First day of classes brings lofty goals for District 49

The end of summer break came a little early for District 49 students and staff as parents dropped off their kids at schools like Falcon Middle School for the first time of the 2018-19 school year Thursday morning.

Teachers and other administrators at the middle school say they’ve been prepping for the first day of classes for three weeks now. They are happy to have all of the students filling the hallways, even though things are a little chaotic during the first day.

“It’s a good chaos because there is a new energy coming in from summer,” says Ariel Hull, a counselor for seventh-graders. “Everyone is getting to see each other again. It kind of brings a new life to the building.”

Educators in District 49 say they always have high expectations for themselves and their students. However, this school year they hope to exceed their expectations.

Beth Rohr is a reading teacher at the middle school. She hopes by the end of the year her seventh-graders will learn how to think for themselves in a changing world.

“Really, I want my class to be more student-centered,” says Rohr. “So that’s basically the big goal to let them do a lot of the thinking and the problem solving of 21st-century problems.”

Hull has been working for the middle school for five years, and this year he hopes his students will make meaningful connections with other students.

“When we run into conflict how do we handle that with other people. How can we have conversations and not do it over phones? Very personalized communication that we want them to work on,” says Hull.

Other school districts around southern Colorado will be starting back up over the next few weeks.