Open House: remodeled

Samo Principal Eva Mayoral is in the process of revamping the traditional “meet and greet” open house model in order to make Samo feel more like a community.In order to accomplish this goal, Mayoral will showcase different entertainment acts from the various academic and artistic departments.The Samo marching band will kick off open house with an hour of pep tunes to help set a festive atmosphere, and the drum line will then lead everyone into Barnum Hall for the formal start to the evening, according to Samo’s marching band director Kevin McKeown.“I hope our (award winning) marching band can bring a celebratory tone to the evening.” McKeown said. “This evening is meant to be a celebration of all of our students’ efforts.  I also look forward to hearing the Samohi MB again, it’s a rare opportunity to play during second semester!”According to a marching band musician, Jillian Sonderegger (’16), performing in for parents and students is more fun than performing in competitions because it puts less pressure for perfection on the band.“Performing for an audience that doesn’t know much about marching band is great.” Sonderegger said. “They usually are so impressed by all that we do, all that we memorize and by our ability to play on demand.”The Language Department will also have performances and traditional foods from different cultures prepared for the parents as well.“[Open House] is an opportunity for parents to see the continuity of our language program. So, they’ll get to see levels one through six of most of our languages, what their son or daughter has been doing this year and what their possibilities are,” Language Department Chair Kelly Bates said.According to H-House Principal Leslie Wells, these performances will help open house to be a showcase of work rather than a time for parents to conference with students.“One of the biggest fears we have is parents trying to turn Open House into a parent-teacher conference.” Wells said. “While we welcome parents and want to share information, Open House is not the best place to have those kinds of conversations, [the purpose of open house] really is to showcase what happens in the classroom. Having the department showcases cuts down on that.”