As I drove from a Chamber of Commerce mixer at the 145 Club (although quite a few of us still call it Klein’s, the original name) to a RLEHS board meeting at Dry Creek Ranch House; taken at the curved bridge on Curved Bridge Road:
Monthly Archives: March 2015
CBET at Kohler
Meet Elizabeth Arias who teaches at Grant High School but goes to Kohler School in North Highlands two afternoon/week to teach CBET. I was invited to their graduation and fiesta.
Elizabeth’s students love her and attendance was so good, her classes have been extended for another 32 hours.
I love the boy in the orange t-shirt who wanted so badly to stand by his mother (in the gray striped t-shirt) for the picture, but her left hand gestured “stay where you are.”
Trailblazing and a pre-ride
Odin was so excited to show me he didn’t need training wheels and could ride his bike really well. The grass in the backyard at the G St house is really tall (and needs to be mowed or plowed soon) – a challenge to ride through the first few times to make bike trails.
It was important to keep pedaling no matter what. Getting started again was difficult.
And then I went for a pre-ride of the route for an upcoming LGA Club Ride. Vallejo Street: narrow two-lane road with no bike lane or shoulder which means our group will take control of the lane during this stretch.
Destination #1:
Destination #2:
The next step is to create a ride plan to share with students, parents, and Megan, the staff advisor.
Tabling at Camellia Basic
What’s tabling? That was my first question anyway when offered this job.
Elle Steele and I set up a table at the entrance to the cafeteria where the pancake breakfast was taking place. We snagged whoever we could to give away safety information, brain erasers, reflective stickers, and hopefully get some parent names on a list for the upcoming Bike Rodeo. My compliments to Elle’s tabling skills, she’s an expert at pulling people in.
And we got two names on the list for the Bike Rodeo!
Rare event
If something only happens every 48 years, does it deserve a place in this blog? When I told Justin and he gave me a round of applause, I thought “Oh what the heck.”
On the way home from the bike club meeting, I got a speeding ticket. Darnit. I was 18 years old when I got my last moving violation.
Ione Safety Patrol
I LOVE to watch a good teacher in action; I was glad to arrive early and watch Mr Huss for about 10 minutes before he took a group of students on a walking field trip so I could use his classroom to teach about pedestrian and crosswalk safety.
Mr. Huss organized an excellent and simple solution to a problem at Ione Elementary School. The only road to the school is narrow with no parking along the sides and a circular drop-off in front of the office. There’s very limited parking on school grounds, many staff double park to fit everyone in. The traffic back-up is terrible at times, but especially in the mornings. Mr Huss organized a team of 5th grade students to arrive early, set up stations along the circular drop-off, open car doors, greet students and parents, and generally move everyone along more efficiently. It worked beautifully with the side benefit of tardies being reduced to almost zero. And I had the pleasure of working with a great group of kids who knew almost everything already, but continued to be eager learners.
Auburn Elementary Bicycle Club
Surprise! Only one student showed up today for bike club today. It was, as everyone seems to be calling it, a “pencil day.” Lindsey is surely the #1 member of the club and her dad Brian is a Parent Champion. Lindsey drew a great picture of the school mascot, a panther, riding a bicycle and inviting people to join the bike club. And she’s showing her 98% score on the Intermediate Bicycle Parts Test. Brian comes to all our club meetings and helps in any way needed. He’s frequently the photographer.
Walk audit in Placerville
This was my second trip in two days to Placerville. Yesterday I met with Miha Tomuta from WALKSacramento and Alyson Fox, a Sierra Elementary staff member. Alyson and I are going to do an intensive 7-week-long bicycle club beginning April 7.
Today, however, the task was to learn how to do walk auduts. This is the very first step a school or community takes in order to remove the barriers to walking and bicycling to/from school. Also participating today were people from the California Department of Health and the Health Education Council who are preparing to conduct walk audits in Sacramento City School District and TRUSD. Satellite map of the area around Sierra Elementary:
This crosswalk leads to a cliff on the other side:
Cracked pavement and dangerous storm grate:
Blind corner and missing roadway lines:
A one-way one-lane road:
A natural pathway created by local users:
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