I spent two mornings and a partial afternoon at Sandy Hook School recently. I was working with the 3rd and 4th graders. Years ago-1978 to be exact-when I was a 5th year teacher at Sandy Hook a member of the board of education arranged to have two slabs of shale rock trucked to the school. Each slab contained dinosaur fossils. Those slabs survived the reconstruction of the school and were placed in front of it.
A parent saw the rocks last year and used Facebook to ask what they were and if anyone knew anything about them. I chimed in with the answer to her questions and she asked if I could tell the rest of the school about them since I apparently was pretty much the only one around at that time who knew their history.
From there I contacted the math/science specialist and she thought it would be a great idea to tell kids and staff what I know since the study of fossils are in the third grade science curriculum.
We were going to do it last year but the weather conspired against us so this year we made it happen.
It was good getting back in the 'teaching mode' again. Especially when kids are interested in something and what kid doesn't like dinosaurs? Even the teachers hadn't really noticed them so they were interested too. It was my third time this year working with kids at Sandy Hook. Grandson Nicholas will be leaving the school to go on to Reed next year so as I posted in a previous piece this brings to a close a 46 year run having a connection to a place where I spent so much time. But I still know people there so maybe I'll be back for other things in the future. Otherwise maybe Reed Intermediate will have some use for me from time to time. We'll see.
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