Jack was ready for the 4th of July this year....

Summer's in full swing here - I guess typical summer weather in Boston are the 3-H's (hot, humid, & hazy).

I'm TA'ing for 2 classes this summer - both are grad classes. I go to high school during the mornings, in a town just outside Boston, to supervise the grad students completing their pre-practicum placements at the summer school there. It's a relief to be back in a high school - familiar territory. I never got used to being in an elementary school this past year - little chairs, little desks, all that art on the walls - just seemed unnatural. But a high school [exhale] the rows of lockers, the blank walls, the apathetic young adults wandering the halls....now that's the school setting I know.

It's not a bad gig. I stay out of the summer school teachers' hair - hang out in the library - grade their papers - and from time to time give them my 2-cents about teaching history or literature to 16 year-olds who don't want to be there. Oh, I lead a discussion section on Fridays (talking education theory with a bunch of grad students who don't want to be there, but that's no sweat. It's a little scary that I would have even the slightest of impact in the beginning of anyone's teaching career - don't do what I did, just do as I say...

The other class is a research class. I don't have much a role, apart from grading papers - which is fine. Actually, I'm kind of like Ed McMahon - Dr. N. (who's a really nice guy) will be lecturing, then say something like, "Ed would agree with that, right?"

"you are cor-RECT sir, yes!"