Over the Rockies

The temperature has changed hugely.  Two days ago we were driving in snow to visit schools in Alberta.  Right now it is 27 degrees Celsius!

I could include dozens of photos here to try and share the magnificent beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  This post is being made in Kamloops, after a 500 km drive from Banff.  Banff is like Queenstown in the South Island, only the mountains are even bigger and the scenery is just amazing.





Here I am in front of the Banff Springs Hotel - a very famous building opened in 1888 to host Queen Victoria when she came to visit.

Here are photos of two of the amazing mountains we past as we crossed over the Rockies.  It seemed that every corner opened up new images of grandeur and beauty.  What an amazing place!  

Every road sign is in two languages.  English is one.  Do you know what the other official language is in Canada?

As`we traveled today we kept looking for wild life and Mrs McLeay was especially thrilled when she saw a black bear.  These animal bridges help the animals get from one side of the highway to the other without having to cross the road.  The bridge has trees and grass all over it so it is a natural place for the animals to go.

This photo shows something which is amazing.  There is a very long train in this photo.  It can be seen in three different places.  The end of the train is in the foreground, just below where I am standing, amongst the trees.  The train winds around and upwards into a tunnel near the top left part of the photo.  The tunnel goes around in a circle inside the mountain and the front of the train is coming out of the mountain just below the carriages going into the mountain.  We estimated the train had to be over 2 km long!!! 

Star Trek!

Have you watched any Star Trek movies or the old TV shows?  

One of the towns in the Palliser Schools Region is called Vulcan.  Mr Spock, from the original "Star Trek" TV series was from the planet "Vulcan" so the town has become one of the "Star Trek" tourist places to visit.

I got a couple of photos which some of you may enjoy.  If you are not a "Trekky" fan, just skip this and look for the next posting.

Look closely at the photo below and you will see that Mr Spock has grown a beard!

This model of the star ship Enterprise has a large solar panel beside it which stores energy and at night all the lights come on.  We didn't have time to stay for the evening  to see this happen.

Palliser Regional Schools, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Two days visiting an amazing group of schools.

On Thursday and Friday, May 7 and 8, I had a fantastic time learning all about the Palliser School District.  The Associate Superintendent, Mr Ken Garinger, gave up two full days to talk with me and take me to a total of 7 schools and I met with 8 Principals and Vice Principals to learn from them about their appraisal systems.  In truth, I learned a great deal more, and absolutely loved my time.

The visits included going to three Hutterite Schools, on their rural colonies - and it was snowing as we traveled around - a late winter blast.  Each had a class of around 20 children ranging from Kindergarten to 9th grade (the children finish school on their 15th birthday!) and each class sang to me in their native "low German" language.  The last of these schools also provided me with a tour of parts of the "colony" led by the oldest boy and girl.  I went through their dairy farm - 125 cows indoors all year round!!  This included the bulls and some heifers, etc.  I did feel sorry for the animals, although they were very well cared for and everything was very very clean.  I could not take any photographs at all on these colonies.  All the children wore the same black clothing and no technology and very little of colour was in the rooms (although I did see a photocopy machine in one).  They were very well mannered and very well behaved.

Here are some photos from my time in the Palliser Schools:

Here I am with two principals and a vice principal.  The man is a first time principal.  I couldn't visit his school (it was Friday and the children at his school only have classes on Mondays to Thursdays).  However, his senior class did a google recording of the children singing "Te Aroha" for me as a welcome, and he did a mihi for me to welcome me there.  Talk about special!!  I have the video!

This new vice principal had just completed her first appraisal (they call it an evaluation) and after talking about it, she showed me around her school.  They have two new "mobile classrooms" to help with roll growth.  However, it includes having complete indoors access from the main school into the rooms to ensure all weather conditions are covered and help with security.

This photo shows Mrs McLeay together with Tim and Jan Cooper (the Chauffeur and the Chef), all being hosted to lunch at a restaurant with the Board of the Palliser Regional Schools.  It was May 7th and Mrs McLeay and I had our wedding anniversary.  They heard about this and had the restaurant bring out a special dessert for us to enjoy! The man on the left is Mr Garinger, the Associate Superintendent.

Into Canada

Into Canada!
We drove north into Canada today (Wednesday).  I have two very busy days scheduled visiting schools tomorrow and Friday.  We`are based in the town of Lethbridge, Alberta.  The Palliser School District here has been amazing in setting up two full days of school visits starting at 9am tomorrow.  I will be visiting about 10 schools, including 4 schools in small "Hutterite" communities, which I am really looking forward to.  I will try to do an update after these visits are all over.  Included in the schedule is a meeting with the Lethbridge press tomorrow afternoon.  There has already been a lengthy article about my coming in the local newspaper!!  Talk about pressure!

We`travel together with Tim and Jan Cooper - the Chauffeur and the Chef!  They are fantastic company and own the motor home we are in.  Here are a couple of photos of where we are tonight. Some motor homes (not ours) are really big buses and can cost as much as a house.

Gallatin Gateway School

Visiting Gallatin Gateway School in Montana

After two great days at Yellowstone National Park we headed north into Montana.  I visited a really interesting "small" school called Gallatin Gateway School.  It has about 150 students from kindergarten to Grade 8.  Here are some interesting things I found in this school:

• There is a separate class for each year level, so there are 9 different  classes.
• The smallest class has 8 students and the largest has 22.
• If a class has more than 20 students then, by Montana State law, the class must have a teaching assistant (Teacher Aide) for a minimum of 90 minutes each day.
• There are specialist teachers for Sport, Art, Music, Library, Computing and Science.  Some of these are part-time positions and some teachers are specialist in several subjects.
• The school has two Learning Needs Teachers and a Counsellor.
• There are 14 teachers altogether, plus the Principal.
• There are separate classrooms for Art, Food Technology, Computers, Science, and a huge basketball stadium.
• All children have breakfast and lunch at school and these are provided in a special dining room.  There are two employed cooks in the kitchen.
• Every classroom is permanently locked so no one can get in from the outside.  This is the same in almost every school in the USA to keep all the people in the school safe from intruders.
• The Principal is also the Superintendent, as this is a school all by itself (that's why I chose it).  She has 12 different jobs including things like bus controller, curriculum leader, safety controller, food manager, etc., and has a different job description for each job.
• The Board does her appraisal for her - for all 12 job descriptions - and they all have to be done with the whole board present!
• The people were all very friendly and welcoming and I really enjoyed my time there.

Here are two photos of the outside of the school:

Yellowstone National Park

On Friday we traveled all the way from Moab, Utah, to the town of West Yellowstone, just outside Yellowstone National Park.  This was a 500 mile (about 800km) journey so we got in quite late.

Over the past two days we have visited around the world's oldest and, probably, most famous National Park.  We have driven 250 miles (400km)inside the park - that is how large it is.

It is Spring time.  Some roads are still not open and the park is just opening up after the winter snows.  We actually saw one of the first baby buffaloes today.  Here are some photos from within Yellowstone:

Here I am watching "Old Faithful" sending up a eruption of boiling water.

A Beautiful pool of boiling water called the Grand Prismatic Spring, with the many colours formed by living micro bacteria.

Here Mrs McLeay poses in front of one of the many waterfalls.

This is the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone."   The waterfall at the top is shown up closer below.  It is over 100 metres high.

We saw hundreds of buffalo (or we could use the more scientific name "bison.") They walked across the river to where we were standing, then down the road beside us.  On our way home on the second day we saw a new born baby.

Arches National Park

The State of Utah and Arches National Park

We drove from the State of Colorado through to Utah, and stayed two nights at an RV park just out of the town of Moab.  The day there we went to visit through one of the most amazing places in the world - Arches National Park.  Here are some photos (Mrs McLeay and I took over 100 but I can only include a few here).  I have to explain that photos cannot give you  a real understanding of the size and grandeur of the rocks in these photos.

This is the road into the National Park.  Can you see the road winding up the side of the cliff

This huge stone area (about 30m high) is called "The Three Gossips."


















This rock, which weighs hundreds of tonnes, is called "The Balancing Rock."  We walked right around it and took a lot of photos.

I really liked this rock because it reminded me of New Zealand.  We`have over 30 million of these on farms.  It is about 40m high.  Do you know what this rock might be called?

This rock arch is very wide.  I had to use the widest lens on the camera, and I was about 80 metres from it.  A person could walk right across but, of course, people are not allowed to because of the damage it might cause.