An Encounter in Katmai

     It was a damp, chilly August, the third straight of its kind, way back in the year of twenty-twelve when all of the Lake and Peninsula teachers and administrators had gathered at the world renowned Brooks Camp for a week destined to be full of fun, friends, and jaw-dropping information on Response To Intervention.  Educators new and old were flown in from all over the world, albeit a bit grumpy at having to end their summer vacations in the first week of August.  However, after depositing a few belongings in their designated cottages and migrating to the mess hall to catch up with long lost colleagues, their mood was much improved.

     After awhile everyone was required to attend a bear safety/awareness speech that focused mainly on the importance of not leaving the mess hall with bacon or honey in your pockets.  Also for a mere $75 you could take a bus ride to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes to see the remnants of the mighty Novarupta, the biggest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century.  By happenstance this historic event happened exactly a 100 years in the past!  Could this be tied to either teacher retention or recruitment?  Only Ty knows that.  Anyways, a few brave souls dared to board a giant yellow bus to zigzag along a bumpy, windy "road" in which at least 2 teachers got motion sickness, to celebrate an event that very few humans know anything about.  It was along this route that a few of us LPSDers got to witness something more rare than Novarupta.  At the second puke stop a few of us were munching on the local flora when who else made an appearance?  HAIRY MAN!

      He was a bit skiddish at first but after all of us teachers pulled out lesson plans and updated educate printouts from our knapsacks and began waving them around he became curious.  This enticed him to come right up to us.  As it turns out he actually loves children (not only for food!).

     He also loves Yurts and slaughtering pigs.  Who would have known? After visiting with us for what seemed like minutes, he grunted that he had work to be done in the deep, dark forest so we said our good-byes.  On his way through the thicket he stopped and carved a message into an ancient Black Spruce with his long, gross fingernail.  After he disappeared, we rushed to see what he wrote.  We all stared in confusion at one another.  Since it didn't make any sense to anyone, we got back on the bus and finished our tour.  It has been some time since we read his message and it is only now that we are beginning to understand what he meant by "BEWARE THE COMMON CORE".........  Such a wise monkey.