Meeting the Teachers at Open-House Night
Noblesville High School orchestra director David Hartman (middle) talks to NHS sophomore Isaac Keiner (left), and Isaac’s mom, Maureen Keiner, during NHS’s parent-teacher open house on Thursday. Hartman said he taught Isaac’s mom in guitar class, his dad in orchestra class, and now he is teaching Isaac in guitar class.
I felt a sense of normalcy attending the Noblesville High School back-to-school open house on Thursday night.
It was kind of like the old parent-teacher night, where parents could meet their kids’ teachers.
The evening was a little less structured than in elementary school, where parents would actually go in and meet the teachers at a pre-set time.
On Thursday, there was no formal program or schedule. We could travel from teacher to teacher at our leisure.
Parents were asked to bring their student’s schedule with them to better find their student’s classes. But it was easy because most parents brought their student with them or, like us, met our student at school.
It was definitely easier navigating the high school building with our own personal student guide, who is now a junior.
The evening wasn’t for talking to teachers about specific concerns or grades but just to meet the teachers.
And we did. We focused on meeting all of the teachers new to our student this school year. And we were very pleased to learn that our daughter finds all of this year’s teachers to be engaging.
Teachers being excited about teaching and being interested in the content helps a lot for student learning. But it’s not always that way.
The teachers who we visited seemed much more enthusiastic about their course subject and making learning fun. The classrooms were interesting and showed the teachers’ personalities and interests. One of the teachers remembered that our student was absent from her class one day. We learned that one of our students’ teachers is a big Star Wars and movie fan and another teacher used to work at Conner Prairie, where our daughter is a fifth-year youth volunteer.
We’re excited about this school year because our daughter is looking forward to the school year. No more mask mandates, thankfully. It’s the first time in a couple of years that we’ve seen her happy about going back to school. And for that, we are thankful.
Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.