By: Sahil Muthukrishnan
Sports Editor
On Thursday, Sept. 12, Los Gatos High School held its annual back-to-school night. This tradition allows teachers to meet the families of their students and demonstrate their students’ exemplary work. It also allows parents the opportunity to check in about the education of their students. This year, the school was open to parents from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
When asked why he felt that back-to-school night was important, Principal Dave Poetzinger replied, “Back-to-school night is important because it creates a name and a face for parents and families for a teacher. They can see the classroom that their students spend the day in, and most importantly, they get the specifics on how the teacher is going to help their student master the learning required in the class.” Poetzinger continued, “I really like that parents and families walk through your daily schedule…I like the idea that they are walking the pathways of their students.” During the event, Poetzinger went from department to department, being present in as many ways possible.
When prompted about the importance of back-to-school night, ninth-grade English teacher Kathleen Wehr explained, “It’s important to connect with parents right at the beginning of the year so they know the expectations for their children.” She continued, “When I went through it as a parent, it was…interesting to see the style of the teacher…because I have two very different sons, one need[ed] the teacher…who was going to be very entertaining, engaging, constantly keeping them on their toes, and the other one did not…getting to know the teacher’s personality is the most important aspect of back-to-school night.” Wehr described her back-to-school night routines: “The way I approach it is, if I were sitting in the seats, what would I want to know for my own kids if they were in this class? How could I help at home? I think that’s probably the most important thing.”
Kerry Keplinger-Northern, a math teacher with 16 years of experience shared, “I loved going to back-to-school nights as a parent [and] going in my kids’ classrooms, talking to their teacher, [and] looking around at the room. You don’t really get a chance to do that without back-to-school night. So I just think it’s a good chance for parents to see what their kids do all day…I think community is really important. So building that community [is important].”