First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Nashville public schools. I think it is strange to have the first day of school, a half-day to boot, on a Friday. Nashville can't decide when to start school. In our nine years in the school district I think Tuesday is the only day we haven't had a first day. LOL

Kyle attends a great high school called Nashville Big Picture High School, which is in its third year in Nashville. The idea behind Big Picture is "learning through internship," a smaller community and the classwork is project driven instead of traditional classroom settings. At the end of the quarter the students give a presentation that summarized the work they did that term. Kyle did four 30-minute presentations during his freshman year. This year the sophomores have to do 45-minute presentations, plus they have something called a Gateway, where they defend the work they have done in their freshman and sophomore year to justify advancing to upperclassman status. So it will be another interesting year!

Kyle's school moved to a new building this year. They had been in a very old run-down school building last year. It was so bad that the cafeteria kitchen could not be used because things fell from the ceiling into the food. Eeww! The building they moved to was built 5 or 6 years ago and is very nice.

I am very proud of Kyle's progress over the summer. He had several assignments to complete and turn in on the first day, which included reading five books. Before he returned from California, he had completed reading all five books, had his father sign his reading logs, and finished writing the two IBPs (independent book projects, or book reports for us old timers). This week when we returned from Florida, Kyle wrote his three essays and had me proof them so he could turn everything in as soon as he walked into the classroom. Way to go, Kyle!!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N