Homecoming 2020

2020 was a disaster for a lot of us due to the COVID19 pandemic.  Schools were closed and activities were canceled.  The kids really missed a lot of  fun opportunities including homecoming and other big school events.  My daughter and some of her close friends held a private HOCO at one of the parents' home, thanks to the Mehilis family for hosting it.  

They also had dinner dates with their friends at Ditka's prior to this gathering.

I am glad that  this was held, it gave the kids some relief after doing  cyber classes.  Man, those cyber classes were tough.  It seemed like they were doing so much homework everyday and it never ends.    

  Anthony is one of her closest friends and he asked her again this year to be his prom date.  I love seeing this kids grow up together.  My daughter started at St. Joseph School on her kindergarten days while most of these kids started during the pre-school days.  

This private HOCO was  not for the entire sophomore class.   It's only for the students in one subject so it was rather  a small group.  Beside they were following the  small crowd policy (pandemic guideline) for get together ,  It's a frustrating  times where not everyone can gather together but its a sad reality of this difficult times.  I'm sure that there are parents that  sure would love to see their kids dress up too for this occasion but wasn't able to because of the pandemic.  

I'm just glad that even though there was a restriction, these group of teenagers can still gather together once in a while and have fun.  Thanks to the parents who  step up and made all these possible. 

I have high respects for the parents who has the creativity in pulling this kind of event together.  Some of them  goes beyond and offer their valuable time, spend their day offs to take the kids somewhere where they could have a little fun.

Madonna High School don't have a big crowd and that's a huge blessing to me.  My daughter is super introvert so she's only close to few people.  I'm even surprised that she's the President of the class because she's not very outgoing.  I think its the challenge that she set to herself, to overcome the awkwardness in dealing with people.

She's very intelligent and hold herself accountable when it comes to maintaining her high grades.  She doesn't settle for mediocre result when it comes to academics.  Even when her grades are over a hundred, she still does the extra credit works that the teacher offers as a backup if her grade goes down (which seldom happens).  She works really hard to attain the best grades she could possibly get.  She sets a very good example to her brother, I just wish he would put much effort as her but they are two different people so I can't really compare.

I got to take some pictures when we dropped her off at the Mehilis residence.  They were kind enough to  welcome the parents.

So even though, the school did not haver a proper homecoming event, this kids have their own little private hoco.  They get to spend and enjoy some times together.

We bought her outfit before the pandemic hits so I am glad she was able to use them.  I am hoping that everything will get back to normal so these kids can enjoy the things that they missed for the past year.  I am glad that they are back to school full time.  As I mentioned earlier, the cyber classes were tough.   

If I Were Principal

Below is the essay my daughter submitted for the leadership she was going to do during her sophomore year but pandemic hits so it was cancelled.  I thought of saving her piece by uploading it here in the blog.  

Some of the most common questions I find fellow peers of mine asking during school are: “why do I need to know this?” and “what is the point of learning this?”. I believe that many students have the mindset that school is simply another daily obligation or another task to get through during the day. If I were principal, I would work towards changing this mindset, because I believe it would result in a larger number of students who were motivated and interested in attending school.

As principal, I would focus on helping students to look at school not just as an obligation but as an opportunity to learn and grow both as a student and as a person. I believe that unless students become aware of what the true point of attending school is, they will continue to be uninterested and will not be able to fully take advantage of the learning and growth opportunities that attending school offers. To create a more motivated and purposeful mindset for the students at my school, I would set a clearer focus on how the material that the students are learning could be applied to and used in their everyday or future lives. I would encourage the teachers to involve real-life scenarios and examples during lectures and classroom discussions to allow students to better understand the importance of what they are learning. I would also organize more field trips to further connect what the students are learning with real places and people around the community.

In my opinion, the paramount responsibility of a principal is to ensure the best learning and growth opportunities for each member of the student body and make every effort to bring about changes to benefit the students. If I were principal, I would do just that by changing the mindset of students towards attending school and getting them excited to expand their knowledge and grow as students and as people.