Something....done.

The last day of school for the seniors is one of my favorite days. There is an electric current of excitement that seems to run through everything, and as long as no one has any grand ambitions of getting shit done, it is a lovely day.

The last four days of school (for the seniors, I still have five days) our classes presented their "Do Something" projects. SO MUCH FUN! Really this project turned out better than I could have hoped. The projects were funny and empowering and exciting and such a positive way for the the year to end. What I didn't anticipate was how much each of the students' personalities would come through in their project choice and their presentation. Here were some of my favorites:

1. A visit to Ft. Vancouver on Memorial Day. There were volunteers in period costumes and exhibits. But, as my student commented, "We were the only Mexicans there."

2. One of my students went to a concert--something she does a lot-- but went with an eye towards being a journalist. She came back with some amazing photographs and found "as a journalist, I realized I was much more observant than if I had just gone to see the show. Neither role was better than the other, but it was surprising how different they were."

3. "I took my car to get my oil changed. All by myself. I mean it was very hard for me...they as me all those questions and I had to just say, "No, no, no!" It was a lot of pressure."

4. A mostly ordinary trip to Long Beach set to epic music, this presentation included captions such as "Trees!" and "Look, more trees!" and "My feet on rubbish."

5. A road trip, rather spur of the moment to California to fulfill one student's father's wish to see the solar eclipse. They just got in the car and drove. No telescope, no plan, just a map and some snacks. The pictures from this one were great. They found a group of like-minded people, gathered at some community college near the California border, she couldn't remember where but this star party shared their equipment and there is a great picture of them, father and daughter in matching goggles staring up at the sky.

6. There was a really bad karoke video and a failed attempt to be a vegetarian. A painfully shy kid joined anime club AND presented in front of the class.

Nate took his kindergarden daughter and 5 other elementry school students to the zoo for a day. I did two things visited the planetarium and went to see The Wall.

The planetarium was okay.
I was warm and sleepy from drinking too much wine at dinner. I was also underwhelmed by the planetarium director at Mt. Hood Community College. He looked the part of a crazy scientist including bushy moustache and nearly bald hair that he kept combing over the top of his shiny head. He wasn't an overly speaker. The audience was at least 30% kids and he skipped over simple things like defining the terms he was using over and over. But, I did learn about the transit of venus, which took place June 5th, the following day, which I even remembered and looked tried to spot. It was bright and clear (weird!) but, using two pair of sun glasses together I was able to see the tiny speck --a whole planet--in front of the sun.

The Wall however was amazing. And the subject of it's own post. Just not today.