Last week was Parent Conferences, which is something I never enjoy. This time, however, things were not so bad. The parents were actually very nice and I thought it went rather well. It was good to see the majority of parents/guardians show up and take an interest in how their children are doing in school. I even got to speak to parents and guardians whose kids are failing, but who are trying to deal with the problem. That makes a real change from what I was used to experiencing at Arlington High School.

Another positive about Parent Conferences was that we got a Comp Day. Basically, we had to teach both days of Parent Conferences. Then, we had two sessions for Parent Conferences, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. It was two, very long days but, at least, the school district recognized this and gave us a day off on Friday. Irene and I decided to use the three day weekend to travel to Denver and visit the Oktoberfest that was being held in downtown Denver. Unfortunately the Oktoberfest was not up to much but I did enjoy my trip to Denver.

For those of you that have not been to Denver, the downtown area has a place called the 16th Street Mall. The 16th Street Mall pretty cool, with lots of shops (including a Hard Rock Cafe), and even a little Mall Ride with little buses riding up and down the pedestrianized street. I think it is a great idea. In many towns and cities in America, the downtown area is totally dead and you have the “doughnut effect” whereby all the retail businesses relocate to the edge of town, often in large shopping malls.

What Denver has tried to do, with some success, is to replicate the shopping mall environment on a street in the center of Denver. I feel that has helped the center of Denver and makes it a great place to visit. Overall, I enjoyed my trip to Denver. It is one of my favorite large cities because it has all of the advantages of a large city, but with none of the congestion you often get in a city. I certainly hope I get to go back again soon as I had a nice weekend in Denver.