Orientation and the First Day of School

On Friday, we had 7th grade orientation and open house. I'm not used to 7th grade students being in high school, so they seem so small to me! They were excited to see all of their friends and find out who would be in their classes. During the parent session, I talked about the purpose of the Guidance Department and gave some tips for what parents can do to support their students. Afterward, a mother approached me to talk. After sharing her concerns about her daughter, she told me about the rest of her family. We had a great conversation in Spanish and I could tell she was relieved that she could share her concerns without trying to translate them into English. At open house, I sat at the welcoming table in the high school office to hand out achievement test scores to parents. I met every parent and student who came, which was really nice and also really exhausting. There's no way I will remember every student and their parents, but hopefully they will recognize me as a friendly face when problems come up in the future.

Today (Monday) was the first official day of school for the high school. We started off with devotions in my friend Nicole's classroom. We prayed for her and for the students in her class. Shortly afterward, students flooded the school, excited to see each other and the returning teachers. First period was full of helping students find their classrooms and lockers. After that, I met with a 7th grade parent to talk about transitioning to high school. The middle of the day is when I teach both of my Statistics classes. The electricity was out for the majority of both classes, so it looks like I'm going to be limiting my use of technology in the classroom, including lights (not that there's really much technology available anyway). The students were VERY talkative. I'm hoping to be able to attribute some of that to the excitement of the first day, but I have a feeling my students are very social people in general. Hondurans tend to value relationships much more than tasks, and I think North Americans have a lot to learn from that. I hope to find a way to balance having relationships with students, showing I care about them and what's happening in their lives, and teaching content so they will be prepared for college. Overall, it was a good first day and I'm excited to see how the rest of the week will go!