I just returned from Atlanta four days ago, a 1200 mile journey by car, and I drove back alone, although my husband accompanied me down there five days after school got out in June. The roads are good Interstates 84 to 81 to 77 to 85 outside after we left New England, and I love driving through the Appalachian valleys, including the Roanoke and Shenandoah valleys. There are so many historic and natural wonder sites that I anticipate a slower trip with many stops along the way soon. I spent my time in Georgia helping care for my year-old twin grandsons and learned much from my time with them. Not least is that I have more patience and intuition and experience to guide my work with young babies as a grammy that I had with their daddy and his sister, my own babies. I loved watching the amazing progress they make each day as they discover how their arms, legs, mouths--all their physical being--work. Every waking minute is one of playful discovery and formation of their individual personalities. It was hard to leave them, realizing as I do that I won't see them again for several months and they will change into other little beings by then. I can't help believing this special summer will affect and inform for the good my work as a teacher in the coming year. I already think of many of my students from the past year in light of my observations of my baby grandsons, that is, as people on a learning continuum with such wondrous possibilities.
Students returned to classes on August 13 in the Atlanta area, and our students will come back the day after Labor Day; I like our schedule much better, even though the number of days in class are presumably the same and we therefore stay in school 'til mid-June while more southerly schools end in May.
