Prep Time

Finally, school is out! I can begin my travel prep at full-tilt now! I'm looking at changing my schedule just a bit for some personal concerns, but not by much---just moving everything back to starting right after the July4 holiday.

In the meantime, I've been reading and researching any and all possible places I can fit into the visit that will help develop a new program of American literature next year. One neat place I've found and plan to investigate is a place called America's Stonehenge, in southeastern New Hampshire. It's dated to pre-Columbian times and, though it isn't fashioned the same as the original Stonehenge, it can also be used to follow and interpret celestial events. I think this will tie in great with my Native American Mythology unit, which is the starting point for American literature. I'm especially looking forward to doing a lot of video to bring new and unusual things like this back to my students.

There is also a village in western Massachusetts that demonstrates early colonial lifestyles that could be interesting. It's hard for us to imagine a time when the simplest thing---having bread for meals or thread for sewing---was such a labor-intensive, time-consuming process. I might fit that in if I can work the timing right.

There's so much to be done: so much planning and so much studying! I'm sure the next six weeks will be gone too quickly. But I'm anxious to get things rolling---I already even dreamed about missing my flight last night! No chance of that happening; I'm too excited for this long-awaited dream!

I'll check in again a couple of times before hitting the road.