A Newsletter for the public education community of Burke, Concord, Lunenburg, Lyndon, Millers Run, Newark, Sutton

Each day a crepuscular papa black bear emerges from the woods, in our far field, and chows on clover. Some evenings he rolls around, or sits back to contemplate the universe. Mostly we see his mandible moving up and down up and down as he slowly lumbers. 

My tech-industry-drone-owning brother-in-law could not get over the fact that each night, there, in the distance, appeared Mr. Bear. He called his family. He told everyone about the bear. He talked about it incessantly.

He decided he wanted footage of Mr. Bear. At dinner one night he imagined how he could fly his drone and Mr. Bear would look at the camera. The drone could hover close, Mr. Bear would stand on his hind legs and inspect the drone. 

We were out the next night, and then went away another evening; the third night Mr. Bear took a vacation. During this time the tech-brother-in-law continued to talk about videoing the bear. He took out his drone. He practiced flying it. He performed several test fly-overs.

On the brother-in-law’s last evening of his visit, Mr. Bear emerged. Systems went into action. My husband stood watch, binoculars trained on the black shape. The drone was set on the porch step, the brother-in-law stood on the porch, with the window open, so he could communicate with my husband standing watch inside.

Have you ever tried to sleep on a camping trip, and just as you are dozing off, there is a mosquito in the tent? The mosquito is REALLY loud, and you can not seem to locate it. NNNZZNZZNZNNNzzzznnnnnnnNNNNZZZz. (This is what a drone sounds like). 

My husband called, “Ok, he’s out in the field, I see him.” The drone took off, “Oop, he has gone into the woods.” The brother-in-law landed the drone “He’s back!” Drone started up. “He scurried away.” Brother-in-law landed the drone. After a few unsuccessful tries, the two brothers sat down at the kitchen table and further strategized. The spotting, attempts, aborted missions, calling back and forth, sitting and re-strategizing went on for about an hour until they finally gave up. Mr. Bear would simply not show himself when the drone was airborne. 

I was thinking about the start of school and how something might scare some of us. Our instinct tells us to run back into the woods when we see, hear, smell, intuit something that is new and different. If my husband and his brother had more time, they would certainly habituate the bear to the noise. (think professional films with footage of bears) They decided in the end that it was a gift to appreciate the bear from a distance. As we think about teaching, learning and school, the drone story provides a metaphor for how a small noise, far away, can be scary. This might be new peers, a new teacher, a new school, new colleagues, new systems, something unfamiliar. We can always appreciate at a distance, and to come out of the woods, may take more time than we think! 

Kingdom East School District Student Services Website Updates: