What is May Session?

I was off today, so I took most of the day as my own lazy day, similar to the students this past weekend. I mentioned a couple of days ago that I have been watching a YouTube series that is a modern adaptation to Pride and Prejudice, which is called "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries". I ended up finishing the series today and I must say that it was incredible. As I said before, I haven't read P&P, so I couldn't tell you how the series divulged from the book. What I can tell you is that it didn't seem like actors in front of a camera. Okay, the premise is presented through vlogs, so the camera part is true, but it felt like every character was a real-life person with personalities and flaws. The major story point about 2/3rds through the series really made me feel for one of the supporting characters, partly because it is a real-life problem people go through, and partly just because I got to see this character live her life and have her youthful spirit closely be collapsed on itself.

In case you're interested, here is the first video:

If this intrigued you, here's the link to the main YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/LizzieBennet?feature=watch. In addition to "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries", there are three other YouTube channels that follow secondary characters and give you insight into characters that aren't in the same physical location as Lizzie, the main character. Don't despair, I was only bouncing between the main channel and one secondary channel at max and they definitely provide much-needed information - don't skip over them.

TC

To be honest, I didn't do anything that felt that momentous today. I had a nice phone conversation with my mom this evening where I caught up on her life and she caught up on the things that I don't blog about (yes, those topics do exist :-P). My dad is still going through with his plan to take his vacation time and then retire in early August. It's kind of weird to think about. Of course, he has already thought about picking up a part-time job for some non-pension income, but Mom and I both agree that his time could easily be put to use on the numerous projects around the house.

My cousin got married this Saturday. I do wish them the best and it is unfortunate that I was working that day, especially since the wedding was in Ames. It sounds like my sister was one of the few *insert family name*'s that were in attendance.

TC

Today was another holiday where I celebrated without deliberately celebrating. May is Family Wellness Month and I certainly feel like the aforementioned phone chat this evening was good for my own family wellness. It's also No Diet Day, so I won't say that I gorged, but I fulfilled the namesake of not sticking to a diet.

*shrug* As I've previously said, I just need to energize myself when it comes to the holidays again.

TC

After the chat with my mom, I did also think about a creative outlet that I've been neglecting. About two years ago, I had the New Year's Resolution to learn to cook and subsequently started a video game-themed cooking blog to celebrate my exploits. Basically, think Pokemon but with recipes. I didn't get very far, in fact I didn't write up a single recipe. However, I feel like this could be a good project to have weekly updates on. The idea alone just seems silly enough to get people interested and I got positive feedback from my first three entries.

Having this blog on a weekly basis could be good, since I'm guaranteed days off to do some cooking, but with it being May Session, I don't want to over exert myself in order to get this blog off the ground.

TC

I feel like this is a good opportunity to explain what "May Session" is. The students I work with are 15-18 years old, but they are fully enrolled at the university here. The Academy is, in fact, a department within the university so everything we do is from the perspective of a university. During the fall and spring semesters, the students have a full-time academic load, taking the same courses as all of the traditional students. However, there aren't enough school days in the fall and spring semesters for it to count as a full academic year. So, in order to still bestow high school diplomas (in addition to Associate of Science degrees), we have May Session, which is a four-week period starting right after spring semester finals week and concluding with commencement.


During May Session, students only take one course. There is some variety in the class selection from year to year, but the common choices include Calculus 2, Microbiology, Computer Programming, American Historical Survey, and some type of Literature course. If a student is taking Calculus 2 or Microbiology (or Multivariate Calculus, which was added on this year by a student petition), then they have class Monday-Friday and they can simply focus on that class. If a student is taking some other class, then they are required to be in what we call an ELMS project. ELMS stands for "Experiential Learning in May Session" and basically means that a group of students will learn about an educational topic or perform community service.

It's kind of difficult to explain from afar, but some examples of ELMS projects include the following:

- Learning to Play Guitar
- Foreign Film Appreciation
- Swing Dancing
- Student Government Association planning for next year (also for Science Olympiad, Robotics, etc.)
- Horseback Riding
- Humane Society Fundraising and Visiting

The students themselves pick the topics and one student will teach the topic rather than have the instruction come from the staff. (There are some deviations from that path, like when I taught Swing Dancing two years ago, though.) So, the students who aren't in Micro/Calc 2/Multi have class Monday-Thursday morning and then have the ELMS projects in the afternoon Monday-Thursday. This does mean that if you aren't taking the intensive courses, you have three day weekends for a month. The ELMS that I am overseeing this year are for the Robotics team and RoboCode, which is a computer program that simulates tank-like robots (it's a hands-on application of computer programming). We almost had one about unsolved math mysteries, but since both leaders got into multivariate calculus, we didn't want them to over-extend themselves.

I feel like I've said this before, but I think May Session is a blast. With the exception of Microbiology lab, every student is around in the afternoons and having fun with the ELMS projects. The evenings also open up for fun activities. May is of course quite busy, but those activities are still fun in their own right: prom, orientation for next year's new students, "Math Team Nationals", and of course everything to do with graduation.

Yes, this is definitely the time when students realize how few days they have before graduation. As to be expected, some students are overjoyed and some are kind of sad. Oh, I forgot to mention another distinction of May Session - we take over the campus! Since the traditional students finished up with the spring semester, the only people on campus are summer school students, the occasional camp/sports team, and us. Our meals also become camp-style and everyone eats together. Since the Union is starting a major remodeling, we are not quite in the food court, but it's still nice and cozy.

Hopefully, this will help provide some context to my blog over the next month. I don't plan to blog about ELMS or graduation every day, but I know it will come up at least a few times. Of course, send me any questions you may have.

Have a great Tuesday and DFTBA.