Tuesday we woke to some of the most beautiful blue skies I have ever seen. Apparently on Monday, Colorado was receiving some of the haze from the forest fires in Arizona. It reminded me of the hardships that many of our fellow Texans are experiencing as well. There has been a number of very interesting discussions at the workshop about alignment. Many times our learning experiences do not align with the proficiencies we expect from our students. Taking the time to develop learning experiences (which some of us call lesson plans) that foster the development of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we hope to foster in our students is very important. Providing the proper assessment, both formative and summative, is equally important. Students rely on us to let them know if they are moving in the right direction to attain new proficiencies. Having all of this remain consistent and be fully integrated as we develop our courses can be difficult. However, making the effort at the front-end will provide us with a much more satisfying class at the back-end. Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross note "The quality of student learning is directly, although not exclusively, related to the quality of teaching. Therefore, one of the most promising ways to improve learning is to improve teaching." Drs. Ken Sagendorf and Steve Jones, who work in the Center for Education Excellence at the U.S. Air Force Academy, have done a terrific job with this workshop. The experience so far has allowed me to measure some of our initiatives, like the ACES Fellow program, with new eyes. My toolkit is filling up with lots of ideas that we will begin to implement during the summer months.