And we're back to what we spoke about in the podcast: creating a culture whereby we can "trick" the students into eating their vegetables.

After listening--and re-listening--to the podcast, I start to have 2nd thoughts concerning my current strategies for coaching/teaching ACADEC.

At my previous school--where I coached for 24 years--I felt like I HAD to teach/lecture on the material, because the vast majority of the students either would not or could not read the material.

In my new--post-retirement--venue, it may be that I am holding my students back by lecturing to them. I think that lecturing makes it more interesting, and our scores have steadily improved since I started coaching the team here (from around 34,000 to around 41,000); however, I may go to more of a hybrid system next year. If I want my teams to be competitive with Chris' team (which my teams at my previous school could probably never be able to do), I think I need to change how I teach, but I am not at all certain. Maybe this hybrid idea backfires, and we regress.

So, I asked my current group--in the process of studying for the National Online Competition--what they thought of my methods. My scholastic thinks everyone can read for themselves and they don't need my lecturing, which was certainly true for him; but he was motivated to do the reading and varsities, for the most part, are less inclined to do the work. If I make the grading in the class more stringent, the varsities will drop. I only have 11 students in the program this year, and all three varsities were automatically on the team. I would like to have more--at my old school, I had 30 to 40--so that it is difficult to make the final nine, forcing everyone to read and work hard.

At any rate, I would appreciate any thoughts on the matter.

We (Seton Catholic) broke the 40K barrier, which was our season-long goal.

Dillon broke 8K (8,156.6) and finished as the #2 overall Scholastic, just 40 points below #1 Carter.

And props to Seton's Mikayla McNally, who earned a Gold in Essay & the Outstanding Essay Plaque with a perfect 1,000 point score!

The topic is a bit unfair to the rest of you . . . after all, you need to study the '60's, while I AM the '60's!

Region IV -- Congratulations to Hamilton, this year's Region IV winner!

43,625.8 Hamilton
42,011.8 Westwood
41,125.1 Mountain View Mesa
38,461.0 Seton Catholic Preparatory
38,212.8 Skyline
35,548.6 Basis Chandler
34,872.5 Higley
34,155.2 Red Mountain
33,691.9 Dobson
32,620.1 Basha
30,973.4 Williams Field
29,423.0 Marcos De Niza
29,128.3 Chandler
28,432.7 Mesa
28,113.2 Casteel
26,192.2 Campo Verde
25,507.2 Desert Ridge
23,740.5 Gilbert Classical Academy
23,474.2 Combs
22,218.7 Fountain Hills
11,792.0 ASU Poly (not a complete team)

Super Quiz Relay

1st - Mountain View Mesa
2nd - Seton Catholic Prep
3rd - Three way tie--Basis Chandler, ?? Sorry . . . forgot

10 - Event Individual winners (names of teams--don't have individual names other than two):

Varsity Bronze - Skyline
Varsity Silver - Hamilton
Varsity Gold - Mountain View Mesa

Scholastic Bronze - Westwood
Scholastic Silver - Hamilton
Scholastic Gold - Seton Catholic Prep (Dillon) 7,496.8

Honors Bronze - Hamilton
Honors Silver - Hamilton
Honors Gold - Hamilton -- 8,908.8 Lena

The top tier teams in the state are clearly CDO, Cesar Chavez, and Hamilton. In tier two we have (in no particular order): Mesa Mountain View, Westwood, BASIS Chandler, Higley, Seton Catholic, Boulder Creek, Mountain View Marana.

CDO, Hamilton, and Cesar Chavez will easily win each of their respective regions. Of interest in each region, then, will be in seeing which schools can break into the #2 and #3 spots.

Round 1 Exams at the Hamilton Invitational--10 Events:

1st 41,850.70 Hamilton
2nd 38,206.10 Seton
3rd 36,017.70 BASIS Chandler
4th 35,391.20 Higley
5th 32,321.00 Basha
6th 29,356.10 Chandler
7th 27,373.00 Marcos de Niza
8th 27,178.60 Williams Field
9th 19,370.90 Desert Ridge
10th 16,876.90 Campo Verde

In the description of the Kente cloth, the Art Resource guide describes orange squares at the top and a red dominant strip on the right; however, the image of the kente cloth in the Art Reproductions booklet is upside down. Just sayin'!

We (Seton Catholic Prep) will be hosting a test-only scrimmage on October 28th using the Xathlon exams. I am in the process of finishing the paperwork at school, and then I will be inviting local schools to come over and participate (it's more fun to take tests together, right?).

I have already told my classes that I will be taking all seven exams, and that if anyone beats me there will be serious gloating repercussions involved. Any other coaches that want to get in on it are more than welcome!

Just say it; the music packet makes less sense when it talks more cents.

It's taken me a while (most of the summer, actually) to get my head around everything in it. Lots of focus on beats per minute, differing ways to notate the rhythm of a piece, etc. I also did not like the huge amount of geographical information in Section I. I realize the author's sense of a need for it, i.e., climate regions dictate instrumental differences, but still . . .

The information on "cents" is important due to the non-standardized note intervals, but the details will clog student's brains. I fear there will be a huge difficulty in preparing for tests since the test writers will get lost in the details.

The author also missed a beat (sorry) when he/she discussed how western society calls faster vibration pitches high and lower vibration pitches low, and then blithely mentions that Africa is the reverse. I did some research on this, and the truth is much more complex, and deals with the idea that pitch in Africa is much more than vibrational frequency--it's tied to their culture. For instance, "high" sounding pitches come from little children, who are "low" to the ground; "low" pitches come from taller, older men who are "high" off the ground. Combined with hand gestures, sex (male/females produce, in general, different pitches), familial relationships, animals (pitch of a lion, etc.) and it gets very tangled. The author ignores all of this, and just mentions how high and low are not standardized throughout the world, and leaves it at that. SAD!

He didn't have time to compete--Peter Parker ditched the finals in the movie! Look for the part where his replacement in the competition is more concerned about saving the trophy than the people.

Recent stats on grades received in college:

http://college.usatoday.com/2017/06/26/wha...an-to-get-an-a/

Successful steps:

Open up the downloaded pdf file in Adobe Acrobat Pro

Convert to a Word doc

Convert back to a pdf -- the non-Adobe version works best for some reason

Save

When I did this, the Social Science Resource Guide went from 118 MB in size to 18 MB in size.

There are a few glitches: for some reason, the graph is blank on page 128. The original is a bent line . . . no biggie.

The files this process did not work well on: Mathematics and the Study Guide. The Mathematics places numbers, especially those in formulas, in the wrong places. I may have to print these pages out one at a time from the original. Or, when the kids get to them, simply write the correct formulas on the board.

The advantages with these files outweighs the few glitches. Not only do these print MUCH faster, they scroll much easier when viewing/reading/studying.

Sebastian, you finally got your linguistics . . . it's in the Music!

Again, I do not think low resolution files is the appropriate response; it will be interesting--to say the least--to see the results.

The "lower-res" resource guide worries me, as that means hard copy prints will be difficult to read, especially in the sections where they have black text on shaded backgrounds, like they always seem to do in the Literature guides.

They need to flatten (and everything else mentioned above) and optimize the electronic files and then send out links to the improved versions.

It may work better/faster to use the arrows on your keyboard as opposed to the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Some sites say to change the security settings on Adobe Reader, but I don't recommend that, as it leaves holes in your security.

Check Adobe Reader for updates. Perhaps even reinstall.

I do think that USAD might need to check how they made the pdf documents.

And we came in a very close 4th place in the Medium enats. I am actually pumped that we defeated the team from Texas.

Very well said.

I have hot heard a peep. I would hope that they let us know, somehow . . .

Scores from all four of Arizona's Regions - missing last 8 from Region III (all lower than 29,000) and multiple scores from Region I (all lower than 32,000)

1 46,661.5 Canyon del Oro -- Region III Champion
2 43,549.8 Cesar Chavez -- Region II Champion
3 43,128.0 Hamilton -- Region IV Champion
4 40,447.0 Westwood
5 39,475.0 Mountain View Marana
6 39,229.6 Mesa Mountain View
7 38,802.7 Boulder Creek
8 37,806.8 Seton Catholic Preparatory
9 37,498.6 Basis Chandler
10 37,357.5 Alhambra
11 37,171.6 Basis Peoria
12 36,196.5 Maryvale
13 35,150.0 Kingman Academy -- Region I Champion (score approximate)
14 34,664.0 Higley
15 34,850.0 St. Johns - (score approximate)
16 34,599.3 Basha
17 34,180.9 Red Mountain
18 33,833.9 Sonoran Science Academy
19 33,659.7 Mountain Ridge
20 32,451.7 Marana
21 31,689.5 Sandra Day O'Connor
22 31,638.5 Campo Verde
23 31,500.0 Prescott - (score approximate)
24 31,447.6 Dobson
25 31,408.9 Betty Fairfax
26 30,989.6 Cibola
27 30,683.0 Gila Ridge
28 30,328.8 Williams Field
29 30,048.8 Skyline
30 30,036.7 Sunnyside
31 29,684.7 Deer Valley
32 29,637.4 Buena
33 29,589.3 Gilbert Classical Academy
34 29,466.3 North
35 28,861.4 Central
36 28,600.7 Combs
37 28,450.3 Desert Ridge
38 28,178.2 Yuma
39 28,146.4 Desert View
40 27,271.9 Moon Valley
41 27,247.3 Chandler
42 27,097.8 Mesa Mountain View
43 26,615.3 Carl Hayden
44 26,463.1 Marcos de Niza
45 26,361.2 Trevor Browne
46 26,208.2 South Mountain
47 26,024.3 Thunderbird
48 25,350.7 Camelback
49 23,918.8 Fountain Hills

Stockdale hit 51,000

Somebody has to show me how to change my image. Calvin and Hobbes may still be retired, but I'm back now!

Arizona - Region IV

Super Quiz Relay top four team scores

1st: Hamilton
2nd: Westwood
3rd: Seton Catholic
4th: Mesa Mountain View

10-Event scores:

Honors

H1 - 8,920 - Westwood
H2 - 8,631 - Hamilton
H3 - 8,496 - Hamilton
H4 - 7,966 - Westwood
H5 - 7,885 - Basis Chandler
H6 - 7,773 - Higley
H7 - 7,699 - Seton Catholic
H8 - 7,672 - Basis Chandler. . . this score is from three weeks of study--watch out, she's baaaaack . . .
H9 - 7,586 - Basis Chandler
H10 - 7,571 - Hamilton

Scholastics

S1 - 7,434 - Westwood
S2 - 7,212 - Hamilton
S3 - 6,508 - Seton Catholic
S4 - 6,472 - Mesa Mountain View
S5 - 6,204 - Seton Catholic
S6 - 6,026 - Seton Catholic
S7 - 5,985 - Hamilton
S8 - 5,884 - Campo Verde
S9 - 5,849 - Basha
S10 - 5,827 - Westwood

Varsities

V1 - 7,065 - Mesa Mountain View
V2 - 6,779 - Mesa Mountain View
V3 - 6,637 - Mesa Mountain View
V4 - 6,420 - Hamilton
V5 - 6,385 - Hamilton
V6 - 5,922 - Campo Verde
V7 - 5,890 - Seton Catholic
V8 - 5,727 - Red Mountain
V9 - 5,735 - Dobson
V10 - 5,662 - Basha

Ranking of Team Overall Scores

1st: 43,128.0 - Hamilton
2nd: 40,447.0 - Westwood
3rd: 39,229.6 - Mesa Mountain View
4th: 37,806.8 - Seton Catholic Preparatory
5th: 37,498.6 - Basis Chandler
6th: 34,664.0 - Higley
7th: 34,599.3 - Basha
8th: 34,180.9 - Red Mountain
9th: 31,638.5 - Campo Verde
10th: 31,447.6 - Dobson
11th: 30,328.8 - Williams Field
12th: 30,048.8 - Skyline
13th: 29,589.3 - Gilbert Classical Academy
14th: 28,600.7 - Combs
15th: 28,450.3 - Desert Ridge
16th: 27,247.3 - Chandler
17th: 27,097.8 - Mesa
18th: 26,463.1 - Marcos de Niza
19th: 23,918.8 - Fountain Hills

Anna Chang was not at competition, and might take this year off, but might not. There are more important things than ACADEC, as hard as that may be to consider; we'll just have to wait and see. Two years ago I had the pleasure of judging her speech at a competition when she had the unfortunate task of going 1st in the room. I had never seen or heard her before, and she was terrific--I knew right then without seeing anyone else that she would likely have the best speech in the room, and I was correct. It could very well be that she needs to take some time off . . . or not.