to get back into the groove of blogging, so please check back soon.

Rock on!!
~Mr. Lockwood

Summer Is Still Going Well

2009-06-17T21:23:00.002-08:00

Imagine that...i am enjoying three months of nothing to do! Next summer will be a different story, with classes to take and other work to do...bur I gave myself this summer totally off as a reward for surviving the first year. This summer had been great! Dad and Sue came up for a while, I have been playing LOTS of disc golf, Mom will be up here in a few days, then I will be in MN/WI for a bit =)

I really do not have too much to update everyone on. I have been doing a lot of relaxing. I have read some great books so far this summer: Water For Elephants, The Kite Runner, Galapagos, A Man Without a Country, (those last two by Vonnegut), Into the Wild, and a bunch of David Sedaris books. It has been kinda cool reading. It is not something I ever found myself doing in my free time...but it had been a great change. I really enjoy not owning a TV.

Well, that is all for summer so far. I have been having a great time getting to know Foot Foot! He had/has a bit of a cold..but it seems to be getting better. I will leave you with a quick shot of Foots that I took a couple of days ago:

Have a wonderful day!!
Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Foot Foot is Here!!!

2009-06-12T09:18:00.002-08:00

Yesterday I found Foot Foot!! He was living in a home just outside of North Pole, AK (not THE North Pole....the town about 11 miles away from Fairbanks.) You may remember me saying something about wanting a cat. Well, I now have one, and Foot Foot is his name!

Foot Foot (or Foots as I sometimes call him) is such a cool cat! He has the exact personality I wanted in a feline companion. He is VERY laid back, very content just sitting on his mat on the couch or lying by the window looking at the birds and hares. When he feels like it, Foot Foot will come up and sit on my lap for some behind the ear scratching, otherwise he enjoys quiet time. My favorite part is that Foots does not get upset or annoyed when you approach him for petting....I know some cats who would rather be left alone.

Last night, Foots climbed my stairs and slept in the loft with me. A few times while I was already awake (it was ridiculously hot in my cabin last night so I didn't sleep to well...I was up) Foot Foot would climb up on my chest and lay there while I pet him. I have mild cat allergies (well, extreme with some cats...relatively mild with Foot Foot) and I am interested in seeing if they totally go away. I vaguely remember having dog allergies until my family got a dog...then my body got use to it. I am hoping that will happen in this case. In the worse case scenario, my allergies gets the best of me and I need to bring Foot Foot back to the house I got him at. The pet foster home is run by a very kind woman who cares alot about these animals. The lady that runs the pet foster home gives a two week trial to make sure the adopter loves his/her new pet. I do not foresee my allergies being a huge problem, but at least I know there is a loving home he can go back to if this does not work.

I am very happy to have found Foot Foot, or should I say happy Foot Foot found me. It will be nice having someone to talk to at any given time of the day and to have another character in "The Wild Alaskan Life of Bobb and Foot Foot!"

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood
(and Foot Foot)

Looking for Foot Foot...

2009-06-11T13:08:00.004-08:00

Today, my quest for Foot Foot may be coming to an end. I am very excited. I have dreamed about Foot Foot for months now, waiting patiently until the moment the two of us are united at last...that moment may be right around the corner! At 6:00 pm tonight, I have an important appointment in North Pole, AK regarding the whereabouts of Foot Foot...I will keep you all posted as my search progresses.

Wish me luck!
~Mr. Lockwood

"My pal's name is Foot Foot
He always likes to roam
My pal's name is Foot Foot
I never find him home

I go to his house
Knock at his door
People come out and say
Foot Foot don't live here no more

My pal Foot Foot
Always likes to roam
My pal Foot Foot
Now he has no home

Where will Foot Foot go
What will Foot Foot do
Oh, Foot Foot
I wish I could find you

I've looked here, I've looked there
I've looked everywhere
Oh, Foot Foot
Why can't I find you?

Foot Foot, where can you be?
Foot Foot, why won't you answer me?
Foot Foot, Oh Foot Foot
Wherever you are
I want you to come home with me

I don't have time to roam
I have things to do
I have to go home
Oh, Foot Foot, where are you?

If Foot Foot didn't like to roam so well
He would still have a place to dwell
Foot Foot, please answer me
I know where you are
You're behind that tree

Foot Foot, please come to me
Foot Foot, now that you're here
Won't you come home
Foot Foot, promise me this
That you will never again roam"

Ok...I Guess Bears Are Real!!

2009-06-06T00:18:00.006-08:00

Hello everyone! I very recently got back from a week long road trip with my dad and his girlfriend, Sue. It was a blast!! (Warning...LOTS of pictures in this post.) We left Fairbanks and headed for a small mining community called Healy. If anyone has read the book Into the Wild, this was where Chris McCandless followed the Stampede Trail, lived in a bus for a couple of months, and died.

We spent a couple of days in Healy before heading south. We stayed in a very nice Bed & Breakfast with a great view. (I have pictures of the view, but I have not had time to look through them yet. I took over 500 pictures on our trip and I have been prioritizing which pictures get edited by how cool they were....the view was cool, but there were more spectacular things we saw!)

Before we headed south, we took the bus tour at Denali National Park. Denali is a very cool place with wide range of landscapes! This was also the day I was proved wrong...bears do exist. I have pictures, but I will save the bear shots for later...dessert is a great way to end a meal. We saw all of the big animals to see on the bus tour: Moose, Caribou, Bear, a Wolf, and a Lynx (The wolf was quite rare...and I bet most people do not get a chance to see a lynx either)

(I couldn't get a shot of the lynx. They do not like to be seen, so it was camera shy)

Also, we saw a few Willow Ptarmigan, the Alaskan state bird. These birds use camouflage as a self defense strategy, so when approached, instead of flying away, they just sit there and hope you do not see them...well, I saw them.

(I love their feathery feet and the very strange noises they make!)

One more bird shot....a few cool looking ducks!

We were very lucky that Denali was out!! Only about 20-25% of visitors get to see the mountain due to clouds. Denali, also known as Mt. McKinley, is the tallest peak in North America. The native Athabaskans called this mountain Denali, or "The Great One," so that is what I will usually call it, but Denali and Mt McKinley are two names for the same thing. It was not all the way out, but we got a pretty good view of most of the 20,320 ft mountain.

After Denali, we went towards Anchorage. We decided to pull off into a small campground and look around. It was pretty nice, but when we talked to a guy in a camper he said, "I was just down there by the water and saw a couple of grizzly bear cubs, so I backed away slowly before their mom found me." The last thing we wanted to do was set up tent less than 100 yards from a known grizzly bear with cubs...seen less than an hour from when we ourselves were on the very stream the cubs were playing around. We left. We pulled into another campsite not far down the road and found it to be mostly for campers, so we decided to keep on driving. While leaving the moter home campground, we saw a grizzly bear walking across the parking lot! When I woke up that morning I was positive that there were no such thing as bears...I was proven wrong. I went from not believing in bears to believing they are EVERYWHERE!!! We drove for about another hour until we found a very nice campsite. This one was a lot bigger and populated by several families with kids! This was good news for us. I thought to myself: now I do not need to out run a bear, just a few kids with much shorter legs than mine! (I am joking of course, but the kids did make a lot of noise, a good bear repellent in my book.)

After a bear-free sleep, we hit the road. We arrived in Anchorage and decided to keep driving to a small fishing community called Whitter. In order to reach Whitter, you need to drive through a two and a half mile, one lane tunnel, under a mountain. This is one of the longest one lane tunnels in the world and the ONLY one lane, under mountain, tunnel that is shared by a train. Traffic was allowed to leave Whitter on the hour for a 15 min window and then traffic could head towards the sea port on the half hour, again, for a 15 min window. I am assuming that all traffic is held when a train needs to use the tunnel.

These two shots where taken outside of Whitter, before we went through the tunnel.

While in Whitter (I like the sound of that...While in Whitter...it sounds like a book title) we had some dinner and I took some cool shots of boats, there were a lot of boats.

We ended up driving all the way to Seward to camp. We had an AMAZING view from this campsite and stayed up late by a fire to enjoy the view with some wine...a good night!

I woke up early the next morning to shot some close ups of marine life.

After Seward, we started our drive back north to Fairbanks. It was on this drive that we had the amazing opportunity to come across a bear on the side of the road digging up some roots. This is exactly what I wanted...a close up bear encounter from the safety of an idling car. I know I cannot outrun a bear, but I am pretty sure a car can.

BTW...should never try to run away if charged by a bear...you should stand your ground and yell while waving your arms. If it is a brown bear/grizzly bear, he is most likely bluffing when he runs at you...he will stop short and then walk away. If you do think a brown/grizzly bear is going to attack, you should drop down and play dead. Once you are not viewed as a threat, the bear should loose interest. If you are being charged by a black bear, again stand your ground and yell. If the black bear wants to attack, you are encouraged to fight back as fiercely as you can....apparently black bears do not loose interest as fast. I do not know the strategy for Polar bears, but I am guessing it involves NEVER GET CLOSE TO ONE! They will eat you! Polar bears are the largest land carnivore on the planet!

Ok, here they are, the promised bear pictures. I took a LOT!! Here is a small sample of the ones that turned out best.

So there it is...proof that bears are real. Who'd a thunk it? Well, I should get some sleep. It is past 1am here (and it is still light enough to read a book outside) I now have internet at my cabin so I should have no problems updating this blog and responding to comments! I love receiving comments, so don't be shy =)

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-25T19:39:00.003-08:00

Wow...two blog posts in two days!! Not bad considering I still do not have internet at home...I AM A BLOGGING MACHINE!!! Ok...maybe not.

I woke up this beautiful Memorial Day morning without a single item on the to-do list. I thought to myself, "I think it is a good day to pack up a bag, climb up a bunch of rocks, eat lunch, and come home. And that is exactly what I did. I found an old backpack and started filling it up with water, snacks, and camera gear. I then hopped in the car and started driving to Angel Rocks. If you are an avid reader of this blog you may remember me going to this same location last fall. On my last visit to the rocks, I was a little apprehensive about doing a lot of climbing. I was pretty out of shape then. Now, about 25 pounds thinner and a heck of a lot stronger, I felt much more confident relying on my body to get me around in difficult terrain.

I made it to Angle Rocks around 11:00 am and started straight for the trails. The climb is rough, hot, and steep! I felt great this time around as I approached the first small plateau. At this point in the story I think that pictures will do better than words:

This shot was taken at the first plateau. Those rocks sticking up were my goal. I was going to be on top of everyone of them before I went home.

Me on the first plateau...a couple of nice, young hikers took the shot for me:

I nice view from one of the rocks:

Looking down at the other peaks...I made it to the highest one!!

Me....quite high up at this point! I rested my camera on my pack for this one and used the remote.

Finally, I saw some flowers growing from the side on one if the rocky spires. I was lucky enough to have captured a bee in the shots as well:

While on the rocks, I did just what I set out to do: climb, eat, and leave. On the way down, I ran into a parent of a student. It was a little odd being in a sleeveless shirt and all; exposing my tattoos to the world. It was fine though. I guess the student was up on the rocks ahead, but I seemed to have just missed her.

I got home around 3:30 and took a nice little nap. After I awoke, I edited a few shots, jumped in the car and drove to the University (for the free internet) to share them with you =)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I wish you all a great week! My dad and his girlfriend will be up here in about 4 days, so I am excited! I am sure there will be LOTS of pictures after that!

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

SUMMER IS HERE!!!

2009-05-24T12:01:00.005-08:00

...well, maybe not according to the calendar, but as far as I am concerned...it is summer. I have spent the last few days enjoying some of the most amazing weather I have ever experienced. It has been in the mid 70's and sunny all week! I enjoy sitting on my porch with a cigar, a root beer, and a good book. I finished Harpo Speaks (the autobiography of Harpo Marx) and that was amazing! After that, I whipped through Water For Elephants in a couple days and loved it!! Due to multiple recommendations, I just started Into the Wild. I am not as impressed and everyone said I would be, but I'll see how it end up.

I have also been keeping myself busy by going on jogs/working out at the gym, organizing my stuff in my cabin, and starting up my garden! I have about 6 green beans, 4 zucchini, 1 cherry tomato, and one rhubarb. I have killed everything I have tried to grow with the exception of a jade tree I had to leave behind when I moved, so we'll see how this works out. Oh yeah, I have another jade tree up here =)

I finally have a few pictures to post! First, here are two shots that I printed and hung up in my cabin:

My silly little sister got in the way of my Spider-Man photo shoot...but I guess I'll keep it.

I liked this shot a lot. This was one of those pictures that you think nothing will come out of it, but then the end product surprises you!

This morning, I woke up at 3:30 am to drive a co-teacher to the airport. I figured that Alaska would be extra beautiful at 4:00 am, so I grabbed my camera before I left...boy am I glad I did that!

The lighting was beautiful, there was a thin fog floating above the sunlit swamp, and there were two trumpeter swans swimming in a small, glassy pool. Mornings like this make you want to wake up every day at 3:30, just to see what this amazing planet looks like when everyone else is fast asleep. I shouldn't say EVERYONE:

I saw four moose within a one mile stretch of road. These are a couple pictures of my first bull moose I have seen. This bull was pretty young and it is still early in "Antler Growing" season, so he just has a couple of nubs sticking out the top of his head. I have been told some have seen a HUGE bull in the area, already sporting a very impressive rack...but he was not around this morning. Hopefully these photographs will prove to Stephen that male moose do exist...even if they are small. (proof of concept maybe?)

Ok, I should get going. I am going to be looking at cats to adopt! I find myself a little lonely at times and I think a little pal would help pass the time. I hope everyone out there in Bloggingland has a happy and safe holiday weekend.

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Two Days Left of School!!!

2009-05-17T09:55:00.004-08:00

Hello everyone!

Life in Alaska is still amazing...in fact, it is getting more amazing everyday! I just went out and bought a fishing license. I am going trout fishing in about an hour!!! It should be a good time. Yesterday, Randy Smith had our end of the year staff party. It was a great time. It was a beautiful, sunny day by the Chena River with great company and AMAZING food! I brought my guitar and entertained the children (actually, some of the other teachers were as equally into the punk rock version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" as the kids were.) I don't know what it is, when I am in a large party setting, I tend to spend more time with the kids than the adults. I guess I have the same attention span as the youngsters so I fit in well. Once the party settles down a bit, I very much enjoy having adult conversations with my peers. We discussed literature, teaching strategies, travel stories, fine wine and beer...all of the things intelligent adults talk about and I absolutely loved it; but for the most part, I feel most at home playing with the kids.

The cabin:
I have been totally moved into my cabin for a little over two weeks now, and I still love it. Every now and then I find myself getting a little bored, but then I just go out for a walk or a jog, grab a toy and circuit bend, or just sit on my porch with a cigar and a book. I do not own a TV and I think I like that. I don't need to sit around and watch other people do stuff when I can go outside and experience the stuff myself. The only part that I do not like so far is doing dishes. Without running water, it is a pain in the butt. Not so much the washing, but the rinsing. I have not come up with a good system yet...but I am sure I will. I plan on having a friend come over and show me how she does dishes in her dry cabin. Dishes aside, the cabin rocks! The freedom of living in the woods rocks! I have been known to take a trip to the outhouse in just my boxers. It may be a 20 yard walk outside in 30 degree weather, but there is no one around so who cares. The overall freedom of Alaska is starting to set in. I am excited to go out this summer and "get lost." I plan on putting a tent in the back of the Kia and start driving. When I get sick of driving, I pull over, hike a bit until I find a good place to sleep, set up the tent and camp. Hopefully I will be by a good place to fish so I can catch my dinner...if not, I'll bring some food on my trips. Next summer I am sure I will be taking continuing education credits for my masters degree, but I told myself that this summer is going to be for me...a little treat to Bobb after my first year as a real teacher.

Two days left with students and I am done. After that, I have two workdays and I turn in my keys and have some fun!! This year has been wonderful. I have learned so much and have been blessed with great experience after great experience. My administrators have been so supportive these last nine months. I really love Randy Smith and am proud to call myself a Black Bear, our school mascot. It's funny that they picked a mythological creature to represent the school...but I guess it's ok. I do not think that Washington Wizards are real or the San Francisco Dragons (a Major League Lacrosse Team.)

Well, that's it for this post. As per Rowdy's request, I talked a little bit about my cabin. If there are any other specific things you want to know about Alaska, teaching, music, or me...please feel free to write a comment and ask or drop me an email. It can get a little lonely up here and the intro-web is my only connection to people back home...well that or a very expensive plane ticket ;-) Take care all!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

A Quick Little Update

2009-05-11T07:45:00.003-08:00

Hello all you out there in Blogging Land! It is crunch time here at Randy Smith. Seven days of school left..that's it! We had our concerts last week; Concert, Varsity, and Jazz bands were on Tuesday and Choir and Orchestra were on Wednesday. The kids did GREAT!!! I am very proud of every last one of them! If you are down with middle school music, here are a few pieces we performed:
Bands - Los Banditos, Highlights from Harry Potter, Overture de Argentina, Into the Storm (a GREAT Robert W. Smith piece), Semper Fidelis, La Noche del Burrito Picante, All Blues, and Manteca
Orchestra - Londonderry Air, Gargoyles, Hoedown, and Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space (if you are a middle school orchestra teacher you MUST play Rosin....it is awesome!)
Choir - What Do You Do With a Drunkin Sailor, Alleluia Canon (by Mozart), Carry Me Home, and a great Gloria Deo! Oh yeah...we also sang a short arrangement of You Are My Sunshine that I did.

It was a great week, but VERY exhausting. I still do not have internet at my cabin, so these blog updates are actualy hapening at school (like this one.) I am looking into getting internet...hopefuly soon. Well, Jazz band is going to be starting in about 25 mins, so I should get ready. Have a great day everyone!!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Goodbye Wedgewood Hello Dry-Cabin!

2009-05-02T11:59:00.013-08:00

I am officially moved out of Wedgewood and into my cabin. I have spent the last two or three nights there. It is really cool! Last night, I sat on my porch with a very nice cigar and a diet root beer - just staring out at the trees and the setting sun. This was around 10 pm...yeah, the sun is still out at 10 pm up here. I do not have internet at my cabin yet, so this blog entry is being made from my office at school. I will hopefully have internet in the cabin sometime this month.

A very cute thing happened at school the other day that I want to share with you. I believe it was Tuesday morning when a small group of students came up to me before my first period class in a panic. "Mr. Lockwood, Mr. Lockwood!" they yelped. "They just caught a little vole in homeroom and they are going to feed it to the science teacher's snake...will you help us free it?"
I told them that I had class and couldn't go at the moment, but after class, if the vole was not already snakefood, I would go up with them and see what I could do.
After class, I accompanied two other students to the science room to check on the fate of poor little Taco (Taco is what the students named him.) We got there just in time. We arrived to find the vole still alive, resting in a cardboard box, awaiting the feed. I talked to the science teacher and he had no problems with us letting the little bugger go. I told the students to ask their 2nd period teachers is they could go to release the vole with me. They got permission and we went outside.
While walking outside to set Taco free, the students joining me were giddy with excitement. Every couple of seconds one of them would squeak out, "He is SOOOO cute!" We found a nice place in some trees as far away from the school as we could get without leaving the property. I opened the box, we each pet Taco, said our goodbyes, and set him free.
The rest of the day the two students had HUGE smiles of pride on their faces for a job well done and I had a huge smile on my face for giving the students a chance to save a life! It was a fantastic morning!

Well, I'm off. I have a little bit of grading to do, and other things around town that need to get done, then a Community Band concert this evening. I hope you all have an amazing weekend. I know I will (it has been about 80 degrees the last few days...and it feels GREAT!!)

Take care!
~Mr. Lockwood

Less Than A Week 'till I Move

2009-04-26T13:28:00.003-08:00

Time is flying by!! I was in Anchorage last weekend with some teachers from Tanana Middle school. We were meeting with other schools in Anchorage to see how a true middle school concept it working for them. It was very interesting! While in Anchorage, I had the opportunity to eat some GREAT food! We went to the Glacier BrewHouse where I had a very tasty steak and very nice ESB to wash it down. The next night, we ate at a different brewery called The Moose's Tooth. There we had some AMAZING pizza...and good beer as well. The Pipeline Stout is highly recomended.

Speaking of moose...a funny thing happend the other day while moving stuff into my cabin. Only in Alaska will you come home to find that as the snow melted away to reveal a moose skull in your driveway!

And here is a Black and White version of the first shot:

Crazy!! I like it =) Well...I need to get off the computer and enjoy the wonderful weather we are having today. 56 degrees and sunny. I'm off for a walk.

I don't know when I will have internet access in my cabin, so after May 1st it might be a while 'till I post again...but I'll try =)

Rock on
~My. Lockwood

Another great Week in AK

2009-04-18T10:14:00.004-08:00

Hello =) I hope all y'all are having a great weekend so far. Things are continuing to be fantastic up here in Alaska. Yesterday was one of those days were everything just worked out great! The day started kinda strange however...my alarm clock never went off. I woke up in time...it was just strange that the alarm did not sound. The first thing that happened at school yesterday was a field trip. Randy Smith went to see the Yuval Ron Ensemble play...OH MY GOSH that was amazing! Yuval Ron is from Israel and plays music from all over the Middle East. He plays one of my all time favorite instruments...the oud! Click here to see a video of Yuval Ron on the oud and Jamie Papish (who played percussion yesterday.) Also, click here to see an upclose shot of the oud. At the performance, they also had a Whirlling Dervish...that was AMAZING!! (Here is a video.) This is a type of prayer that, instead of words to comunicate with the devine, uses movement. The Whirlling Dervish that we saw was spinning for more than 5 minutes straight. That evening, I was invited to a church where the Yuval Ron Ensemble was giving a lecture....and I was blown away. I had the oportunity to meet them all and talk with them about the music. Yuval Ron is a very powerful speaker who has spent his entire life spreading the word of peace. Asking all the religions of the world to join hands and forget about their wars...and become one with the music. Very moving!

Another groovy thing happened yesterday that I would like to share. In between the amazing concert in the morning and the amazing lecture/performance in the evening...I received the keys to my new living space! I am going to be spending the summer living in a dry cabin in the middle of the woods. What this means is that I will be spening the next three months (or more if I like it) in a 16 x 20 log cabin without running water. A lot of people in Fairbanks live without running water. Since everything is so spread out, connecting everyone to a water main in not efficient and due to the amount of time the ground is frozen up here...wells can be tricky to dig...therfore a lot of people haul water and use an outhouse. This will be my life for at least the summer. My cabin is about 5 miles away from town in moose infested forests =) I do go to the gym 3-5 days a week, so shower facilities will be available and I know a couple other teachers at Randy Smith who live without running water...so they can show me the ropes. I am very excited to spend the summer "roughing it." Just hanging out in the woods. I am pretty close to the next cabin over, but the trees are so thick that it is hard to see.

Here is a pictorial tour of my new home:
The Outside:

The Kitchen:

The Living Room:

The Bedroom:

The Hallway to the Bathroom:

Ok...well, I need to get going. I have a very busy day today. I am leaving for Anchorage on Sunday, so I have lesson plans to write for Monday and Tuesday. Take care everyone!

Rock on
~Mr, Lockwood

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T18:00:00.007-08:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday today! I had a great day here in Alaska. The weather was AMAZING!!! Almost 50 degrees today, so I went for a nice walk. I also bought a bunch of vegetables to make homemade chicken noodle soup. I bought a Fred Meyer's Roasted Chicken last night and I decided to boil the carcass to make soup...It is VERY good!!! Here is a picture of the veggies =)

(The parsnip makes the soup...I will never make a chicken soup without them)

There were also potatoes in the mix...I just forgot to photograph them. The soup is amazing, so I will post my recipe for y'all.

Step one: buy a cooked chicken and eat about half of it for lunch and dinner.
Step two: Pick off all of the meat and boil the non-meat in a bunch of water with some veggies and herbs
Step three: add the chicken and the noodles and eat!!

A lot has been going on the last few days. I need to move out of Wedgewood by May 1st, so I am looking for places to live. In May, Wedgewood turns into a tourist resort, so my apartment will no longer be available for less than a few hundred dollars a day...a bit out of my price range. I have a few leads that I will write more about when things are finalized. I'll just say that I am looking into living the true Alaskan lifestyle.

Also, I have made a sound file of the Randy Smith Jazz Band available for you all. I am going to upload it as a video clip. Since I have absolutely no desire to post pictures of my students on the web, I have made a little backdrop photo out of an Aurora shot that is a little blurry. I hope you enjoy Randy Smith's version of Manteca.

Well, that's all I got for the moment. I will keep you all updated on my living situation. I should know for sure what is happening in a week or so. I cannot believe mid-quarter grades are due already for 4th quarter. I am 7/8th of the way finished with my first year teaching!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

A Crazy Time of Year!!

2009-04-09T16:17:00.003-08:00

Wow...keeping this blog updated has been very difficult lately! Life is crazy busy these days...I guess that is a good thing. It keeps the boredom away.

Last weekend, I took my jazz band to Jazz Fest, a large three day celebration of jazz. The festival took place at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks, and it was AMAZING! There were guest artists from all over the country who worked with the students and in the evenings put on some outstanding concerts. On Friday night, Randy Smith was involved in a "Show off your school" concert. The show was four hours long...each school getting about 10 minutes. Since this is a JAZZ concert...groups went WAY over 10 minutes =) Randy Smith put on a GREAT show! I am very proud of my students. I will be posting a sound clip of one of their pieces from the performance sometime this weekend. Also, three of Randy Smith students were chosen to participate in the 2009 UAF Jazz Fest Honor Jazz Band...a great opportunity for them!

Well...I don't have too much else new really. I am looking for a place to live because Wedgwood turns into a tourist resort in about a month. I will end this post with a cheesy self portrait for all y'all...I do not want anyone out there forgetting how beautiful I am ;-) (I am actually posting this pic because I think the colors are cool. I was playing with different light sources and white balance. I am lit by a tungsten light and the room is illuminated by the setting sun. Kinda a need mix in my opinion)

Ok fellow bloggers...I'm out. The end of the school year is approaching FAST, so these posts may continue to be more sparse, but fear not...I will be back more often when summer rolls around!

Rock on!
~Mr. Lockwood.

Spring Break II...The Sequel

2009-03-12T12:19:00.007-08:00

Hello all! I thought I'd post more pictures. I might come back to this posting as I finish more photographs, but for now I will put up what I have. WARNING!!! It might be a lot. First things first...A couple more shots from the Ice Sculptures.

On Tuesday, Jen and I went for a long trip to Cantwell, AK (a very small town) and the drive was amazing! It was a mostly cloudy day through the mountains...with the sun peeking out every now and then to say, "Hello." I have LOTS of pictures from the drive, so here they are. Enjoy!!

Not far from Fairbanks, we stopped to shoot the mountains in the horizon. Here is Jen capturing the Alaskan Mountain Range.

The Nenana River is frozen and looks cool. Fun colors and lines!

Then here are some mountains:

This one might be my favorite:

Now...a couple shoots of the moose. I love moose. Both to look at and to eat.

WOW that is a lot of pictures...but wait..there's more!

(ok...just three more...one of me in the hot springs and two from around Chena)

Open water from the spring:

It's kinda cool. The Chena Hot Springs Resort have several hotels and a restaurant. All hot water (not used in food) is taken from the hot springs. They use the geothermal heat for almost all heating. I am guessing this is one of the places they pump the water from:

Yesterday was my birthday, so we celebrated by going to Chena Hot Springs...WOW was that amazing. It was a little below freezing yesterday (about 20 - 25 degrees) and the water's average temperature is 106 degrees..but there were some severe hot pockets that, my guess, where around 120 degrees...way to hot for me. On the drive there and home we saw LOTS of moose. Between the two outings, I saw at least 10 moose and a couple of caribou.

I've had a great couple of days with a few more left to go. I hope you are all having a wonderful week out there in Blogging world.

Take care!
~Mr. Lockwood

SPRING BREAK!!!!!

2009-03-09T10:39:00.003-08:00

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

Ok...it may not be time to talk of cabbages and kings...but it IS time for spring break. Last week one was of the busiest weeks I have had yet in my teaching career. With dress rehearsals, concerts, and TONS of snow...I am very happy last week is over.

I will start off with a picture, then a lot of pictures =) My friend Jen is up here visiting me for Spring break...and she brought me a couple of camera lenses to play with. THEY ARE AMAZING!! This picture is one of my favs with a Canon 50mm 1.4.

Yesterday, Jen and I went to "Ice Alaska." A place where people from all over the world come to create these amazing ice sculptures. It was unbelievable what these people can do with a bit of frozen water and a chainsaw! But before we went to the ice park...we had a very tasty lunch of Copper River Salmon Salad with Basil Blue Cheese Dressing and Red Wine.

We arrived at the ice park around 2:00 and walked around with cameras. It was pretty fun! Tons (literally tons) of very cool sculptures everywhere. Here are a few that caught my eye...and my lens (ok...not my lens, but I wish it was.)

Ok...now for some pictures....WARNING!! There are a lot of pics, and I am uploading then as large files...so it may take a while for them to come up.

There are MANY MANY more pictures...but these are some of the more impressive sculptures. Taking pictures of ice and snow is very challenging. It is easy to overexpose the photograph...I am still learning everyday fun new things to try in order to make my photography better. I love Alaska!

I'll will try very hard to be back more to update this site. I plan on taking LOTS of pictures over spring break, so be on the look out!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Hooray for Weekends =)

2009-02-15T13:32:00.004-09:00

It's a Sunday! I have actually been pretty productive today. I sent out program information for our combined concerts (Music in Our Schools Month), I cleaned my kitchen, straightened up my living room, and posted on my blog (well, I guess I'm not quite finished with that one yet.)

I will start off with another picture. This one was taken right outside my door. It was ridiculously warm yesterday (23 above zero) and the sun was shining bright. The icicles on the awning were starting to melt, so I thought I would sit and try to capture a drop of water in mid-air...and what do you know, the very first shot I took caught one!

Well...I am still sans automobile =( I am approved for my loan...there are just a few other hoops I need to jump through that were not foreseen. I REALLY hope I will have a vehicle by Wednesday. Cross your fingers for me =)

It feels like I have been stuck inside my apartment for the longest time. Cabin fever is no fun. Luckily, I have the internet and great digital company to keep me distracted ;-)

I do have some great news I can share with y'all...I am teaching a summer class, as most of you probably know, and the official website for it is up! Click here --> ASRA
The module I am co-teaching is called "Sounds of Science" (the last link on the side of the page I believe) If you read my bio, there is an interesting picture of me (I did NOT pick it, the program director did) and a link to a youtube video of my latest circuit bending project. Ah what the heck...I won't make you search for it...here it is =)

(please pay no attention to the idiot dancing to the random noise...he got a little too into the groove)

So that is pretty much all that is going on here in AK. School is still amazing. I hope you all have a fantastic week! I will try to be more on top of updating this site...so please stick around =)

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

So Sorry For The Lateness of this Post

2009-02-07T10:24:00.002-09:00

I had been very busy with school lately, so I have fallen behind a bit in my blog postings...for that I apologize. I just received an email from a friend of mine. basically yelling at me for not updating this site...It was pretty funny, and eye opening. I would post it here for everyone to read...but in my very first post I said I was going to keep this blog kid-friendly...and he used some very "unique and colorful" language while suggesting I spend a little more time in Blogging World.

I'll start with a quick picture. I have not been out shooting too much due to the cold, but I am sure that will change come March. So the picture...I love hoarfrost!!!! It is beautiful. Here it is:

So how have I been doing?.....I've been great! School has been working me like mad! I have two combined concerts in less than a month than I am working very hard to prepare the kids for. March is Music in Our Schools Month, and to celebrate, Randy Smith is joining up with two other middle schools (Tanana and Ryan) to perform two very large joint concerts...one band and one orchestra. since I teach both band and orchestra...I get to work on both =) We are playing some very fun music...but it is extremely challenging, so the pressure is a little high.

Other cool things about school: I had a formal evaluation from my principal a few weeks ago and she seems to be VERY impressed with what I am doing. I thought I was doing pretty well with everything, but of coarse I am critical of my teaching and feel like I have a long way to go. My principal also sees that I have a long way to go, but she told me that I am already a great teacher...and in years to come, if I keep doing what I am doing and continue to grow, people will be hearing about me. That was very sweet and kinda fun to hear =)

I am very happy, however, not everything has been great: "The Swamp Donkey" is dead! I went out to start my car last week. It was one of those pleasant -40 degree mornings, I went to the passenger side door to get in (oh yeah...my door handle snapped off in the cold one day), and I started the car. It turned over...it didn't want to...but it did. When I say it didn't want to turn over, I just mean that it was very sluggish...so I gave it a little gas. I barely touched the accelerator when all of the sudden something caught and the engine revved very high for a fraction of a second, then calmed down and idled regularly. I then went in side to grab a few things for school and to let "The Swamp Donkey" warm up for today's ride to school. I go back out to the car and find that it had shut it's self off...not something it had ever done before. I turn her back over and she goes. I wait a little bit and decide to slowly back out and start going to work. I back up about 6 feet and it dies again. I try turning it over...and no dice. I am not super happy at this point. To make things worse...I look over to where the car was, and there, on the ground, was a large puddle of black, viscous, liquid. The Swamp Donkey had bled to death. Apparently, during the very brief period the engine was revving high, I blew a gasket. Blown head gaskets are VERY nasty and expensive to replace...so guess who is going to try to buy a car today...ME =) I have been taking the city bus to school everyday and have been getting rides home by various teachers. It has been a pain in the backside...but it's not that bad. The bus come right to Wedgewood pretty early in the morning, so I still have pleanty of time to get to jazz band.

I actually need to wrap this one up now because the bus will be here soon and I need to go to the bank as see about a loan for a vehicle. I know it has been a while since my last post, so I hope people still check this place out now and then.

Have a fantastic weekend!!
~Mr. Lockwood

I am back in Alaska!

2009-01-11T10:23:00.006-09:00

I made it back. It was wonderful being in Minnesota/Wisconsin over the holidays. I saw a lot of friends and family but I also missed the opportunity to see some great people as well (like the Roadfeldts)...so I hope to make it back sometime this summer.

So...I wrote this VERY long story below about my trip back to Alaska...but I also have another circuit bending video I want to share. I decided to come back to the top of this post and put up the video first...in case you get bored of the story and do not feel like scrolling all the way down to watch the clip. At the end of this video, my new toy stops working. That is because I still need to add a reset button/kill switch. Every now and then I overload the circuits or create a never ending loop and things stop working. A simple push button that connects the positive and negative battery polls together will fix that issue. Once I find a ride to Radio Shack, I will install the kill switch and have a quick fix...as of right now I need to take the whole thing apart and use a wire to connect the + and -.

Here it is...the "Bent" Vtech Alphabet Apple:

The inside of "The Apple"

While I was in MN, I was enjoying the warm weather. Fifteen degrees ABOVE zero!?! That's unheard of! I was walking around in just a sweater...I loved it! However, I came home to a nice slap in the face...let me tell you about it:

As some of you know, The Supertonics, my 1980's acoustic rock cover band, had a gig the night before I left for home (it is a little odd for me to call Fairbanks home...but it actually feels more like home than MN now. While I was back in the lower 48, I fell like a visitor. I don't think that is a bad thing...it is just a little strange.) I got bock to my Dad's place from the show that Friday at about 2:30am. The show was a ton of fun, but I was a little bummed because I had to wake up pretty early to catch my flight....and I am not good at sleeping on airplanes. Anyways, I was picked up, arrived at the airport with plenty of time, and flew to Anchorage. The flight was actually quite nice. The flight to MN from Anchorage was AWFUL! I was exhausted because I stayed up the whole night before, expecting to pass out on the plane (which never happened) and I sat in an isle seat, so anytime I did start to feel myself drifting off into slumber, the flight attendance's cart would come by and smack my knees or shoulder...I was not a happy camper. The flight back to anchorage however, was surprisingly pleasant. I had about 6 hours of sleep that night, which is more than enough for me to function, I sat next to some pretty nice guys from the North Star traveling hockey team, and I had enough music for my disc-man to keep me entertained (that's right, I have a disc-man...no ipod for Bobbo.)
The flight lands in Anchorage and I am feeling pretty hungry so I went to the Chili's in the airport. I figured I had tons of time for some wings and a beer so I sat down at the table at ordered. Luckily, the Chili's was right across from the gate my plane was at. As I looked across the hall to the computer at the gate, I realized I only had about 15 minutes until I was suppose to board...and I had JUST gotten my beer. Ooops...I miss calculated the amount of time I had. My miscellaneous dippable fried chicken things arrived with only 5 mins until they were going to call me up. You would think they would have called up first class passengers first...then VIP gold members...passengers with small children...but that didn't happen. I finished my food just in time. I ate my last crunchy chicken thing and took my last sip of 'o' beer. The moment I set my glass down they called all passengers to board the plane. I hurried across the hall and stepped in line. I handed the gentleman at the desk my boarding pass and he said, "It's the last plane." I was a little confused. The closed in walkway always let me to the door of only one plane in the past...I never had to choose which plane to board...then I figured out what he was talking about. I followed the crowd down a narrow hallway that lead to a door. On the other side of this door was the frigid Alaskan air...not the inside of a plane. We had to walk across the tarmac to get to our very small jet. That was not too bad since Anchorage's climate is very similar to MN's...it was about 10 degrees. I boarded the plane, ate my crispy snacks, drank my OJ, had a wonderful conversation with the guy next to me, and arrived in Fairbanks.
The step out to the tarmac was a LOT different from Anchorage. It was currently -46 degrees and the city was covered with heavy ice fog. I walk to the airport, find my bags, and try to call a cab. No one would answer. I don't know if you all knew this or not, but cars do not like to function in -46 degree weather, so EVERYONE was calling cabs that evening. I had no idea what I was going to do. I really do not know anyone to pick me up. I could have asked a fellow teacher, but I left my faculty phone number list in my other pants ;-)

Luckily I saw a cab just sitting by the door, I stepped out and asked if he was waiting for anyone. He was available so I was happy =) The cab dropped me off at my apartment and I went inside to put away my stuff. I then went out to make sure my car would start. I get to "The Swamp Donkey" and discovered that, while I was gone, someone had stolen the extension cord I use to plug in my car!! I tried to start the car anyways...but it was no use. The next day, I was picked up by a fellow teacher to go to the store. I bought some food and a new extension cord, plugged in Mr. Donkey, and tried it after it sat for several hours...and still not luck. That was a week ago today and I still do not have a mode of transportation.

My vice principal has been giving me rides so I have not missed any school. There was, however, one night that I did not have a ride home, so I walked about two miles in -45 degree temps...I do not recommend doing that. My ears, toes, and fingers were fine. I made sure the little body parts susceptible to frostbite were well covered. I had good socks, gloves, and a wonderful new scarf...but my legs were not very well insulated and they HURT!!! It felt like I had razor blades circulating through the veins in my thighs...ouch.

Anyways...I have no car, but I am still happy. I have been fortunate enough to have friendly coworkers help me out...and if push comes to shove, I know that I could walk to and from school in -45 if I had better leg insulation, and that can easily be arranged. It is suppose to be ridiculously warm on Tuesday (the forecast says 18 above!!!!!) so I think I am just going to find a ride and buy a new battery, put it in on Tuesday, and hope to get "The Swamp Donkey" up and running.

I realize this is a VERY long rambling story. I hope it made sense =) Have a wonderful week and I will try to post more often!

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

Circuit Bending...a new hobby and my first video blog post attempt =)

2008-12-20T20:46:00.003-09:00

Hello everyone!! I leave for MN/WI in less than two days!!!!!!! I am excited =) So, I have discovered a new hobby to keep be busy these cold, long, Alaskan nights. That hobby is Circuit bending. Here is a video of my first attempt at it.

I accidentally call this "Pitch Bending" in the video. Technically that is what I am doing...but the hobby is called Circuit Bending. I hope you enjoy =)

Circuit Bending (click here for a great link) is a VERY cool hobby which involves finding old noise making toys/keyboards/games, ripping them apart, fiddling with the wires, and discovering the endless possibility of sounds you can create!! Basically, you just start poking around the inside of toys and find out what happens when you connect this to that. Sometimes you get nothing, sometimes you get awesomeness!! When you find an effect you like, you add a switch, maybe a potentiometer, and look for more awesomeness. This video is the product of about 15 hours of "playing around" with wires. After I made this video, I had some more ideas and updated my "bent" toy to make it even cooler. I will post another video of the new and improved noise maker after I get back to Alaska.

Total cost of this toy is about $15, ($2 for the toy from the thrift store and $10 -$12 in switches, wires, and other electronics...not including the cost of the soldering iron and Dremel) Radio Shack and the Thrift Store are my two new favorite locations!!!

Disclaimer...I highly recommend circuit bending to anyone and everyone. It is easy and fun; however, I must advise you to NOT attempt this on anything that plugs into the wall for power. Circuit bending is meant for low-voltage toys and games (anything that runs on 9 volt batteries or less.) Unless you are an experienced electrician (and even if you are), bending electronic devices that plug into the wall is to dangerous.

I'm still here =)

2008-12-11T17:55:00.003-09:00

Hello everyone! Life is crazy this time of year. I have had two very successful concerts over the last two weeks. The jazz band, varsity band and concert band had a concert last Wednesday (12/3) and it was fantastic!!!! They did such a good job and the feedback from the parents was VERY positive. Choir and orchestra was last night (12/10) and that was also a blast. There were a few more things that could have gone better on the 10th, but over all it was great!!

I have a couple of pictures I would like to share with you that made me smile. First of all, you may remember that US senator Lisa Murkowski stopped by our "Rock-A-Thon" fund raiser...well, she send me this in the mail:

The senator also signed a few photos for some students. It was very nice!

The second picture was taken today. I am now officially a teacher because a student brought me an apple!!

Well...I have rehearsal tonight so I need to cut this post short. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in December. In less than two weeks I will be in Minnesota!!!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-11-28T14:21:00.002-09:00

I hope everyone out there in "Blogging-Land" had a great Turkey Day! I had a blast hanging out with a few teachers and their families. Great food and some wonderful outdoor fun. It was a little chilly (-10) but we dressed warm. Today is much warmer (about 10 above) and I hope to get out and take some pictures. I am house-sitting this weekend, so I have a couple of girls to hang out with (Molly and Su-Su...the pets) I have been having a blast watching Marx Brother movies on a huge flat screen TV with NICE speakers.

Well, my first concert is in five days...so I have some work to do =) I'll try to post again on Sunday...but I may be pre-occupied with concert preparations.

Enjoy the rest of the Holiday weekend!

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood.

Murphy's Law holds true in Alaska!!!

2008-11-20T15:23:00.006-09:00

Funny story. Today, I took the day off from school to get things done around town that can only be done during business hours, like: get an Alaskan Drivers License, get measured for a tux, get an oil change, look into emission testing for my car, and possibly get a bock heater put in The Swamp Donkey. I got out to the car at about 9:30, opened my door, turned the key...and nothing happened. My car wouldn't start. It got ridiculously cold last night (about -30) and my car did NOT enjoy it. I think it is funny that the day I wanted to go out and winterize my car was the very day that winter messed it up. After a few phone calls, I came to the conclusion that a tow was the only way I was getting anywhere, so I called up my assistant principal for suggestion on a good auto shop. he has been very knowledgeable and helpful in many situations...and this one is no different. I called to tell him my problem, and instead of suggesting a good shop, he tells me he is on his way to my apartment to help. We hook up "The Swamp Donkey" to some jumper cables and wait a few minutes for the frozen battery to take a charge. I get the car started up and I am off to run my errands. My assistant principal ROCKS!!!

I didn't get everything done I wanted to, but I did most of it. I was fitted for the tux I will be wearing on New Years Eve for Satan's wedding, I got an oil change, and I now have an Alaska State Driver's License. It is kinda funny...I get a good picture taken of me once every five years...and that is my DL pic. I hate every picture of me unless it is on a small piece of plastic that I keep in my wallet.

(I blurred out the information that people might be able to use for identity theft. I trust my readers, but not the other people who might swing by)

Well, I think I am going to go and take a nap before I have community band rehearsal.
Have a great week!
~Mr. Lockwood

Alaska never ceases to amaze me!

2008-11-18T21:36:00.003-09:00

Tonight I saw something in the sky that was amazing. I have been told of lights that shoot straight up. I believe this is a type of Aurora, but I am not sure. I have been told that when it gets to a certain temperature, something happens where beams of light may be seen. I wish I was outside of city limits so I could have seen it better. I did have my camera this time, so you can see what I am talking about. If anyone out there knows what this is....I would love some more info.

(Edit: I asked around at school, and it turns out that these light pillars are just street lights reflecting off of ice crystals in the air...who knew that our industrialized lifestyle and mother nature herself could form a symbiotic relationship to create this inspiring nocturnal spectacle)

I hope people still read this blog so they can experience this phenomenon as well.

Have a great week!
~Mr. Lockwood

Alaska is a Winter Wonderland

2008-11-17T20:22:00.002-09:00

The snow up here is beautiful!!! I'll just cut right to the chase and post the pictures =) It has been a while since I have been out shooting.

This is a view about 6 miles from my apartment. Fairbanks is somewhere under that fog:

The lack of wind allows everything to stay covered in snow. Everything is white and beautiful!!!:

I was actually pretty scared walking away from the car to take some of these shots for one very specific reason:

These moose tracks were right next to where I was shooting and I had no idea how fresh they were. Moose do actually kill people here in Fairbanks, so you always need to be careful. The advice I have been told is that if you are ever charged at by a moose, you should run to the nearest tree, stand behind it, and keep VERY still. Moose, apparently, have very bad eyes and are quite stupid...so if you hide behind a tree I guess they can't see you and then they forget what they were charging at.

Needless to say, a moose did not charge me down =)

School is going well. We are in the late stages of concert preparation. Dec. 3rd is right around the corner!! I hope everyone out there in blogging land is doing well.
Only 34 days, 21 hrs, 09 mins, 13 secs from this very moment until I am back in MN =)

Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

Bobb's Awesome Alaskan Halibut Chowder.

2008-11-08T19:50:00.003-09:00

Ok, so I made myself some "get better soup" this evening because I am feeling a cold coming on, and the soup was AMAZING!!! I do not mean to sound egotistical, but I make great soup (as I found out tonight.) I was given about a pound of halibut a while ago and had no idea how I was going to cook it. When I started feeling a cold coming on, I though chowder sounded great. I looked around for some halibut chowder recipes, but they all had things in them I didn't like and left out the things I do like....so I took the basics of a chowder and made it my own. I thought I would share the recipe with you all. This is a perfect soup to warm you up on a cold winter night!
(warning...this is NOT a low fat/low cal soup.)

Alaskan Halibut Chowder:
Ingredients:

About 1 lb. bacon
3-4 medium sized potatoes, chopped
*2 jalapeño peppers, de-seeded and chopped
1 onion, diced
4 cups water
1 can evaporated milk (I used 2%)
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 lb Halibut, skin and bones removed and cut up
Instant Mashed Potato Flakes, to thicken
Sour Cream and chopped chives, to garnish

Directions:
Cook bacon in a large pot; place on paper towels, crumble, and put off to the side. Save about 1/4 cup of the good stuff left in the pot to cook the veggies in. Saute vegetables in reserved drippings (I put in the potatoes first, then the onion, and finally the peppers so things wouldn't burn.) Add water and evaporated milk; let simmer for 20 minutes. Add cream and halibut let simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes. Add potato flakes to thicken, about 1/2 cup. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Add crumbled bacon and serve with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives.

*I find the best way to de-seed jalapeños is to cut the top off (where the stem is) and then, over a trash can or garbage disposal, roll the pepper between your hands...as if you were making play-dough snakes. Go ahead and be kinda rough with them so you can loosen all of the stuff inside. Give the peppers a little slap and most of the seeds should just fall out...a few seeds are not bad. The majority of the heat in peppers comes from the seeds and those little rib things inside the pepper...removing most of them still adds great flavor and a little heat to the dish without over-powering it with spice.

Like I said, this soup was very tasty! I have the advantage of wonderful Alaskan Halibut caught in the wild, but I am sure any Halibut from your local fishmonger/grocery meat section will work great. Try to get it as fresh as you can. I thought of trying this with cod, but I am afraid that cod is too flaky. I hope you try this and enjoy it as much as I did. The best part is, it makes a LOT of soup, so I have leftovers to last me a week!!

Take care everyone!
Rock on,
~Mr. Lockwood

I Love Halloween!!

2008-11-02T11:05:00.002-09:00

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had a great Halloween. Before I post some pictures of my epic costume, here is a quick shot the Alaskan snow:

This shot was taken about 30 miles up the Eliot Hwy. There is snow and hoarfrost on everything. Since there is little to no wind in this area, the snow accumulates on everything. Even the smallest tree branches stay white since the snow is not blown off by gusting winds. It is beautiful!

So now about Halloween:
On Wednesday, Randy Smith Middle School celebrated Halloween. Thursday and Friday were Parent-Teacher conferences, so we had to celebrate a few days early. A few weeks ago, I showed a video in class of The Blue Man Group and the kids LOVED it!! I decided that it would be fun to dress up as a member if the Blue Man Group and go the whole day without talking. It was a challenge but it was also a ton of fun.

(This picture was taken on my school computer, so the quality is not as good)

It was very difficult teaching five classes without saying a single word, but it was great. I conducted rehearsals with nothing more than a pre-written class agenda on the white board and non-verbal cues. It took me about an hour and a half to put on all of my makeup, but it was worth it. The kids and staff thought the costume was amazing!

One more thing. I have a webcam, so if anyone has a camera for their computer and Windows Live Messenger, look me up and we video chat. I have been talking to some friends back home and my sister and niece via the internet and it has been great not only talking to them, but seeing them! Modern technology never ceases to amaze me.

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

OMG!!!! The Aurora is AMAZING!!!!

2008-10-28T22:28:00.002-08:00

So I went out out my car to grab something at about 10:00 and I looked up and saw the most amazing sight I have ever seen! The Aurora is unbelievable. The whole sky was lit with dancing green and pink lights. I just stood outside for over 30 mins in complete awe! It looked like the trees were on fire, releasing incandescent fumes into the air. I wish I had my camera, but I left my memory card at school...DANG IT!! I know everyone says that they want to come to Alaska in the summer time, but you NEED to see this and there is just too much sun for the Aurora to be fully visible. It is about -8 degrees out right now, but I had no problems standing outside for over a half hour appreciating the wonder that is the Aurora. I am actually looking forward to 23 hours of darkness if I am able to experience the Aurora even once a month. WOW!!

What a GREAT Week!!!!!!!

2008-10-18T15:15:00.005-08:00

Wow! I don't know were to start, so I guess I'll begin at the beginning =)

On Monday, I was invited to a Sukkot party. Sukkot is a Jewish holiday celebrating the time the Jews wondered the desert for 40 years. During this time, they stayed in temporary dwellings called Sukkot (Sukkot is plural for Sukkah, which literally means booth.) The celebration is a lot like Thanksgiving. Everyone brought food, we had a huge bonfire, and the fun part was we slept outside! Part of Sukkot is you need to dwell in a Sukkah. The word "dwell" can be interpreted as eat a meal or sleep...this particular group sleeps outside in these temporary dwellings and let me tell you, in Alaska, that is something! The night we slept outside the temperature dropped to about -3 degrees! There were 15 of us that started outside and I was one of four who made it the whole night (I stayed outside all night, but I probably only got about 45 mins of sleep...it was chilly!!) As most of you know, I am not Jewish; however, I respect all religions and I am very open to trying new things. I was invited to the Sukkot party by a local Fairbankian as a way for me to meet some members of the community and to have a nice home-cooked meal. It was rough, but I had a great time! Here is a link if you are interested in reading more about Sukkot...Click me.

The week kept on rocking!
On Wednesday, I tried to go spearfishing again with the same teacher who took me out last time. I said "tried" to go because it was a little cold. As you remember, it was below zero that Monday night and Tuesday was not much warmer. John picked me up at around 7:30 and we went to the river. On the way there, we saw three moose...almost hitting two of them (a cow and calf.) For such huge animals, they are hard to see! We got to the river in one piece and decided to give it a try. We put on our waders and went into the ice. We traded off holding the lantern and braking a path. On my path shift, I took a spill and ended up in the river! I actually did not get to wet thanks to the waders and I never got cold because I was wearing many layers. We realized that we were not going to see ANYTHING that night. There was just too much ice. When we got out of the river, the water on out waders turned instantly to ice, so taking them off was fun!

About teaching this week:
I had a break though in classroom management this week. I have been doing this thing where if a student is talking or playing when they should be listening, I put a check mark next to their name in pencil. When a student earns three checks, they get a lunch detention. It is pretty neat because as soon as they see a pencil, for the most part, everyone stops talking. I never say who I am giving a check too, so everyone stops in fear it might be them. I could stand in front of the class and compose a grocery list and it would be silent because students would think someone is getting a check (I let them know when they have two checks at the end of class in private.) That was working well, but here is the icing on the cake! This week I drew a self portrait on the white board. When the class as a whole makes me happy, I put a smile on the face, when they are misbehaving or not following directions, I change that smile to a frown. There are for or five different levels of emotions I draw on my face. I have made the agreement that everyday the class ends and the face on the board has a huge smile, I will erase one check from everyone's name. The students know what they need to do to make the face go happier and what negative behaviors make it go sadder (or angry when the eyebrows get drawn in.) I have had LOTS of success with this strategy!

And now about today.
I took the Randy Smith Jazz band to the 22nd annual International Friendship Day here in Fairbanks where we played our first gig...they did GREAT!!!!! I am so proud of them. The crowd was clapping and toe-tapping the whole time. This was my very first performance as a music director. Other teachers who were at the festival said that I should be very proud of my accomplishments...and I am, but all I did was say, "two...four...a one, two, three, four!" and the kids did all the rest! They rock!

I hope everyone out there in blogging world has had a great week like myself and I wish you all an amazing weekend!

Rock on!
~Mr. Lockwood

Fabulous Fishing Fun

2008-10-12T18:29:00.002-08:00

Friday night, at Rock-A-Thon, a fellow teacher asked me if I would be interested in joining him for an evening of spearfishing for whitefish...I said "you better believe it!" So yesterday, I went over to his house for some pre-fishing dinner. We had venison and home grown potatoes....very tasty! Venison is actually not as common as you might think up here. Deer do not live in Fairbanks, or anywhere close to Fairbanks...it is just to cold. If you want deer you need to travel to the coast. I believe that is where the deer we ate came from. Anyways, we hit the road at about 5:30-ish. Like I have said before, Fairbanks is great because you travel ten miles in any direction and you are in the middle of nowhere. The river we were planning to fish is less than 20 miles from my apartment. We get to the river around 6, maybe 6:30 and it is still quite light out. Since it needs to be dark out before you can spear fish, we went out to find wood for a fire...I like fires! John, the teacher I went with, also dropped a fishing line in to kill some time until the sun set. He caught a very nice grayling the old fashion way (actually, if you think about it...spearing them is probably the old fashion way, so he caught the grayling the new-fashion way)Once the sun set, we got into the water. I do not believe spearfishing is legal in MN, so some readers may not know how it works...here's the deal:

To spear whitefish, you wait until it's dark, grab a lantern, put on a pair of waders, and walk through the river looking for fish to impale. I believe the fish are attracted to the light from the lantern, but even if they are not, it would be impossible to see them without the light...so a lantern is mandatory. We made this a two man job...I was the lantern holder for the evening. It was pretty amazing. We would walk through the river shinning the light down looking for anything that moved. The water is VERY clear up here. At the deepest point, I was up to almost my chest in the water and I could still see the bottom without a problem. The first fish we saw were in the shallow stuff (knee deep.) We were walking around seeing several fish, but they were all pretty small. John took a few stabs at them, but they were slipping in between the forks of the spear (the spear looks kind of like a small trident, but it has four or five points instead of three.) We were not the only ones on the river that night. We noticed that the other people fishing were in deeper water, staying in one place and waiting for the fish to come to them...so we gave that a try. We found a place that looked good and waited for only three to four minutes before we saw something very large swim up to us and them away very quickly. We knew we were in the right place. A few minutes later, another nice sized fish swam close to us. I shinned the light in the direction and John took aim. "Got him!" We pulled the fish out of the water...a nice 15" humpback whitefish! John took a few few more shots at other fish and got one more. Here a couple pictures John took:

(The grayling and the two whitefish...funny how the one white fish is not a whitefish, that is the grayling)

This one is taken without a flash. It is quite blurry, but you can get a better look at the lanterns from the other fishers:

After a while, our feet started getting cold so we decided to call it a night. On the way home we stopped at a place called Hilltop for some coffee and pie. The pie was AMAZING!!

The night was very fun...it was so fun that we might be going back out on Wednesday for round two. We just got dumped on with about 5 inches of snow today, so we'll see if we are still up for another night of fishing.

Have a great week everyone!
~Mr. Lockwood

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2008-10-11T09:41:00.002-08:00

Who would have thought the life of a first year teacher would be so hectic? Sorry I didn't get to post last weekend. I wasn't feeling the best and needed my sleep. I feel great today =) Last night was my first music fund-raiser and i was at school for over 15 hours. We had a Rock-A-Thon. Rock-A-Thon is an event that was created several years ago by one of the former band teachers at Randy Smith and it is a GREAT fund-raiser. All we do is bring in rocking chairs from home and rock, for six hours. Students go around asking friends and family for pledges...kind of like a walk for charity. While the students are rocking, they are listening to i-pods, playing video games, and consuming enough sugar to kill a full grown moose. Is was a blast. Every hour they were given a 5 min break so they could use the restrooms and stretch their legs. If you think about it...this is the perfect fund-raiser because once it is started, the person putting it on really doesn't have to do anything; the kids are in chairs the whole time. I went around the room with a cart selling sweets asking in my best British accent, "anything from the trolley." Also, at one point in time Alaska State Senator Lisa Murkowski stopped by to check things out. It was very cool. She went around the room talking with students and giving them a hard time when she caught them not rocking like they should be. Over all it was a very fun evening.

Today is going to be a full day as well. I have my very first violin lesson in about an hour and tonight I believe I am going spear fishing with a co-teacher. I also have several hours of work to get done at school....but that is not as exciting as violin lessons and spearing fish! I will hopefully have time to post again this weekend to share stories from tonight's experience. The only thing I have ever speared before is appetizers with toothpicks.

I hope you all have a fantastic day! I miss everyone back in MN/WI so much. I cannot wait to see you all!

Rock on,
Mr. Lockwood

You want to hear something funny?

2008-09-28T17:18:00.004-08:00

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.

2008-09-20T21:13:00.004-08:00

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

2008-09-14T12:44:00.005-08:00

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

2008-09-07T15:06:00.005-08:00

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 =)

2008-09-07T14:14:00.005-08:00

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 =)

Angel Rocks

2008-08-30T17:55:00.006-08:00

Today is the first day of a three day weekend!!! I have a lot of things to do at school, but I thought I needed at least one full day off so I went for another drive with my camera (still no bear.) I drove up to a place called The Chena Hot Springs. If you have ever heard of The Blue Lagoon in Iceland...this is a smaller version of that. Basically, the way the hot springs work is the ground water is deep enough to be heated by the internal temperature of the earth, and comes out through a spring at, in the case of Chena Hot Springs, about 106 degrees Fahrenheit. Like Iceland, the place smells like sulfur! Wouldn't it be great if I had some pictures of the hot springs so you could see what I am talking about...it's too bad I left my camera in the car (I b smrt) Anyways, I went inside and asked about some cool hiking trails. The lady asked me if I wanted steep or easy...I said I wanted pretty. She suggested that I check out Angel Rocks. It was about 9 miles back the way I came so I jumped in "The Swamp Donkey" and headed for for the trails. When I arrive at Angel Rocks, it was a little chilly, so I put my jacket on over my hoodie and start walking. It was a VERY tough walk....for me. Apparently I am quite out of shape since at the top of the 900 ft elevation change I saw a 70-something year old man hanging out with his, I'd guess granddaughter, looking like he just woke up from the worlds most refreshing nap. Compare that to me, who felt like I've just been dragging a dead ox through seven inches of mud for over 15 miles (in other words...I was tired.) At this point I REALLY wished I would have left the jacket and the hoodie in the car...I was very warm (I'll just mark that one as "things to do different next time #348") I sat down for a while on a big rock an enjoyed the view. It was very pretty, but EVERYTHING up here is very pretty so I am having problems truly appreciating it. It's like eating fillet mignon everyday for dinner...yeah it's really good, but after a while it just starts tasting like meat. I was having more fun admiring the little things I would find along the path than the overview of the valley...is that strange?

Ok...you have read enough. Here are some pictures:

Here is the view from on the rocks

The trees this far north are already starting to change:

This is the closest thing to a bear I have seen:

Here are a few pictures of the little things on the side of the trails:

(edit: It turns out these last two photographs are Fireweed. Remember the pretty purple flowers...it changes to a cotton-y type plant. sort of like dandelions, and turns a cool red color. I can see why it is called Fireweed...it actually kinda looks like it's on fire!)

Finally, for family and friends, here is another shot of my beautiful face. (I still hate all photographs of myself. This is the last serious one you are getting. From now on I am only making stupid faces! These look too much like senior pictures.)

Well, I guess that's it. I have nothing else going on this weekend other than working on lesson plans and MIDI tracks for choir.

Have a good weekend!!!!
~Mr. Lockwood

Week two...Still breathing =)

2008-08-28T19:10:00.002-08:00

I am almost finished with my first full week of teaching students...and I feel pretty darn good! I think I am starting to get the feel for things. Classroom management for a first year teacher is always tough, but I had some GREAT role models while student teaching, so I think I am actually doing alright (Marsha and Darrell both ROCK at classroom management.) It is very easy to become more of a "buddy" and less of a teacher, especially when you have awesome 7th and 8th graders who are so funny!!!! I believe the key is respect. If you show the students that you truly care about what happens to them, and show them respect while expecting it in return...you can build great relationships with students while still holding a position of authority. I try to make my expectations very clear and be quick and consistent with consequences when the expectations are not met...and it's all good =) Did I mention they are HILARIOUS!!! The things 7th and 8th graders say and do are great. I have lunchroom duty 3 days a week so I get too see them on their own turf. Just sitting back and watching them interact with each other has to be one of the highlights of my day. I have no idea where they get all of that energy...no wait...I take that back. I think it is from those "Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars" they all eat.

Well, I was planning on writing a lot more about this week, but my oven just beeped at me telling me my pizza is ready. No reindeer on this one...just pepperoni. I have to go and cut it with a hunting knife, because I realized after I put it in the oven I do not own a pizza cutter OR scissors.

Speaking of exotic foods, I had Swamp Donkey for lunch today!! It was fantastic. The beast is real and quite edible. Also, I changed my mind about shooting a bear while I am here in Alaska. My original goal was after I had proof that they actually do exist, I was going to shoot a bear and eat it! I was talking to a few people at lunch today (over my pipping hot plate of Swamp Donkey) and they said that bears make a pathetic crying sound when they are shot. I thought to my self, I could never shoot something that starts crying afterwards. I have decided that I will stick to my back-up plan and just wrestle a bear or two with my "Bear Fighting Suit" I am building. The suit consists of chain mail armor covered with hockey pads. That should put us on a level playing field. We'll see who is crying after we are done!

Ok, my pizza awaits. Have a great evening and I will post again soon!

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

A Few Pictures for the Birds:

2008-08-24T20:46:00.006-08:00

Good evening everyone =) So, my new apartment is next to Creamer's Field...a place where a lot of birds go and hang out. When I first got into town, I saw these huge birds flying around and I had no idea what they were. I later found out that they were (and still are) Sandhill Cranes...here are a few pictures of them:

This is a Sandhill Crane:

I sat and watched these guys for about an hour tonight. Every now and then a large group of them would jump in the air. I didn't get a good shot of a "mass jump" but I get a pretty nice one of a fight...oh yeah, it seems they like to fight:

It is hard to tell how large the cranes really are until you see them fly. I can't believe that that much bird can fly with such ease

At Creamer's field, there were more birds than just cranes...there were many geese and probably some ptarmigan as well but I couldn't tell from the distance I was at (The willow ptarmigan is the Alaskan state bird) Here is a shot of a couple of geese that where happy to pose for a few pictures

Then I took a picture of a blue flower. I do not know flower names...so blue is all you get:

(edit: I have been told that this flower is a Delphinium in case you were wondering)

Like I said, Creamer's Field is only about half a mile from my new place, so next time I am bored on a weekend I think I'll walk down there (I drove this time.) As you could probably tell, I used the larger pictures again...I like them bigger. Let me know if one way is easier than the other to view on your computers.

Alright, tomorrow is my first full week of classes and I need to be well rested so I'm off to bed. If I do not post for a few days do not worry, I'll be back =)

Have a great week!!
~Mr Lockwood

Here is it...My First Week as a Real Teacher!

2008-08-22T22:41:00.006-08:00

Well, I wanted to post a day by day update for you all...but things got crazy busy. Imagine that, a first year teacher being busy...who'd a thunk it?

I'll try to sum up of my first 3 days with students. So much has happened, I'm sure I will leave things out and remember them later.

It starts Aug 19th, the day before students show up:
So students started on Wed. I had a TON of planning to do, so I didn't get to bed 'till around 11:30 - midnight. The College Inn sucks, but it is usually very quiet...on every night EXCEPT the one I need my sleep. The guy in the room next to me starts playing his "Contemporary Christian Gansta Rap" at about 11:45...LOUDLY!! He is not only listening to his rap, but he is joyously yelling his praises to God at the top of his lungs. BTW, the walls of the luxurious College Inn are paper thin, so yeah...I heard him. He finally goes to bed at around 1-ish and I fall right asleep. Do I get a good night's sleep after that? Of course not! My phone in the hotel room starts ringing at about 3:15 in the morning!!! Only one other person in the world knows what room I am staying in and that is the lady at the front desk (you know...the one who can't fix a deadbolt lock) and I was pretty sure this was not her, so I was confused why I was getting calls. Also, I have never heard a phone ring that loud before. Helen Keller could have heard that phone ring...and not only is she deaf, SHE IS DEAD!!!! I answer the phone and the voice mumbles, "is ??????? there?" I have no idea who he is looking for. He repeats himself, "is ?????? there?" I still cannot make out the name, but at this point I could at least comprehend the fact he was not asking for Bobb. I tell him he has the wrong number and hang up. I fall back asleep and what happens? THE PHONE RINGS AGAIN!!! It is the same guy asking if a different un-comprehend-able name was there. A you can guess..I am very happy at this point! I tell him no. He asks me who I am. I tell him I'm Bobb and he does not know me so stop calling. My alarm goes off at 6am and I get up to go to work. The school day went well. Students seemed to be too afraid of their new environment to act up the first day, so I had very few issues. My students seemed nice, but I could already tell I might have a few management issues with one of my bands. After school, I was exhausted. I got back to the hotel at about 6, and fell right asleep. I slept for 12 hours!!!!!

Day two:
...was pretty uneventful. I woke up around 6 and went to school. I am usually the first or second car in the lot every morning. It is nice that the days are still long enough up here so the sun is up! During the day, I handed instruments out to my ensembles. Not realizing how little time that actually takes, I was left with a lot of class with nothing planned! Not good!!!! Luckily, my first period are angels!! They recommended a fun name game. We played it, and life was good. Second period played the game as well...not as good. Much more "chit-chat." It was rough, but I never felt like I was unable get them back on track, so I chalked that up to another successful class. In Choir, we were already working on literature. It went fine. My last class went alright...not great, not horrible. The class is large and the name game got a little boring...but they dealt with it pretty well. I went home, planned, and went to bed.

Day three (today):
The day started well. I stopped at Micky D's for breakfast/coffee and got some things done before school in my office (that is so cool...I have an office!!!!) Friday's schedule is different, so I saw my Orchestra first. WOW was that a learning experience. We had instruments for the first time. Every student had something wrong...no book, broken string, instruments WAY out of tune, couldn't find a bow, etc. I also learned that 90% of my Orchestra has no idea how to tune their instrument....this is good to know. I also had violin players breaking strings because they accidentally grabbed a viola. They were trying to tune their E string, which on a viola is actually an A. The added tension of tuning the thicker string a fifth too high snapped them like dried out rubber bands. (ok...Mr Lockwood confession time...I also did this once today. With all of the craziness of everyone needing help right away, I made that very mistake and snapped a viola string...but at least I learned something from it) I spent 45 minutes of class going around the room tuning instruments. I have no problems helping students tune...I just need to find a more efficient method. I'll be making phone calls to my orchestra friends this weekend. We finally played one scale together, and class was done. I then had my first Band....same thing as orchestra. EVERYONE HAD SOMETHING WRONG!!!! I thought I could fix these issues since I am very comfortable in a band setting...but it was all problems like: no instrument, no reeds, broken ligature (the thing that holds a reed on)...etc. I couldn't fix the problems. We finally get things figured out and opened our warm-up books. We looked at the first exercise and I had at least two students yell out, "I do not know how to play any of these notes!"...this is also good to know. I had to hand feed notes and rhythms to a few students, which I actually have no problems doing if that is what is needed to get started...HOWEVER, during this time, I had a lot of students acting out because the rest of the class had nothing to do...which is not good for middle schoolers. There were more fun times when we practiced our fire drill. "Fire Drill" was misinterpreted as "I get to go outside and talk with my friends" time. This was the first moment I felt like I lost control...not a good feeling at all! However, class ended and I was still breathing, so I guess there is another small success to celebrate. I then had choir. Choir was wonderful! Today was a staff member's birthday so I took them down to the office to sing. It was so cute! After that, we went to the music room and I listened to some of the students sing one on one for voice placements. I was a little worried about this because I was in the practice room listening to individuals sing while everyone else was out in the classroom...but they were GREAT!! There is a window in the practice room, so I was able to keep half an eye on them as well. After choir, I had my second band. It was awesome!! They were helpful, understanding, and eager to learn! They asked some great questions and we made some music together! It was a wonderful end to a crazy day.

I am now writing this blog post from my NEW hotel!!!!!!! I checked out of The College Inn and I am now staying in the hotel section of the Wedgewood Resort. I move into the extended stay section tomorrow. It is beautiful here!!! I am very happy to be out of the College Inn...which SUCKED. Have you ever been woken up by a smell? I was this morning. I have no idea what it was, but I couldn't breath. It was AWFUL. Oh well. I am out of that place FOR-EV-ER!! (a little Sandlot reference for y'all)

This place is great! I have a kitchenette with a full sized fridge, a bathroom with a tub, two queen sized beds, a living room with couches and chairs, two TV's, and free internet. I like it =)

Alright, that about sums up my first couple of days. Things are tough, but I feel that it will get better - and it will get better soon. I am now at the stage where I have a basic idea of where my ensembles are and where they need to be. It is now my job as a teacher to get them to that next step.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I'll be posting more soon.

Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Tomorrow is the Big Day!!!!

2008-08-19T19:27:00.004-08:00

Man the 20th got here fast!!! Tomorrow is my very first day of school!!!! This post will be short because I still have about 13,972 things to do and only a few hours to do them (I need to get some good sleep tonight, sorry Andrew, no on-line cribbage this evening.)

I set up my listening area/recording studio in the classroom today, and it's pretty sweet! My computer hooks right into the system for easy access to music playing and recording. I also received a LCD projector from the school so we can watch videos on the big screen! Tonight, I need to finalize seating charts and prerecord some midi tracks for accompaniments. Piano is not really my forte (get it...piano forte?), so I am using cakewalk/sonar to play back the accompaniment for me. This way, I can be in front of the choir instead of behind a piano. I can also separate parts so if the choir wants/needs to hear just their line they can, or I can play just the piano accompaniment, OR I can play piano and voices together to help students hear how everything fits together. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!! (I got this idea from a wonderful teacher in River Falls...you rock Lori Moe!!!) I would like to thank everyone in the music department at Meyer Middle School in RF for all of the help and support during these stressful days of preparation. Also, I need to thank Darrin (the other Supertonic.) He has hooked me up with a TON of resources for getting my string program off to a running start! I should probably be more nervous than I am, being a first year teacher, but due to all of the help from my friends and fellow staff here at Randy Smith, I am WAY more excited than scared. Things should go very well!

OK, I'm off to get some work done. I will post here tomorrow letting my "Faithful Blog Readers" know how things went.

Keep your fingers crossed!!
Rock on
~Mr. Lockwood

Everyday is an Adventure here in Alaska!!

2008-08-17T22:07:00.012-08:00

So today was interesting...but I'll get to that in a moment. First, I want to start with my story from yesterday (I tried posting it last night, but I couldn't get pictures to upload):

I was bored yesterday, so I jumped in "The Swamp Donkey" (that's what I named my car) and I went for a drive. There is a little town called Circle about 150 miles NE of Fairbanks, so I decided to take a little road trip. Just to warn you...every time I grab a camera, the rain clouds show up. This time, however, I think the dramatic sky adds to the shots!

Enjoy (I know these are a little bigger, I hope they fit on your screen. This website still will not let me upload photos, so I had to use a different hosting site...I hope it works):

This was taken on top of a mountain. I didn't come across too many tall ones on this drive (no snow.) This was at about 3000ft. It's kinds cool that once you reach a certain elevation, trees stop growing.

This one is of an old road. I thought is was a cool sight and the picture turned out very well in my opinion.

I usually HATE pictures of myself, but since I am thousands of miles from friends and families, I thought I'd post a few self portraits from time to time. I don't want all of you who are living "Outside" to forget my purdy face (Outside is apparently what Alaskans call the lower 48)

Here is another shot from atop the mountains. I am starting to teach myself about HDRI photography. It is VERY neat. Here is a link for more information on HDRI if you are interested. LINK

Here is a shot with a little green =)

So, I make it up to Circle and I found out first hand what the Alaskans mean by "The Bush." To my understanding, "The Bush" are very small towns in the middle of nowhere...places that are their own little worlds. There was a gas station/grocery store, a post office, and an airport with small 2-4 passenger propeller planes in town...THAT'S IT. I went inside to pay for my gas and the lady asked me, "How much?" I didn't realize that they do not have the equipment to access that information, so I went outside and checked. Talk about a trusting community! I guess that in a town of less than 40 people, you know where everyone lives. After filling up "The Swamp Donkey", I needed a sandwich...there was NOTHING in Circle, so I went driving back (oh yeah, gas was $5.30 a gallon here. Ahhh...the joys of supply and demand!!!) There was another very small "Bush" town about 35 miles back the way I came and I remembered a grocery store/gas station/bar there. I REALLY hoped they had food because the next town was about 110 miles away and I was getting very hungry.

So I get to the grocery/gas station/bar in Central, AK and I find out they serve food. I sit down for a hot sandwich and out of nowhere it starts raining....HARD!! The roads for the next 80 miles or so were going to be dirt and I did not want to drive on un-paved roads through the mountains in a torrential down pour, so I sat and people-watched for an hour or so. What an experience! I have been in small towns before, but it is somehow different up here. There were a few kids in the bar (I'd guess high school aged) and several older people. Everyone knows everyone. I over-heard a conversation about school starting...they have 11 students this year attending the school in Central; not in their grade...in their SCHOOL!!! I guess two students are coming down from Circle to attend this year and I do not know if they were counted in the total of 11 or not. Well, the rains died down enough to the point where I felt safe to drive, so I hit the road back to Fairbanks. Nice drive, I highly recommend doing it...once.

So about today:
I'll make this part short and sweet because I realize this post is getting quite long. I'll try not to ramble too much to cater to the needs of my ADHD readers.

Today was new student orientation. I was excited to meet some of my students, so I woke up early to get a fresh start on the day. I get to my car, turn the key...and nothing happened. I found out that I left my lights on the day before (I am a GENIUS!) I had my lights on during the day since I was driving through rain and I wanted to be safe (and follow common traffic laws.) What do you do when you are 3000+ miles from anyone you know and your car won't start...you start walking. I grabbed my laptop and started the 3+ mile hike at 7 in the morning. I thought to myself, there is no way I am making this walk without some food and a cup of joe, so I stopped at a local coffee shop. I walk in the door and who do I see, the teacher who is in the classroom right next to me!! Since we were obviously going to the same place, she offered to give me a ride.

The rest of the day went very well. I met some students, talked with a few parents, and got my classroom a little more organized for the 20th. After school, one of my co-teachers (I like the sound of that better than co-workers) was able to give me a ride to my hotel and jump my car. "The Swamp Donkey" is back and kicking =)

Tomorrow is a work day, so I am excited to get everything set up for Wed.

Have a great night everyone!!
~Bobb

Day Three of Teaching in Alaska

2008-08-15T19:07:00.005-08:00

Hello everybody!!

Things are going well again. I probably seemed a little stressed out in my last post...well, I was, and I will be for the first year up here teaching...but I have been given some GREAT advice from a lot of people. My problem is that I want to know EVERYTHING!!! I am a very curious person who loves to learn. I am asking tons of questions and everyone in the school is giving me TONS of great information...but I am on overload. I have way too much info coming in and not enough cognitive capacity to comprehend it! I sat down with the assistant principal and he helped me out a greatly! He helped me put some time tables in place and assisted me on prioritizing everything I need to do. I just need to take things one step at a time and only look about a day or two into the future...in other words, stop trying to plan the whole year out before the first day! Monday is 7th grade orientation, so I will be able to meet some of my students...that's pretty exciting =)

I wish I had more time to explore the town and post some pictures...but I have been too busy. Don't worry, they will come =) I went down to The Pump House again for dinner tonight...MAN I love that place. Everyone who visits me will be eating there, just so you know! This weekend will be spent mostly at school getting my syllabus written and preparing my classroom for the first day of school. I am very excited!!! Still nervous, but pumped to get things rockin!

I hope everyone out there in "Blogging Land" has a great weekend, and I will be posting more stories and hopefully a few pictures sometime next week.

Rock on!
~Mr. Lockwood

Day Two of Teaching in Alaska

2008-08-14T19:56:00.003-08:00

I left today MUCH more worried than yesterday. Aug 20th is getting closer and closer every second. It is not the material I am worried about, it is the 36,542,897 things that teachers do OUTSIDE of the classroom that worry me.

I know how to teach music, I just have no idea how to be a teacher.

It is all of the little things that worry me: how to create a syllabus, how to schedule a concert, how to use a budget,...etc. I am sure I will be fine once things get rolling. I am not the first person to ever get a teaching job with no experience and very little help...but the stress levels are a little hight right now. It's funny, Stephen left Anchorage this morning and sent me a text message saying, "About to leave Alaska...you now have 41 minutes to change your mind and we can start driving back LOL."...it's a good thing his plane didn't leave late this evening =) I am not seriously wanting to leave...but it's starting to get a little scary.

I know I'll be fine. Like I said, I am not the first person to ever start a teaching job...but to say it is not stressful would be a lie. Once the school year gets going and I find a system that works for me, I am positive things will go very smoothly....I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I am a smart guy who adapts well to change and I will be able to figure it out soon enough.

I was once told that the only job of a first year teacher is to NOT QUIT! I tell myself that daily. After a year or three of this I've been told it becomes second nature...I can wait.

Have a great night everyone! Thank you all for your positive comments and support! It is appreciated more than I will ever be able to express.

Rock on
~Bobb

Some Random Pictures from the Drive to Alaska

2008-08-13T21:31:00.012-08:00

So I've been pretty busy since I have arrived in AK. I really did not get a chance to take a lot of good pictures. Most of my photos where taken from a moving vehicle and did not turn out as crisp as I would have liked...but c'est la vie.

Here are two pictures of Fireweed taken in Alaska. I actually got out of the car for these. This flower is EVERYWHERE up here:

Here are a couple random shots from the drive that didn't turn out too bad:

Next, I have a few pictures of Canadian signs. Those crazy socialists need to learn how to spell:

Well, that's all for pictures right now. Stephen and I got ripped off when it comes to wildlife. We saw a few deer, two bald eagles, a moose, three bison, and a bunch of crows. Still no bear. I have actually come to the conclusion that bear do not exist. Everything you see in print or on TV is created digitally...and those "bears" you see at the zoo are actually genetically engineered dogs! For anyone who knows someone who claims to have seen a bear...go and slap them for lying to you!!

Have a great night everyone!!
~Bobb

My First Day Teaching in Alaska:

2008-08-13T17:25:00.009-08:00

So in-service started today. For those who are unfamiliar with in-service, it is basically the week teachers have to get the classroom ready for the students' arrival and to receive thousands of handouts on information about the school year.

Today started with a great breakfast provided my the PE (physical education) department and the kitchen staff. During breakfast, we went around the room and introduced ourselves and went over a few procedures for the year. After that, I was set loose to do my thing. For the first two hours in my classroom, I felt like a blind man playing baseball...no clue what's going on. I had no knowledge of what the previous teacher had done the year before, I had no idea where things where, and I had no idea what student played what instrument. I figured I should be doing SOMETHING...so I went through the music library. On first inspection, I noticed the literature in the library is mostly crappy pop "Crowd Pleasers" and mid '90's Disney tripe. The jazz band literature is actually pretty solid and the orchestra stuff is not bad, but I have a lot of searching to do if I am to find something decent for my choir and varsity/concert bands to play. At around 1pm, I left to grab lunch and to pick up some computer speakers from my hotel room...I was having a very difficult time functioning without music to listen to. When I returned to the school, I popped in a CD of Yair Dalal (if you like world music, go out right now and buy everything he has ever written!!!!) and got to work. The previous music teacher showed up around 3:30 and we went over some information that was VERY helpful. I finished up the day around 5.

After day 1, I feel surprisingly calm and confident; however, I am sure that will fade as August 20th gets closer day by day (the 20th is when the students show up.) Tomorrow is a lot of workshops with the whole district, so I will have the opportunity to meet many new people who's names I fill forget several seconds later!

Rock on
~Bobb

The Mystery of the Elusive Swamp Donkey is Solved?!?

2008-08-10T13:40:00.006-08:00

Alright ladies and gentlemen...I have undeniable proof that the Swamp Donkey is real!! On the drive up to Fairbanks, Stephen and I were lucky enough to catch a brief glimpse of this mystical beast and I now have photographic evidence of it's existence.

Here it is...the Mystical Alaskan Swamp Donkey:

The picture is a little blurry, but I promise you this is the real thing!! The Swamp Donkey, much like Big Foot and "Nessy", has been a beast of legend up here in the Land of the Midnight Sun. I will be tracking this elusive creature closely and providing you all with more evidence of it's existence, so keep checking back here for updates.

Rock on
~Bobb

Fun times at the College Inn!!!!

2008-08-09T15:37:00.002-08:00

I need to write a little about this Hotel I am staying in. So, I was told about The College Inn last night by one of the bartenders at The Pump House...a great bar. She said it is very cheap and they are use to people needing long term rooms. She did, however, warn me it was quite ghetto. Stephen and I found the hotel and I checked in for a week (I won't say the price, but so you get an idea...one week here is less than two nights at a "normal" hotel in Fairbanks) Stephen and I took a little tour. Night time security, shared bath and shower room, small kitchenette down the hall, and microscopic living space....it's like UWRF Crabtree Hall all over again!! I figured, I can do this!...oh just wait...

After I brought some of my stuff up to my room, I took the things I actually care about over to Stephen's Hotel...the nice one. (Now I do not want anybody getting mad at Stephen for dumping me into the run-down dirt hotel while he laps up the life of luxury...it's fine with me. I can afford this, and in a few weeks I'll have a beautiful apartment one mile from the school I'll be teaching at...so it's all good!) Anyways...back to last night. I go out to buy an Ethernet cable so I can have internet in my room. I go to plug it in....and nothing happened. I go down to the front desk and it is closed. The security guard tells me I need to pay for the internet. I figured I'd wait 'till morning and see how much it is. I wake up, go down to the office and ask about internet. The lady working tells me, in a very thick accent, that internet is included in the price of weekly hotel rates and all she has to do is turn it on. So she does her thing and I go back up to the room to do mine. I plug my computer into the wall.....and nothing happened. I go back down stairs to see what's up. The lady working says, "go and plug it in again, sometimes the cable is not all the way in." I think to myself "I know how to plug in a freaking cable!" but I placate the woman and go back to the room to check it out. I plug the cable in and take it out several times...and nothing happened. I look at the desk where the phone is connected to the same small box I am plugging my computer in to. I notice the two cables coming out from the box...but only one going in to it; the phone line. So I follow the phone cord along to the closet (actually...it's not as much a closet as it is a large box with a cheap latch on it) and what do I find? A ripped out blue internet cable, wrapped up neatly lying on the floor.

I tell the lady at the front desk and she lets me switch rooms. I move into my new room and I am happy. The internet works, I can see my car from the window, and it does not smell like someone lit a dead cat on fire. Also, the door is kinda tough to open. I figured...I'll take that as added security....well, it kinda worked.

I always keep my door locked; in the room or out. I have been on the internet for most of the day, updating the blog, checking e-mails -you know, the usual stuff one does on the internet. After several hours of "Al Gore's Invention", I needed some fresh air. I shut down the computer, put away my stuff, unlock the door, and turn the handle to leave....and nothing happened. I was locked IN my hotel room. I realize that the added security of a tricky door, was actually a faulty deadbolt keeping me prisoner in a room about the size of a walk in closet! What do you do when you are 3000 miles away from your friends/family and you are locked in a hotel room?...you text the one person in town you know and laugh! I told Stephen about my imprisonment...and he laughed. Don't worry, he was laughing WITH me...not at me. I thought it was hilarious! I figured if I couldn't get the door open, at least I'm on the ground floor and could always climb out a window.

I finally get the door open by using a knife to push the deadbolt back into the door (don't worry, I already checked to see if this could be done from the outside and it can not) I go to tell the lady at the front desk that the deadbolt to my room is not working and in broken English she asked, "can you fix it?" I was blown away! She actually wanted me to take the dead bolt apart, find out what is wrong with it, fix it, and put it back together....so that is exactly what I did. I took the lock off, found out that the reason it was not working was because they chiseled too much wood out of the door so the bolt was moving around. I found something to stick inside the door to hold the bolt into place and I put it back together. I now have a perfectly functioning door....I RULE!

Well, I need to go meet up with Stephen, who was at the movies during my "deadbolt debacle," so I gahts-ta-go! Have a great night everyone. I have more stories and pictures from the road I need to post, so y'all come on back now...ya hear

Rock on
~Bobb (prisoner # 655321)

We made it to Fairbanks!!!!

2008-08-09T12:33:00.003-08:00

Well, we are here! We arrived in Fairbanks yesterday, around 1:45 local time. What a drive!!! The stretch of road from Whitehorse, YT to the Alaskan border SUCKED!!!!! Don't get me wrong...it was BEAUTIFUL!! However, it is so wet in the area that the roads warp and buckle quite a bit. I think my car caught some air on the larger bumps =) We had no problems with the border either, which was one of my concerns. I do not have anything illegal with me, but those border patrol officers are usually very intimidating. Luckily, Stephen and I had a cute little blond lady check us in. I am pretty sure the site of two sweaty, sleepy, stinky, Americans who have the spent the majority of the last 3 days in a car looked VERY sexy...so she just let us in.

Here are a few pictures from the drive:

This one was taken after being on the road for about an hour...we left at 5am, so that gives you an idea of what time the sun was up. Also, if you look very closely...you can see some deer!!! (click on picture for larger view)

You didn't see any deer did you? They are pretty away far in the background. I put yellow stars to mark the deers' location so you can find them easier:
This next one is probably my favorite picture so far (well, it is tied with the picture of the road) This was right before the rain started to come down. It never rained hard, just non-stop drizzle. I think this is a picture of Kluane Lake, but I'm not sure.

As we continued Northwest, the moisture in the air was crazy. I'm sure the humidity was close to 235% The area was very swampy and the mist sat low on the surrounding hills. (This is in Black and White...I figured I haven't posted too many B&W's, so here's one)

Finally, we went through the border and entered Alaska. Here is a picture of my new home =)
(it was pretty nasty outside, so I didn't get too many good pictures of Alaska, but I'm sure there will be other opportunities in the next year to take a few pictures)

About Fairbanks:

As soon as we arrived in Fairbanks, the first thing we did was find a place to have a celebratory cigar and a beer. We found a great place called the Pump House, where we each had a local beer, brewed outside of Fairbanks, and a Padron 80 year (if you are a cigar person...you understand what a treat that was! Thank you Jay and Todd for the cigars!!!)

As we were sitting there, I took the most amazing picture. I need to stress the fact that this was NOT done digitally, although I am sure most people will not believe me. I promise you I did nothing to this photograph other than adjust the levels and crop it. I was trying to take some pictures of myself in the mirror blowing smoke rings and as I was reviewing the pictures, I noticed that the rings formed together to spell something out...let's see if it is as obvious to you as it is to me what they spell:

(edit: After talking with people, I guess it is not as obvious to others as it is to myself what it spells
so here is a hint...look right above my head for my name...all capital letters)

So after the bar, I found a hotel to stay at for the next two weeks. Something temporary until I can move into my apartment. This place is pretty ghetto, but has a bathroom/shower room down the hall, a bed, and internet...that's all I need. Stephen is staying a few days in town, then I'm on my own. I have a friend who gave me a name of a guy who lives here in Fairbanks and I think we are getting together tonight for a town tour. After the weekend, I start on Monday with a new teacher work shop and then in-service starts the 13th!

My blog posting will probably have less pictures for a while, since I'm sure I will be too busy to shoot, but keep checking back for some stories!

Rock on!
~Bobb

Fort St. John, BC to Whitehorse, YT A.K.A. Bobb and Stephen's Quest for the Mystical Swamp Donkey

2008-08-07T20:38:00.004-08:00

I feel great right now...sleepy...but great. I had some Arctic Char for dinner and I am now sitting in my hotel finishing up a cocktail. I am excited to spend my last night on the road. I should be arriving in Fairbanks around 3:00 local tome (that is 6:00 Central time...eh) So, the drive today was a little long (12.5 hours) but it was BEAUTIFUL!!! I took tons of pictures, but time is not something I have a lot of, so I will have to post most of them later - but like promised, I will post a few now =)

Again, we were up at the crack of dawn. The sun is up a little after 5am this far north!!

We were on the Alaska Highway the whole time...it was beautiful!!!!!!

I liked this sign......and I guess they meant it =)

We hit mountains pretty early in the day and had an amazing view!

oh yeah...I started a check list of all of the wildlife we have seen so far.
Deer: 7
Swamp Donkey: 0
Bison: 3
Wild Horses: 2
Crows: 17,835
Abandoned Vehicles: 3
Bear: 0

I have a few others on the list that are at zero, but I didn't feel the need to tell my readers about the wonderful thing we did NOT see. All I know is that I better see a freaking bear tomorrow or I am going to walk up to the Canadian government and punch someone in the throat! Oh yeah, a Swamp Donkey would be great to see as well (That is actually what I named my new car...The Swamp Donkey!)

Have a great night everyone!

Day Two...Saskatoon, SK to Fort St, John, BC

2008-08-06T19:37:00.003-08:00

So I am in British Columbia...and I am still tired. Today's entry will be short because I NEED sleep. We pulled into town pretty early, 4 o'clock, when to the bar for a drink and cigar, came back to shower, and then find food. The food was great, but due to the lack of sleep, the high stress of moving, and the awful gas station food I've been eating all day...I am feeling a little sick. Apparently, I am now TWO time zones away from MN/WI, so my times are all messed up as well. I hope to share some great stories when I have more energy and feel better (I do have some great stories!) but in the mean time you'll just have to deal with a couple of un-touched up photos taken from my car =)

You guys rock and I miss you already!

Well, I didn't like the layout of the last post (I am still learning how to "Blog") so I'm just going to post a few pics without a story...just a caption. Enjoy...eh

Up before the sun again =)

I learned something on this trip...there is fog early in the morning. I am usually not awake before 8, so this is new to me

My all time favorite sign so far =)

We couldn't have made it in such great time if it wasn't for a few tools =)

Have a great night!!
~Bobb

Day one...Afton, MN to Saskatoon, SK

2008-08-05T19:34:00.001-08:00

I wish I had more time to write today, but I was up at 3:30am this morning and sat in a car for over 14 hours...I am tired. I have a few pictures to share from day one. I have more, I just do not have the energy to post them. Maybe once I'm settled in.

Please keep in mind all of these picture were taken out the window of my car (don't worry, most of them were taken while I was not driving) so the quality is not the best. once we hit the Alaska Hwy, I think we are going to allow us some stopping and looking around time...but we just wanted to make as much progress the first day as we could. Over 900 miles is pretty good progress if you ask me =)

So we got up before the sun and started our drive:

As the sun was coming over the horizon, we experienced a LOT of fog. I am still learning the best way to shoot in fog, so these pictures did not turn out the best. (I'll tell you what is NOT the best way to shoot in the fog...sitting in the passenger seat of a car going 65 mph) However, I have a few cool ones. I'll post this one now, maybe more later.

After the sun dried out the morning fog...we hit North Dakota. It was flat and boring!!!

I thought, yeah, it is a beautiful day, but what could be more boring than flat, lame, North Dakota?

Flat, lame, Southern Saskatchewan! LAME!!!! Oh well. At least I had great company =) I am super sleepy now, so I am going to bed. I may not post tomorrow since we are going to be at Fort Saint John, British Colombia tomorrow, and it looks like that is a pretty small town. Perhaps when we reach Whitehorse, Yukon Territory the day on Thursday I'll have time to post. Otherwise, you may have to wait until the weekend.

Take care everyone!!
~Bobb

Welcome to my Blog =)

2008-08-04T14:10:00.001-08:00

Ok, this is my first attempt at "blogging," so please be gentile. I think the word "blogging" is ridiculous, I think the idea of "blogging" is very narcissistic (hey everyone...come read a whole bunch of random crap about ME!!) and I think the amount of time wasted on reading "blogs" is pointless...however; if there ever was a time to start a blog it is now. I would like to start off by saying I AM NOT AN ENGLISH MAJOR!!! There will be spelling errors, there will be grammatical errors, there will be words that are spelled right but do not make any sense in context...that's the way I write. I hope you can get use to it =)

If you are reading this, you probably know me. I am Bobb. I am moving to Alaska to teach music. I am the new 7th - 8th grade band, orchestra, and choir teacher at Randy Smith Middle School in Fairbanks, Alaska. I thought it would be a fun idea to set up a site where all of my family and friends could visit to check out what's new 3000+ miles away. As most of you probably know, I LOVE photography. I will try to post many pictures from my adventures here along with a few stories. I will also try to keep this as "Family Friendly" as I can so you can share this site with your kids =)

The adventure starts tomorrow (8/5/08) a little before sun-up. I plan on taking lots of pictures during the drive to Alaksa, so come on back and check them out.

Rock on
~Bobb