Winton Woods teachers welcome students to new school year

On her last first day of high school this Monday, senior Allahnah Dedrick wore all white. Walking through Winton Woods' North Campus hallways, the cheerleader paused to hug her friends, wish happy birthdays and help underclassmen with directions. Superintendent Anthony Smith got a Dedrick hug, too.

"It's about to get real busy," Dedrick said once the 8:45 a.m. bell rang, sending hundreds of high school students clutching pink schedule slips into a scurry.

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Dedrick said she has yet to have a normal, fully in-person year of high school. She was a freshman when the COVID-19 pandemic cut the spring semester abruptly short, and the last two school years have been a combination of in-person and virtual learning. But Dedrick is a self-proclaimed "hands-on learner," so she said she hopes her last virtual days are behind her.

No more than five students wore masks in any of the Winton Woods classrooms that The Enquirer visited on Monday. Masks are not required in any Cincinnati area public schools, though some local doctors recommend them.

Dedrick is one of 4,132 students enrolled at Winton Woods City Schools this year. With that many students walking around the district's north, south and early childhood campuses, it could be easy for some kids to fly under the radar. But from day one, Winton Woods' teachers put an emphasis on community and building relationships with each and every pupil.

'It's much easier to teach students that you know.'

Melissa Albers didn't distribute syllabi to her 10th-grade American studies students on the first day of school this year. She said she won't do that on the second day, either, or on the third day of class. Instead, Albers kicked off her 26th year teaching at her alma mater with a series of get-to-know-you games, alongside her co-teacher Andrew Lock.

The teachers first had their 50 students line up alphabetically by last name. Albers took attendance while Lock, who is in his 12th year teaching, went down the line in his first attempt to memorize each students' name, teasing lightly as he noticed the younger siblings of his former students along the way.

Then Lock announced the students had to rearrange themselves into birth date order, then group by shirt colors and finally sort into artists, athletes and musicians before setting off into a rock-paper-scissors tournament.

Tamra Ragland, district director of teaching and learning for grades 7-12, observed from the back of the classroom.

"They're all getting to know each other through these activities," she said. "It's much easier to teach students that you know."

Down the hall, co-teachers Josh Amstutz and Brad Ciminowasielewski took on a similar approach with their junior and senior students in a combined pre-calculus and physics class. The experimental block class is in its sixth year, Amstutz said. Enrollment jumped from 19 to 95 students in that time, so this year there are two sections of the class.

Amstutz and Ciminowasielewski had student groups write fun facts on sheets of paper, ball them up and toss them into the center of the room. The class then tried to match their classmates to the anonymous fun facts, which ranged from "I play baseball" to "I speak three languages" to "I swallowed a coin when I was little."

The teachers introduced themselves, too. Ciminowasielewski said he's been teaching for a decade and has two children. Amstutz said he and his wife welcomed twin baby girls this summer and he is now a father to five daughters. He explained he'll be taking some time off this fall to spend time with his family.

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At the front of the classroom, a leftover activity on the twinkle light-trimmed whiteboard read: "What makes a safe classroom?" Previous students had written their answers:

• "People who look like me."

• "Teachers that listen."

• "No shooters."

• "Being able to be yourself."

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The boisterous hallways and bulky backpacks of Winton Woods' North Campus in Forest Park were swapped for silent, single-file lines and cartoon-clad lunch boxes at the district's South Campus in Greenhills for grades 1-6.

But the basic first-day principle of getting to know one another was consistent. In Sarah Wiehe and Meghan Bauknecht's combined third-grade classroom of 56 students, Wiehe led an afternoon read-aloud with the book "A Letter From Your Teacher on the First Day of School" by Shannon Olsen. Then students wrote their own letters to their new teachers, complete with original drawings.

One student drew himself on the Princeton Vikings football field. Another student made a drawing of himself in space, standing on Saturn's rings. A student who finished drawing early struggled to remember how to write a capital "G" at the start of his first name.

Quentin Jenkins, who said his favorite subject is math, drew himself playing a video game on his couch at home. He said he was having a good first day of school.

"The teachers are nice and they didn't scream at us," he said.

Bauknecht has been teaching at Winton Woods for 18 years, she said, and this is her second year in a co-taught third-grade class with Wiehe. It's nice, she said, because while Wiehe teaches up front Bauknecht can run around assisting students with questions, or vice versa.

"I love it," Bauknecht said. "This is my favorite way to teach."

In Kristen Weickert's more traditionally-sized classroom of 21 second-graders, the first day of school consisted of familiarizing students with different areas of the room and telling stories about themselves.

A kid-sized mirror in the center of the room was bordered with affirmations like, "I am strong," "I am capable" and "I am loved." Fresh crayon boxes and crisp nametags lay on the desks.

Weickert shared a PowerPoint presentation of photos with her immediate family, with cousins and with her boyfriend. She also included childhood photos from when she was in second grade and missing her front teeth.

Her students giggled at her baby pictures and gasped when she told them she thinks she will get engaged to her boyfriend sometime soon.

Paris Cooper sat up front, as close to the board as possible, and volunteered to read the sentences on each slide. She sounded out the more difficult words like "picture" and "watermelon," and her classmates gave her a round of applause.

Weickert told her students she always loved coming to school, but she knows sometimes it can make children nervous. That's OK, she told them.

One of the last photos in her slideshow showed her at a former student's football game. She told her new students to please tell her when their dance competitions, basketball matches, football games and other events are scheduled for.

"I'll come," she said. "I'll cheer you on."

While her students worked quietly on an "All About Me" flipbook, she smiled.

"This is a great group," Weickert said. "I can already tell."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Students return to Winton Woods campuses for 2022-23 school year