"It's kind of a weird day today," says Keith Erickson, an AVID and science teacher at Westminster High School.

He walks from table to table in a classroom at the school on May 14 making sure students have all their work completed before school lets out for the summer.

Many of the students in the sixth-hour AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) class are flipping through and signing each other's yearbooks, which are fresh off the printer. Others are working on their final exams, while others still are eating McDonald's and listening to iPods.

"It's an odd day because, for the most part, they're already very much in summer mode."

Erickson said he has taught AVID, a national college preparatory program, since its inception at Westminster High eight years ago. The Boulder resident has taught at the school for the past 13 years.

While it appears some of the students aren't being extremely productive, others are working in groups of four to develop their conversation skills.

"Get out a piece of paper, divide up roles then have a conversation," he tells one group of students. "Set up the roles first."

The roles Erickson is referring to are promoter, controller, supporter and analyzer. He says the exercise is meant for students to work together and share leadership. This particular group's topic is the supernatural.

"They're discussing whatever they want, but when they're finished I'm going to review their notes to see how they did. It's real learning, but they're having fun because they're talking about ghosts."

The bell rings, the students disperse and Erickson, also a science teacher, begins to push a cart of books to his seventh-period class, oceanography. After taking note of the 17 students in attendance, Erickson tells the class to open their notebooks for a little constructive-thinking "quick-write."

"Open up your notebooks to a new right-hand, left-hand page, please," he says. "We're gonna start off with a brain dump, everybody. The topic's going to be cruise ships."

A few days earlier, the class read an article about the potentially harmful and negative affects cruise ships have on the ocean, and now the students must think about it and write down their thoughts. He instructs them to jot down both negative and positive affects cruise ships may have on the ocean.
Erickson compares teaching AVID to being a coach.

"Because the AVID class is so diverse, you bump against all kinds of subjects," he said. "It keeps you sharp. You really have to get down to that individual. It is always a three-ring circus. Most of the time, that's what I find so stimulating -- being able to go in there and help them with all their individual needs."