Beginning of the End of Summer

Hey everyone. In a weird way, today marked the beginning of the end of summer. A big group of ESL students are moving out this weekend, so we had a little ice cream send-off tonight for them in the lounge. It seemed a little slow going at first, but in the end, the ice cream, popsicles, and cupcakes were enjoyed by many.

Most of these students have been around since mid-June at the latest, so it will certainly be different when they are gone. I was looking over my floor plans and the building will really empty out in the next couple of weeks and hit a particular low occupancy before we really ramp into early arrivals, football camp, and the like. Of course, it doesn't help that a 10-day weather forecast now includes August. I'm sure you all know this already, but August is just bonkers for people working in higher ed, so I'll apologize in advance for the (continued) short blogs. I still plan to put something out everyday since I have this habit going and I do want to see if I can make it an entire year.

Going back to the ESL students, I've found myself drawing parallels between this group of students and the international students I would work with at the Missouri Academy with their Cultural Transition Program. The students are taking a class or two but otherwise learning what it means to be a US college student, although many students (both now and with CTP) have had some experience going to American high schools. There's also the parallel of getting the students to use English to improve their proficiency. This was definitely a point of heavy discussion over the years at the Missouri Academy and the main takeaway I have is that it's not a black-and-white topic.

I don't think I'm ready for August yet. I was talking with some colleagues at lunch and we agreed that we would want to jump from July into mid-September. Some of the other Hall Directors are definitely looking forward to having more college students back on campus, but we all recognize that August and early September is a time filled with transition. There's a lot going on, including teaching the new students about our policies and starting the year on the right foot with things like quiet hours. By mid-September, everyone seems to hit a groove for a while, which is usually until the first wave of midterms.

With all of that rambling said and done, I should get some sleep. My sense of the days this week is still a little wonky, but I think having a weekend here will help reset that. In the meantime, tomorrow will be National Drive-Thru Day (now I miss Sonic's...) and Tell an Old Joke Day.

DFTBA