When school gets out each year, teachers and students begin their long-awaited summer break. Students spend their summer hanging out with friends, traveling, and doing activities they don’t have time for during the school year. These activities are not only how students spend their summers, but teachers too.

Andy West, English teacher, spent the first two and a half weeks of his summer biking to the Glacier National Park in Montana. West would bike up to 50-60 miles daily while carrying all his gear with him. Between each day, West stayed at campsites or hotels to rest and prepare for the following day.

“You meet cool people [when traveling] and when people see that you’re traveling by bicycle, they’re usually really friendly and helpful and approachable,” West said. “I spend all day long riding my bike, and it’s amazing. [It] feels great.”

West also recalls other moments in his trip, including running into a Cossacks Motorcycle stunt team  during his stay in Missoula, Montana, and hitchhiking to get a ride— from a couple who were former cyclists— in order to avoid a 30 mile uphill road.

For one of West’s final days on the trip, he set his eyes on the going to the sun trail to reach the top of Glacier National Park. West hiked and biked up 3600 feet and 30 miles. 

“It was just one of those clear blue sky days where you can see for 50 miles,” West said. “All the mountain peaks around me were still covered in snow, and there was brilliant sunshine, and it was just absolutely beautiful.”

West’s trip to Montana has been one of the stories he’s shared in class recently and he enjoys sharing his personal experiences and anecdotes to connect with his students.

“If I just tried to talk about symbolism and point of view all the time, some students get lost,” West said. “But when I start talking about the pottery I collect, or the bike ride that I did, then people suddenly start paying attention more.”

After returning home to Portland, Oregon, West spent the rest of his summer with his family, going on another bike tour from Seaside to Florence, and also spent time buying and reselling antique vases.

West spent most of his summer away from his students, but Matt Bell, social studies teacher, spent a portion of his summer with his students on the school trip to the Galapagos. Alongside Katelyn Barry and parent chaperones, Bell helped lead a trip of 12 students to the Galapagos islands. 

The group spent 11 days traveling around the islands. After connecting to Miami, Florida, the group arrived in Quito, Ecuador, and spent the day touring the city. 

The next day the group flew to the San Cristobal Islands where they spotted marine iguanas on their hike to snorkel at the beach. While snorkeling, they entered a cove and found many sea lions. After exploring San Cristobal, they made their way to Santa Cruz, their last destination. At Santa Cruz, they spotted tortoises, blue-footed boobies, and Galapagos penguins.

“I really like the idea of travel and [the] experience, and as a history teacher there’s the history part [within it], right?” Bell said. 

Bell and Barry were able to use their knowledge in their respective subjects to answer any of the student’s questions or curiosities. A group of students who are part of the Spanish dual language program also got a chance to practice their Spanish.

After Bell returned home, he traveled to Cozumel Islands, Mexico to go scuba diving, climb Mountain Washington, and backpacked in Goat Rocks, Washington.

As summer break came to an end for teachers, including Bell and West, they all returned back to school the week of Aug. 19-23— a week before students started school. The week before that, from Aug. 12-16, various teachers participated in a curriculum camp for their respective departments. Students’ first day, Aug. 27, marked the start of the 2024-2025 school year.