SAN RAMON — The thought of clouds obscuring Monday’s eclipse cast a pall over folks in the Gale Ranch Middle School office, literally and figuratively.
But when the sun peeked out from behind the persistent cloud cover at about 10 a.m., school workers ran out with their special glasses and worked to zero in on the light.
“This is the benefit of being in the front office,” said Trina Walker, an office assistant at Gale Ranch, where more than 1,200 students experienced what Principal Sue Goldman called “the longest fire drill in history.”
The clouds burned off just in time for these middle schoolers to get an almost unobstructed view of the eclipse. Third-period teachers handed out the glasses as kids were filing out for the fire drill, which was planned for 10:06 a.m., 10 minutes before the peak of the eclipse.
Students said they were afraid the clouds would hide the sun completely. Even as the multitudes were making their way to the basketball courts, it wasn’t a sure thing. But as the clouds peeled away, enthusiasm grew.
“It’s bright like the sun, but shady … it’s getting darker … now brighter .. it’s weird light,” said Ela Erman, a seventh-grader.
Akshay Gowrishankar, another seventh grader, smiled broadly once he got the sun dialed in through his glasses (not an easy task if there were any clouds in the way). And orienting by first looking at it without the glasses was strictly verboten.
“Do NOT look into the sun without your glasses!” Goldman shouted several times through her megaphone.
“There’s that crescent moon, it looks like a piece of cheddar cheese,” Gowrishankar said. “This is cool.”
The school’s eighth-graders have a science assignment directly related to the eclipse. Teacher Tyler Richman said students were out the first week of school (which started Aug. 15) doing “pinhole” shadows using sunlight coming through tiny holes in paper shining onto the pavement. Those shadows looked different Monday, decidedly crescent-shaped instead of round.
“Even though we’re not having the 100 percent eclipse here, it’s a real unique opportunity for teaching,” Richman said.
And though it didn’t become night in San Ramon Monday morning — the sunlight certainly looked a bit strange, though — many of the kids seemed to be taking delight in what they were seeing.
So too was Goldman, who didn’t relish the thought of having paid for 1,300 pairs of glasses without something to see. She even lugged a speaker out onto the blacktop over which played the Bonnie Tyler song “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” As soon as the song ended, she said over the bullhorn, class would resume.
Goldman may have slightly overstated the magnitude of the eclipse in San Ramon, estimated by officials at about 75 percent. But she understood its place in the big scheme of things at Gale Ranch.
“The eclipse was 80 percent, and we spent 80 percent of third period out here,” she said.
