It's finally over. All the children who attend my school are now whooping it up in summer camps, European vacations and on couches with thumbs firmly attached to game console controllers. I changed the BIOS settings on all of the computers in my classroom so that they do not automatically come on every weekday morning at 7:45. I put all the CDROMs back in their cases and sent out emails to several teachers at my school asking them to arrange a time to meet with me to discuss curriculum over the summer. My strategy for solving the integration issue has shifted to a purely project-based approach and that's tough to hammer out in a 10 minute hallway meeting. Thankfully most of the teachers have acquiesced to meeting me this summer so that we might be able to lay the groundwork for those projects this summer. When September rolls around, we'll have only smiles to exchange.
In the meantime, I'm off to Boston tomorrow for a roadtrip with my cousin. She and I have taken three roadtrips in four years, once a summer. This year, it's Boston, Salem Massachusetts and Portland Maine--all in six days. Yes, we're ambitious. I'll be taking along my digital voice recorder so that the children in 5th grade who read "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" can hear the Salem tour guide's witticisms and insight. I'll also be taping a discussion about Episcopal School identity with the former Reverend of our school to bring back to the current administrative team. As we grapple with what an Episcopal School identity might be composed of, his words will certainly provide valuable input. So, I'm not leaving it all behind, but it's also not the driving force of our trip. I guess we all take who we are with us, as integrated individuals. Isn't that the whole idea of what we're all doing here anyway?
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