Update from Daytona

Hello loyal readers/intrepid first-timers/random browsers! I just wanted to give a quick update from Daytona Beach, where (as my calendar indicates) I am grading AP English exams with 800 other high school and college instructors as we plow through a whopping 250,000+ essays. Contractual stipulations prohibit me from sharing any specifics (not that I’d blab ) but suffice it to say there has been a wide range of skill levels and successes, and that the program treats its readers well. The personal benefit—or professional, perhaps—is that I’ve been able to talk shop with a number of H.S. teachers, and gain perspective on what is being emphasized across the country—in AP classrooms at least. This is helpful, of course, since once those students finish high school, many of them end up in my classroom. I may post a more detailed entry once I’m done with the reading, but from what I can see, the youth of America are in good (if occassionally eccentric) hands.

I’ve also been enjoying this broad swath of Daytona Beach. It’s rare to be in a city so secure in its identity as Daytona, and memorabilia from the city’s gasoline alley heritage are everywhere from the historical markers detailing 1930s drag races, to the white checkered tablecloths in bars, to the framed publicity photos from the Daytona 500. This rough and tumble legacy is enhanced by the delicate beauty of the shoreline —something which I have perfect view of from my hotel room! I got to frolic in the Atlantic today, and found the ocean much more acrimonious and playful than the gulf coast beaches with which I am more familiar. I’m reasonably sure I’m working on a burn. It’s everything you look for from a week in Florida.

Posted by Alan Ackmann - Jun 14, 07:08 PM.
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