Getting acquainted with faculty soothes first day jitters fo DODDS kids, parents
Stars and Stripes 
For most military families in Europe, Monday meant the end of summer
as students returned to the classroom.
But many students attending Department of Defense Dependent Schools
in Europe found their first day of school cut short to make room for parents visiting
schools and meeting teachers.
Although each school had different first day events, many students
heard the release bell before noon, just before open house tours and barbecues started.
“It’s a good way to set the tone for the school year,”
said Charles Ragland, Bad Nauheim Elementary School principal.
Capt. Jeff Levy took time from work at the Friedberg Health Clinic to
pick up his son Jake, 6, who began first grade this year at Bad Nauheim Elementary. Levy,
who recently arrived in Germany, was glad to see a smaller community school in Bad Nauheim
compared to Jake's previous school at Fort Belvoir, Va., he said.
“Fewer kids and a smaller community means more one-on-one with
the students,” Levy said. “That ought to be good.”
Anxious to leave Monday morning, Jake donned his father’s
camouflage soft cap, and horsed around with his brother Zachary, 3, while Levy and his
wife Lynn met Ragland, who transferred Aug. 6 from Heidelberg’s Mark Twain Elementary
School.
In addition to parent meetings, the half-day gave Ragland an
opportunity to meet with Egon Fritz, principal of a German elementary school across the
street that would like closer ties to the U.S. community.
“It needs to be expanded,” Ragland said of German-American
school relations. “Maybe we can make that happen.”
The first day of school for Hanau High School freshman Mieshia Smith,
14, was confusing, she said. Students attended 15-minute versions of their classes,
spending the short time learning teachers’ expectations and finding out what course
materials are needed, Smith said.
Because she missed the school’s open house Aug. 17, Smith spent
most of the time wandering around, trying to find her new classes, she said.
Hanau senior Valerie Rivera, 18, returned to school Monday afternoon
with her mother Julie Ruiz, to ask Hanau principal Jennifer Rowland if Rivera could use
her free time to earn college money instead of staying in school to take classes she did
not need.
Eric B. Pilgrim / Stars and Stripes
Gerhard Stadler, the curriculum coordinator for Darmstadt District Schools, speaks German
with 8-year-old David Boeckermann, a third-grader at Darmstadt Elementary School. Stadler
visited teachers and students on their first day of school Monday to learn how Americans
in Germany conduct the business of education. |
“She only needs three classes to graduate, so why can’t she
work now to help pay her tuition,” Ruiz asked.
“Just like the kids, parents are geared toward the first
day,” said Rowland, in her third year as Hanau’s principal.
In Darmstadt, the word of the day was festive.
Several crooked lines of pint-sized students marched around as
disorganized groups of parents mingled in the patio area of Darmstadt Elementary School. A
musical quintet from U.S. Army Europe pumped out tunes.
Russ Claus, the new principal, commandeered the band and invited
several military and school officials to the big celebration to create a good mood.
“The first day of school is an auspicious occasion,” Claus
said with a huge smile. “And it should be. It sets the tone for the whole year;
expectations are high.”
The visitors included Diana Ohman, deputy director of Department of
Defense Dependents Schools-Europe, who helped supply students with handshakes, smiles and
pencils.
Also visiting was Gerhard Stadler, curriculum coordinator for eight
German schools in the Darmstadt District. As in Bad Nauheim, Claus said he plans to build
strong ties with German neighbors so both cultures can learn from each other.
And more parents are expected to be home.
When European-based units fill contingency missions, like those in
the Balkans, many schools have fewer dependents in class, which can alter class size
predictions.
Scott Schonauer / Stars and Stripes
Pat George leads her first-grade class after recess Monday at Naval Station Rota, Spain.
The Navy base's elementary school and most other Department of Defense Schools in Europe
started the new year on Monday. |
Rosa Kascmarek, 38, head of the Bad Nauheim Parent Teacher Student
Association, said enrollment is up because local armor and support units have returned
from deployments to Kosovo. None of those units are slated to leave again soon, she said.
“That’s good. This year we’ll have the fathers
here,” Kascmarek said.
Like in Bad Neuheim, Baumholder units don’t have any big
deployments scheduled, said junior high school principal Dom Calabria, so he expects to
see support from parents. “That’s important when we are making our parental
contacts,” he said.
Eight new teachers and four student interns have joined the staff,
Calabria said.
“That’s about a quarter of our staff turned over,”
Calabria said. “This will mean new blood and fresh ideas in our program.”
Technology in the classroom will be able to help teachers, as many
schools in Europe saw computer upgrades over the summer. In addition to each classroom
having a computer now, Baumholder recently added its third computer lab, which feature
Internet access, Calabria said.
Sean E. Cobb / Stars and Stripes
Sigrid Schuhmacher, the junior high and high school cafeteria manager in Baumholder,
serves students a lunch of pizza and hot dogs Monday. The school’s cafeteria won an
AAFES Best Cafeteria Service award last year, something the school wants to repeat again
this year, said principal Dom Calabria. AAFES runs the school cafeteria. |
Baumholder’s classroom computers allow for instant attendance
monitoring. The school attendance officer can now make a call within the first period and
get absent kids back into school if they are skipping.
“This should cut down on any attendance problems we have had in
the past,” Calabria said. “It’s coming to all DODDS schools — if they
don’t have it now, they will soon.”
They laid out the red carpet — literally — for elementary
students at Naval Station Rota, Spain. The school had a long red carpet spread outside a
new, temporary cafeteria. Teachers and students have had to do some rearranging to make
room for the construction of a new elementary school, for which ground was broken earlier
this year.
Rota schools had a “First Day of School Celebration,” which
also included a half-day for students, an open house, public tours and seminars for
parents.
Mariluna Goldenpenny, whose daughters Betty, 8, and Natasha, 5,
attend the school, said the scheduled events were great for parents.
“You get to meet the teachers and the other parents,” she
said.
Goldenpenny said she had been looking forward to the first day of
school.
“I’m excited because they’re out of the house,”
she said. “We had a good time. But it was time to go back to school.”
Rick Scavetta / Stars and Stripes
First grader Jake Levy, 6, was glad to see his parents - Capt. Jeff Levy and his wife Lynn
- his brother Zachary, 3, at the end of school Monday. Like many DODD's students, Bad
Nauheim, Germany, students only had only a half-day of school. |
Alice Falace said her sons Justin, 8, and Joey, 9, were ready to get
back to the books.
“They had been telling me all summer about how bored they were.
Now, they’re happy to come back to school because they won’t be bored.”
In Naples, Italy, high school and elementary students were welcomed
back to the live tunes of the U.S. Navy 6th Fleet Jazz Band. The students enjoyed the
first day treat.
“I liked it because they played some nice music,” said
5-year-old Kimberly Martin, arriving for her first-grade at the Naples elementary school.
“It made me feel happy that it was my first day of school.”
Both students and teachers alike were looking forward to the start of
the school year, and the prospects of learning more about their assigned country.
“I’m excited about teaching [Italian] and exploring
Naples,” said Michele Kacir, a first year Italian immersion teacher at the Naples
elementary school. “I’m looking forward to teaching the culture and doing some
[Italian] cooking in the classroom.”
Terry Boyd / Stars and Stripes
Jackqui Gustaferro, back to camera, got three different reactions from, left to right,
David Bluntzer, Alex Jarvis and Rasheed Morrison as she read a Shel Silverstein poem. It
was the first day of school at Izmir American School, in Turkey and the first day of
mixed-age classes, taught by Gustaferro. Gustaferro’s class includes both first and
second graders. |
At Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily, first-grade teacher Sharon
Lakin spent the last week prepping her classroom for the first day of the new school year.
“There’s never enough time,” she said as she covered bulletin boards with
colorful paper and rearranged the four new computers in her classroom on Friday.
She had everything arranged the way she wanted it by Friday, but that
wasn’t the case for all teachers at the Stephen Decatur School.
“Some teachers stayed until 9 p.m. on Sunday evening to make
sure their rooms were ready,” Lakin said Monday as her new students lined up in the
playground. For Lakin, the prep time paid off. When her class arrived Monday, seven tables
were labeled with nametags marking places for the 16 boys and eight girls in her class.
“I like school,” said six-year-old Kevin Lewis. He
wasn’t nervous about starting the first day of first grade. “I like learning,
riding on the bus with my brother and having fun in the playground,” he said Monday
morning.
Sigonella also has recruited sailors to help lighten the load. The
“Adopt A Class” program places active duty volunteers in the school to help pick
up the slack.
“The first grade is lucky enough to have 26 sailors from the
base helping out from time to time,” Lakin said. “That’s going to bring
that ratio down.”
In Izmir, Turkey, it was the first day of multi-age teaching in this
small American military outpost. Izmir is mixing 15 first graders and second graders for
the debut effort, an effort that could include third graders in the future, said Cathy
Magni, Izmir American School principal.
Multi-age classes are not, Magni stressed, the same as combination
classed, once used to cope with too many children and too few teachers. Instead, the small
Izmir school is mixing age groups out of choice and a fundamental change in teaching
philosophy, said Magni and multi-age teacher Jacqui Gustaferro.
“We believe that children work better when they’re not
being compared to children at the same level,” Magni said.
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