Open House at the HS

As I said I had to make a choice to which open house (school) to choose. So I chose the HS and was glad I did.

We came into the school and picked up a new schedule and meeting times. Then we went to different classes. The bell would buzz and the principal would talk over the intercom and said where we should be.

S has Spanish and her teacher is quite interesting as she is a KU grad. She has various activities planned for the students and has a lot of good innovative ideas. Spanish is a core subject, very academic and needed for college. It made me feel good that I talked her into taking this subject.
S has a good friend taking the class with her. The desks, however, are not adult friendly...very hard, with a sway back rest...yuk!!

We know the PE teacher at the HS as he goes to my church. I was thinking I know his parents, and his grandparents, and one of his uncles. He spoke up loud and clear. Very knowledgeable and in charge. He's the head football coach and is a very nice person. They would learn a lot of sports by taking PE from him.

I enjoyed the Keyboard teacher. I remember her when her daughter was in S's class back in the combination class with Mrs. Z. Also her daughter and S were cheerleaders the year before at the M. S. She had a great incentive for her class. The best typing/keyboarding students would be chosen for "Yearbook." That was something for S to keep in mind.

Current and Social Issues there were only 3 parents in there representing two students. He told us that the kids needed to watch the news, pick out some stories and write a summary about the news. They would read court cases and learn about student rights. I found out from the teacher there were only 12-13 students in the class...very small class. He is a very nice teacher and this was the first time he was teaching this particular class. I wanted to tell him that I majored in History and I studied to be a History teacher (but that was another lifetime ago so I kept quiet about that). Also, L went to H school with his dad.

Talk about young, the English Teacher looked like she was a senior in high school! I have never seen anyone that young as a teacher. She is straight out of college! When everyone walked into her classroom the whole room was quiet. She held her poise well explaining what topics she was going to use during the year. I couldn't help but think she was soooo young!! She had some good goals for the classroom and when someone asked (what I thought was a stupid question) she answered it well and didn't think it was stupid like I did....anyway, she didn't let it show.

We went to see S's Algebra teacher. She was boring. She was lackluster. She didn't have any passion for the subject material like the other teachers did. One of the parents asked about assignments. Apparently his kid had the same problem as mine. So she said in a "monotone" voice what she did....yeah, let's hope she explains the problem better. I hope S will do well, despite the teacher, but this could be the problem subject. She has a good bunch of kids in there but I'm not so sure about the teacher.

The Keyboard Teacher's sister is also a teacher of Science. She also seemed youngish. She has great ideas. Assignments are listed on line and it seems like she would be a good teacher to work with. That class seems huge compared to her other classes. It's a required freshman class.

After we did the walk through of classes we had cookies and talked among ourselves. After the principal talked we then left the building. But I still had a question for the counselor, whom I am planning to email soon. I was glad we went through the various classes and walked down the hall to see what it is like to be a student in HS. Pretty interesting stuff.

Now, let's hope S will do well throughout the year.