A Very Nice Treat...

A very rare occurrence happened yesterday evening. We got to be social butterflies. My students got together and invited DW and I out to a local restaurant for dinner yesterday evening as a thank you to us for the extra time that I offer them and the tolerance of DW who lets me do it. It was a thoughtful and greatly appreciated gesture. It was nice to be able to go out and interact with my students and their spouses when we're not thinking about boats.

I have to say that the program I teach would be nothing without the dedication and patience of the students in my class. This class and a few others at the school where I teach are very consistently attended. In addition, my students also help out with the annual exhibition (Pictures to be posted later...) where all the students at the school show the various projects that they've been working on all year. For most of the classes, this means bringing your project to the school and picking it up after exhibition. For us, it is a labor of love. For both days of the exhibition, we arrive early and leave late because we need to haul the boats and all the assorted stands and display materials from the barn and to the tent in front of the school and back. During exhibition, my students very patiently field questions from visitors and explain the work that they've been doing. The reward is the "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd and the realization that they have indeed learned more than they thought they had.

I should say that it would appear that no gathering of the canoe-building class can be held without moving a canoe. One of my students wanted to pick his boat up so that he could work on it over the summer, so before dinner, we loaded it up!