School Open House

On Friday evening, Laura’s school played host to an evening of music and poetry by the students and an ethnically-diverse array of desserts by parents and teachers.

(You can view a short video here if you'd like. If the video is choppy, it's probably because your Internet connection is as slow as ours. Just press "pause" and the video will continue to download. Once it has completed downloading, press "play" and it should be smooth.)

Of course, when it came time for desserts, we were busy chatting with a parent, and only once it was too late did we realize that most of the desserts were gone (and that the parent with whom we were talking had his kids bring him a plateful of treats so he didn’t miss out!)

The evening was a great way to build community amongst the students, parents and teachers. And with such a small school – there are 52 students from kindergarten through high school – a tightly-knit community is one of the value-added components that people appreciate most. There’s a similar program offered every two months or so.

The school has a very international feel about it. Despite its small size, the students and teachers come from over a dozen countries: England, Russia, South Africa, India, Kenya, Canada, United States, Brazil, Mozambique, Nairobi, Zimbabwe, and others.

The two-year-old sister of one of the students tried to steal this month’s show. She so much wanted to be a part of the celebration that she stood with many of the presenters (dwarfed by the six- and seven-year-olds in the photo to the right) and sang along to the songs and moved her lips to the poetry recitals. At least, I think she was only moving her lips. Maybe she had the poems memorized, or at least I should give her the benefit of the doubt.

The kids at all grade levels look forward to these evenings as a chance to showcase to their parents what they’ve been doing in school.

Well, almost everything. There were no songs about science experiments or poems about math problems. And nobody recited the periodic table of elements or Newton’s laws of motion. As the lone math and science teacher at the upper levels, Laura will have to do something about filling that void.

For this evening, at least, students need not worry about report cards and teacher meetings. Those come in a few short weeks.