New School

I'm only just now getting around to writing about it, but on Monday I visited my new junior high school. This semester I'll be going to AJHS (a very large junior high) and TJHS (my mountain school). I took the bus to my new school for the first time on Monday morning, and very nearly got lost trying to find the school building. Fortunately, I was able to follow some new students who were walking to the school for opening ceremony.

There were two opening ceremonies; one to welcome/induct the new first year students, and another for the second and third year students. The first opening ceremony was attended by new students and their parents. One of the teachers was kind enough to show me the way to the gym and help me figure out where I needed to be most of the time, so it wasn't too stressful. There are seven classes of first graders, with about 27 students in each class. Can you believe that? There's about 190 students in the seventh grade alone! Guess I won't likely be learning names at this school.

In the afternoon we had the second opening ceremony, where all of the new teachers were introduced to the second and third graders, and various people gave speeches. There was a lot of the usual stand up-bow-sit down routine, and while some of the students were obviously not paying a lot of attention, there wasn't much in the way of genuinely disruptive behavior. So I'm guessing this should be a decent school.

During the breaks between ceremonies, I met the vice principals (there are two), the principal, and some of the English teachers. I only remember the name of one teacher, the lady who ushered me around for the ceremonies. Well, I also learned the name of one of the non-English teachers; he came over to talk to me, and I remembered his name because I had heard it before. Elizabeth had told me about this teacher. Because he loves soccer, he has learned a good deal of English in order to travel to soccer games in Europe. He was very friendly, so I'm looking forward to talking to him in the future. Overall, the atmosphere in the staff room was quite pleasant. The teachers seemed friendly toward each other, and I'm hopeful that I'll get to know some of them.

When I found out that I'd be going to AJHS, I asked Mitch a bit about the school. He described the students as kind of crazy, but friendly. I wasn't entirely sure what he meant but even on my first day it started to become apparent. During one of the breaks, I heard a number of girls yelling and screaming in the courtyard, and then there was a commotion at one of the doors to the staff room. They were sort of trying to get in, but I'm not sure for what purpose. When the girls saw me, they shouted at me in a friendly way and started waving. I waved back, and one of the teachers shooed them away. Later, some of the girls were banging on the windows of the staff room and pressing their faces against the glass until one of the teachers went and closed the blinds. The students seem very energetic and rowdy, but also good-natured, so far as I can tell. I got to talk to a few students in the hallway at one point, and they seemed very pleasant, and also interested in me. So I'm hopeful that life at this school can be enjoyable.