EASING INTO SUMMER
If you are a student or a teacher, you likely just recently started your summer vacation. Some of you just graduated and are beginning your first June as the proud owner of a high school diploma!
If you are neither a student nor a teacher and are still reporting to work daily and don't consider the summer to be any more of a vacation than the spring or autumn or winter, at the very least you cannot deny that June has begun, and with it comes summertime weather [recent dreary, overcast skies notwithstanding] and activities.
What are your special plans for the summer? What will you be doing in June, July, and/or August that you don't normally do the other months of the year? What are you looking forward to this summer? Share details about your summer vacations, summer jobs, summer hobbies, etc.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Musings at the Beginning of Summer
My last day of teaching for the school year was Thursday, June 2, and I had to report to work on Friday the 3rd for teacher workshops. I ALREADY MISS THE STUDENTS! In many ways, it will seem like a very long summer without them.
However, I've already started my summer course work at UND. I'm taking Statistics II (eeks!) for three weekends (Sunday 3:00-10:00 P.M. and Monday 8:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M., June 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20). Tonight was our first session. The instructor, Dr. Richard Landry, is a hoot and is VERY knowledgeable in his field. I took Statistics I last summer, so tonight's session meant dredging up my knowledge from that last course and putting some of it back into short-term memory. I have good group members for all the group work that we will have to do, so that should help.
Why won't it stop raining?! It doesn't feel much like summer when it's overcast and drizzly every day.
My father-in-law spent the weekend with us. It was good to see him again (we hadn't since Christmas), and the girls just LOVE seeing Grandpa.
The girls and I are in the play A Doll's House for the Nordic Initiative next week in Grand Forks, so we've had rehearsals for that the end of last week and this weekend. I'm off book now, so that's a major reduction in stress for me. Today we tried on costumes, and the girls look SO CUTE in their period costumes: dresses, furs, shawls, bonnets, boots, etc. And who looks more Nordic than they?!
I'll be spending time at the high school in June and July, putting in hours for an internship for my program at UND. Mr. Budge will be working with me on that. So it will be as though I never left the building for the summer. Sigh.
Now stop raining, weather!
However, I've already started my summer course work at UND. I'm taking Statistics II (eeks!) for three weekends (Sunday 3:00-10:00 P.M. and Monday 8:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M., June 5-6, 12-13, and 19-20). Tonight was our first session. The instructor, Dr. Richard Landry, is a hoot and is VERY knowledgeable in his field. I took Statistics I last summer, so tonight's session meant dredging up my knowledge from that last course and putting some of it back into short-term memory. I have good group members for all the group work that we will have to do, so that should help.
Why won't it stop raining?! It doesn't feel much like summer when it's overcast and drizzly every day.
My father-in-law spent the weekend with us. It was good to see him again (we hadn't since Christmas), and the girls just LOVE seeing Grandpa.
The girls and I are in the play A Doll's House for the Nordic Initiative next week in Grand Forks, so we've had rehearsals for that the end of last week and this weekend. I'm off book now, so that's a major reduction in stress for me. Today we tried on costumes, and the girls look SO CUTE in their period costumes: dresses, furs, shawls, bonnets, boots, etc. And who looks more Nordic than they?!
I'll be spending time at the high school in June and July, putting in hours for an internship for my program at UND. Mr. Budge will be working with me on that. So it will be as though I never left the building for the summer. Sigh.
Now stop raining, weather!
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Graduation
What a great and awful time of year. Last night, the seniors graduated. For at least a month, they've been preparing for this milestone both physically (cleaning out lockers, cleaning out garages to host guests) and mentally (losing concentration in classes, preparing to say their goodbyes). They took their final exams this past week, and they had their senior graudation luncheon on Friday. I was honored to be their guest speaker, and I hope I delivered a message both entertaining and meaningful to them.
I have taught many of the students in this particular class four years in a row, in English 9, and then English 10, and then English 11, and many in Drama & Theatre and/or Advanced Writing, too. They're a great collection of human beings, and because I know them so well, saying goodbye has not been easy. My family and I attended several post-graduation open houses last night, and I spent over eight hours today traveling from house to house, responding to invitations to attend celebrations for graduates. I have a couple to attend tomorrow, too.
I hope for great things for these kiddos. They don't have to go on to fame and fortune, although good for them if they do. But I wish for them happiness and fulfillment in whatever careers they choose and whatever relationships they form. And I hope they return once in a while to say hello. I saw NUMEROUS alumni at the various houses I went to today and last night, and they all spoke of the nostalgia they now feel for high school--something they were all too eager to leave at the time of their graduation! One guy said, "If only I had appreciated it then like I do now." Perhaps this year's graduates will return someday to express similar sentiments of gratitude. Until then, I wish them good fortune. I'll miss you all!!
I have taught many of the students in this particular class four years in a row, in English 9, and then English 10, and then English 11, and many in Drama & Theatre and/or Advanced Writing, too. They're a great collection of human beings, and because I know them so well, saying goodbye has not been easy. My family and I attended several post-graduation open houses last night, and I spent over eight hours today traveling from house to house, responding to invitations to attend celebrations for graduates. I have a couple to attend tomorrow, too.
I hope for great things for these kiddos. They don't have to go on to fame and fortune, although good for them if they do. But I wish for them happiness and fulfillment in whatever careers they choose and whatever relationships they form. And I hope they return once in a while to say hello. I saw NUMEROUS alumni at the various houses I went to today and last night, and they all spoke of the nostalgia they now feel for high school--something they were all too eager to leave at the time of their graduation! One guy said, "If only I had appreciated it then like I do now." Perhaps this year's graduates will return someday to express similar sentiments of gratitude. Until then, I wish them good fortune. I'll miss you all!!
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