Yesterday brought back memories of snow days when I was a child. I remember waking up and listening to the local radio station in hopes of our school’s name being listed among cancellations. Oh, the joy! The gift of an extra day at home on a snowy day was beyond perfect. It usually meant my sister and I got to have something special for breakfast, like French toast or blueberry muffins. Then my mum would bundle us up in our snowsuits and homemade hats and mittens, and push us out the door for the morning. We would have the grandest time building snow forts and making snow angels. We would try to coax our dogs into pulling us on our sleds, usually unsuccessfully. When we were called in for lunch (nearly always chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches) we would hang our snowsuits by the woodstove to dry, and beg for some decorations for our snowmen. After lunch, we’d head back out with a damp snowsuit and a dry pair of mittens, and a hat to play until it got dark. Then when we came in again we got hot chocolate, with Fluff stirred into it. I swear those are some of my best memories of childhood and I hope that our students got to experience similar joys yesterday. I know the winters are long here in northern Maine, and I know that school is a bit harder to get excited about when it seems as if Spring will never return. But, I hope the teachers and students made the most of the day off, and that the memories they make will live with them forever.
We are making lots of memories here at WDES. For lots of reasons, the newsletter has been a bit sporadic, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been busy. I got to join Kindergarten for Morning Meeting and was blown away by the kind and courteous way they greet each other each day. I spent time working on a math assignment with a 7th grader and had to reach way back in my own memory of junior high math to be effective, but it turned out to be the best part of that day for me. I enlisted the help of Wyatt, a 6th grader when I was trying to manage a few things at the same time. I watched Evan, a 2nd grader, pick up a mess that wasn’t his in the cafeteria. And, I heard some good advice on being a good friend from Gwendolyn while she was waiting for her dad to pick her up. She’s incredibly wise for a 2nd grader!
As always, there’s lots of good happening here, and every week it happens again. Thank you for being part of the goodness going around. It makes us a better school, and our students better people.