"I Think It Was The Fourth of July"

Happy Independence Day, folks. We here at Casa de Branco-Cottrell spent it grilling burgers and watching Moonstruck and Seinfeld. Good times, good times.

Summer school's started up, and the students are not particularly happy about it. I can't say that I blame them: summer school isn't the most fun possible for a bunch of kids who really just want to relax and forget everything they've spent the previous 9 1/2 months learning. There's also the stigma that's always been attached to attending summer school; i.e., that you are dumb or stupid if you have to go to summer school and you must've flunked a bunch of stuff during the regular school year.

That's not really the reality for summer school at Accotink. We call it ESY--Extended School Year--and the idea isn't so much remedial "damn you're stupid kids" as it is "these children would benefit from extra educational services during the summer so they maintain and further develop necessary academic skills and don't forget everything over the course of two and a half months away from books, blackboards, and teachers." A lot of people might say I'm splitting hairs there, but there's a very different tone and approach between the two.

I rather like teaching summer school. The atmosphere is much more laid back and relaxed, I can wear jeans or shorts to work (I always wear sandals during the summer; once the school year ends, the shoes get put away and I'm barefoot as often as possible. This is what comes of being raised in Oklahoma, I think), and we take the students on field trips each day. Some of the field trips are pretty cool--we go see movies, play laser tag, visit nifty museums--and I think the teachers have at least as much fun (probably more, in some cases) as the students. I also get to tackle a different subject--writing--that offers a unique set of challenges I don't encounter in history. In terms of writing ability, our students really run the gamut, so you have to be able to ratchet your thinking up and down in terms of expectations of ability and such. But it's pretty groovy overall.

I bought Michelle's birthday presents tonight. Well, ordered it, anyway. Should arrive by the end of next week, I think, and then it's just a matter of keeping the presents hidden until her birthday actually rolls around on the 25th. I think she'll dig what I found for her.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Decemberists, "Yankee Bayonet"