Special to the Houlton Pioneer Times
HOULTON — Today (Sept. 4), our grade 7 students opened the day by meeting the entire seventh grade staff and learning a few general guidelines about arrival at school, prior to moving to their homerooms to fill out the necessary paperwork and buy locks for lockers.
IN SESSION — Teachers at Houlton High School meet in one of their Professional Learning Group (PLG) seminars Sept. 4 on the first day of school. Every Tuesday throughout the school year, students will be dismissed early to allow teachers to meet for professional development and training.
Then they moved through their regular day schedule, breaking for a barbecue lunch, prior to their afternoon classes. The opportunity to come to school for the first day and be able to go through their day without all 600 students present, we hope will alleviate the feelings of apprehension some students may have moving to a new school with so many older people attending.
Our mentors also worked with all the freshmen students, helping them make the transition to grade 9. The freshman students began the day by listening to a keynote from local businessman, Chris Anderson. Then they were able to do a quick run through all of their classes and get a chance to meet their new teachers and find the physical locations. Then the groups were split into groups and they worked on team building games with the help of mentors and the HHS staff. Then the freshman enjoyed a barbecue lunch and had some down time, which afforded friends a chance to catch up. Then the group went to work on service projects around the school, including some building touch ups and some landscaping around the property.
The Professional Learning Groups (PLGs) had two protocols to work on that day during their time from 2-3 p.m. The first task was to set norms for the group. Members of each PLG group talked about the norms or ground rules that would need to be present during PLGs so the time would be used efficiently and effectively.
After norm setting, the groups did a “Chalk Talk,” which is a silent response to a phrase or statement written down on the board or chart paper. Today’s topic was B & B, which stands for “Benefits” of PLGs and then “Barriers” we will face.
