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so the summer begins.
The ATDP Secondary Division orientation took place this morning, followed by mty TA meeting this afternoon. From Maris Jones' talk at the Orientation:
"This is the essence of the ATDP experience for me--the testing out of new ideas and the exploration of new ways of thinking that would be impossible to attain in a class full of semi-interested students." (read the full transcript here.)
Maris is a former (1999) Internet Classroom student. One of the other student speakers at the Orientation was Tom Fletcher, a member of the pioneering Internet Classroom of 1996. (Hey Tom, did you write out your speech at all? If so, can I post it here as well?) Maris's excellent website on SAT preparation can be found here.
David Hunter also wrote me this poignant (if a bit florid) e-mail after he returned home from the TA meeting:
 On the way home from the T.A. meeting, I was riding along in the passenger seat with the window all the way down. As we were cruising along, I took in a deep breath and marveled at how it smelt.
Completely different from anything we have over here
in Live-no-more, this breeze had the sweet scent of
the sea with it. It was sweet as if it came from the
kisses of the mermaids themselves, borne inland on the wings of beautiful little fairies. It made me feel
calm and at peace, enveloping my mind in a blanket of
sweet serenity.
The winds are very, very different in the Tri-Valley.
The fairies and their breeze will not cross the hills
of the Golden Dragon. The wind in the valley is not
that of the sweet and caring fairies, but the evil
fire bearing demons. The Golden Dragon's golden hills
are filled with evil, poisonous rattlesnakes, poison
oak, and deadly predators. Then there are his demons on the valley floor who breath the heat into the air
so that it is now a hot, gusting, deadly WIND!
Oh how these six sweet summer weeks in Berkeley will be a welcome period.
(this e-mail reprised in the locus/freerad quote archive, June 3rd).
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