November

A large portion of our class went on a camping trip to the Fontainebleau State Park, and were treated to a variety of regional foods collected by [Nick Hahn’s friends] Clayton and prepared by Paul.  It was interesting to see the varied reactions in response to some cooler weather from some of the locals/Californians versus those of us from the northern states when we went camping (somebody brought a generator with heating blankets).   Nick and Chad C. also invited the “out of towners” to their respective family thanksgivings so that was very nice of them.  Several of us have been working on “leveling” donated books at a KIPP school, so that the students can select books of appropriate difficulties in order to further their literacy.  While I completely understand the progression-oriented reading programs, it is occasionally unfortunate when an otherwise interesting book might fall by the wayside for one that has been officially “classified.”  One of my neighbors works as a librarian for a different charter school group and it was interesting to get a “boots on the ground” assessment of how different libraries are utilized in different schools both within a charter group and relative to each other.  There was also a book fair going on one of the days that we were working in the library, and it was nice to see that today’s kids still get excited over books.

CS: 18.5