Five weeks late, but with two days off last week, one this week, one next… I am finally catching my breath, deep breath, and reflecting.

Summer vacation is important. I didn’t take one. And I am suffering.

I am no longer 20. I am no longer 25…

It is possible to reach new teachers - but it takes an organizer’s mindset and an organizer’s tactics. Over 100 this summer, with a little help, it could be ten times that next summer. And I already have been approached by 5 people (non-partisan) who would like to help.

New teachers, at least Fellows, can be opened to a pro-union message. I don’t know how true this is for TFA. And I don’t think the message carried in the NY Teacher is effective.

I am no longer 20. When I speak to 20 and 25 year olds, it’s not the same as when I was 20. And not the same as speaking with people older than me. I can lecture. Which means, I need to be careful. IRL I am a rabble-rouser, a crank, a careful (and rather annoying) critic. But a 20 year old sees an older guy speaking with authority. It sounds different. Careful, careful.

I also learned that I REALLY like going far away once or twice a year, and New Orleans and Edinburgh (April) didn’t come close t making up for missing Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Germany, or wherever my strange summer plans to foreign lands should have taken me.

Summer is for reading. Not enough reading = a gap in summer.

I’ll try to make some of this up through this year, taking it a little easy here and there, maybe a real trip (or two) and some serious planning so I can get both volunteer work and vacation in next summer, both well-organized, both in serious quantities.

I didn’t know what to do this summer.

I got caught doing lots of work for my school. So I thought about applying to the AFT’s Union Summer program. I figured that I wouldn’t have to plan anything, the work is work I wanted to do, and wherever I was, there would be some relaxing time as well. The other options involved more planning… so I applied. And was accepted. My surprise was ending up in New Orleans, but that was a good surprise.

While there the ten of us (from NY, PA, IL, and CA) did three kinds of work.

• We went door to door with United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) organizers, talking to (and in some cases signing up) charter school teachers.
• We helped publicize, prepare for, set up, work at, and clean up a big back to school fair (there was food, entertainment, immunizations, an insectarium, school supplies including book bags, and books, all free).
• And we helped clean up, paint, and set up rooms in several New Orleans schools.

We also tooled around New Orleans, taking in some sights, visiting the 9th ward, enjoying good food and entertainment.

Photos below the fold —>

A classroom we helped clean and were helping set up (left), and Larry Carter, UTNO president, at the balloon table at UTNO’s back to school event, August 9.

Lower 9th Ward.

L: A city block, overgrown. R: House, unoccupied, but owner intends to return. The white X, eery, was marked immediately post-Storm as National Guard surveyed for dead people and animals.

L. flood-damaged house, yet to be demolished. R. New house, built higher. (Is the old house part of the foundation?)

Live Oaks Plantation.

As a teacher I am used to going on field trips to museums and sites that have professional staff, National Parks guides, high quality docents, trained interpreters. This plantation had none of that, which was a major disappointment. From a property map on the wall we learned that the plantations were narrow rectangles, with a small amount of Mississippi River frontage each. For shipping, I’d guess.

Grand Isle.

The Last day we ventured down Bayou Lafourche to Grand Isle. On the island, almost everything was built on one story or story-and-a-half stilts. The crab on the beach was dead. And the beach stank, and was thick with aggressive mosquitoes. At sunset there was a weird mix of lights from boats and oil platforms.

Onward to New Orleans. Blogging may wait for my return? Who knows? But I would like to know what I will be doing. And when I find out, I’ll be sure to write some of it down.

Before I go, tomorrow morning, I have good news for NY teachers and future teachers (just a bit). I’ll publish on the way out the door.

I’ll be back for the second half of August…

In Massachusetts, north of Boston, on Cape Ann, near Manchester by the Sea (used to be plain Manchester, but they fancified themselves), there’s a little parcel of land: woods, cuts through a little pond/marsh, opens onto a magnificent lawn looking over a small island and the Atlantic. It was a nice visit.

I played with the camera, with mixed results. You can see for yourself, and if you are curious, you can click and see the rest. (more pix below the fold — > )

At the time (mid 17th century) Saugus was the largest industrial complex in North America, processing ore and turning the wrought iron into thin bars (looked like a square cross section of about a half inch) for sale for making nails and other thin objects.

Even though it shut after just 20 years, the slag heap guaranteed it would not be lost. Local buffs got it restored in the 40s and 50s, then designated a National Park in the 70s. The restoration is beautiful, but needs constant upkeep since they redid it 1650s style - not with modern technology.

Here’s one of the mills, the place where iron left the blast furnace, and a massive drive shaft:

Click any image for more photos of Saugus. I didn’t take enough to follow the iron from bog to rods, but there are enough to get a bit of a feel for the place. The scale is large, but small enough so you can follow the processes. Well worth a visit.

So Andrée at Meeyauw shares wonderful nature and Vermont town photos, and Julie at Mildly Melancholy shares wonderful bits of New York and interesting angles and travel photos.

So why not me? Because I’m a lousy photographer. All the same, I took 50 - 100 last weekend at several locations in northeast Massachusetts. Here are some from Breakheart Reservation in Saugus. Click, and they’ll lead you to more.

more below the fold — >

Here’s what I will be doing in New Orleans:

You will be joined by AFT staff as well as Affiliate staff [I think that means the union in New Orleans - jd] and other volunteers. A training session is scheduled.

Volunteer duties will vary but may include manning literature tables and engaging in conversation at new teacher orientations, home visits of membership prospects, phone banking, school visitations for meetings, sitting in teacher lounges and introducing yourself as representing the union, and working with building stewards.

It doesn’t count as a real vacation, but I’ve spent the last few days outside Boston. Brief descriptions today, pictures to follow (when I force myself?)

Coolidge Reservation on Cape Ann north of Boston has a magnificent lawn over the ocean. It was about 10 minutes walk through thin woods and marsh, and then it just opened up. Worth a separate trip? No. But if you are anywhere nearby…

The Saugus Iron Works were briefly the largest industrial establishment in North America. Water wheels, dams, tree trunks for drive shafts. Chunks of iron for pegs for pumping bellows… This is iron production at a scale that both counts as industrial, but also small enough to get a feel for what actually happened (”the wheels turn in the same direction, but this cog reverses…”) It’s a national park now. Should not have waited so long to visit.

The Peabody-Essex Museum… hmm… I didn’t quite get a handle on this. It’s in Salem. It displays goods associated with sea trade, including artifacts from India, East Asia, Oceania… There’s American crafts. There’s a merchant’s house from south China, taken apart, shipped, reassembled in Salem… I think there was a sea captains’ association that worked like a country club, and that they started storing some of their acquired oddities, antiquities, and curiosities. But I still can’t figure how it became a museum. Anyhow, they did major expansions in the last ten years, much associated with the acquisition of the Chinese house (in use, in China, until the 1990’s). Good signage, books for picking up and looking through, comfortable seating areas in each room, lots of special exhibits, good stuff for kids. I would go back.

Breakheart Reservation. Reminded me of Rockefeller Park. Nice smooth road for walking, buried in woods, little lake for swimming, I don’t know how easy the side trails are, but I would guess in the same nature walk territory. Entirely easy, entirely peaceful, entirely pleasant.

Almost 20 games of scrabble. Way too much, but, what can I do? It’s social. Tried to open a bicycle lock (4 number combination) - ran through all 10,000 settings, and either I went too fast, or the lock is damaged (looked possible). Meeting a former student in a little bit in Harvard Square, and then back home…

I almost waited too long to make summer plans. Had to schedule my school, and planned on working with new teachers, brief family visits, but anything else?

There were only a very few real options: Alaska, teacher-union organizing, Math teacher conference outside Syracuse, Atlantic Canada, earning a few credits here in NY, doing a bit more in southern New England.

I thought more about the AFT’s summer organizing. And I applied.

And today, I was selected. Two weeks organizing teachers in New Orleans. Damn, I’m excited!

And the rest? Alaska will still be there, and my ex-colleague will still be there (for a while, at least), and I will visit, one day. Atlantic Canada I will get to sooner. Looking at those photos, reading the descriptions, plus Sarai gave me some extra encouragement - I will go next time I have a 5 - 10 day window - likely next summer, but could crop up sooner. Courses? Yeah, I have to take them. Eventually. Southern New England? Please. That was desperation. Lovely places, I’m sure, but not my vacation spots. And I’ll speak at the next big NYS math conference (old-fashioned constructions) and I’m invited to speak at the biggest regional one next spring.

But next month is NOLA and organizing, and I’m excited.

So it’s really not too late to make summer plans, but summer has started and there’s only seven weeks left, so planning time is overdue.

There are already obligations. I must schedule my school. I started, but there’s a lot left. At least three 3-day weeks, maybe more (I handle the ‘more’ by extending the length of the weeks… I would try not to extend the number of weeks). Visiting family (a few days here and there. “Here” is a southern New England beach town with wild parrots. “There” is a small inland southern New England town with nice hills for walking). Reaching Fellows (if you read this blog, you probably already knew I was doing this).

What else? There are options.

1. Alaska. A former colleague moved there. Says I can come visit, hike, fish. But it’s a long flight and this may be a tough summer for company (as there’s other company on the way…) And the flight cost is high (but that’s true everywhere.)
2. Union Summer. The American Federation of Teachers is organizing a “union summer” where members go south and help organize. Sites are in Houoston, south Texas, Albuquerque, New Orleans, St. Louis, but you don’t choose. You just sign up for dates. Looks like 11 or 12 days (Aug 3 - 15 or 11 - 22). if I did it, might be conflicting with AMTNYS. Not really a vacation, but going away, and doing good. The weather, though. And I am already doing good Fellows stuff here. Why do more? Plus, I don’t know if they would take me at this late date. But I tried last year, and couldn’t. Maybe this is my chance?
3. AMTNYS. The Association of Mathematics Teachers of NY State has a one week summer thing outside of Syracuse (Onondaga CC, Aug 3 - 7). Tempting. Not too pricey. Vacation? Hmm. Not really. But it would get me back on the math horse (which I fell off of a while back).
4. Atlantic Canada. Commenter Sarai suggested visiting Atlantic Canada (she’s a math grad student who lives very very calmly in Nova Scotia). I looked at photos - gorgeous. There are some cool eco-hiking-very comfortable tours… but pricy! And I would need to plan more to do it on my own. Still tempting, for a bit a less than a week… But the money. Don’t know. Could try to figure out how to do it on my own, but I think that might be tricky on short notice.
5. Course here. I still need to earn some post-Masters credits to qualify for the last differential. If I’m stuck in the city, why not get 3 or 6 credits in. Good thing, right? More money later. But going this route feels like admitting defeat, quitting on the idea of vacation.
6. Extend southern New England. Can spend longer visiting family. Wander off to parts of southern New England I haven’t spent as much time in. Even up to Vermont. Easy. But feels like bailing on real vacation. Could extend the beach and hills?

So, I really should decide in the next few days. No decision means 5 and 6 just creep up on me with maybe 3 thrown in.