Northwest Academy Teachers Prepare For Summer

As the summer approaches, Northwest Academy students are telling each other about their summer plans. But, guess what? Teachers also have plans. Northwest Academy teachers don’t live at school during the summer. They don’t remain at their desks. They don’t gaze longingly at the tables waiting for students to come in for class or sit at their desks wishing they had papers to grade. Just like students, teachers use the summer to pursue activities they cannot accomplish during the school year, and for some teachers, what they choose to do is often related to childhood pastimes.

“Bonjour, Classe!”

Jamie Michaud says this every day as she walks into her French classroom. She sets her bag on the table and starts pulling out the activities she has planned for the day. She adjusts her hair and shirt before asking: “qu’est-ce que tu as fait ce weekend?” As she listens to her French students try to explain what they did over the weekend or struggle to find the right words, she helps them.

“My favorite thing about teaching is seeing things start to click for my students,” Michaud said.

But summer has always been a time for recreation for Michaud.

“My favorite summer memory is the heat storms at the end of the summer,” Michaud said, who grew up in upstate New York. “It was still so hot, but the sky opened up to thunder and lightning. We used to jump off the dock to the lake near our house. I also really liked catching fireflies.”

For Michaud, an interest in French was also part of that childhood.

“My last name is French,” Michaud said. “My immediate family pronounced it in a very English sort of way. One day my grandfather scolded me for pronouncing it that way. That marked me. When it was time to choose a language in junior high, I chose French. I was ready to take it on like a new identity.”

Since then, Michaud has moved on from jumping off the dock to jumping into opportunities to use her summers to travel the world and expand her knowledge of the French language. In 2002, after graduating from the University of California at Santa Barbara, she moved to France to work and explore Europe.

“I had been living in Paris for nine months when my best friend, Tuuli, met me to travel around Europe,” Michaud said. “We hit 10 countries in four months. That was life changing.”

Michaud stayed in France for over seven years, teaching English in the French public school system and studying at a local university.

Michaud tries to pass on her knowledge of French during the summer, but it can be challenging to keep students interested in studying outside of school. Instead, she uses the summer to work on her own French skills and is always looking for new ways to expand her knowledge of languages.

This summer, Michaud will be studying in Quebec, Canada. She won a Jeanne Maradon Fellowship to study at the University of Laval to learn more about speaking and teaching French and experience francophone Canada.

“I will be doing intensive renewal of French teacher skills, theory and practice with other French teachers from around North America,” Michaud said. “I will also be learning about Quebec culture to share with my future classes.”

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Someone comes into the main building at Northwest Academy. He is wearing one of his many plaid shirts and a large cyclist’s backpack filled with science and social studies papers. In one hand, he holds the guitar he’ll use to jam with his guitar class. For Northwest Academy teacher Andy Davis, it’s no problem to be teaching about life sciences one period and then demonstrate guitar chords the next. He’s always enjoyed connecting arts, academics and fun.

“It’s awesome to experience intellectual grown along with my students,” Davis said. “Constantly being around people who are learning inspires me to keep learning and mastering new skills.”

Davis grew up in the small farming town of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he spent his summer days swimming, fishing and doing all things outdoors.

“Since it was such a small town, when I was 10, I was allowed to ride my bike anywhere, so I spent a lot of my summer days biking around town to visit friends,” Davis said. “I joined a band at the start of high school, and I spent most of my time playing guitar and writing songs with my buddies. I still love biking and guitar.”

Even though Davis is now an adult with a job, he still remembers what it was like to be a child and have experiences that children sometimes take for granted.

“Climbing trees and building tree forts in the woods by my house were my favorite thing to do during the summer when I was a kid,” Davis said. “Every summer, my mom took my brother and me on trips to see historical and cultural things, which I didn’t always enjoy at the time. Looking back now, those trips are some of the things I appreciate most about my childhood.”

Today Davis has been able to reflect on all the things that he has been able to accomplish during the summer.

“All of my life-changing events happen during the summer,” Davis said. “When else could you spend a month in a foreign country, buy a house or get married?”

Having recently become a homeowner, Davis hopes to tackle gardening, that classic Portland summer activity.

“I still love to travel during the summer,” Davis said. “I feel like it takes at least three weeks to really understand a new place, so summer is the best time to visit new places. Also, the weather in Portland is pretty much perfect in the summer, so spending some time at home gardening is also a priority.”

***

When I sat down to interview English and Theater teacher David Berkson, it catapulted me back to seventh grade when I was in his Poetry Potpourri class. He would jump up and down, make funny faces and tell us to bring out more emotions about the poems we had picked to turn into pieces of performance art. He would laugh, and everybody, and I mean everybody, would start laughing, too. He would put everyone in a good mood and make me forget that I was nervous about performing.

Berkson was inspired to act by his father. When Berkson was growing up, his dad was in shows both on and off-Broadway.

“I saw him in more shows than I could count,” said Berkson. “So, I was interested in theater from a very young age. When I was eight years old, I was cast in the lead of Truman Capote’s ‘A Christmas Memory.’ I was the only child in a cast of three. It was a
life-changing experience for me.”

During the school year, Berkson spends his days surrounded by many children, but in the summer, he spends most of his time with one child, his son, Nick.

“Summer is time that I get to spend with him, and I feel really lucky,” Berkson said. “Nick does taekwondo. He has more time for it during the summer. Sometimes, I’ll take him to the taekwondo studio, and while he’s working out, I can go to the track.”

Of course, being an English teacher, Berkson makes sure to set aside time to work on his own writing, which includes plays and novels.

“I write a lot during the summer,” Berkson said. “I have two writing projects. Writing is always a life-changing thing for me, and I don’t have time to do it during the school year.”

Berkson also makes time in the summer for a different type of teaching. He will be teaching an two-week acting camp for middle school and high school students at the Oregon Children’s Theatre, where they will perform William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.”

For Berkson, teaching acting in the summer reinforces what he enjoys about acting and being a teacher.

“Just interacting with middle school students and high school students is so much fun because there are so many surprises you guys bring,” Berkson said. “I learn a lot from you just talking to you right now, remembering you from sixth grade and just seeing how much you have grown up and matured. Multiply that by 60 students, and that’s a lot of reward.”