First-semester recap with new faculty and students.

August 30th was the first day of school, a day that most teachers and students had mixed feelings about. School started again which means that summer is over and that they will be overloaded with work, however, they would also see their friends and colleagues again. For some people August 30th was a really exciting day, it was their first day at Darien High School. It is the beginning of March now, so I thought it was time to check in with some of the new students and faculty about how they experienced their first semester at DHS.

Because I am a new student myself I know how terrifying it can be to walk into a new school the first day. Senior and exchange student from Norway, Sigurd Glad, describes his first day of school as: “My first day of school was alright, I started playing soccer at the beginning of August so I already knew some people. It wasn’t too bad, I don’t even remember what my first class was.” The first couple of days or weeks can be very stressful and nerve wracking, you have to work with new people and you have to hope that everything works out fine for you. History teacher Mr. Gallucci had a positive first couple of days, even though he felt like there was so much going on that he does not remember them that well, “It started so busy and so crazy that I felt like everything is just flying by and that I wasn’t really taking anything in. But it has definitely been a good year so far, my kids are good, the staff is really good, they are very helpful which is also great because it’s hard to come up with everything from scratch. As a first year teacher you could have great ideas but to have people who say this is what I have used and it’s successful. To take those ideas is really helpful.”

When you go to a new place you can’t help yourself and you will always compare it with what you’re used to having. Senior Jonathan Kim, who moved from Milford CT, compares his old school to DHS, “This school is a lot better than my old school. There is a lot more diversity in classes that you can follow, I want to play music in college and there are much more opportunities here to follow music classes.”

As a new student of a faculty you want to be part of the group, and not feel left out. This is one of the hardest parts of being new. Luckily Mr. Gallucci has a really special groups of students and they make him feel loved and welcome. His favorite and most memorable moment from the first semester was when he was out one day and a lot of his students were reaching out and saying; hurry back. This gave him the feeling that he was indeed doing a good job. “I feel like I’m making that connection. And even if it is just a few messages like ‘hey, I hope you are coming back soon” or “we miss you.” That was a really cool feeling. That felt like success, and that meant a lot to me.”