Well the last grades are in and summer is upon me. What to do? Well, as usual, I have my always failing plans to study up on language. I feel pretty inadequate in my abilities (or lack thereof) in foreign language, so I try to spend a few hours each day practicing something. I think I am in desperate need of a German refresher, and Japanese marches slowly forward.

Aside from that I have three essays to work on. One is nearly ready to go out for review. The other two are in rough stages of just starting. Some more research is needed, and a few hours grinding out text in front of the keyboard wouldn’t hurt.

Now for the great debate activities the summer brings.

First there are two amazing community outreach opportunities that I am working on. I expect to post something here in a few days announcing one of them, and the other is just in the early stages of exploration. Both represent fantastic service-learning opportunities for debate students as well as personal teaching challenges for me.

Secondly, I have invested some grant money in an amazing web conferencing program called Adobe Connect, and hope to use that for summer practice and meetings. The idea of working on debate competition practice without leaving my apartment, or arriving at my apartment super late is definitely attractive.

Finally, I have signed up for most every electronic/teaching workshop I could find on campus and I hope they can teach me something. I hope to integrate more technology into my debate teaching in the fall.

That’s where I am this morning as we prepare to launch the summer. The official launch date, as I see it, will be Monday, when my office will be closed off from me for the whole summer, graduation will be over, and I’ll have few responsibilities on campus. Until then I think it’s time for some relaxation!