Summer Images

It's the winding down weekend of summer. It seems odd in the first week of August, but school starts one week from Monday and that begins fall in my mind.
It won't feel like it I'm sure.  After a beautifully cool last week of July, it's likely that the first couple of weeks of school will be the hottest of the year.  We'll be standing out on the bus loop every afternoon, handing out bottles of water to carry the kids through their steamy trip home, and wondering why they're not in a pool somewhere.

But it's over all the same.  The weeks have dwindle to memories;  images trapped in a digital cloud, and the crisscross stripes on my sandaled feet.  On a final fling of summer trip, I decided on a way to extend it.

I had already started making a picture slide to help introduce myself to my new class.  It was mostly just to remind myself what to say.  Those first days are always so awkward.  It doesn't feel right to just jump into lessons as if we all know each other, but do they really want my litany of who I am and how long I've taught and what my kids are doing?  They're twelve.  They're terrified of life in their own skin and what's going to happen in the hall when the bell rings.

So I made my slide to make it focused and quick and hopefully slightly interesting.  I used pictures of places we've lived while traveling with the Air Force, places I knew many of them had never visited.  It usually generates some interest, particularly when I tell them about Alaska, but I began to realize just how long ago that's all been now.  Alan left the military over thirteen years ago now.  That's longer than most of them have been alive and so, completely irrelevant to them.

So I'm creating a new slide, a summer life slide, of  my bike trip, the botanical gardens, floating the river and climbing rocks.  Between the pictures are numbers significant to me, with clues in the pictures as to what that significance might be.  Their assignment will be to make use of the scientific skills of observation and critical thinking to make predictions about who I am and what I do.

Well it sounds good doesn't it?  I think it will be more fun than a boring monologue and generate some interesting conversation.  So, the only question is, am I developing new and exciting ways to engage my students, or blatantly taking advantage of a captive audience to show off my vacation photos?