SPEAQ!

Are you concerned about my spelling? I do have a background as an English teacher, and I also have spell check, so what in the world could this title mean? SPEAQ is the acronym for the group of English teachers in the Quebec province and, this past weekend, SPEAQ had its annual meeting. Pok-O-MacCready Camps' Sarah Disney, onetime PMEOC employee, and I went to Montreal last Thursday and spent the net two days helping teachers, parents and generally curios people understand how valuable a trip to Pok-O would be for anyone who recognizes how important an immersion experience for emerging English learners can be.

First off, getting to stay in a hotel with an outdoor pool heated to a comfortable level so that swimming in 40 degree air temperatures, is an incredible perk for this North Country man. And the opportunity to talk to a lot of people who showed genuine interest in PMOEC is encouraging. We had lots of good food, lots of good conversations and a lot of hope about the extension of our programming north of the border.

In less exciting news, the Underground Railroad community event was not as well attended as we would have hoped, but that did not discourage our staff. Instead, they gave a wonderful performance for the small audience. Next up, and our last community event of the season, will be Pie and The Sky- an astronomy and pizza slam mash up this Friday night. Come out and give us one last bit of support before the official end of the fall season.

Planting a Sead

The week of GFA and Polybel passed. Our last two groups of the fall season have come and gone and the experience for our staff, the visiting chaperones and, most importantly, the students was wonderful. As we do often are, we are thankful to the weather which made hiking, Underground Railroad, astronomy and every other class as enjoyable as they could be for both groups. So now, we have turned our our attention to the development of our staff and the development of our campus. First, we spent the first day after the end of the fall season at the WIld Center in Tupper Lake. The staff of the Wild Center gave us a behind the scenes tour of the center, letting us meet all of the animals, those that are on display and those being nursed back to health. In addition, we were able to spend a lot of time in the museum seeing all of the displays and adding to our already deep knowledge about the Adirondack Park. And now, with this incredibly mild weather (once again, thank you!) we have begun the never ending quest to continue to upgrade our campus. A little fence mending here, a little reinsulation there- with 300 acres and over 5 buildings, you can always find something to do! Lastly, I am on my way to Montreal for the annual SPEAQ conference. It is a gathering of all teachers of english in the province of Quebec. We love going to this conference and have gotten a lot of clients from it. Tomorrow night is our Underground Railroad community event and next week is the Pie in the Sky, astronomy and pizza slam, community event. Go to the website for more details.

GFA Week

Another GFA weekend is behind us. For those of you who have not worked at PMOEC, which I assume is only a few readers, GFA is Green Farms Academy; a wonderful day school from Connecticut. Every fall, we know the fall season is winding down when GFA makes their annual pilgrimage from the suburbs of NYC to the serenity of the ADKs. Every year, these 9th graders get off the bus, mouths gaping, with brand new gear and fear in their knocking knees. And every year they leave, a little dirtier than they have ever comfortably been, with boots broken in, and a look of satisfaction on their smiling faces. It is a great experience for both the students and our staff. Working with High School students is a different experience than our bread and butter- middle school. Our classes have adaptability for older students and the challenges are appropriate for these clients, but it is also an enriching experience for our staff to truly fill in their gaps as educators. A lot of hiking is one emphasis of this trip and the rambles up Rattlesnake, Bare, Noonmark, Cascade, Rooster Comb and Hurricane were as good as they ever had been. But this isn't the end of the season. We are going out with bang. Next week we have Polybel, another high school, but this one from north of the border. In addition, we also have our Underground Railroad Community event and I will be making a commercial presentation at the SPEAQ conference in Montreal. Stay tuned.