Turkey Tales

    The first day of school is now safely past.  The week or so leading up to it are so hectic and crunched for time that it's a relief to actually finally be in the school year instead of madly preparing for it.  This year had the added excitement of 150 new students who were transferred over from the big elementary school in town due to overcrowding.  We also got 6 new teachers who also came over.  That's a lot of new faces, but it's energizing to have this new mix of people thrown into our little group. 

    This morning when I left for school, I found a large bronze turkey feather gleaming on the ground when I got out of the car to close the driveway gate.  I picked it up and brought it with me -- a beautiful Frogpond talisman. When I got to school, I put it in the pencil holder on my desk.

    Ducks aren't the only birds that have been procreating like crazy around here this summer; the wild turkeys are right up there with them.  Last Thursday morning I was setting off just a little late for my first staff meeting of the year.  When I reached the top of the drive I had to put on the brakes and slow almost to a stop because I was being blocked by three or four mama turkeys and their combined broods of around 40 half-grown babies.  They had been having a leisurely stroll down the drive but got more nervous and sped up a bit as the car got closer.  Under other conditions I would have stopped and enjoyed the show, but I didn't have a minute to spare.  So I eased the car into low gear and sort of scooted the turkeys ahead of me.  Some took off and flapped over the fence to the right, some over the fence to the left, and a few stretched out their long turkey legs and trotted in front of me.  Although they all kept wary eyes on me, none of them were too frightened.  We made quite an impressive procession as we made our way down that drive. 

    So this is what I was thinking about when my group of little half-grown human turkeys lined up in front of my classroom door this morning.  They, too, had nervous faces as I scooted them out of summer and into my classroom.  But they, like my feathered turkeys at home, also weren't about to get over-the-top freaked out either.  And when I lined the class up later to take their pictures for their portfolios, I laughed when I thought of these pictures that Bruce took a few weeks ago.

I think it's going to be a good year.