Just completed my 11th open house in my teaching era. Happening to coincide with my high school “era” at Kennedy.
This is by far the earliest open house I’ve ever had in a school year. It was more of a showcase than anything else, me not necessarily having to bring student work samples at all to the “history department” booth. Which just so happened to just have textbooks on the table.
A school board member who I recognized showed up to the history table. I remember him specifically from when I worked at Loara High School for the Anaheim Family YMCA. He was the after school credit recovery teacher, and I remember him being a particularly energetic and young teacher. I told him all this and it made him quite happy.
Parent turn-out was pretty low overall as I only got to really interact with a few parents (like maybe less than 3).
The true joy turned out to be in interacting with students, particularly IB students, and getting to know them outside of the classroom as they ran their club booths selling things. Or promoting initiatives like a drug-free lifestyle or the AIME mentorship.
In the end, it ended up being much more enjoyable than I thought it would be, and look forward to it next year.
