Blogging Belmont » arts and culture

PTO/PTA: Race to Nowhere Screening tomorrow evening

Paul Roberts — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:12:08 +0000

Just a note that the Belmont PTA/PTO will be screening Race To Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture tomorrow evening (Thursday) at the Belmont Studio Cinema, with half the price of admission donated to Belmont’s Public Schools.PTO/PTA’s! The film takes on the “culture of hollow achievement and pressure to perform that has invaded Americaʼs schools. It is destroying our childrenʼs love of learning and feeding an epidemic of unprepared, disengaged, and unhealthy students.

“This remarkable new film shines a light on the price our kids pay for this “race to nowhere.” Cheating is commonplace, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and ironically, young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people who have been pushed to the brink and educators who are burned out and worried that students arenʼt developing the skills needed for the global economy, RACE TO NOWHERE points to the silent epidemic running rampant in our schools.”

The film screens in Belmont on May 5

Read more details about the event below.

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The Belmont PTA/PTO’s are proud to present a special screening of the critically acclaimed documentary film:

RACE TO NOWHERE

(Directed by Vicki Abeles)

Thursday, May 5th at 7:00pm at Belmont Studio Cinema

Film will be followed by a discussion with author Alfie Kohn and student success expert Cal Newport.

Tickets are available for $10 online at http://rtnbelmontstudiocinemas55.eventbrite.com/
Or $15 at the door.

Half the price of each ticket sold will be donated to Belmont’s Public Schools.PTO/PTA’s.

Event Information:

There has been a groundswell of interest in this film across the country. 800 people attended the screening at Belmont High School and a recent screening at the Belmont Studio Cinema sold out. This special one-night event hosted by all the Belmont PTA/PTO’s is a fundraiser for our schools, which are facing dire budget cuts. The evening includes a post-screening discussion led by noted local authors Alfie Kohn and Cal Newport. Alfie Kohn is the author of twelve books, including NO GRADES + NO HOMEWORK =BETTER LEARNING.

Cal Newport created Study Hacks, the Internet’s most visited student advice blog and is the author of three books of student advice. His latest, HOW TO BE A HIGH SCHOOL SUPERSTAR, argues that it’s possible to do well in the college process without becoming overloaded or over-stressed.
Film Synopsis:

A concerned mother turned filmmaker aims her camera at the high-stakes, high-pressure culture that has invaded our schools and our children’s lives. Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace; students are disengaged; stress-related illness and depression are rampant; and many young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired. Race to Nowhere is a call to action for families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

For questions about the May 5th Belmont event, contact Benita Gold at benita@benitagoldpr.com or Argelis Roman at roman.argelis@gmail.com.

We hope to see you on May 5th! This is a great way to come together to support our schools and to join in the national dialogue on student stress and wellbeing.

We’ve come a long way, baby!

bloggingbelmont — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:39:04 +0000

This is apropos of nothing at all, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway, as it was one of the ‘viral videos’ this week – albeit a pretty dated one. In any case – the back story here is that 18 years ago, AT&T made a series of commercials around the theme of “You Will…” that looked at all the cool things people will be able to do in the future. The idea, of course, was that AT&T would help make them happen. What’s so cool about this is that the cool future tech AT&T is trumpeting are all things that exist and we use today – wireless Internet, tablet computers, e-readers, video conferencing, telecommuting, kiosks to buy tickets, GPS in the dash…even Fast Pass tools. Its easy to look at 2001 A Space Odyssey and say “we’re not living on the moon yet and doing interplanetary travel. We’ve fallen short.” But its also easy to get blase about all the technological improvements that have radically altered out lives in the last couple decades. Seeing AT&T’s bright shiny vision of the future and being able to kind of mentally check off the things that constitute it – “yup, we’ve got that.” It’s …well…kind of a cool feeling.

Enjoy!

Recommended listening: education, democracy and the meaning of intelligence

Paul Roberts — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:06:56 +0000

Well, we’re entering budget season here in Belmont and, with money tight, one of the inevitable questions that’s going to get asked a lot is “what?” “What services do we want our town and schools to provide?” “What level of financial support do we, as a town, feel able to give to support those services?” And, should cuts in services be inevitable, “what services are absolutely necessary, rather than just ‘nice to have’?” In the context of schools, these “what” questions often boil down to programming and curriculum – ”What do we offer now?” “What additions or subtractions may be necessary given the mandates and (budget) limitations we have to work within?”

I say this as a kind of long-winded way of wondering whether “What” is the right question to ask at all, and point you to a great discussion I heard this weekend on Speaking of Faith, a public radio show that explores issues surrounding faith. This week’s show was titled “The Meaning of Intelligence,” and I think it should really be required listening for anyone who’s interested in the question of how to improve education in the U.S. in the 21st century. The focus of the show is an extended interview with UCLA professor Mike Rose who teaches in the graduate program in Education and Information Studies. Rose, whose background is in Cognitive Psychology, has written extensively about education, poverty, the nature of effective (and ineffective) pedagogy,and so on.

Speaking of Faith tackles "the meaning of intelligence" and education

Instead of asking the “What” question about education, Rose asks a lot of “Why” questions? “Why do we need education in a democracy?” “Why do discussions and debate about the value of an education tend to fall into the same patterns/ruts: abstract vs. practical, Ivory Tower vs. School of Hard Knocks, manual versus “intellectual” labor, East/West Coast vs. Middle America?” Most of all, he talks about the importance of education to our democracy, and how our discussions about educating a “21st century workforce” tend to give short shrift to the other things we need (public) education for: educating the next generation of citizens and voters, artists and writers and poets. Talking only about producing future workers, Rose argues, really leads to an impoverished discussion of education, itself. Rose’s most recent work, appropriately is entitled “Why School?,” where Rose takes on, among other things, the impact of the No Child Left Behind legislation on learning and the way that testing tends to narrow the scope of what happens in the classroom.

Its a really fascinating talk with a guy who doesn’t shy away from asking the big, important questions about the role of schools and education in our democracy and how the way we do education in the U.S. might be changed so that students can reach their fullest potential. Check it out!

Libraries…who needs ‘em? (Answer below)

Paul Roberts — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:46:43 +0000

Are libraries still relevant?

Libraries…who needs ‘em? That seems to be the meme that’s floating about the mainstream media today. There’s the front page article in this morning’s Boston Globe about Cushing Academy’s (rather hasty) decision to give away its book collection in favor of laptops, Amazon.com Kindles and..well..the Internet. Then there’s this article from CNN.com about “Library 2.0″ –a more orderly transformation of libraries from places to get books to community knowledge centers and forums where citizens can learn, debate and generally inform themselves — through hardcopy, digital media, whatever.

Its hard to argue with the CNN piece, which talks about the inevitable mission creep for public and private libraries, as more and more print information goes online through Google Books and publishers of all stripes skip hardcopy altogether and shift to e-books and digital publishing as a way to reach their audience.

It’s harder to make sense of Cushing academy’s decision to just ditch its 20,000 volume collection in favor of a hodge podge of digital alternatives. According to the Globe article by David Abel, the Ashburnham private school will be replacing the collection with a $500,000 “learning center,’’including “$42,000 for three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet, and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels.” The school will spend $50,000 to build a coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine. Frankly, Cushing Academy’s plans sound like the frothings of some dizzy Starbucks or Borders marketing executive let off his leash. “Let them eat scones!” if you will. The idea of stacks of reference books and literature replaced with plasma TVs and an cappuccino bar just seems ditsy. Let’s put it this way, if visionaries like Andrew Carnegie thought that American society would be advanced by the construction of coffee bars, rather than libraries, then he would have put his money into building them.

Cushing Academy’s plans sound like the frothings of some dizzy Starbucks or Borders marketing executive let off his leash. “Let them eat scones!” if you will.

I also take a dim view of the headmaster James Tracy’s comment that libraries and their stacks are ““outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ which sounds remarkably like the arguments civic leaders across the country used to justify things like the willy-nilly dismantling of street car lines in favor of “new technology” like automobiles –only to run into problems like urban decay, suburban sprawl, traffic and pollution. As for his statement that “we’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology” — am I alone in wondering what the heck “shaping emerging trends and optimize technology” means? As if tiny Cushing Academy is somehow going to shape global technology adoption trends! Abel does a good job throwing cold water on Headmaster Tracy’s vision — wondering about the cost and durability of devices like the Kindle compared to paper books which – last time I checked – can run for 3,000 years without requiring new batteries.

A question for Cushing Academy is “What are you throwing away, exactly?” Is the information that’s being discarded freely available online? Is it true that a student researching a given topic can find the same depth and quality of information on that topic through Google that was available in your stacks? Its a difficult question to answer, which is probably why nobody’s bothering to ask it.

A larger question for Cushing and other communities/institutions like it is “What are you throwing away, exactly?” Do you actually know whether the information you’re getting rid of is available online? Is it true that a student researching a given topic can find the same depth and quality of information on that topic through Google that was available in your stacks? Its a difficult question to answer, which is probably why nobody’s bothering to ask it. In the end, I’m not convinced by Tracy’s assurance that “this isn’t Fahrenheit 451.” In fact, Cushing’s decision to do away with printed works and replace them with huge plasma screens and mindless entertainment (a coffee bar) is eerily like Ray Bradbury’s dystopian vision of the future. It’s all the more poignent given Bradbury’s staunch defense of the (old fashioned) libraries in his local community. Its funny, in my work as a technology reporter and analyst, I’ve noticed that the people who know the least about technology are often those who are the most enthused about its ability to transform institutions and behaviors. In this case, I think Cushing Academy may well look back in 10 years and regret the loss of its collection, in the same way that other “onward to the future” organizations and communities have come to regret their failure to look past “newness” and take stock of the inherant value of what they already possessed.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks,as a they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

Watertown HS struggles to preserve Armenian language instruction

Paul Roberts — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:00:15 +0000

An interesting and somewhat sad article from the Sunday Globe about Watertown’s struggle to preserve a four-decade old Armenian language course at Watertown High School. The article, written by my dear Wellesley High ’88 classmate Erica Noonan, depicts a community in transition. Though Watertown has the third largest Armenian immigrant population in the country, Armenian-Americans still only made up 9 percent of the town’s population in 2000 census. Students are under pressure to take advanced coursework and to master less obscure languages, the article points out. Add to that the retirement of the program’s founder and leading light, Anahid Yacoubian, who came to WHS in 1970, and prospects for the program look dim. Finding qualified teachers is difficult (though certainly easier in Watertown than in most other places), but there’s no certification for Armenian instructors and teaching materials are hard to come by. Still, Watertown High has found a replacement teacher for this year and hopes to preserve the program. At one time, Watertown, Belmont and Arlington all offered Armenian as a foreign language (maybe some of my readers remember when Belmont did?), but the language has long since been dropped from the course offerings in both towns.

One Book, One Belmont Fall Schedule

Paul Roberts — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:45:14 +0000

Just passing on some information from One Book One Belmont, a great program to foster discussion and togetherness within town — all around works of great literature. This year, in honor of Belmont’s 150th birthday, the OBOB selection is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver with husband Steven L. Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver. There are a bunch of great events scheduled around it right through September and October. Here’s what planned so far:

Join One Book One Belmont as we read the best-selling book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver with husband Steven L. Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver. The book describes the family’s adventures growing and eating locally produced food for one year.

The book was chosen by a town-wide planning committee to celebrate Belmont’s farming heritage during the town’s 150th anniversary of incorporation this year. The selection also is intended to fulfill the mission of One Book One Belmont: to build a spirit of community by bringing together individuals and groups through a series of book-related events and discussions, and to promote reading as an enjoyable and mind-opening activity. We hope you will enjoy sampling the following events.

Appetizer

June 26 “From the Garden to the Kitchen to the Table”

- Oct. 2 Belmont Gallery of Art, 3rd floor Homer Municipal Building, 19 Moore St.

Thirty-two Belmont artists exhibit work that addresses food-related themes. See www.belmontgallery.org for hours. Closing reception: Fri. Sept. 25, 6-8 PM.

Entrees

Sept. 9 Frances Moore Lappé on “Food Choices for a Small Planet”

7:00 PM Wed., Town Hall Auditorium, 455 Concord Ave.

Author of the bestselling Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé explores which food choices are best for our bodies, the earth, and the people who tend it.

Sept. 12 Walk through the Past: from Habitat to Rock Meadow and Back

9 AM – noon and 2 – 5 PM from Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, 10 Juniper Rd.

Roger Wrubel, director of Mass Audubon’s Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, leads a three-mile walk, looking for clues to Belmont’s agricultural past. Includes visits to Belmont’s two community gardens. Register at library or call 617-993-2870.

Sept. 12 Food for Fines – to benefit the Belmont Food Pantry

- Sept. 19 Bring nonperishable foods to the library in place of overdue fines.

Sept. 15 When Belmont was a Town of Farms

7 PM Tues., Assembly Room, Belmont Public Library

Writer Jane Sherwin gives a multi-media presentation on the history of Belmont farms and farming families. Co-sponsored by the Belmont Historical Society.

Sept. 22 Farming in Belmont Today

7 PM Tuesday, Assembly Room, Belmont Public Library

Panel discussion with Nathan L’Etoile, Assistant Commissioner of the Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources; Henry Ogilby and Sal Sergi of Belmont’s last working farm, also known as Sergi Farms; and Joan Teebagy, an avid gardener who keeps bees and chickens.

Oct. 5 HomeGrown, a documentary presented by Belmont World Film

7 PM Mon., Belmont Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Rd.

See how the Dervaes family goes “off the grid” and harvests 6,000 lbs. of produce yearly on a quarter-acre property in Pasadena. Preceded by two short films, “Viva La Food” and “Hot Bread Kitchen.” Ticket prices at www.belmontworldfilm.org.

Oct. 8 One Book One Belmont Afternoon at the Farmers’ Market

Market opens 1:30 PM, Municipal parking lot in Belmont Center

Come see the wide variety of fresh and freshly prepared foods at the market, and watch Belmont’s own chefs prepare locally grown foods! Cooking demonstrations by:

2 PM Michael Ehlenfeldt, chef/general manager, Stone Hearth Pizza

3 PM Joh Kokubo, chef/owner, Kitchen on Common

4 PM Dante de Magistris, chef/owner, il Casale

Dessert

Book Discussion Groups – Everyone is Welcome

Sept. 11 11:00 AM Fri., Flett Room, Belmont Public Library

Sept. 16 3:00 PM Wed., Flett Room, Belmont Public Library

Oct. 7 7:30 PM Wed., Flett Room, Library. Co-sponsored by Sustainable Belmont.

Now – Oct. 2 “From the Garden to the Kitchen to the Table:” Belmont Gallery of Art, 3rd floor Homer Municipal Building, 19 Moore St.: Thirty-two Belmont artists exhibit work that addresses food-related themes. See www.belmontgallery.org for hours. Closing reception: Fri. Sept. 25, 6-8 PM.

Sept. 9 Frances Moore Lappé on “Food Choices for a Small Planet:” 7:00 PM Wed., Town Hall Auditorium, 455 Concord Ave.: Author of the bestselling Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé explores which food choices are best for our bodies, the earth, and the people who tend it.

Sept. 11 Book Discussion Group - 11:00 AM Fri., Flett Room, Belmont Public Library - Everyone is Welcome

Sept. 12 Walk through the Past: from Habitat to Rock Meadow and Back- 9 AM – noon and 2 – 5 PM from Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, 10 Juniper Rd. Roger Wrubel, director of Mass Audubon’s Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, leads a three-mile walk, looking for clues to Belmont’s agricultural past. Includes visits to Belmont’s two community gardens. Register at library or call 617-993-2870.

Sept. 12-19 Food for Fines- to benefit the Belmont Food Pantry. Bring nonperishable foods to the library in place of overdue fines.

Sept. 15 When Belmont was a Town of Farms- 7 PM Tues., Assembly Room, Belmont Public Library: Writer Jane Sherwin gives a multi-media presentation on the history of Belmont farms and farming families. Co-sponsored by the Belmont Historical Society.

Sept. 16 Book Discussion Group- 3:00 PM Wed., Flett Room, Belmont Public Library

Sept. 21-25 (KIDS EVENT) Belmont Public Schools to serve locally grown food – part of statewide Mass. Harvest for Students Week by purchasing, serving and highlighting locally grown food.

Sept. 22 Farming in Belmont Today- 7 PM Tuesday, Assembly Room, Belmont Public Library Panel discussion with Nathan L’Etoile, Assistant Commissioner of the Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources; Henry Ogilby and Sal Sergi of Belmont’s last working farm, also known as Sergi Farms; and Joan Teebagy, an avid gardener who keeps bees and chickens.

Sept. 24 (KIDS EVENT) Herbal Soap Workshop for Teens- for grade 5 and up: 3 PM Thurs, Chenery Middle School Teachers’ Dining Room – Make soap with Phyl Solomon of the Haitat Intergenerational Program (HIP) using herbs grown at Chenery. Registration required; call 617 993-2880.

Sept. 30 (KIDS EVENT) Composting Workshop ages 5 and up: 3:00, 3:45 and 4:30, Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, 50 Juniper Road. Lisa Becker of Mass Audobon’s Habitat will lead 30 minute, hands-on programs on composting. Registration required; call Children’s Room at 617 993-2880.

Oct. 5 HomeGrown, a documentary presented by Belmont World Film- 7 PM Mon., Belmont Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Rd. See how the Dervaes family goes “off the grid” and harvests 6,000 lbs. of produce yearly on a quarter-acre property in Pasadena. Preceded by two short films, “Viva La Food” and “Hot Bread Kitchen.” Ticket prices at www.belmontworldfilm.org.

Oct. 7 Book Discussion Group- 7:30 PM Wed., Flett Room, Library. Co-sponsored by Sustainable Belmont.

Oct. 8 One Book One Belmont Afternoon at the Farmers’ Market- Market opens 1:30 PM, Municipal parking lot in Belmont Center – Come see the wide variety of fresh and freshly prepared foods at the market, and watch Belmont’s own chefs prepare locally grown foods! Cooking demonstrations by:

2 PM Michael Ehlenfeldt, chef/general manager, Stone Hearth Pizza
3 PM Joh Kokubo, chef/owner, Kitchen on Common
4 PM Dante de Magistris, chef/owner, il Casale

Call for proposals from Belmont Cultural Council

Paul Roberts — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:09:54 +0000

The coming year promises a pretty grim parade of economic news, as political leaders on Beacon Hill and here in Belmont wrestle with the continuing fall out of the recession. But there’s a rare bit of economic good news from the Belmont Cultural Council, which is expecting to have more money to distribute to worthy Belmontonians this year than last, according to Treasurer Juliet Jenkins. [Editor's Note: While BCC typically has around $4,000 to distribute, it expects to have more this year, but the specific dollar amount won't be clear until this fall.] The surplus funds will likely come from grants from prior years that were never claimed by the grant recipient, and that are now available to be used to sponsor cultural events in town.

Jenkins said the deadline for post marking applications is October 15, 2009. Belmont Cultural Council “seeks to fund activities in community centers, elder care facilities, libraries, parks, schools, town halls – wherever Belmontians come together – to improve resident’s lives.” Belmont Cultural Council is appointed by the Board fo Selectmen and is part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Local Cultural Council program – a grassroots complement to the agency’s centralized grant programs. Funding allocations are made to all of Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns to support community cultural activities. The Local Cultural Council Program is the most extensive system of its kind in the nation to support arts, sciences and humanities and comprises 2,400 volunteers across the state, who review applications from individuals, schools, and organizations to fund field trips, after school programs, concerts and festivals that “promote excellence, access, education and diversity in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences.”

For more information or to download an application, please visit the website of the Massachueetts Cultural Council or email Julia at belmontculturalcouncil(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Cultural Council announces grant recipients, seeks input

Paul Roberts — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:05:52 +0000

Just a note from the Belmont Cultural Council’s spokeswoman, Juliet Jenkins about the recipients of this year’s grants and opportunities for the community to provide the Council with some suggestions on future work.

This year’s grants will support a variety of artistic projects and activities in Belmont, including exhibits, festivals, short-term artist residencies and performances in schools. They included the Belmont In Bloom exhibit, done with the Belmont 150 Committee in its exhibit at the Belmont Gallery of Art. Upcoming this fall, the council is one of the supporters of the One Book, One Belmont programs at the Belmont Public Library. Here are some others both pending and passed:

The Waldorf High School received funds for an after school initiative in Funk Dance, open to the public, date TBA.
The Burbank Elementary School presented An American Journey assembly program, partially funded by Cultural Council funds.
The Powers Music School presented their multi-part Musical Story Hour aimed for pre-schoolers with funding from the Council.
Habitat Education Center presented an exhibit, Inspired by Nature.
The Wellington Elementary School PTO offered the Tanglewood Marionettes for the first graders.
The Belmont Media Center won funds to support a Photographing your Art Workshop.
The Belmont Council on Aging will present a program on Edible Wild Plants by John Root.
The Chenery Middle School ran a Eth-No-Tech Asia Fantasia program with Cultural Council funds.
The Belmont Council on Aging received funds to support purchase of quilting equipment.
The children’s room of the Belmont Public Library will present a Creative Writing program for Children this summer with Council funds.

For those who don’t know the history: Belmont Cultural Council is part of a grass-roots network of 329 local councils that serve every city and town in the state. The program is the largest most decentralized one of its kind in the United States. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which then allocates funds to each local council. This year, the Belmont Cultural Council distributed $4,800 in grants. Preference was given to Belmont-based non-profit organizations and local artist/humanists for projects that benefit the Belmont community.

As part of its mission to better serve the community, local cultural councils are required to seek community input. For this purpose, the council has set up a website survey via Monkey Survey. Please take the survey before July 15th to contribute to our planning process. We seek input from the community personally and informally as well. Please contact Juliet Jenkins via email BelmontCulturalCouncil (at) yahoo.com with suggestions and/or questions. The group’s next funding deadline will be in the fall, near mid-October.

Jogging Belmont

Paul Roberts — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:00:27 +0000

I started running for exercise in my early 30s, just after I became a father for the first time, and after countless Boston Sports Club memberships had expired and locker combo cards had mouldered in my wallet. The nice thing about running, as I see it, is that it’s so easy to do. Equipment needs and prep time are minimal: throw on a pair of running shoes and shorts, step out your door and you’re doing it. In contrast, most other workouts these days involve commute time, locker room time, and expensive monthly fees.

Though I’ve been running for years, I’ve never tried to run a marathon. But that’s changing. I’ve signed up to run the Bay State Marathon in Lowell this October and have been training up this summer. I’ve also been asked to join a group (Team Twelve Pack) that’s running the vaunted Reach The Beach Relay in New Hampshire in September — the U.S.’s longest competitive relay race, which covers 200 miles in 24 hours, from Cannon Mountain to Hampton Beach State Park.

My training for Bay State has brought me smack up against one of the hardest part about running regularly:finding good places to run. Sure, sure. Like most recreational joggers, I have no shortage of short (sub 10 mile) routes around Belmont and Watertown. I’ve recently started running on the Minuteman Trail and really enjoy that as well. But with my long runs now pushing 20 miles in the coming weeks, I’m on the hunt for fun, challenging routes.

My solution, thus far, has been to head up to the Charles River and run there. Belmont Center in to, say, The Science Museum, is a gorgeous 18 mile loop with some great views of Boston and a nice, shady route back on the Boston side of the Charles. It doesn’t offer much in the way of hills or other challenges, though. With that in mind, I thought I’d throw down some of my common routes and see if the B2 community has other ideas. I’ve mapped these out using the Gmaps Pedometer, which is easy to use and unfussy. But there are others as well that are more feature-rich. Mapmyrun.com is one. USA Track & Field has another one here. None of these sites make it easy to embed routes in blogs and other Web pages, which is too bad. If other readers have routes out there and want to share them with the B2 community, send me the links and I’ll post them!

Four Mile Run – School Street to Trapelo to Common

School Street to Common Street

Five Mile Run – School Street to Trapelo to Pleasant

School Street to Pleasant Street

Seven Mile Run – Fresh Pond

Seven Mile Run from Belmont Center around Fresh Pond

Seventeen Mile Charles River Run

17 Mile Run along The Charles