Where Did the Summer Go?

I feel like I’m in one of those sports-car ads: Goes 0 to 60 in blah blah seconds.

I did not teach this summer. For the past three years our district in San Diego has not offered summer science classes due to budget cuts. In the past, I didn’t mind not working over the summer as my daughter was young and it made it easier with her being off from school. But this summer, now with a teenage daughter who has chosen to sleep her summer away, it would have been nice to keep my brain a little more active, as I feel that I am either in the beginning stages of early AD (just kidding, my sense of smell is just fine), or have this un-located lesion between my brain and my mouth (also probably not true, but if it were, I trust that my fellow HAPsters would direct me as to the most likely anatomical/physiological place to locate it), as I try and construct meaningful sentences and feel like, after being home “relaxing” for so long, I sound like those guys from the Jersey Shore. (No offense to my friends from NJ).

I did not do much traveling this summer. Well, I did go to the HAPS annual conference in Las Vegas, and as usual, had a great time with my fellow HAPSters. I learned some  new things from the update speakers, and really learned some great things from the workshops. Came back totally motivated to try some new activities in my classes and incorporate some new information, but then… summer set in. Sometimes I wish the annual conferences were at the end of summer, so I can get motivated and then dive right in to a new semester of teaching and immediately implement all of the great things I learned. Right now, I’m honestly struggling to remember what I was so excited about. Time to break out those notes I took.

Yes, I did get a chance to cross off some little projects on my to-do list, modifying some lab activities, updating some lectures, but not as much as one would think with so much time on my hands.

So, after not teaching this summer and spending a rather quiet and low key two months at home, I find myself now at the precipice of a new fall semester. Three full days of meetings, emailing new students, updating my website, a HAPS Board of Director’s conference call using new video conferencing (thank goodness for teenage daughters), oh, and I have to write a blog as the Western Regional Director…

And we’re off!

I both love and dread the first week of classes. And hopefully that disconnect between my brain and my mouth heals itself… umm… quickly, yeah, that’s the word.