How I Spent My Summer

Traveling, reading, fishing, and teaching.

Once K-12 schools were out for summer vacation, I was off to sort student responses to the free response questions on the Advanced Placement Human Geography exam.  En route, we stopped at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill (just out side Harrodsburg, KY).  We spent two wonderful days playing tourist at the 3,000 acre, historic village.  We stayed on-site in an 1821 family dwelling complete with reproduction furnishings.

Instead of books on tape, we shared books of interest with each other as we drove, trading out reading and driving responsibilities.  The book for this leg of the journey was And One Was A Priest, the biography of the Episcopal priest at St. Peter's Church in Oxford, MS, during the early 1960s.  I have so much respect for this man and his ministry to the people of Oxford during those turbulent times.  The author did a nice job weaving Gray's homilies into the narrative and including different perspectives on the night of the riots in 1962.

Then, it was off to Cincinnati for the AP "reading."  Just over 80,000 students took the AP HG exam this year - exponential growth for a exam that is only 10 years old!  We enjoyed the nightly (free) events in Fountain Square and took a friend from Kenya to his first MLB game (Reds vs. Cubs).  We had in-field seats on the third base line.  It was wonderful!  I truly enjoyed reconnecting with some wonderful geographers and high school geography teachers.  I missed the National Underground Railroad Museum again this year, but I hope to make it next year.

Next stop - Plymouth Bluff Environmental Center, Columbus, MS.  We the People and Project Citizen held their summer professional development workshop for K-12 teachers in mid-June.  With the help of Sarah Sumners and Carol Paola,  a wonderful crew of teachers learned more about the programs sponsored by the Center for Civic Education (www.civiced.org)  The week was bittersweet since I will no longer be coordinating the We the People program (and funding was lost for the 2011-12 school year in the federal stop-gap spending bill).

We then took a short break to visit family in South Texas.  They were early in the drought at that point.   I feel for my family and friends who have been battling the heat and have had no significant rainfall in almost a year.

Summer Session II brought a return to Oxford and OleMiss.  A energetic crew of teacher candidates met all of my expectations (and then some) when we met each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in July.  The long weekends gave us all time to refresh ourselves, and we headed to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to enjoy some saltwater fishing and beach combing.

Our book for this journey was the common reading assignment for the Class of 2015 -- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  What a powerful read!  I was tempted to add it to the reading list for EDSE 447.  Instead, I will highly recommend the text.  I can't say enough about the book, and you really must read it.

We absolutely loved our stay in Bay St. Louis.  While we expected to see some re-building and recovery from 2005's Hurricane Katrina, we were not prepared for the numbers of lots left vacant because homeowners and businesses could/chose not to rebuild.  It was oddly surreal.  On a high note, we visited the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS.  And, in all, I think it's a trip we'd like to do again.

Alas, August meant at least one of us had to return to full-time work.

I purchased a copy of the acclaimed young adult literature piece, The Hunger Games in the airport en route to my next adventure.  A dear friend's seventh grade daughter recommended the series, and I started it.  I devoured it!  I passed my copy on to another friend's eighth grade daughter who was coveting the book while I read it.  (It's so cool when kids WANT to read!)

While I traveled to Portland, Oregon, for the National Conference on Geography Education's annual meeting.  While in Portland, I visited Haystack Rock and the Waterfront Park.  A highlight of the annual meeting is a community service project in the host city.  This year, we helped remove English ivy from a section of one of the largest natural city parks in the nation.  We got hot, sweaty, dirty, and had lots of fun.

On my way back to Oxford, I couldn't find the second book in The Hunger Games series, so I found a used copy of The Help.  Again, a quick read.  I knew/know the types of people in the book.  However, after reading the book, I really don't want to see the film.  I have an image in my head of the characters and their voices.  I'd like it to stay that way.

Now, the semester is off and running.  We're all looking forward to a great year and more adventures (and travels) as we go.  I've sent my youngest niece and my grandson (both starting Kindergarten this year) copies of Skippyjon Jones Class Action!, and I'm set to start The Fourth Part of the World.