Not a lot of writing going on these days, the waning weeks of Summer Vacation claiming much of our attention. I certainly haven’t been writing much of consequence, especially as I’ve been busy with school districts, who are kicking things into action early with staff development institutes. Yesterday had me opening things up for Currituck County Schools, in the far northeast corner of North Carolina.
That day went well with an address to the full faculty and staff of the district in the morning, and then the afternoon with the high school teachers. Those of you who do what I do know what a tough gig the first day of the new school year can be. Teachers are seeing each other for the first time in weeks, and they have so much to do to be ready for their students — and now they have to listen to this guy from Raleigh with credentials that “don’t really have anything to do with my biology curriculum at all.”
It was a tough afternoon, but I think that the high school teachers who came up to the district’s new tech facilitator and their director of technology, wanting to know how they can set up a blog, wiki, or RSS aggregator were a testament to what I think is an approaching tipping point for a new age of educational innovation. One teacher came up to me after the workshop to tell me about the several other teachers in her proximity who typically resisted technology, but were taking copious notes during the presentation. Of course, they could just as easily been writing lesson plans.
Anyway, what I wanted to write about, really for my own reasons, was Thursday. I spoke to the ed tech facilitators in Winston-Salem and then drove by Raleigh, picking up Brenda, so that she could drive me the rest of the way to Elizabeth City. After settling into our room, we drove on down to the town, situated on the Pasquotank River, and nicknamed “The Harbor of Hospitality.”
After walking around a bit, we had dinner out on the patio of Groupers, a locally favored seafood restaurant and lounge. I suspect that the fact that the temperature was in the mid-seventies (24c) with a lovely breeze blowing off the river is the main reason for the blog post. I typically will not eat outside between April and November. But aside from some flies, most of which I trapped under the butter bowl (talk about some pissed-off flies), it was a wonderful time.
After supper, we walked around the town some more, and then over a bridge and down one of the tributaries, where we watched locals crabbing — quite successfully. I assume that they were blue crabs, but I could be wrong.
So, again, this post is mostly for my future enjoyment.