Let it snow?

Well, the weather outside is frightful... Sorry, too much Christmas music around my house. The snow has certainly hit with a vengeance. I was at school early this morning and there was a good 8 inches of snow on the ground already and it was snowing at a furious pace. Dr. Keiter and I had been in phone contact Sunday night and had decided on a 1 hour late start before the storm had hit in earnest. We decided it was not worth trying to get the buses out and about and it was too dangerous, so we called a snow day. I called the teachers and told them to stay home. Kathy and I held down the phones for a while as parents were calling to get updates. Finally, I grabbed some work, and headed for home, as I was afraid if I didn't go soon, I'd be stuck at school. It was amazing to see the snow accumulate at home, and it was a shame to see the massive black oak tree in my neighbor's house loose some massive branches.

I just received a call from Dr. Keiter, and we will be canceling school for Tuesday, as well. The weather forecast is for a hard freeze overnight, and temperatures are not expected to get over 40 for the entire day. The roads will be too icy to travel safely on.

On an unrelated note, it was great to see everyone at the Twain Harte "Winter Wonderland" parade on Friday night. It is these types of events that make me glad we are here.

We're not in Fresno anymore, Toto!

This morning started out in a way that I'm sure no principal in my former stomping grounds of Fresno has had to contend with. I got a call from Mr. Dunlap first thing this morning that there is a big buck and a doe nestled down on the hill above the middle school campus. Still being a relative newbie to the foothills, Mr. Dunlap and Mrs. Anderson made sure I understood the potential danger of a buck with a doe at this time of year. I've seen enough episodes of "When Animal's Attack" to understand the threat this buck posed here. So what to do? I went to look, and the two of them certainly didn't seem like they were at all worried about me, and had every intention of staying put even as our kids were starting to arrive on campus. I decided my plan was to get the doe to move on, and the buck would surely follow. I started to climb the hill towards her, and she didn't really care about me. I got withing about 10 feet, and she still wasn't even standing up. The buck wasn't standing yet, but I wasn't sure if I got too close to the doe, would he see me as a challenger, and come at me? I started throwing sticks and pine cones to try to get her to move. Finally the doe stood up and so did the buck. The doe then started moving down the fence towards the gate on Twain Harte Drive. It was clear she didn't want to head out that way, and so she turned and headed back towards the corner where they had been resting, Mr. Buck 3 feet behind her at every step. I was able to chase them down out of the corner, and out onto the soccer field. The doe kept looking at the fence like she was going to jump it, but the two large dogs in the yard next to the school made her decide otherwise. She then got down behind the baseball backstop, and was looking for a way out. The buck was in hot pursuit, and it was clear the doe didn't want to head towards him, and kept coming at me instead (I was the lesser of two evils, I suppose). It took much coaxing, throwing things, beating my coat on the fence, and blowing my whistle to finally convince the doe to leave. I'm sure I looked like a fool throwing piles of leaves at her (there wasn't anything else nearby!). When she did decide to go, she ran across the soccer field, down the ramp behind the bathroom, around Black Oak School, and out across the parking lot and over Manzanita Drive. Mrs. Berry was just coming in at that time and was pretty surprised to see the deer. I think she was more surprised to see me in pursuit.

After spending the better part of half an hour with these deer, I was finally back at my desk. For fun, I thought I'd look up my official job description to see where "deer herding" fit. Alas that "other duties as assigned!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to take a moment today to say happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am very thankful to be in a community such as this, and am thankful for the dedicated staff that I get the honor of working with on a daily basis. We spent Monday and Tuesday of this week planning for the rest of the year, and I'm excited about the direction we are heading.

Have a great vacation, and see you Monday!

Updates!

Once again, I've been derelict in my blogging duties! Last week was a bit of a disjointed week with the Veterans Day Holiday. I hadn't posted on Veterans Day, but I did want to say a sincere thank you to all of our veterans who sacrificed to help make this a great country!

Things have been relatively quiet around school. We have been pushing hard as this is the largest block of instructional time and we've been working to gain a lot of ground. It's good to have Thanksgiving Break coming up as I think the students and staff are all ready for a breather.

Speaking of breathers, I needed one today after playing a few rounds of "prison ball" with Mr. Dunlap's 5th graders today. If you're not familiar with prison ball, it is a variation of dodge ball. Basically pick up the balls and try to destroy the opposing team. Even with my best efforts, my team lost.

Speaking of the 5th graders, they have recently completed their science projects, and have their display boards set up in the study area outside the library. They are very interesting, and if you have a chance to check them out in the next couple of days, I highly recommend them.

It was also neat to sit in on a few of the oral book reports given by some of the 7th graders in Mrs. Anderson's class. I was especially impressed by Parker's description of "The Lord of the Flies." I remember reading that intense book when I was in high school, and his descriptions brought back memories for me.

The past few days I've been preparing for our two professional development days next week. While the kids are enjoying the full week off, the teachers and I will be working on Monday and Tuesday. I'm looking forward to those two days, but I'm really looking forward to Wednesday, and having a few days off!

H1N1 Clinic

Yesterday we had the county health department come and administer our H1N1 vaccines. We had about 150 of our 283 students get the vaccination, much more than the 30% the health department had originally anticipated. Things went very smoothly and we were able to get everyone through the clinic in about 2 hours. We would have been done sooner but the county folks needed to bring in an extra supply of the nasal spray from the county health department. The vast majority of our students had the nasal spray, and their only complaints were it being cold and having a bad taste. Those few that got shots were very brave, and there were very few tears shed. Hopefully the slight discomfort yesterday will help ensure our kids stay healthy!

Smokey and pancakes

This week's biggest events were a visit from Smokey the Bear on Thursday, a bus safety drill, and the 8th grade Harvest Breakfast.

Smokey and friends came to visit our K-3rd graders on Thursday morning. We had several Cal Fire fireman with Smokey, and after the kids got to hear Smokey's message, they then got to go play in a Cal Fire engine that was parked on the blacktop. The students got to dress in the firemen's turnouts and blast the fire hose. What was surprising to me, was the onslaught of 7th graders who wanted to crash the Smokey party so they could go give him a hug. I was getting bribes of gummy bears and a dime and a nickle to try to convince me to let them visit Smokey, but I held my ground and kept the 7th graders at bay.

On Friday, we held our bus safety drills. We had three buses on the blacktop and ushered all the classes through them. This is an important safety drill for all our students to participate in, and they all were attentive, and I think they all enjoy jumping out the emergency exits.

Also on Friday, we had the members of Club Live (the middle school version of Friday Night Live, a drug/alcohol prevention program in high school) present a drug awareness skit they had created for Red Ribbon Week. It was pretty powerful, and I appreciated the attentiveness of the rest of the middle school students. The message of the dangers of drug use was sent, and I believe, received.

Just today, Sunday, we had the 8th Grade Harvest Breakfast. I took my two kids, Hannah and Chris, and I was very impressed with the decorations in Telele Lodge, and the quality of the raffle prizes. Clearly a lot of work went into making this a successful event. Big thanks to Naomi Johnson, and Wendie Scott, who headed up this event along with all of the parents and students who helped. I've heard that all of the food and raffle prizes were donated, so it should turn out to be a great fundraiser for the 8th grade trip. Hopefully when I get to school tomorrow morning, there will be my Dodge Ridge annual pass, or my two tickets for Great America that I put my raffle tickets in!

Halloween

Friday was a pretty interesting day around campus. I had heard that the Halloween parade was a pretty big deal around town. I'd never even been in a parade, let alone lead one. I had my first clue that this was a big deal when I saw the fire engine and highway patrol with lights ablaze blocking the roads for us. I wasn't prepared for the crowds when I turned the corner leading this year's parade. I think there was a large crowd, at least. See, for my costume (I was Elwood Blues, and Dr. Keiter was Jake Blues, of the infamous Blues Brothers), I had to get Rayban sunglasses (fortunately the pharmacy had the cheap imitation Raybans). Of course, I wear prescription sunglasses, and the costume sunglasses were not, so the whole crowd was a blur. Fortunately, all our yard duty assistants were dressed up as referees and were positioned at all the turns to ensure we didn't lose any children. Black and white stripes stand out even to a nearly blind Elwood Blues impersonator, so I didn't wander too far off the prescribed parade route. I'm not sure, but I was told that this year's parade may have set a record. I think we completed the whole route in about 8 minutes. Not sure whether the record was longest or shortest parade. By the way, I'm considering having the yard duty wear the referee outfits as official uniforms. They just seem so much more appropriate on the yard that way.

Then on Friday night, we held our first middle school dance of the year. Since it had been more than 25 years since I last attended a middle school dance, I was not quite sure what to expect. The student body officers had done a great job, and the cafeteria looked great. I had to smile as the dance unfolded, exactly as I would had expected. The DJ had the music, lights, and fog machine all working at maximum efficiency. As the students arrived, they all clung together for safety in small clusters near the exits. After a few minutes of scoping out the scene and seeing if it were safe, a small cluster of girls bravely ventured out into the danger zone of the middle of the floor, and tentatively started swaying back and forth to the music (ironically, I think it was "Single Ladies" by Beyonce that got them to dancing). Slowly, as the other students began to realize that the first group of girls hadn't turned to stone, or some other horrible tragedy, they began to slowly join up, until all but the most untrusting of students were in a mob dancing in the middle of the floor. I had to chuckle to see the boys who probably considered themselves "players" to be the last ones to let loose of the safety of the walls, and head on into the fray, even then, only with the safety of their "homies." I found myself at first patrolling the perimeter of the dance like a beat cop, looking for "perps." After a little while, I began to relax, as even my most notorious students were behaving themselves, and I found that instead of having to be the warden, I was able to enjoy myself some. I do admit, I had to show off some vintage 1980's dance moves when prodded by a group of students. They were duly impressed with my "Rainbird" and "Lawnmower" moves. The dance was progressing well, and then horror struck! A slow dance! Suddenly all the chaperones were on full alert. We were scrambling looking for our 1950's Catholic school nun standard issue yardsticks to be able to swat wayward hands. Our fears were not realized however, as there were only about 10 brave souls who ventured into this new frontier, and it was easy for us to verify all hands in proper places. I had a huge surprise when Bonnie, an eighth grader, asked me to dance! What to do? Slow dance with a student? I harkened back to my short stint in Arthur Murray Dance Class (A birthday present for my wife) and struck the proper ballroom carriage. Right hand high on her shoulder blade, left hand "washing windows." We had an enjoyable conversation, which I had to cut short when Krysta, a 6th grader, cut in on Bonnie. I found my dance card becoming full!

It was a very enjoyable evening, and I am very proud of how well our students behaved. They all seemed to have a great time, and it was great to see students in a different light. Thank you to Mrs. Bickley for all her hard work in putting this together. I look forward to the next one!