It’s a School Day for New DMPS Teachers
It was a school day for new DMPS educators at the New Teacher Orientation.
That low revving sound you might be hearing in the background around town lately is the engine of the school district turning over for the 2016-17 school year. Classes start next week! Teachers report for their first official day of duty on Friday but before then the batch that’s new to DMPS needs to go through orientation.
First thing Monday morning 87 who are new to the profession altogether reported to the cafeteria at Roosevelt High School to get breakfast, marching orders, encouragement, pointers and a rousing welcome from their new colleagues.
Later in the week teachers who have prior experience but are new to the district will have their turn.
“We chose you out of thousands of applicants and we’re so happy that you chose us,” Chief Human Resources Officer Anne Sullivan told the rookies. Then she gave them a glimpse of life in a “majority-minority” school district and shared the official DMPS vision of becoming “the national model for urban education.”
Chief Schools Officer Matt Smith took the baton and did what he always does: fired up the troops with his infectious, unbridled enthusiasm for the work of educating children.
“Anybody here going to be at Perkins (Elementary) or Merrill (Middle School)?” he wanted to know. A few hands sprung up in the ranks. “Congratulations!” he informed them. “You just hit the lotto jackpot. My kids will be at those schools too.”
Superintendent Dr. Tom Ahart also welcomed the crop of kindergarteners among the nearly 3,000 teachers DMPS employs. “We are creating what the rest of the country will come to consider best practices,” he said.
Then it was time to disperse the group into classrooms for the first round of sessions that will put the finishing touches on their preparations and training to meet and greet their first cohort of students next week. Fanning out from the cafeteria in alphabetic fragments many of the newcomers shared a deer-in-the-headlights expression as they shuffled silently down polished hallways to learn some logistic ways and means of the first job in what they all hope will become long, rewarding careers. One of the first orders of business was to establish their personal district password. Another was to memorize the phone extension for the technology HELP desk. There are handbooks and policies to study. Procedures and processes must be mastered. It’s all necessary but it’s also all secondary to what they’re really here for: teaching kids!
Soon they’ll be learning which face goes with which name – first class matchups they’ll never forget.
