Meet the Teacher

Today we went to the open house at Alex’s new school (snif, snif — last time Alex started at “my new school” he was younger than Nate is now!).  The registration portion was a little confusing/annoying, though things went a lot better once we actually met the teacher.  Registration-wise, first there was the confusion over the medical forms, as it turned out that the doctor’s office failed to properly record the shots Alex got two weeks ago, and so the school nurse had to call the pediatrician to confirm that the boy had, in fact, been vaccinated for polio and measles.  Once we worked that out, we stood on the wrong line to find out about the transportation issues, got some misspelled information about school lunches, then got sent back to a different wrong line to find out about transportation issues. At which point, I bit the head off of the nice lady who tried to help me figure it out, because darn it, it is ridiculous to not get any information until three days before school starts! And I was a little stressed about the whole school starting thing. We salvaged the cafeteria portion of the day by joining the PTA and buying Alex a SOES Eagles t-shirt and a magnet for the car.

Thankfully, things were a lot more easy going once we found Alex’s pod, classroom, and teacher. The school is set up with outdoor covered “hallways” (which no doubt save a ton on air conditioning costs) and the classrooms are clustered into 4-room “pods”. Picture a big square, quartered, with a wide hall bisecting the middle that all four quarters open on to, and that’s a pod. In the pod is two kindergarten classes diagonal across from each other, and two first grade classes on the other diagonal (in future years, there will be a 2/3 pod and a 4/5 pod). The teachers share duties (such as each taking a different dismissal job for all four classes), and occasionally switch off the students, as well (such as having a broader range of reading groups to accommodate more reading levels). Alex’s teacher, Mrs. E., seems very enthusiastic and fun. (And is it a requirement that all Kindergarten teachers be beautiful? She’s that, too.) She put my mind at ease.

Alex took to the classroom right away. He gladly picked out his name from the gifties on the table, and then explored some of the books in the room while Mike and I got acquainted with Mrs. E. When we left, he immediately put the magnet on the car, and he is very excited to get started!