Week 2

7/4/2010: Happy post 4th of July from DC! I survived my first experience watching fireworks on the National Mall, and I must say, the crowd situation was a little over-hyped. I mean, I guess attending any event on the National Mall after Obama's inauguration will look like child's play, in terms of crowds and all. Anyways, the fireworks themselves were absolutely spectacular, and there is certainly something magical about watching fireworks with the Washington monument towering in the background. The only thing that I would suggest to improve the experience would be to line speakers up along the mall so that everybody can hear the music that accompanies the fireworks. We could hear it dimly in the background, but it probably would have been much more powerful if it had been turned up. The heat wasn't too bad, and we were lucky to find a nice shady spot to spend the first couple of hours before the fireworks began. Here are a few photos of the big event:



7/6/2010: Today was a pretty slow day at the office considering that it was the day after a long weekend, and Augustus did not come in. Early in the morning, I sat in on the weekly conference call with our political consultant, whose job it is to update KA on the political feel in Washington Education policy for the week. After that call, I simply continued the task of scanning the weekly education blogs, as well as brushing up on my knowledge of current and proposed education legislation. The highlight of the day, however, probably had to be watching the Uruguay vs. Netherlands world cup game towards the end of the day, and then getting to go home early since it was so hot. Kevin and I signed up for a 30 day membership at the Washington Sports Club, and so far, we have enjoyed getting back into a real gym. Oh, and we cooked the quintessential summer dinner- burgers, corn on the cob and green beans, and it was scrumptious :)

7/7/10: Happy Birthday, Emily! This morning, I started off my day frantically trying to find the meeting location for a morning policy breakfast with guest speaker Raymond Buckley, the democratic party state chair for New Hampshire. It was an interesting breakfast put on by the Raben Group, one of the lobbying firms that KA uses for consulting, and just one in a series of policy breakfasts this summer. Although Mr. Buckley did not speak about education policy at all, it was still very interesting to me because it was about his role in GLBT politics. Mr. Buckley himself is an openly gay politician, and pretty much single-handedly pushed through NH's marriage equality act. He basically discussed how he feels like there is no strategy or leadership in the GLBT movement, which is what is prohibiting its ability to make significant traction in state and federal policy. He is a strong proponent for grassroots organization, and feels that that could be a viable solution for the movement. When returning to work, we had our second leadership meeting, and my bosses were impressed with my suggestions for website improvements. I was glad that they were able to acknowledge that I am capable of creating quality work, which hopefully will mean that I will be getting increased responsibility throughout the summer. We had a conference call with some of our retreat planners, and basically decided that my job at the conference will be to assist with logistical support, as well as serve as a "live blogger" during the big sessions at the conference. I am nervous since I have never led a live blog before, but I am sure that by August I will feel more confident in my abilities. The day once again ended with the last world cup semifinal game between Germany and Spain. It was another hooootttt day in DC, which made the commute home miserable. At least the PALI fellows coordinated a happy hour, which helped with me not overheating.

7/8/2010: Today was actually a much busier day at the office than I had originally anticipated. As usual, the day begin with the hour-long process of scanning the newspapers, education blogs, and happenings around DC, and then received my first project from Augustus to assist with the success stories of our members. So each July, KA hosts something called DC Hill Days, which is an event that allows our members from around the country to fly into DC and meet with members of congress and their staffs to help lobby firsthand the need for R&D in education. What Jason and I are in charge of is collecting "success stories," or tangible examples of how their research has benefited student achievement in the past. This requires Jason and I to email all of our members who run Comprehensive Centers (CC's), Regional Education Laboratories (REL's) and Research and Development Centers (RDC's) to collect some recent successes their research has produced in the last year. I was responsible to going onto the Dept. of Ed and IES websites to help make a comprehensive list of which members are directly affiliated with these various research facilities. The emails will go out tomorrow. We also engaged in 2 conference calls today (I swear, I have never had so many conference calls in my life), one in which we helped one of our members schedule appropriate meetings with congressional offices for the DC Days, and the other call was another retreat planning strategy call. The highlight of my day was getting to meet Matt for lunch, it is so cool getting to live in the same city with my brother again! I mean, it's crazy to think that we haven't lived together in the same place since he was in high school.