When the bell rang at Lyons Township High School Sept. 3, instead of students making their way to class, parents filled the halls ready to meet the teachers who would watch their children grow over the next 3 to 4 years.
The evening open house invited parents of freshmen and sophomores on a journey through a day-to-day experience in their child’s schedule. While many of the 2nd year parents seemed less frazzled than the freshmen ones, many shared confidence in knowing their children were in good hands.
“I heard this is a great school and he can get a great education here,” Felicia Cole from Brookfield said of her 15-year-old freshman son, Cameron. “I’m glad he made it this far and he’s done an excellent job until this point.”
As the parents approached their child’s first class, teachers stood ready to greet them outside their classroom doors.
Shortly after the first bell rang, a friendly “welcome parents,” was announced over the intercom by Principal Brian Waterman.
“[Today] underscores the partnership we hope to foster with the parents and students,” he said.
“Salve – which means ‘hello,'” said Laurie Jolicoeur, a Latin teacher who has been at the school for more than 30 years, as she greeted each freshman parent. She assured all of them this was a journey of “new relationships.”
“The parents that I already know, those are relationships that are already established,” she explained. “When I meet freshmen parents; those are new relationships where I want you to know I’m a partner. When I see you, I just think we’re on a journey together and I hope you see it that way, too.”
Jolicoeur presented an opening photo showing parents “the spirit of the class” and emphasized the importance of community and family within her classroom setting. To her, “loving human beings” is 50 percent of teaching, as it helps students understand others and themselves better.
“[Latin] is a lovely vehicle to talk about being human with students because there’s an ancient conversation happening,” she said. “They realize that friendship, love, worry, disturbance and fear have always been a part of being human. It’s not just in the modern age, and I think that’s a very freeing thing for them.”
Although many parents were new to Latin, Rebecca Simms, like a few other parents, have a long history of dealing with homework and quizzes from older children who attended her class. To Simms, who has a sophomore in college and a senior at Lyons Township, Jolicoeur is a “phenomenal teacher.”
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Much like Jolicoeur who shared her passion for teaching, Bruce Falli, a science teacher, informed his new parents his approach to teaching involves a few jokes.
“My inspiration for becoming a teacher was a comedy club,” he said with a smile. “I thought, ‘how cool would it be to do a show five days a week?'”
With a total of 4,073 students from both schools, the incoming freshmen class is about 1,000, Waterman said. Like every year, he hoped the open house encouraged the partnership between the teacher, parent and student in understanding learning is a “three-prong approach.”
“We want students to take ownership of their learning, and the teachers are the facilitators of that process,” he said. “The parents; all the support and encouragement they can give and the more information they have about the child’s education, the better. Nights like this; they’re great evenings.”
Lindsey Compton is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.