Principal's Message

Happy Monday Redwood Families!

I hope that you had a lovely holiday week and found time to enjoy family and friends.  I do also hope that you found a moment for yourself as the holiday season can be exhausting, especially if travelling or having family visit for an extended period of time.  I often find the first moment back at school to be cathartic.  I take a moment to breathe it all in, not only reminisce about the week gone by but also to enjoy the quiet transition before the work week commences.  Please note that this is a very short moment of repose, as the sounds of screaming middle schoolers has a way of breaking the reverie.  To be frank, and as we all know, I'm as frank as they come, I love the pandemonium that comes with the reuniting of pre-teens who have not seen each other in a whole week!

Once again, here we are at the sandwich paragraph, segueing (Love that word! The few that don't drop the "e" before adding the "ing" ((making it a gerund for us in the grammar biz)) is just one of the joys of the English language) to a topic far removed from my salutary beginnings.  The parking lot received a makeover, wherein new lines and signage were painted.  Yes, that sentence is a non-sequitur, but sometimes you have to dive right in.  Headfirst, that is, into a bit of guilt on this first Monday back to be precise.  The lines and signs are to ensure the safe passage of children as they egress and ingress to and from school.  Please note that they did not paint new lines on Montauk, Shadow Oaks or any of the other non-approved points of arrival and departure.  Nor should you use these points for said purposes.  Things, especially in the morning, have gotten a bit pell-mell as of late, to put it bluntly.  I encourage you to follow the rules.  Either leave earlier or embrace being late.  The rules are in place for a purpose, ignoring them does not make them any less of a rule, it just puts the safety of your child at risk.  

Whew... I really don't enjoy heavy-handed talk, but please heed my advice.  Being late to school pales in comparison to any incident that may occur due to not following the prescribed pathways.  Did I mention that we have a new serving area?  Quick change of subject, but indeed we do.  The servery, which is another great word, opens tomorrow.  I've included this link to a short video that students watched on the morning announcements.  Please note that there may be a bit longer wait time than normal as we work out the logistics of this new, and beautiful, food service area.  I'm hopeful that things will be running smoothly by the end of the week, but this task is quite similar to herding cats, so wish us luck!

In educationally related news, I had the pleasure of observing an Acknowledge Alliance lesson on the Thursday before break.  Sixth grade students were participating in one of my personal favorite activities, called Helium stick.  The long and short of the activity is to lower the flexible tent pole to the ground with all participants allowing it to just rest on their fingers.  The one catch is that no one can talk.  It's a hoot!  I've included a few photos for your viewing pleasure.  Oh, and before I go, I would be remiss if I didn't include a couple of cute photos of some of the projects made in Club 47! 

Welcome back!

Steve