Dear Parents,

I know why I love teaching at Swan School; it is filled with the nicest and happiest people anyone could imagine.

One of my jobs as Director is to evaluate and give feedback to our teaching staff. Part of that is periodically doing formal observations. As the snow began falling on Wednesday afternoon, our Art teacher, Kris Leet, reminded me that she was scheduled for her observation right after lunch recess. Being that it was snowing and the children were very excited, I gave her the chance to reschedule if she wanted to, she decided to go ahead anyway.

As I walked to the art classroom through the playground I became covered in snow, it was falling at a tremendous rate. I heard one boy who was on the swings shout out at the top of his lungs, "Thank you God!" Students all around were bundled up tight but their hats and coats didn't even come close to covering their smiles. Eventually the recess bell rang and the children began filing in. Of course there were several questions about why I was in the art class as well as a bit of settling in time, but what really impressed me was how happy and focused the children were. It was obvious that for that time period there was nowhere else they would rather be. After the instruction and follow-up questions were answered and the students were working independently on their art projects, they spontaneously began singing. As you can probably imagine, every song they sang had something to do with snow or winter. They sounded wonderful; staying in tune, remembering all the lyrics, and even harmonizing... all this while they were creating some very beautifully designed Ukrainian eggs, and while the snow was continuing to fall just outside the window. I'm sure that if someone had placed a mirror in front of me at that moment I would have seen a big grin on my face, it was exactly the type of class every parent and teacher dreams of. And, it seems that whenever I go into any classroom on our campus, I see the same things and feel the same feelings; Swan School is just that great of a place.

Well, it seems that this icy weather may be with us for a while longer, at least that is what the forecasters are saying. I hope that our new phone tree service worked for you Thursday morning. I did find out about one glitch, if the message is left on your answering machine, you might hear only the second half of the message. We will try to find a solution to that. Let me know how it has worked for you. In the meantime, remember to stay posted, and know that your children are in a great school where something as exciting as a snowstorm really does bring out the best in the children as well as the staff.

Russ